Undead Unluck

Episode 22

Can it be? Did we just get two incredible episodes of Undead Unluck in a row? With nary a string of flashbacks in sight to be attached? You know what that means, my fellow Undead-Heads: Break out your finest forks and knives, along with the nicest china you've got. This week, we feast like kings and queens.

Now, if I had to be a nitpicky old crank and look for flaws with this bountiful blessing before digging in, I suppose I would have to concede that “Profile” doesn't hit quite as hard as last week's masterful “Memento Mori” did because it doesn't offer the same gratifying narrative arc. Rather than watching Fuko live out an entire life in Andy's memories, this episode takes a more abstract route by focusing on a duel between psychic incarnations of Andy and Victor. On the one hand, it's a shame to lose the delightful mood of Undead Unluck's brief detour into being an out-and-out Western. This new approach also means that there are a lot of interesting exposition dumps and exploding body part blood geysers to break up all of the talking.

In other words, this is Undead Unluck operating in the dead center of its comfort zone, and I'm all about it. The confirmation of Victor's motives being his love for Juiz makes him an interesting character instead of merely a cool pallet-swapped antagonist to fight. Andy and Victor's fight also allows the show to go buck-wild with the gory goodness, and outside of one cheesy-looking CGI sequence involving clashing blood blasts, I was all about how the action was handled this week.

The delivery of its exposition and character development is even better. I can't remember the last time I had this much fun getting into the weeds with power-ups and ability explanations. First comes the reveal that Andy's chat with Fuko last week gave him an entirely new perspective on life after death. Instead of being a literal and “objective” person who cannot imagine life without brain function, Andy has become someone who believes in the existence of a soul. Fuko's influence is changing Andy as a person and it comes with a convenient benefit: Just like Victor, Andy can now regenerate from any part of his body, and not just his head, because his prior belief no longer limits him.

The show then immediately builds upon that notion of augmenting Negator powers with the expansion of their users' frame of mind by showing how Fuko's Unluck can adapt itself to accommodate what each of its targets would personally consider to be “unlucky.” For Victor, pain means nothing, but confinement absolutely does. So, instead of smushing him with a meteor, Fuko's unluck traps him in a Pokéball. I mean, just…how freaking cool is that, man? It's such a creative and interesting way to develop our heroes' abilities, and so far as methods to kill God go, I have to say that it feels pretty doable. What a badass show, I swear. Don't even remind me that the season is going to end soon. My heart can't just take it.

Rating:

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.