Shounen Undead Unluck

[James Rye]

Synopsis
As an UNLUCKY girl prepares to face her death, an UNDEAD who desperately wants to die appears before her! Vicious, violent and buck naked! An unprecedented picaresque hero appears in Shonen Jump!

(Source: MANGA Plus)

 

[James Rye]

Alright, 5 Chapters out so far and I think UU is one of the better series from the new bunch that started this year. It got a nice quick pace, good action panels with good fight choreography and interesting abilities that all starts with "Un-". It also got a lot of controversy due its first chapter but I think bad press is better than no press? At least people talk about it.

Andy is a pretty cool hero: Buff, brutal, badass. His power "Undead" is pretty cool as he uses it to make his own body a weapon as well as using it as speed and jump force.

Izumo is a cute heroine: Adorable, sad backstory due her Unluck (which explains itself I guess) but also a longing for a normal life that her power keeps her from having that makes her somebody you want to cheer for.

As for ch.5 I really liked the focus on Izumo in that one. It was nice to see her all alone without Andy, how she avoided everyone but was still drawn to a girl drawing the lake, she is still a curious girl at heart, someone who says that it blew her mind that she could draw together with a stranger she just meet this day. I think her theme "Change" will be a very interesting one to follow as reader as we all either experienced change for the better or worse or want to change ourself but can't or struggle with it. It showed that Izumo has gone from her suicide thoughts in ch.1 to now see the world, witness new, preferable not deadly, situations and meet new people. Without Andy as "change" interceptor and accelerator that would have never happened. In a way Izumo is the "Osamu" from WT while Andy is the "Yuuma" from WT:
Andy wants to die, Andy WILL die, it is his greatest dream, the goal he had been working towards his whole Unlife. He is strong, experienced, a Veteran. So like Yuuma he takes on the role as the one pushing on the plot and fighting the most dangerous battles.
Izumo now wants to change, she wants a LIFE, a real life where her Unluck does not keep her from happiness. She is caring, naive, a dreamer. So like Osamu she takes on the role as the observer and traveler of the plot which the audience can cheer for and hope for the better end for her as we all know what Andy's end will be.

What was really cool was the tiny world-building bit I totally overread. "There is nothing up in Space expect for the Moon and the Sun, right?". I somehow thought they meant like that you can't see the stars because of the lights of a town but they are at a lake and Gina asked what those "sparkles" were. And ofc the part of "I learned that in school". There is no way any school would teach a kid that only the sun and moon exist in the universe. But that leaves us with the question:
Where are the stars?


Like what happened to them? Since when are they gone? How come that humans don't even have a WORD to describe the sparkles in the nightsky - stars?! That would mean humans never had a reason to invent that word meaning that since the age of the first men they never had a starry sky. It means their whole history must have been different. Traveling the sea would be much harder without a guiding star and astronomy doesn't exist as field of science. Like damn! If this was done by some Un-power then I wonder what kinda power that could be and why that user did that to the stars. Or maybe he or she did something to earth and not the stars in the universe?

What do you guys think?

 

[SlamMonster]

You said it all. It's funny that it seemed like this would be a one trick pony horndog manga that wouldnrun out of juice in a few chapters, but it's clear that the author has put a lot of thought into this and is planning for a long run.
I think the theme of change will be even more prelevant for Gina. She will probably be a reocurring antagonist trying to get back Andy because as an undead he could be forever her bf, as once tried to before he got away. Her power seems like that too, as she walked onto and lifted the water mass as a whole while keeping its shape.
I can't help but look forward to this series the most in Jump, because I have absolutely no idea where it's heading, same with CSM and JJK.

 

[James Rye]

That's true @SlamMonster . It also fits her nickname for Andy: "Deady Dearest" (I also like lil'Lucky for Izumo). A boyfriend who never changes must be her ideal which is probably why she tries to remain "unchanged" herself thus the thick make-up as Andy so nicely pointed that Gina cracked it in anger around her eyes. XD
It must be probably feel very horrible to her to grow older, to watch her appearance change so Andy looking the same even after 50 years must be a joy to her eyes.

