Shonen Jump is at a very weird point right now. Many of the long-running series that they were famous for have ended very recently. My Hero Academia and Jujutsu Kaisen are the biggest takeaways from this trend, but we’ve also seen manga associated with the imprint like Oshi no Ko with the same fate. After the big bombshells, now’s the turn for some of the more underrated manga of the 2020s with Mission: Yozakura Family ending last week and now Undead Unluck going through the same motions.

Undead Unluck was the manga that I had hoped would click more with readers. It’s more of an “adventure” shonen rather than a direct battle manga, with very unique worldbuilding. In the world of this manga, there exist people with powers to negate fundamental rules of the universe, for example, Undead has the power to negate his own death, becoming essentially immortal.

Now, as I said, the world has “rules”. Death is one of them, but so is, for example, “galaxy”, and until that rule is introduced into the world, the known universe was only the Earth, the moon, and the sun, no stars or other planets included. The purpose of our protagonists is to eliminate these rules made by god and remake the world.

It’s a fascinating premise with plenty of world-building that makes sense and is incredibly exciting. Tidbits of lore are revealed little by little, with an incredible twist at the equator of the series. Characters little by little improve by expanding their interpretations of the definition of their ability, creating sensible improvements to their powerset.

However, the best part about this manga is its characters. Andy and Fuuko are a sensational duo. The first half of the story shows their chemistry together with a boisterous Andy and a Fuuko that grows more confident as time goes on and as they face new enemies.

Fuuko has become one of my favourite shonen protagonists as of late, with an incredible evolution towards the equator of the manga. Suddenly, the focus shifts completely. It’s not just a timeskip, it’s something much more complicated and something that I feel is much, much better overall. The second half of this manga is incredible, with arcs with plenty of different approaches that go past “there is a monster” or “the world is at stake”.

Sadly, the ending, while strong on its own, feels a bit rushed. The manga introduces some final enemies to defeat and while the first two or three are incredible challenges that necessitate several chapters, the remaining seven are dealt with simultaneously in a couple of chapters. I do understand this is probably the hand that was dealt to the mangaka, having a deadline for the manga to end and make way for newcomers, but it’s still a rather disappointing way to end some antagonists that were very much hyped.

At the very least, the final enemy is properly imposing, the final battle feels the right length and the way to defeat him, while cheesy, is perfectly cohesive with all the themes of the story. This is an ending that is much more sweeter than bitter.

Now, with all of this praise, why is it that Undead Unluck isn’t as big as other productions? Well, the anime not catching on probably had a hand with that, but the beginning of this manga also didn’t do it many favours. Its first chapters were rather tough, with some sexist moments and way too much fanservice for what the manga would become later on. The premise was interesting and the characters were endearing, but that start, though thematically coherent with hindsight, was a big deterrent for new readers. I’m very thankful that Fuuko became a much more complete and confident character later on, which is part of the beauty of this manga overall.

This is a story about improving, in many ways. Characters little by little leave away the darkness of their pasts and become the better versions of themselves thanks to their connections to others. It is rather cheesy, sure, but it's the kind of cheesy that feels earned with the tone of this manga never delving too deep into the macabre of other contemporaries like Jujutsu Kaisen. When Undead Unluck tries to get a bit more sensitive or use some typical shonen tropes, I feel that it's much more earned when considering everything.

Undead Unluck was easily one of the biggest improvements I’ve ever seen in Shonen Jump, with its quality never decreasing as it went on (in fact, becoming better and better as the years went on). The art was always great but the narrative kept getting better and better, with new concepts, more variety, and better characterization becoming standard as time went on with none of the blemishes that plagued the manga's beginning.

I will keep Andy and Fuuko in my mind for years to come and I am very much excited for the future works of Yoshifumi Tozuka. They grew as a mangaka with each subsequent year that they kept working on this manga and I feel that if their next work has a better start, it can become an instant hit.