English Dub Review: Undead Unluck “Anno Un”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Andy and Fuuko manage to make contact with Anno Un, whose ability enables him to go totally undetected and uses his artifact, a fountain pen, to see the future that inspires his stories. They meet up in Canada, where UMA Autumn is also beginning to have a presence, turning innocent people into books that they read and then eat, hungry for a truly unique story. The three are unable to do much to damage and retreat, with Anno making a replica of Autumn’s abilities in order to unlock Andy’s past.

OUR TAKE

Manga author characters can often be a coin toss in terms of execution. It can be fun to have a character who pokes the fourth wall and gets to make all the meta production terms that other characters couldn’t by playing it straight. But over the years, there’s been a growing distaste for meta characters, especially if their entire schtick amounts to JUST saying meta things. You need to give them more dimension so that, if they must break the fourth wall, it comes from an in-character action, like Abed from Community. So far, Anno Un could go either way. I know nothing about Undead Unluck’s stated author, Yoshifumi Tozuka, so for all I know he could be an author insert, but is at least intriguing enough that it’s not exactly an issue…yet. He’s not as interesting as, for example, Rohan Kishibe from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, but there’s still a lot we don’t know and still a few episodes left for us to get into all of that. I do worry that he’s more of a device than a character, specifically as a way to better explore Andy’s, and possibly Victor’s, past, so maybe something will come of this.

We also get a first look at UMA Autumn, who naturally makes all the leaves around it turn orange, but otherwise doesn’t really evoke anything like what you’d expect from the idea of the season between Summer and Winter. It’s a big skeleton spider thing that turns people into books that it then eats, which sounds like a real Mad Lib of a monster concept and, like Anno Un’s own abilities, seems almost railroaded into giving us a chance to more fully examine Andy’s past. And that’s fine I suppose, since that is something I am personally interested in learning more about, but I guess I like it when story elements feel separate enough that their leading to a desired plot point feels natural and less…contrived? I mean everything in a story is contrived by the author at the end of the day, it’s just that it shouldn’t FEEL that way. Still, if there’s one thing Undead Unluck has managed to maintain throughout its twenty episodes so far, it’s being entertaining, so I have no doubt the remaining four will be at least interesting, which is certainly more than I can say for other shows I have talked about recently. The final sixth begins next time!