Undead Unluck had its first episode premiere on Friday, and it promised to show us a cool new anime by Fire Force’s studio David Production. The episode opens with what seems to be a random couple stranded in the middle of nowhere. The scene along with the soundtrack gave me a melancholic feeling, where I was expecting either one or both of the two to die. Their scenes cut to and from a separate scene of a small girl looking at a departing plane, which is where I got my sad expectations met after the plane blew up (as the couple was revealed to be a fictional story, read by the now older small girl). Here’s some of the reasons I think this will be one of my favorites this season.
Undead Unluck Anime Premiere
The Main Characters
We are introduced to the main characters right after the first scene. Fuko Izumo, the girl who is ready to die after finishing her favorite manga (which is inspired by the real life Kimi ni Todoke: From Me, To You), and Andy, the guy who wants to find death. Fuko is clearly not ready to die, but she wants to do it avoid causing misfortune to others. However, Andy is Undead, and he wants to touch her after she says it will cause a deadly illness. He is unaffected by a knife wound or a train destroying his body, and can easily regenerate.
While Fuko is the typical kind girl who doesn’t want to cause misfortune to others, she tragically can’t avoid it due to her ability. She has an interesting character and, while not exactly groundbreaking, I think her character is unique enough to be entertaining. Andy on the other hand, I found myself a lot more curious about. He’s direct and has no qualms about physically going after Fuko, but it’s shown to be more than just some fan-insert ecchi. He has an insanely quick wit, and he instantly realized some of the rules and came up with the possibilities about Fuko’s ability. His past after living for an unspecified long time will probably hold key, and the power-up from removing the ‘cork’ from his brain is also mysterious.
The Abilities
While not much has been revealed, we learned from the villain guy that Fuko and Andy are called Negators, and that they ’cause trouble to the world’ along with some things called UMAs. If Undead and Unluck mean the two negate death and luck, I’m curious to see what else exists and how fights will happen in this anime. Coming from the studio behind Fire Force and all their wacky abilities, UNDEAD UNLUCK has so much potential for them to show off!
The Animation
Continuing from the last point, I thought the animation in the Undead Unluck premiere episode was really good, from the opening sequence to the ending one with the meteor. Andy’s regeneration looked cool, as well as the action scenes. Him going off after removing his cork was particularly pleasing. I really look forward to seeing more of his ability and the ways he can utilize his immortality.
The Comedy
The comedy aspect in this story works really well, and the animation seems to adapt it properly. Andy doesn’t joke or tease when he says stuff like telling Fuko to undress, which makes her reactions more natural and in turn genuinely funny. He’s just so old that he doesn’t even think about her finding it unacceptable, though she obviously runs away. His conclusion after learning about the way kissing caused the biggest misfortune was actually logically likely to cause a bigger misfortune, but the comedic delivery of it was perfect. Also, the over-the-top unluck banana crates falling was just so random it was funny, and there’s definitely more where that came from.
The voice acting
While Fuko’s voice actress Moe Kahara is just getting started in the industry (second main role after Akari from The Executioner and Her Way of Life), Andy is voiced by the instantly recognizable Yuichi Nakamura. He has a lot of notable roles, though some of the most relevant ones right now are probably Satoru Gojo in JUJUTSU KAISEN, Hawks in My Hero Academia and Kuro Tetsuro from Haikyu!! Although recognizable, he does bring something new to this voice and the performance seems fitting for Andy. The anime credits include more big names like Natsuki Hanae, Mariya Ise, Rie Kugimiya, Nobuhiko Okamoto, Tomokazu Sugita, Rikya Koyama, and Aoi Yuki, so I look forward to meeting their characters.
Without going too deep into it, I found the Undead Unluck premiere really fun and can’t wait to see more of Andy and Fuko! If you also enjoyed the first episode, don’t forget to vote for it in our weekly poll!
Images via Hulu
© Yoshifumi Tozuka, SHUEISHA / Undead Unluck Project
