Undead Unluck

Episodes 1-3

Let's get the elephant out of the room, first, shall we? And no, I'm not talking about the massive trunk that our boy Undead Andy has swinging around in between his thighs. The sight of a fat and floppy censor bar just flailing about throughout every episode of Undead Unluck will probably always be funny, and you won't find me complaining about it.

No, I'm of course referring to the most obvious and obnoxious hurdle that the story has presented from the very first episode of the series: The way that Andy has decided that the only way to take advantage of Fuko's Unluck powers is by constantly trying to grope and molest her. It's a dumb, juvenile joke that stands out as being a bridge too far even in this, an anime that is already loudly and proudly letting its “Dumb and Juvenile!!!” freak flag fly as free as Andy's flagpole does. Individual tolerance for this type of intentionally stupid and offensive comedy will of course vary, though I don't blame anyone for getting sick of it well before finishing these first three episodes of Undead Unluck.

Personally, it's the kind of thing that I can look past for now, at least, and that's for a couple of reasons. The first is that manga readers have told me that Undead Unluck quickly drops this shtick completely, so I don't expect it to be a constant fly-in-the-ointment like Tamaki's treatment is in the Fire Force anime (also produced by Studio David, as it happens). The second reason I am willing to begrudgingly tolerate the show's worst jokes is because of the very wacky and abstract tone that the show is going for. While framing itself as the deranged Japanese lovechild of the Grindhouse movies and the Looney Tunes shorts doesn't automatically make Andy's treatment of Fuko okay, it does frame our heroes' relationship as something that we shouldn't take too seriously.

It helps that, for all of Andy's “funny business”, Episodes 2-3 of the show make it clear that his utter lunacy doesn't make him a bad person; he and Fuko are both deeply dysfunctional and broken people, in their own very different ways, and they're learning to care for each other in a manner that is probably going to seem a little bonkers to any functional member of normal society. At the very least, Andy does make it clear in Episode 2 that he isn't willing to sleep with Fuko if she doesn't genuinely want to, and Fuko is developing a genuine bond with her constantly nude, limb-exploding kidnapper, and that is…well, it's something, I guess.

Here's the thing that these first few episodes of Undead Unluck have done such a great job of showing us, despite it all: Underneath the geysers of blood and other unsavory fluids is an exceptionally funny, bizarre, creative, and entertaining anime. The fight that Andy and Fuko get into with the two Union guys in Episode 2 is chock full of interesting and novel action beats that take full advantage of the banana rules that seem to govern this universe. In episode 3, we get even more world-building and character-building that makes it clear that there is some real thought being put into Undead Unluck's strange saga, no matter how brainless it might appear at the outset. The way that the show just casually reveals that we are operating in a reality that just doesn't even know what stars are is such a good way of upending our assumptions about the setting that I can't help but be fascinated to see where things go.

Hell, the way that Andy explains and explores the limits of the different Negator's powers, including Fuko's own Unluck, has gotten me invested in the battle exposition. I'm almost never interested in the battle exposition. When the show connected the dots between Fuko's emotional investment in the kind of contact she is receiving from someone else and the relative distance of whatever nearby catastrophe is going to be pulled into her orbit, though, I found myself leaning forward on my sofa and stroking my chin, thinking, “Now that is interesting!”

Because of all this, I am willing to give Undead Unluck the benefit of the doubt as we see where Andy and Fuko's Bogus Journey takes us next. I'm just hoping that the big guy can learn to keep his hands to himself (or to at least read the room and wait for some enthusiastic consent) before too long.

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Undead Unluck is currently streaming on Hulu.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop culture, which can also be found on Twitter, his blog, and his podcast.