Undead Unluck

Episode 16

Leave it to Undead Unluck to take yet another episode that consists mostly of a bunch of people sitting (or standing) in a circle and talking and still make it into very compelling television. Granted, a lot of that talk consists of Billy betraying Union and revealing himself to be the leader of Under, which completely wrecks our heroes' shit and leaves them in a very bad place for their upcoming missions, so it isn't like “Revolution” is lacking in stakes or drama. Plus, given how dire things are by the end of this week, I have high hopes that the show won't go around killing time as it has in the past before we get to the good stuff.

Other than the occasional artistic hiccup, the only real complaint I could issue with “Revolution” is that Billy's betrayal feels underwhelming. He got a bit more screen time than his fellow Union members on account of Tatiana's flashback, and Tatiana's sadness does indeed ensure that I still feel a burning need to see Billy drawn and quartered for his crimes, but we can't pretend like he was an exceptionally interesting or exciting character in his own right. The pacing of the episode and this storyline's place in the larger plot of the show make it so that Billy turning out to be a ripe asshole serves its purpose as a story beat. It just doesn't have as much impact as an emotional beat.

(Also, while I'm addressing my complaints, can I just say how bummed I am that we didn't get a cute one-off episode that focused on Fuuko and Chikara's training? That's right y'all, I'm so Undead-pilled at this point that I am asking for filler)

Overall, though, I am very excited for this upcoming arc, because the show only continues to get more interesting with every new Quest, UMA, and Penalty that Apocalypse introduces. The seasonally themed UMAs are quite cool, but even more impressive is the fact that Under is turning out to be much more formidable than originally anticipated. Last time they merely almost killed two of the greenest members of all of the Union. With Billy out of the shadows, though, they damn near kill both Top and Juiz, they bring the UMA Burn crashing down on all of the headquarters, and straight-up rip the entire Roundtable from its foundation so they can steal Apocalypse for themselves. In between all of that, we get emotional beats that do land, like Fuuko empathizing with Tatiana and cursing Billy's betrayal, not to mention some short but sweet action highlights like Billy roundhouse kicking his shattered leg back into working order.

In other words, this is one of those nasty messes of drama and gore that you both hate and love to see. You hate it because of how emotionally and physically damaged our heroes are because of it, but you love it because all of that pain is the key ingredient to the delicious entertainment getting beamed straight into our eyeballs.

Rating:

Undead Unluck is currently streaming on Hulu.

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.