This one was a struggle to get through. It was so fast paced and action packed that there wasn't much room left for any character development at all. Not for me and I won't be continuing the series.

The Ultimate Negations in Undead Unluck

Author: Yoshifumi Tozuka
Publisher: VIZ Media
Genres: Shounen, Action, Adventure
Published: May 2021

A lot of things are viewed within a spectrum. But even within a spectrum, there are always two extremes. If looking at it from a narrow point of view, these two extremes are considered dichotomous. For example, there is certainly a wide range of luck. However, we often only refer to it as being lucky or unlucky. Luck is just an example, and there are a lot of other similar concepts. Now, think about any concept and negate it, then build an entire world around it. That’s what we’ll be talking about in this article.

Contains Spoilers

Discussion Time

Undead Unluck is set in a world wherein special humans have the ability to negate certain concepts. As you might have probably deducted, the series’ protagonists negate death and luck. Andy has been roaming around the Earth for decades in his bid to finally end his immortality but to no avail. One day, he meets a girl trying to end her own life since she seems to attract all the negative things in this world. Andy saves her and sees her as possibly the answer to his longest and greatest desire - death.

Why You Should Read Undead Unluck

1. Death Is Part of the Story

The thing about shonen manga that we usually find annoying is the lack of deaths, both the good and bad guys. This is true even during the biggest and craziest fights. However, this is slowly changing with the rise of new titles like Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer) and Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan). Undead Unluck also dabbles in this trend. Even though there isn’t really a lot of unnecessary death, the series doesn’t shy away from killing a few characters. This is good to know given that Fuuko Izumo, Unluck, can summon a meteor.

2. Intense Action

Andy hasn’t spent his long lifespan dilly-dallying. He has accumulated vast riches and knowledge. In fact, he’s probably the greatest combatant there is. He has also mastered using his ability to the fullest and doesn’t even bat an eye slashing away his body parts. What’s more, is that he even devised techniques to launch his dismembered body parts. Given that they are being hunted and they are also hunting the members of the union, the series has a lot of gory, intense action scenes.

3. Unique Lore

Undead Unluck’s world and lore is unlike any other manga. Even though it’s set on Earth, no other series has dabbled on basing the characters’ powers by negating certain concepts. Well, being unlucky or lucky has been featured in other series in the form of One-Punch Man’s King and Naruto’s Tsunade, however, it always just ends there. There isn’t any other series that combines these negations and uses it as a power and an interesting power at that.

Final Thoughts

Undead Unluck is surely not our typical manga series. Even though it’s an action, adventure series, it doesn’t follow the formula set by the big names in the industry. It has its wa y of telling the story, and even the humor is quite mature. Its unique lore and darned action scenes got us hooked, and we’re certainly waiting for the next volumes to come.

By: Christian Markle

The unluckiest girl in the world meets the guy who cannot die and wishes he could. Wacky, humorous, and just plain old strange. Sadly, it's so strange it's unbelievable. The premise sounded hilarious, but it fell flat for me to the point I couldn't finish it.

Undead unluck volume one is a good entry to a new manga series. The characters are a little crazy but it was fun read

Undead Unluck is a series about an unlucky girl and an undead guy, which makes for quite a unique pair. I find their circumstances to be quite interesting. Even so, I still struggled to connect with many of the characters introduced in the first volume. Andy, in particular, is one that I'm not sure I'll grow to love. I'm hoping that he will mature a bit in the volumes to come and stop making creepy advances towards Fuuko. The fights that involve him, however, are some of the best scenes in this volume.

Fuuko is a shining star though. She is likable and I really love her personality. Character-wise, she is the one that is keeping me interested in this story. As more is revealed over the course of the volume and a certain group enters the story, I found myself more and more intrigued by this series.

At times I liked Undead Unluck, while at others, I found it cheesy and predictable. The humor is an acquired taste. Since its such a large part of the story, if you don't enjoy the humor, this one may not be for you. I still feel like I'll need to pick up a few volumes before I decide whether or not I'll continue reading this series. The first volume had its shining moments, but I'm hoping it picks up a lot in the chapters to come.

When I started this I did not realize that one of the main characters would be naked throughout the entire book. It makes sense considering how he dies frequently and his body is ripped apart but I think it would make more sense to keep his private parts out of the frame or hidden by other objects rather than having a huge censor bar cover it in every page. I don't necessarily appreciate the way "undead" is constantly groping "unluck". It's obviously part of the story but it's not appropriate. I like their weird relationship where they can work better together with the other's power but it seems strange that ultimately "undead" is just using "unluck" to end his own life but he's finding joy out of doing it. It's a very strange story.