The part where Gina walked down from her water half-sphere with the invisible stairs was pretty cool with the water falling down the stairs and Andy's blood surrounding her lie an orb. Her power is really strong and I have no idea how Andy and Izumo gonna deal with that. I am not sure they can kill her if she is inside her own protection bubble the whole time.

 

[MysticCatto]

Very interesting thoughts, you guys have convinced me to finally pick up the series!

 

[James Rye]

Very interesting thoughts, you guys have convinced me to finally pick up the series!

Noice! Glad we got to spoiler you here and that you were not afraid of reading them. Then again it is just 5 chapters. We really should be able to talk about that stuff in the WSJ main thread if it got no 3 volumes out yet or so. Once you read the 5 chapters will you give us your verdict so far what you think of the series?

 

[MysticCatto]

Noice! Glad we got to spoiler you here and that you were not afraid of reading them. Then again it is just 5 chapters. We really should be able to talk about that stuff in the WSJ main thread if it got no 3 volumes out yet or so. Once you read the 5 chapters will you give us your verdict so far what you think of the series?

I will soon.

 

[Halloween]

We really should be able to talk about that stuff in the WSJ main thread if it got no 3 volumes out yet or so.

But you can! You just have to use spoiler tags, is all. UxU is exempt from the updated topicality rule since it doesn't have three volumes released so far.

It's cool that you created this thread to discuss this series, but you were fully allowed to discuss it (with spoiler tags) in the WSJ thread.

 

[James Rye]

But you can! You just have to use spoiler tags, is all. UxU is exempt from the updated topicality rule since it doesn't have three volumes released so far.

It's cool that you created this thread to discuss this series, but you were fully allowed to discuss it (with spoiler tags) in the WSJ thread.

Muahahaha! My spoilers shall drown the WSJ thread! DROWN IN SPOILERS!!!

--- Double Post Merged, Feb 22, 2020, Original Post Date: Feb 17, 2020 ---

Chapter 6 is out.

Gina is quite creepy but then again she is a 66 year old woman trying hard to stay eternal 16. That and ofc ripping off the face of the guy she likes and trying to kiss the "Death Mask"...

Love how Andy interrupted her monologue with some hand grenades. XDDD

Shame about the friends being all dead but since he was on the run of the past 40 years and the ten years before that a lab rat I think he meant WWI or WWII Russian comrades so it's no wonder they are all dead by now.

Gina's goal is clear though, kill lil Lucky and have Andy take the Seat of Void. Interesting mention of a "Quota", guess this means as Union Negator you need you bring in a certain Quota or else you get replaced by someone who can. If that is killing UMAs then I don't think Izumo got it in herself to willingly kill people.

Also cool how Andy realized Gina's real ability to change the state in the Air. Like she didn't walk on water but on the solidified air on the water. And she didn't telesomething the water up but an "air bowl" containing the water. Which also explains the water running down the invisible stairs as she created air stairs for herself to walk down. So those hands we see covered in Andy's blood aren't blood hands but air hands made visible with the blood rain.

I am curious to see how Andy thinks that Izumo's Unluck can bring the chance he needs to take Gina down. For now he got his head in her boobs so that's one thing for some Unluck I guess. xD

--- Double Post Merged, Mar 1, 2020 ---

I like how Andy had to figure out Gina's Barrier weakness using his blood as marker till he found the tiny hole she needs to walk on. As well as how he figured out a way of using the hole though he could have never done that on his own. A 2nd party was needed for that sword flip and head throw and ofc the Unluck that gets unleashed after touching her boobs and stomach for so long. I am glad this series at least gives us a good reason why Andy needs to feel Izumo's boobs on his body as otherwise her curse would not work. Given all his cool talk and how long Izumo had to endure this embarassment I figure that Unluck gonna be a real whacker and will probably involve the UFO.
Also interesting that Gina mentioned another UMA in this region she was looking for, probably a friend/future partner of Andy and Izumo?

