You rated episode 24 of
How is Undead Unluck? Community score: 4.3
©Yoshifumi Totsuka/Shueisha/Undead Unluck Production Committee
Here's how much Undead Unluck got into me: I was never particularly invested in Rip as a character. As a force of resistance, he's perfectly serviceable and at times quite charming, but I appreciated him much more as a cog in the wheel of the plot than as an individual complete in his own right. Here, in “To You, From Me,” Akira's story culminates in the thrilling moment when he draws a replica of a time-manipulating artifact and sacrifices more than a century of his life to bring Rip returns to his adult form. In his narration, Akira happily tells his mother how cool and kind Rip is, even though he pretends to be a villain, and how Rip will be even cooler when he grows up again. Immediately, without a moment's hesitation, I found myself thinking, “Okay, it looks like Rip is one of my favorite new characters in Undead Unluck; I will die to protect him and I will destroy any fool who dares to smear his name.”
To borrow a phrase I've been seeing a lot lately and am completely obsessed with, Undead Unluck is one of those shows that is so good that it instantly changes your brain chemistry. I love Andy and Fuko, and they love Akira, which means I can't help but love Akira, which means I get to be the #1 Stan of Anime News Network “Rip the Dork-Ass Doctor Boy”. There's no point trying to fight it. I must embrace my destiny.
In fact, I can also be on the same level as you, critic and reader. At this point, I fear that waging a deliberate campaign of psycho-emotional warfare (a.k.a. “Tell a super awesome story tailored to my particular interests strangely”) Undead Unluck destroyed my defenses and destroyed my ability to be objective.. How else can you explain this huge, thrilling final battle with UMA Autumn was interrupted by another lengthy recap sequence and I'm glad for that? Sure, I could try to pull the wool over your eyes by drawing all your posh intellectual critics on you. I could wax poetic about how Akira's final review of his life story is a perfectly paced and thematically rich set-up right down to the incredible payoff of watching Andy deliver The deepest punch in history Akira is still alive and invisible. It's hard to believe that any anime could be so expertly written and executed that it makes me, James Beckett, the famous stone wall stoic, cry like a baby when watch a creepy flashback in the middle of another episode, right?
The only reasonable expectation is that Undead Unluck broke me. At any moment, the Critic Police were sure to show up at my door and demand that I surrender my badge and sidearm. And I don't even have five paragraphs to rave about how badly the fight with Autumn ended, or how much I loved the red tone of the fight when I realized that is caused by light. diffused through the ungainly amount of dead leaves UMA left behind…
Are not. It won't end here. It's not possible. Even if I am forced to become a rogue agent and go on the run at night, I cannot abandon my sworn duty to inform you, the Readers, about the anime Interesting Japanese pictures that you should spend your time and hard-earned money on. I will find a way to work from the shadows and fulfill my mission, doing whatever it takes to influence the masses and convince the Powers That Be to greenlight another season of this show . Even if I have to hijack other Weekly Streaming Review Missions or even the upcoming Spring 2024 Preview Guide to do it, I will find a way to continue spreading the ultimate truth that I have spent the last six months exploring: “Undead Unluck rules, possess, kill, tear and whip so hard that only the most crippled would dare deny the disease at its most cruel and wonderful.”
If you don't plan on watching it literally right now, as you read this, I'm going to spend my life bothering you until you change your mind.
Rating:
Undead Unluck is now streaming on Hulu.
James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other popular cultures, which you can also find on Twitterhis blog and podcast.