Undead Unluck, Vol. 19

アンデッドアンラック [Undead Unluck] #19

by Yoshifumi Tozuka

Fuuko and the others have returned from space and landed in Hong Kong, where they meet Shen’s little sister, Mei. She asks Fuuko to save Shen, prompting Fuuko to enter a martial arts tournament where Feng is the reigning champion. Feng spots Fuuko in the preliminaries and attacks her, but a certain someone intervenes!

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Action, Supernatural, Adventure, Humor

192 pages, Paperback

First published December 4, 2023

About the author

Japanese name: 戸塚慶文 (Tozuka Yoshifumi) is a japanese mangaka.

Reviews

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Just act like an old man... and rejoice in your son's growth!!"

It's been a while since I last read from this manga, but/so it's nice to see it still easily makes me cry like a bitch.

After helping Phil, the gang fall to Hong Kong (which I guess happened at the end of last volume, but I don't remember perfectly, and am basically just trusting context). Coincidentally, the run into Shen's sister, who informs them of an upcoming tournament in which Shen plans to challenge Feng. So we get a brief tournament arc... Kind of. Fuuko's intentional use of Unluck works against Shen and in Fuuko's own favor by making the bracket work such that Shen will have to fight all of Fuuko's henchmen, while Mui raises herself in the other side of the bracket (oh, Mui is here btw). The idea is to train Shen to surpass Feng, kinda-sorta to force Feng into character development as well. But in practice it seems like the idea is just to see how well Shen learns to counter Negator Abilities while testing his resolve. As such, Fuuko actually forfeits before her fight starts, and by the end of the thing Feng only gets a small opportunity at a rematch against Fuuko. The main thing is getting Shen to unlock Untruth (he does) and win favor for the Nyoi-Kinko (he does). And also cement his relationship with Mui (he does). A consequence is we learn Feng is actually Unfade (did we know this already? idr), who cannot age, allowing him to master martial arts on his own, by clouding him from seeing the merits of passing his techniques on to a disciple (which he learns at the end of the arc). Basically, I cried when Feng acknowledged Shen as his son....

Anyway, new arc starts! We're recruiting Chikara by infiltrating his school. Lot of shenanigans in the two chapters seen so far, especially since all Fuuko knows of high school is taken from manga.

[Angela (angie's cozy corner) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5⭐️

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

TOOOOOOURNAMENT AAAAAAARC

I love Feng. Everyone loves Feng. Battle-lusted daddy. He's so much fun and his grudge against Fuuko is hilarious.

I've always said that one of Undead Unluck's key points is how toxic the men are. Toxic masculinity! It sucks! How much of the previous loop had the dudes want to sacrifice themselves to be the tough guy, thinking they can save everything and everyone themselves, rescue the women they love, etc. Rip for Laila, Nico for Ichico, Victor for Juiz, Billy for (everyone), heck even Shen died to save Mui... all the men are all GRRRR I NEED TO SACRIFICE MYSELF TO SAVE THEM. And now we get to this loop and all the women get to actually do something! Gina is a main character in the roster! Yusai is a recurring character! MUI KICKS ASS WE LOVE MUI GETTING A CHANCE TO SHINE! It's like helping people (and asking for help in return) makes you stronger.

[Timothy Pitkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

So we finally get Shen's arc done and it was really good and I do love how the tournament is set up and how they very quickly get Mui back into the plot. Feng also gets kind of a redemption arc as we learn about what he has been doing since the last time we met him and Fuuko forced him to adopt Shen. It was really nice with great fights and then we get to Chikara's arc and it has a nice start to it with Feng again kind of stealing the show when Fuuko forces him to become a Gym Teacher which was hilarious. The arc does a good job of being a parody of High School anime/manga stories by poking a little fun at some cliches in that type of stuff and again it is really funny.

[Philip McCarty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man, this series is peak shonen. The heartfelt and cool as all heck battles really made this volume stand out. I loved that we got to learn more about Shen, Feng, and Mui. The way the story played with the classic tournament trope was pretty great. I like that it was all just members of Union fighting to awaken Shen. Made for a fun angle for the story to take. I just love how every arc and event feels unique and that all the characters in this series are distinctly themselves. It's some great work.

[Gigi · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐

[Dakota Bedeski · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love how Untruth is shown here. I also like how Fuuko tricks Feng