 

[kakilangit]

where to start??? aaaaaaahhhh
I like this manga so much//. it had great start..the best one of the new bunch..

i hope its survive..

this manga is fun..the author know how to made chapter fun and characters are fun too// so i had fun too..
cant wait for next chapter...
i want Gina to survive,.. Lose but not dead or something like that..and still get kicked out from organization or the ten herself//

so many things can be discuss...
like first of all.. from chapter 1. we get to know organization that hunting UMA and Negators..
but i had problem with Undead Unluck already got level 8 threat from union.. its too high, isn it? or maybe its when they together..Undead with his combo ability and skill can protect unluck while Unluck level of disaster she can brings may made sense.. but i hope unluck start from level 5 or something like in the beginning..and Undead, may had level 7... but maybe this level threat will irrelevant when they join the Ten... but then again, they will hunting another negators, and they will get level to identified. so it will bummed if the other negators only got less than 8..
and think about it.. level 9 and 10 that are greater threat than andy+fuuko seems so limited.. level 10 may level god, planet destroyer or humanity as whole so they will appear as final boss or something...and level 9 so varied from city disaster to country,, yeah... well i had many to speculate..

from chapter 2 we get to know 2 member of ten... VOID as member of 9 seat, yeah? cos his armor had number 9 in it.. so Shen is much better mean he can be 8 to 6..i doubt he get higher than that.. then again maybe they arrange not by strength but others things..so i head myself again, to much speculation..but its fun.. and what about that Sky cracker??? its union weapon or negators doing?? its there connection to sky w/o stars from chapter 5?? hmmmmm..mystery

chapter 3, shen had own motive is good thing.. what his power?? may say is UNWILL? Untouchable?? but how he can messed up andy attack and got reversed?? and he said its in deep psyche, so must be mind trick.. negate mind?? unthinkable, ??lol too wide, not too specific...
i suppose the ten not get along..i hope they hate each others and will try to back stab each other too..so it will be fun if all get their motive and dynamic..not family-friendly like guild...

chapter 4 not so much staff.. but we got 3 new member of ten.. so we got unbreakable, mad doctor and gina.. we still need another 5..
and shen is great guy.. oh i forgot this too, union is international caliber team.. shen from china, we got void and gina, from west??? i hope they more diverse.. oh and this chapter all mention that if fuuko can train, she will be invisible.. cant wait for her progress///

chapter 5 had subtle (for them its normal) but mind blowing fact about their worlds.. WHAT? HOW ? thats imposible.. world w/o stars.. earth is alonely planet, with only sun and moon.. (sparkle in sky all not come from stars, some come from others planets like venus and mars..) so...
its may just big conspiracy in my theory.. may be organization, maybe the negators with godlike power.. UnREAL? cos he can negate reality,, damn thats too OP.. oh wait wrong franchise///

chapter 6/7.. the fight are top notch... not so much info...
so what is UMA?? monsters? beasts?? human mutation?? negators gone wrong?? or is it Alien???oooh
and what uma gina searching for?? in lake? loch ness???
oh we got external and inserter type of negators.. thats obvious..
and more info about the organization, its harsh place to be, fuuko will not survived?? uuhh danger stuff.. its because of quota,?? and training??

cant wait...... next chapter please..

 

[James Rye]

Great idea how to bypass that impenetrable barrier of Gina! Have the now by Unluck cursed Andy get close to Gina and then Unluck will work its magic to ensure the cursed will be hit by it and since nothing hard can pass it, it needs to be light so the UFO magically malfunctions even ignoring the shut-down order because Izumo's Unluck negation power trumps every safety system in the world! Damn her power is strong! Except its obvious weakness of touching and caring about somebody to set off a necessary amount of Unluck.