Undead Unluck Volume 1 is the debut volume for the series created, written, and illustrated by mangaka Yoshifumi Tozuka. The volume is published and localized in English by VIZ Media’s Shonen Jump imprint and features translation by David Evelyn with touch-up art and lettering provided by Michelle Pang.

Shonen manga is a wild ride. What a lot of people miss is that “shonen manga,” which has come to be defined by Naruto and My Hero Academia, is really just a demographic for an audience and not specifically a genre. This fact allows titles like Undead Unluck to come out of nowhere and bring superpowers, nudity, body horror, a lot of blood, and a lot of ecchi-lite comedy too.

This off-the-walls story starts when an unlucky girl, Fuuko Izumo, meets an undead guy when she tries to take her own life and follows the pure chaos that ensues afterward. For her part, Fuuko is tired of inadvertently killing people with her special ability, Unluck. But when she meets Andy, a man who longs for death but can’t die, she finds a reason to live, which is to give him the death he’s been longing for. However, when the pair discovers a secret organization is hunting them, it puts Andy’s burial plans on hold.

The catch in all of this? Well, her Unluck is triggered by touch. This poses more than a few problems for Fuuko, who just really wants is a passionate romance like the one in her favorite shojo manga. Unfortunately, her Unluck ability makes that impossible. But with Andy able to touch her, die, and come back, the door is open for romance—or just a lot of heavy petting that can result in weaponized Unluck to fight the government agents trying to capture the pair.



So, Undead Unluck Volume 1 is a trip, and to be honest, I don’t know if it’s a good one or just a romp that hits in a couple of chapters that carries the weight of missing the mark in the others. On the one hand, the unique art style makes Fuuko look extremely young, and on the other, it works really well in the giant scenes of death and dismemberment. Sometimes the sex jokes land, and I can’t help but become an Andy fan, but on the next page, I’m wondering why his head is now between Fuuko’s boobs.

That said, the way the world of Undead Unluck Volume 1 works is fascinating, and Izumo wastes no time outlining how powers work. Specifically the power to negate things—negate weight, movement, light. It all holds to some pretty satisfying rules that allow the people that Andy and Fuuko fight to be extremely powerful but not over-powered. The power scale and the way each one has a weakness once spotted is an element that leans into action shonen hard, and it works.

Overall though, Undead Unluck Volume 1 is a lot. If you’re not into ecchi-elements and humor or violence, skip this title. If you’re looking for a roller coaster of violence and kinda-romance with a lot of “oh no, a boob touch” moments, pick this one up on day one.

Shonen Jump is no stranger to weird series, and Undead Unluck has an interesting premise to it. With a duo of protagonists that are dichotomies of each other, and ability sets that work innovatively well, it has the makings of some top shelf series… if only it could shed its more raunchy aspects.

Undead Unluck reminds me of this episode of the anime of Paranoia Agent where the focus characters of the episode do their best to try and kill themselves. Of course, it’s more complicated than that, and, for sake of spoilers, has a twist that works well for that show. It’s an episode that manages to be hilarious and tearjerking at the same time, and this manga works kind of like this. Fuuko Izumo is your regular Japanese schoolgirl with one weird quirk: Everyone who touches her dies. If this was any other series, it could make for a good horror premise, but Undead Unluck instead takes this and goes a completely opposite direction with it.

You see, while most people would be disturbed by interacting with a girl that will literally kill them by touch alone, Andy (well, the undead protagonist whom Fuuko names) actually wants to die, as he’s been living for quite some time and just wants a way to kill himself. After a rough skirmish, the unlikely duo become a team as they find out their powers make them negators; that is, people who negate the rules of physics and the world itself. The two find out that there’s a team that takes out these threats as well as creatures called UMA, who wreak havoc in the world. Because there can only be ten negators on the team, Andy and Fuuko need to off two of the members in order to secure a seat and be protected. Only then can they find a way to kill Andy (and by extension, Fuuko).

A person that’s immortal and a person that can kill someone simply by touching them sounds like a weird combination of protagonist powers, but in practice it works quite well. There were many inventive ways to try and kill Andy (unsuccessfully, of course), that would also work as an attack strategy to the duo’s enemies. However, the first volume has a copious amount of weird interactions between Andy and Fuuko, as the former keeps trying to cop a feel or becomes really creepy towards her. Sure, it makes sense in the context of the series, but it can be off-putting due to the age difference and rather sensual panels every so often. It doesn’t help that Andy’s usually in the nude due to his power set, with a thinly veiled censor box covering his… choice bits every few pages.

I’ve read ahead a few chapters and honestly? This volume is a rough start, but it really kicks up after this. While I wouldn’t recommend the series from the first seven chapters alone, I would say stick with it to the next volume at least.

