Spoiler: they weren’t really talking about it in the first place.
Summary:
- Undead Unluck was hyped by manga readers, but now, people don’t talk about it anymore.
- It was never that popular in the first place, and being licensed by Disney+ didn’t help.
- Outside of pacing issues, it’s actually still very good.
Undead Unluck was supposed to become one of the biggest shounen hits. At least, that’s what the manga fans were saying. The manga is really great, and the anime was initially pretty hyped up… except by now, it is barely even talked about.
What happened to it, and why did it fail to excite the viewers?
It could never be as popular as other modern shounen series
The first noticeable issue was unfortunate timing. Undead Unluck started airing during the second cour of Jujutsu Kaisen S2 — it’s hard to compete against one of the biggest anime of recent times. The manga itself wasn’t even that popular compared to JJK, either — its fans were just a vocal minority.
The fact that the anime is not on Crunchyroll (it’s on Disney+) also doesn’t help. Many people who only check out new seasonals on Crunchyroll aren’t even aware it exists — and those who know about it often don’t want to subscribe to a lesser known service with a much smaller anime catalog.
The anime has also started showing some issues later along its run. It’s not like its production fell apart or the animation became worse — but many feel like Undead Unluck became tedious to watch.
Every episode starts with a few minutes of recap now, which annoys fans a lot. Even if you skip those, there are way too many flashback scenes, so viewers complain about the pacing of the anime.
It actually gets better later
You need to remember, however, that the actual content of the anime did not get worse. In fact, according to many, it got better — the first arcs are often regarded as some of the worst in the entire series. Combined with the aforementioned factors, however, it was still hard for Undead Unluck to hold many viewers.
Those who are still invested in the show generally like it outside of pacing. Unlike JJK, however, Undead Unluck doesn’t really go viral. It’s understandable: Jujutsu Kaisen fights looked great — and made sense — even without context.
For Undead Unluck, it’s really hard to describe what’s going on without prior explanations of what the anime is about in the first place.
Overall, Undead Unluck was never that popular. It was promoted by vocal manga fans, but got locked behind a lesser-known streaming service. The pacing issues didn’t help, either. If you just started the anime and are enjoying it, however, and are willing to get through flashbacks and recaps, you will probably enjoy it even more the further you watch.