I really liked the end of Gina.
It was very sweet with a tinge of bitterness and a good dose of sadness. I also liked how the people who killed her were also the ones who most cared about her and who mourned her, each their own way. I really liked how things didn't got spelled out like "I am so bitter because..." or "this is so sad because..." or "I am so happy because..." and instead the reader could witness those emotions in Gina's speech and Izumo's and Andy's action. Gina talking how she was unable to change while admitting that change itself is good or saying "A moon surrounded by sparkles - I never even thought of that!" shows her regrets of her past life, she was basically that lone moon in the night sky, she never changed, she didn't dare to change and now when her life is at its end she can appreciate the thought of changing and it is too late. And then there comes Andy, ignoring her plea to be left in peace and die alone in her old ugliness and he gives her that kiss she wanted so much in her life after telling her that he can still see her beauty despite a few wrinkles on it. The way she cling to his neck for that kiss despite now being an old hag and no longer a young 16 year old girl she wanted to eternally be before her hands fall off Andy when she died showed the reader that she herself wanted that kiss, in other words, in the last moments of her life she did change! She could have refused it, she did try to refuse it "no, not while I look like this...". but then changed her mind and did kiss Andy anyway. And that was very sweet.
And sad.

Yeah, it was a good emotional part of the chapter.
The ending with the "sick" bottoms up of their vodka shots after "greeting" their fellow Union comrades with some finger bullets was "sick, hella sick", it was super cool, Izumo and Andy are here to drink alcohol and break the rules and they are all out of alcohol now!!! <3

 

[kakilangit]

great chapter with emotional bits.. i wish gina live, but its good sendoff,,,waaaaahhh
so they want to change the UNION too,, good strategy for writer and characters.. we get in the union and still had own agenda and the ten might still can be the villian later on, who knows..
i hope they hate each other and they all had great character and dynamic.. they all had cool and varied design..
but there are no female,, sad.. maybe they had regular member outside the ten, like Shen assistant..
so Shen is actually no. 2?? well my prediction are wrong...
no.1 must be unbreakable..
no 3 gun who never miss.. so Unmiss, superior ver. of unavoidable?? with brood range and less limited...and can use anything..i'm in..
no.4 child emperor >???,.. my guess is Unage?? he is genius prodigy who cant age.. still can die tho, but not by old age..???
no.5 robot suit, showing us nothing.. hope is female..
no. 6 samurai armor..cool.. no idea about his power..
no.7 no clue either.. he use shield??? cant sure
no. 8 is that mad engineer?? what with that 3 orb ball?? damn no clue..
enter no 9 and 10.. cheers for unluck and undead//

who responsible for that sky cracked?? its UMA's doing.. or its different things??? did Union had uma too?? did they use as pet?? or army
with cool and fun last page,. this manga never fail to amuse me... never boring..

please survive..

 

[HereNThere]

This is a pretty good series. Wasn't sure how it would pan out, but I'm liking the concept more and more as it goes on.

Only thing I don't care for the is Andy's helmet hair.

 

[James Rye]

