Undead Unluck

Episode 13

At first, some of the editing and pacing choices of “Tatiana" had me worried that Undead Unluck was about to hit another mid-arc slump like back in the Spoil Hunt storyline. The opening scene that just randomly crams the series' usual recap narration in the middle of the cold open was quite baffling, and from the beginning, I could tell that this was going to be a flashback-heavy episode that only managed to advance the present-day plot by maybe a minute or two of actual storytime. The difference between this episode and “Dream" from back in the Spoil Arc, though, lies in the title. Despite slowing the pace way down to kill time before next week's (presumable) climax, this story doesn't drag one bit, because Tatiana is another excellent addition to Undead Unluck's ever-growing roster of top-tier heroes.

Full Disclosure: Due to an unfortunate bout of insomnia, I ended up watching “Tatiana” at 2:00 AM with only a couple of hours of sleep under my belt, so keep that in mind when I say that it made me laugh out loud and cry, multiple times. I couldn't help it, man. The way that Tatiana's Untouchable abilities killed her family and got her sold for auction by the mafia is just too sad, and the friendship that she develops with Fuko and Billy is too cute. I'm only human and when you show me the sight of Fuko comforting this sad little girl who lives in an adorable robot shell by playing stuffed animals with her, I'm going to bawl my eyes out. I even laughed at the stupid, stupid joke where Andy almost kills everyone at Union by triggering a Tatiana meltdown after dragging his massive schlong across Tatiana's eyeball-camera thing.

(Look, I told you already, two hours of sleep and all that. I can't help it that insomnia brings out my inner twelve-year-old.)

I'm also a fan of the way the show can casually develop characters like Billy, here. The way he crams a giant candy-bar-thing into Tatiana's mouth after the poor girl has just begged him to put a bullet in her brain is one of those insanely weird Undead Unluck moments that could easily come across as too stupid and/or crass to take seriously, but once again the show manages to walk that tonal tightrope and sell you on the dramatic stakes of this bugnuts world we've found ourselves in.

Would I have liked it if the non-flashback part of the story could develop beyond simply having Tatiana show up and make one especially big kaboom? Sure, of course. Undead Unluck at least has the courtesy to make that one kaboom feel earned, though, and I was throwing my fists in the air when our girl disinterested that one machine-gun jerk's arm with her force field. At this point, aside from some of the wonky edits, my only real complaint about “Tatiana" is that it's one of those episodes that only feels about five minutes long, and that makes the wait for next week that much more excruciating.

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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.