Undead Unluck

Undead Unluck (アンデッドアンラック) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yoshifumi Tozuka. It has been serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine since January 2020, with its chapters collected in 21 tankōbon volumes as of May 2024. The series is licensed for English release in North America by Viz Media.

An anime television series adaptation, produced by TMS Entertainment and animated by David Production, aired from October 2023 to March 2024.

Synopsis
Fuuko Izumo is an 18-year-old girl who has been living in seclusion for ten years since an incident that left more than 200 people dead, including her parents, when she was eight years old. Following the completion of her favorite long-running shōjo manga series, Fuuko decides to commit suicide. She is tormented by the fact that her "unluck" ability brings bad luck to anyone she directly comes into contact with. She soon meets an "undead" man who has amazing regenerative abilities and who desires to die the best death possible, disliking his immortal life. For the sake of convenience, Fuuko names him Andy because he is undead, and they begin to work together. However, they soon see themselves chased by the Union (ユニオン), a mysterious organization.

Eventually, an assassin of the Union called Shen tells them that the organization has a special team consisting of ten people with special abilities, and that by joining the team, they will no longer be hunted, so the two decide to join in order to attain Andy's wish for "the best death", and face numerous enemies and the mysteries of the world.

The missions of the team are proposed by a book called Apocalypse, which has supernatural powers. There are people with the ability to negate the rules of the world called Negators (否定者). The Union is an organization of Negators specialized in the hunting of UMA (ユーマ) or Unidentified Mysterious Animals, creatures that are the embodiment of the Earth's rules (like thirst and decay) and are created by God as both the objectives for the quests provided by Apocalypse, as well as punishment for failing them. They also must defeat a group of Negators that opposes the Union called Under (アンダー) and Regulators (調整者), beings chosen to do God's bidding.

Manga
Undead Unluck is written and illustrated by Yoshifumi Tozuka. A one-shot chapter was published in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump in January 2019. The manga started in the same magazine on January 20, 2020. Shueisha has compiled its chapters into individual tankōbon volumes. The first volume was published on April 3, 2020. As of May 2, 2024, 21 volumes have been published.

The manga is digitally serialized by Viz Media on its Shonen Jump website. In October 2020, Viz Media announced the print and digital publication of the manga, and the first volume was published on May 4, 2021.

Novels
A novel written by Sawako Hirabayashi, titled Undead Unluck: Fuzoroi na Union no Nichijō (アンデッドアンラック　不揃いなユニオンの日常), was published on February 3, 2023. It features a previously untold story about the everyday lives of those in the Union organization. It includes the stories "Gina's Recollection" and "Shen's Academy Infiltration". Tozuka oversaw the novel and drew the illustrations. A second novel by the same author, titled Undead Unluck: Romantic na Hiteisha no Kyūjitsu (アンデッドアンラック ロマンチックな否定者の休日), was released on October 4, 2023.

Anime
In August 2022, an anime television series adaptation was announced. Produced and planned by TMS Entertainment, and animated by David Production, it was directed by Yuki Yase, with character designs handled by Hideyuki Morioka, and music composed by Kenichiro Suehiro. The series aired in two consecutive cours from October 7, 2023, to March 23, 2024, on the Super Animeism programming block on all JNN affiliates, including MBS and TBS. The first opening theme song is "01" performed by Queen Bee, while the first ending theme song is "Know Me..." performed by Kairi Yagi. The second opening theme song is "Love Call" (ラブコール) performed by Shiyui, while the second ending theme song is "Kono Ai ni Kanau Mon wa Nai" (この愛に敵うもんはない) performed by Okamoto's.

The series is streaming on Hulu in the United States, and worldwide outside Japan on Disney+ (Latin America on Star+, India and Southeast Asian territories on Disney+ Hotstar). In June 2023, TMS Entertainment and Bang Zoom! Entertainment announced that they would hold open auditions for a role in the English dub for the series at the Anime Expo on July 4 of the same year, which eventually premiered on December 13 of the same year.

Reception
By September 2022, the manga had over 1.8 million copies in circulation. In 2020, it won the sixth Next Manga Award, placing first out of the 50 nominees with 31,685 votes. The manga ranked fourteenth on Takarajimasha's Kono Manga ga Sugoi! list of best manga of 2021 for male readers. The series ranked sixth on the "Nationwide Bookstore Employees' Recommended Comics of 2021" by the Honya Club website. Type-Moon's Kinoko Nasu recommended the series with a comment featured on the obi of the ninth volume.

The series' first volume received mixed reviews. Anime News Network commended Tozuka's artwork but was highly critical of the depiction of Andy and Fuuko's relationship and its sexually exploitative nature. Hannah Collins of Comic Book Resources praised Tozuka's art in depicting violence and its comedic potential but also criticized the series' portrayal of the main characters' relationship wherein "Fuuko's body is primarily used as a sexualized tool for Andy to grope and fling around at will."