Okay, this is bloody fantastic!
I expected a slow chapter full of introductions of the other 8 members but that didn't happen! Nobody said their names or abilities or shit, it went straight into the juicy plot! I am talking story-telling plot and world-building plot ofc, not tits.
THIS is the Quota! A book which is the "first artifact found on earth" that hands out Quests within a timelimit with rewards and punishments! That's awesome! That's like a videogame on ecstasy! Plus that new rules are added every 3 months. However if you count the 98 x 3 month times then you get basically 24-25 years. Makes me wonder if those rules are an update which changes everyone's memory. Like Andy is over 200 years old, the Union exists for more than 50 years (probably far longer). So what were death, sex, language and races before that timeline when rules were implemented by Apocalypse?
I must say I was surprised by the big robot ball to go crazy on Andy over Gina. I expected him to be angry over Void or actually not be angry at all and more logical. Also Tatiana sounds female so maybe I should stop calling her a he.
Liked Billy, he is a chill Uncle.^^
Boss is really strong though! Seems to have a similar ability like Shen but even stronger. Boss also had the look of a grizzled veteran in her eyes, she must have seen death and hell countless times by now.
So 6 missions with rewards. Very interesting. All are about capturing or killing UMAs. The rewards are different like strengthening your numbers, uniting the world by all languages becoming the same (what an insane power given how many languages exists in the world!), new artifacts or locations of other UMAs. I bet Gina's mission had to do with one of those UMAs, maybe Unseen? Or it was to capture an UMA of which they knew the location of but it wasn't in the quest list.
The punishment sound weird but interesting. I also really liked how Izumo and Andy had no idea what the word "Galaxy" could mean which makes perfect sense if you think about it that their entire Universe knows of only 3 planets: Sun, Moon and Earth and that's it! Why invent a word for star systems if there are no stars to form clusters like a galaxy?
Cool how the big Evil was introduced via a talking book as in not really shown but you know he exists and is tremendously powerful. I have a feeling the big evil is the very own mangaka of this series, lol, that would be funny for the creations to kill their creator, their god who just wants to tell an entertaining story. XDDD
Best part was Andy sticking his hands into a book with sharp teeth, have them bitten off and just take the hardest quest and force Shen who recommended them into the Union with them on this mission. This quest gonna be awesome and this totally throws the whole plan of the Union overboard with 3 members going at the hardest, least rewarding mission leaving them not enough members to deal with the first three ones. I wonder if they even can try to fulfill all 6 quests in one go. After all if you count it together it is 19 participants when they only got ten. Ofc if they can do them one by one then that's no problem but I guess the participants are a given as in, you MUST have that number else you cannot accept the mission. So that leaves 7 to take on some of the other 5. Now it would also to be good to know what day it currently is right now to know how much time they have left to deal with those quests.
In any case, I am pumped for this UMA world of UxU! This gonna be an epic journey with many cool quests and crazy characters until they face the big evil at the very end! <3

 

[MysticCatto]

Finally caught up to this series, and it's really well done! I like Andy's wiseness which doesn't come from nowhere, he's got years of experience in all kinds of things, and of course he's got a penchant for being reckless. He reminds me of Ban from 7 deadly sins.

Worlds that seem normal but actually differ ever so slightly from our world is always nice to me. The world is definitely interesting as well, when the first chapter came out I didn't expect it to be this well thought out, and my favorite part so far about the world is that it doesn't have any stars.

I'm rooting for this to survive now

 

[kakilangit]

wowowowowowowowow..... fufufufufufufuck
where to start? this chapter contain more info than all chapter before...

infodump chapter can be boring, but my god, this is how you do it.. excellent..
the worldbuilding as literal/actual, well building the world, we still in process the universe still being made.. damn what a concept.. dare i say its new and different in jump???

always love that cover page/opening page... its nice to see them together.. we will see them for a long way..

then we got tatiana, yes a girl (i assume?) attack andy for killing Gina.. they must be close..
what her power??? he can repair his hand robot.. Undo, right?? or too soon....
oh, and the member cant fight each others, i know it.. but i hope, their dynamic still high...

