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How is Undead Unluck? Community score: 4.1
© Yoshifumi Totsuka/Shueisha/Undead Unluck Production Committee
In a smaller show, I can easily imagine an episode like “Result” feeling like filler, or, at best, a dull presentation. After all, it’s literally about the Union gang getting the “results” of their recent hashing missions, including the mess of capturing Spoil. If I’ve learned anything from years of watching terrible light novel adaptations that claim their worlds function like classic role-playing video games for no good reason, it’s that Nothing good comes from a bunch of characters standing around and waiting to be enjoyed. Their leveling benefits are explained to them by an omniscient god.
Except, of course, this is no ordinary show; this is fucking Undead Unluck, where even the table-setting episodes are required to be very interesting by the nature of its world. I had a hard time finding more interesting and varied ways to say “Damn, this is great,” because that’s what this episode kept making me say, even when I was sit through one of those long, interstitial commercials. JRPG cutscenes that you have to endure before getting back to the action. The accidental reality-altering nature of Apocalypse’s rewards and punishments? Awesome as hell. The increasingly cheerful dynamic of the entire Union team is wonderful. The easy boastful way Andy caught Fuko before everyone was shipped off to Australia to experience the aftermath of the “Galactic” UMA? You don’t even need me to tell you it’s amazing. Fuko’s angry woman said more than I could.
All of this world-building is not only consistently—wait for it—great, but it also allows Undead Unluck to flex its filmmaking abilities. The disjointed and sometimes impressionistic editing gives me a heavy Hideaki Anno feeling, especially when we get gorgeous images of the sky suddenly filled with stars and planets worth of a galaxy that did not exist even a few minutes before. By the way, the whole conceit of the team’s punishment comes from the natural presence of invading alien warriors from another planet, part of the general human notion of “outer space.” ? It’s amazing, damn!
The best part comes from Juiz dispatching the entire fleet without breaking a sweat, which both cleverly wraps up that potentially troubling plot development while also showing the audience It was clear that the Union leader was absolutely no one to cause trouble. Andy may be immortal, and Fuko’s Unluck may invite the cataclysmic destruction of the entire universe to destroy you, but Juiz can ensure the safety of the planet with a single old-fashioned Hard Stare. That’s the extent of Paddington’s escalation of power, and you wouldn’t have trouble with Paddington’s escalation of power unless you intended to give us a work of fiction that was almost too bad for people to normally understandable. Try your best.
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Undead Unluck is now streaming on Hulu.
James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop culture, which you can also find on Twitter his blog and his podcast.