How funny you find this book depends on two very specific things: the amount of humor you gain from watching a naked undead guy use parts of his body as bullets and how entertaining you find him keeping a girl alive so that he can make her fall for him, have sex with her, and then use her "unluck" ability to die. Also a high tolerance for blood, sliced-up bodies, and references to suicide is recommended.

Undead Unluck Volume One tells the story of an unlikely duo: an undead man and an unlucky young woman.

Undead Unluck Volume One
Written by: Yoshifumi Tozuka
Publisher: Shueisha Inc.
English Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: May 4, 2021

The volume opens with an 18-year-old girl named Fuuko Izumo finishing a manga series that she’s been following, and then deciding it’s time to end her own life. People gather to try to stop her, and she claims that anyone who touches her will contract an incurable disease. A man suddenly walks right up to her and into the knife she’s holding out, and then grabs her by her face. The man falls to the train tracks below and is decapitated… but he’s still alive. He regenerates, and Fuuko tries to get away. The man catches her and explains that he’s undead.

After Fuuko explains that she has “unluck,” and whenever anyone touches her, something bad happens to them. The undead man is interested in this “unluck,” in the hopes that he can finally die. He experiments with various levels of touch to determine how much this might change the level of the bad luck. He determines that in order to get his wish, he would have to touch her entire body… and well, it’s not too hard to figure out what he has in mind. Fuuko, of course, isn’t interested. But the undead man makes it his goal to make Fuuko fall for him so he can see what kind of bad luck he can get by touching her whole body.

The undead man doesn’t seem to have a name, so Fuuko comes up with “Andy,” as a play on words for “undead.” It turns out that both Andy and Fuuko are “negators,” and they are being hunted by an organization. The rest of the volume focuses on three different characters coming after the two of them. A lot of the volume focuses on a team of hunters, Shen and his partner, and through interacting with them, we learn about a group called Union, which consists of 10 negators, and being part of this group keeps you from being hunted. However, all the seats are currently filled. But after this battle, there’s one seat open. Andy won’t allow either himself or Fuuko claim that open spot until there are two spots available. Shen gives them a clue as to when another negator on the council will appear.

Well, it turns out the negator is named Gina, and Fuuko makes friends with her before Andy arrives on the scene and reveals Gina’s true identity. It turns out Gina and Andy have a history together. Gina may look like a 16-year-old, but she’s actually 66. She has eternal youth, while Andy is undead. And Gina is in love with Andy and becomes jealous of Fuuko.

There’s an… interesting story being told here. The first volume does a good job of setting up the two main characters, as well as their overarching story. There’s also a conflict established for them with the organization that’s hunting down negators. The twist of one of the members of the organization being in love with Andy was an interesting touch, and it wasn’t something I was expecting.

The art in Undead Unluck has a distinctive style, and it stands out compared with manga in its genre. It should be noted that Andy has a tendency to run around naked, so there are a number of panels with a black square covering up a certain part of his anatomy.

One thing that I saw in this volume, which I’m afraid will continue throughout additional volumes of this series, is the fact that Andy will cop a feel of Fuuko’s breasts, and that it’s being treated in a bit of a humorous manner. I know that Undead Unluck is being aimed at male readers, but as a female reader, I wasn’t entirely comfortable with what was happening with this and how it was being treated. If it had only shown up once, I might have taken it a little better. However, I can recall at least two times this happens in the volume, and there might have been a third.

In the end, I like the concept behind Undead Unluck, and I think this premise has a lot of potential. However, I am a little put off by Andy’s groping of Fuuko without her consent, especially with how this action is depicted by the author.

Undead Unluck Volume One should have a strong appeal to the young male audience that it’s being aimed at. However, readers outside of this demographic may not have as much of an appreciation for the series.

Dynamic duos are engaging in any narrative, "Undead" Andy and "Unluck" Fuuko Izumo are no exception given their powers - the former eternal life and the latter misfortune upon those that touch her. The goal is simply for Andy to finally die after a long restless life using Izumo's powers and will do whatever means to get there, most notably having Izumo fall in love with him (which she is reluctant about). The relationship reminds me a lot of Kamina and Simon of "Gurren Lagann" - boisterous and hesitant. yet both work off of each other seamlessly. It is entertaining to see the lengths to which "Undead" Andy will go to understand and dissect the power from simply touching Izumo - tongue-in-cheek ways like if a kiss brought a meteor down to destroy a building, what more with sex? It is this journey of discovery where the work shines as we are left in the dark just as much as our two protagonists - how much power can be manifested when considering intimacy, familiarity, comfortably, bodily, and much more.