Uncle Billy.. new favorite chara.. chill, cool and with great comedic timing, that line is killed me, "am i going to die?"
is he Blind??? he dont know that tatiana will attack him.. and tatiana seem close to him too..

and another my theory bite the dust.. no. 1 is not unbreakable.. so another mind control, superior to shen?? hope so... who got unbreakable?? the kid, the samurai. the brown boy? dunno

BOOM.. apocalypso.. Book of revelation is here to guide to your quest...
after Negators, Uma, we got Artifact.. cool..cool...cool...COOOL..

so UMA is beast/monster who can use power (normal power) as represent the Rules of this world.. when they dead, will the concept dead or not,.??? hope not.. no way.. Negators is oppose them, as they negate the Rules of their world... Uma Burn and Negator Unburn... wow... cool..

every mission had reward.. one of them is 11th seat.. so the union may start from 1 and keep unlock the seat.. mean, we will get new addition member.. who will get? Unburn, Unrepair, Unseen... damn, i want to know their character first.. Unburn is too spesific and lame (sorry fire fetish, but i hate fire based power), prevent heat/fire or cant be burn.. unseen can be comedic gold or pervert..

so many to discover.. so many mission to get around.. hope we are not skip one of them. i want see all of them...

and if they fail to fulfilled in meantime... they got penalty.. UMA Galaxy... what the fuck. there you go another my theory.. good thing the Boss dont want to complete the mission cos they dont know galaxy mean?? it can be bite their ass later on... so we will get this Uma Galaxy.. and Stars will be born, right?? thats how its work..???

Now we know the union goal.. to kill GOD..
damn.. this manga come from a dude want to bang a chick to die become GOD killing quest,, thats over the top for 2nd END goal
and you can be no. 1 seat if you accomplish more.. new goal for fuuko and andy.. Middle Goal//
and new mission to capture SPOIL uma...thats now goal..
God, i love how mangaka plan this...
I hope he can deliver the HYPE//

HYPEEEEEEEEEE

 

[James Rye]

Hard agree, the way the author is handling it is super impressive for a newbie, and I've already seen some pretty crazy theories on what's to come. This one will stick 100%.

You are correct, despite there only being 9 chapters there is quite a surprising amount of crazy theories about UxU.
One I like the most is that Andy's true name is Adam, the first human created by their god and who put that brain blocker himself into his skull to not remember that time. Basically he is much older than he himself assumes. The theory builds on the tiny fact that we have yet to see a navel on Andy's body whereas you could see one on Izumo. A very interesting theory in my eyes.

Another is that Andy's true Un-power is not Undead but that he is simply not bound to the rules of this world thus his real ability being "Unbound" being important to deal with the end boss who probably got a super Un power like Unlimited or something like that. In this theory Andy forgot about his real ability or it was hidden from him and all he figured out is that he cannot die thus assuming his power is being Undead.
I dunno what to think of this theory as it feels a bit far-fetched plus it would make the manga title redundant. But I must say it does sound fascinating that Andy might remember his real power at the end when it is needed to defy God.

My own theory is that the creator behind the book is the mangaka himself. I got the idea when reading about the Adam theory and remembering that there were 98 rules implemented into the world in 3 months interval which gets like 24.5 years. So my thought process was that Andy was the first character created and that the 98 months are like about the mangaka's age or so. I am most likely wrong but the idea that the Book is basically the manga and that this world was created to entertain us via the mangaka aka God was very funny in my opinion when thinking about how our Heroes and Union manages to break into the "other side" and then see a man hunched over papers where he drew their adventurers on and he looks anything like they had imagined him to look like. XD

Sorry that I posted this here, I figured in the main thread this would be too spoilery.^^

 

[costicla]

I didn't really like the series at the start but it's beginning to grow on me. I don't think Jump has ever had a main character who gets messed up so bad almost every chapter. Wouldn't mind if the series survived.

 

[HereNThere]

I didn't really like the series at the start but it's beginning to grow on me. I don't think Jump has ever had a main character who gets messed up so bad almost every chapter. Wouldn't mind if the series survived.

Of the new batch, it and I think Guardian of the Witch, are the most popular newcomers. I think they'll be sticking around.

 

[kakilangit]

Of the new batch, it and I think Guardian of the Witch, are the most popular newcomers. I think they'll be sticking around.

nah GOTW is bad manga.. and i dont see it popular.. dont bring extra page,//