Undead Unluck Just Became Shonen Jump's Most Tragic Series
Warning: this article discusses suicidality and includes spoilers for Undead Unluck chapter 94!
A tragic theme Undead Unluck introduced in its very first chapter just resurfaced after the Shonen Jump manga created the false impression over the last 60-or-so chapters that love and friendship had conquered all.
Undead Unluck began on an incredibly dark note for a shonen. A girl named Fuuko Izumo, whose Unluck power causes fatal accidents to befall those who touch her, tries to end her life in the opening pages. A man named Undead Andy saves her, but he has ulterior motives. He's an immortal tired of living and, in all his travels, he never had so much hope as he does now. He views her Unluck as the only force capable of trumping his eponymous power. The two are literally bonded by a desire to die. But the longer they fight alongside each other, the less they begin to speak of wanting to die. They both make friends who they cherish and want to protect, and even more touchingly, Fuuko and Undead Andy fall in love with each other. But chapter 94 by Mangaka Yoshifumi Totsuka just brought this dark theme back for the first time in a long, long while.
After a pivotal fight won by Fuuko, Undead Andy first comforts her, telling her that she gave her opponent the satisfying death he always wanted. But then he says "I gotta envy him. It reminds me that I wanna die like him too." He doesn't stop there. Undead Andy soon goes on a tirade about all the ways she can help him die, which readers were led to believe he'd given up on long ago. As early as chapter 28, Undead Andy made a stunning admission that dared readers to hope that he was beginning to love life just like Fuuko. He had just used Fuuko's Unluck to blast him 100 meters away so he could perform a crucial attack and then thinks to himself that he would have never attempted such an attack alone - and then he realizes he's no longer alone, because he has Fuuko.
Even earlier, Undead Andy tried to help a boy named Chikara terrified of his powers to stand up by saying that things work out for people who help others. This would become a mantra for Undead Andy later on, like in chapter 67 when he says that when you put your life on the line for someone, you are at your "friggin' strongest." Undead Andy's newfound investment in forging new bonds takes on an even deeper level when he later admits to himself that he has fallen in love with Fuuko. As a shonen, Undead Unluck was expected to be more lighthearted than darker genres such as seinen, so when Undead Andy started to care for his comrades and even fell in love, many fans assumed that love would conquer his initial desire to die from Fuuko's Unluck.
It's even more tragic that Undead Andy tells Fuuko he has no choice but to fall in love with her in chapter 94 of Undead Unluck. This is a continuation of an unfortunate goal he once set for himself to get Fuuko to fall in love with him since her Unluck hurts people more when she cares for them. But her latest fight proved that her Unluck is more powerful when her opponent cares for her as well. Andy's comment not only means that he just failed to admit that he does in fact love her, but that he's trivializing the feelings they share for each other, which made Screen Rant's list of the best 2021 manga moments.
Other Shonen Jump manga have explored tragedy effectively, but mainly through death and the immediate experience of loss. In subverting the changing perspective fans believed Undead Unluck had been exploring, the Shonen Jump manga just claimed its place as the magazine's darkest offering. To anyone having negative thoughts, reaching out to loved ones or calling the Suicide Prevention Lifeline can be incredibly helpful resources.
Source: Screenrant
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