English Dub Review: Undead Unluck “Winter Arc”
OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
With Autumn, one of the season based UMAs, secured by Fuuko and Andy, Juiz confronts Billy as they fight over Winter.
OUR TAKE
Undead Unluck aired its previous episode in March of 2024. Since then, the manga it is adapting finished publication, so now the anime doesn’t have to worry about catching up with it, but it’s still taken its sweet time getting back for its confirmed second season. Instead, they’ve released this double length special covering the arc after the first season, the Winter Arc, which they apparently thought was not worth putting in as the first couple episodes of that second season. It reminds me of the Ryusui Special that Dr. Stone between its second and third seasons. And don’t get me wrong, I’m glad we’re getting more of the story, even if it’s only a little and then followed by a further wait for more after, but it still makes it weird to have this special be mandatory viewing after the previous season and before the next one, instead of just going from the end of the first to the start of the second. Although that also brings to mind the recent Chainsaw Man movie, which adapted a mostly standalone arc so that the eventual second season could finish at a certain point. And looking at the chapters ahead for Undead Unluck’s second season, it looks like the plan will be to end on a specific point as well, which getting the Winter Arc out of the way early helps them to accomplish.
But enough about formats and season and speculation, how is the special itself? Well, they were kind enough to give a massive recap of the whole first season, lasting the first seven minutes, which is kind of warranted considering it’s been over two years since the last season ended. But once that’s done, we get to the real meat of this arc, which is about Billy, a member of the Union group who defected in the middle of last season, and how he met Juiz, the leader of that group, and giving the two some time to confront each other about what they’ve each done and what they’ve hidden from each other, as well as decide a path forward. Unfortunately, their differing opinions become the breaking point for negotiations, leading to not just a fight between Juiz and Billy, but also the UMAs they brought with them, Burn on Billy’s side, and the captured Spoil on Juiz’s. And I may be remembering this wrong, but I think this is the first time two UMAs fight each other, which gives us a chance to learn more about them as the strange species they are, being created by “God”, the being both Union and Under are after. In addition, we learn this being’s schemes connect to what happened with the author Anno Un in the previous arc, giving them knowledge of the future but at the cost of others perceiving them. Things are left mostly unresolved, but this special wasn’t really meant to resolve anything anyway, so hopefully that second season comes sooner rather than later so we can continue the story!