While the discovery is good, there is just too much explanation and analysis in these action scenes. It slows down the momentum and makes the exciting parts a slog to get through. The chemistry between the two is fun, yet I find it hard to enjoy when talk becomes the focal point over the fight scenes. I had to read back some pages to catch myself up to speed with what is going on whether through the visuals or the dialogue.

If you are a shounen fan, do not miss this fun romp of a debut. Though be wary of its explanations, sometimes it may hamper one's reading experience.

This first volume feels unsure if it wants to be a totally insane super hero romp, a sex farce, or a romantic love story. And while at times the tones clash, the set up (a man who can't die meets up with a woman whose touch and affection creates bad luck and causes others to die) and the quest (he wants her help so he can finally die) are strange enough that it makes the ride worthwhile. Not as good as other over the top manga I've read this year, and the art is a little too exaggerated for my taste, but it was fun. We'll see where it goes.

This book was just bad. The main character was awful and the plot repetitive. The fact he had to touch the girl who disrupted luck was creepy and gross. I didnt get that most of the female characters were in love with this jerk of a main characetr.

This began with such promise and then just became a bit dull and unnecessarily repetitive. Because this was an eARC some of the text was difficult, if not impossible, to read.

Content Note for Library collection development: Innuendo, boob silhouette, "ass", censor bars-but nothing is too severe that would make me hesitate to add it to my teen collection-provided the censor bars are in the printed version. If not, then it depends on the nature of "Andy's" nudity.

Meh. Started strong, but then got boring towards the middle-end. Like the concept and I'm hoping we get an explanation has to HOW the UMAs came into being. Are they all technically mutants, minus the copyright infringement? Undead seems like a weird hybrid of Wolverine and Deadpool, with their worst qualities and no fourth-wall breaking.

Thank you Netgalley and VizMedia for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

So this one was a wild ride from start to finish! From the moment the story begins, it's moment after moment of action and the craziest situations happening. If I were the main character, I'd be exhausted! The author did a good job of quickly establishing the overarching goal of the story and a the first step towards that goal. I'm not sure if it was the device I was using or not, but sometimes the art made it a little hard to tell what was going on. I had to really rely on the text to tell me what the picture should be. I also didn't really appreciate the touching all that much, or how it progressively gets more and more lewd to trigger greater instances of unluck. I believe it's supposed to be comedic, but it just didn't work for me.

I really, really wanted to like this story because the premise is so interesting, but it isn't my cup of tea.

Undead, Unluck, and (slightly) Unexciting...

Admittedly, this super-hero/super-villain-esque story has an original twist to the classic individuals with super-powers scene. I did enjoy the innovation, but won't go into too many details to stay away from spoiler territory.

The main protagonists were somewhat amusing. I adore the Deadpool-like attitude of Undead, while Unluck has more of a "How did I get myself into this?" frame of mind. However, I felt that Unluck's personality didn't seem very consistent throughout this volume; this wishy-washy disposition makes it hard to see any real character development.

Finally, as much as there were some exciting moments, and this volume is action-packed, I did not feel any particular affinity for where the plot was going. The "wow moment" has passed with the introduction of these new original abilities, and now I am left with very little curiosity about how the story will proceed.

Special thanks go to the NetGalley team and the publishers for providing this ARC. I appreciate the opportunity to read it in exchange for an honest review.

With such an interesting premise, I thought for sure I would love this volume. Unfortunately the author does not deliver on the concept. Both main characters were annoying and unrealistic, so I could really bring myself to care about what happened or if they were making progress on their goals. Definitely needed some more character development rather than focusing just on plot and relying on constant overdramatic situations.

Well, Okay. So that was weird af and not in a bad way. Like when I was reading the description of the book I kinda assumed it would be and it was better then I imagined. I don't even know how to talk about this book right now I'm still processing what happened throughout this book. So theres this group after these two the undead dude because well he's a zombie and Fukko because she gifted with her curse of being unlucky with the slightest touch something bad will happen. The zombie just wants to figure out different ways to die until he actually meets his end goal and maybe Fukko might be the one who can give him what he wants. death. This book was pretty trippy with a whole lot going on that'll keep any reader hooked. I can't wait to see what happens next.

“I ain’t no zombie. I’m undead! Maybe you can snuff out my ridiculously long life!!”—from Undead Unluck Vol 1.

Fuuko Izumi, nicknamed Unluck, has the power of unluck. Anyone who touches her skin-to-skin dies. When she meets the immortal Undead, she names him Andy. Andy hopes she can kill him. He’s tired. But first, they both must fight killers from The Union wanting to use her for their murderous plans.

Undead Unluck Vol 1 is a diverting fantasy with a fresh plot. The powers of the main characters are definitely different. Plus Unluck’s wish for a true manga love story ending may happen if Andy has anything to do with it. 4 stars!

Thanks to VIZ Media and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.