Warning: Contains spoilers for Undead Unluck's final arc.Shōnen Jump manga to come out of the 2020s. While it’s never reached the same heights as other manga from this period like Sakamoto Days, Blue Box, and especially not Jujutsu Kaisen, the great character writing and creative writing have nonetheless made it a hit with fans and critics alike, especially after the anime helped it reach a wider audience.
Undead Unluck has been an excellent addition to the Shōnen Jump lineup for years, but its time in the magazine is slowly ending. Anyone who’s been caught up with the manga will know that it’s been heading toward its finale for quite some time now, but according to recent reports, Undead Unluck’s final chapter might be happening sooner than anyone could have predicted. That sort of premature ending would only heighten the problems with the current arc, and unfortunately, it’s unlikely that that will not be the case.
Undead Unluck All But Confirms Its Finale
According to various manga news reporters, most notably Shonen Jump News on X, Undead Unluck will receive a color page for its “super climax” in the issue of Shōnen Jump after the one, set for release on December 22 in the United States. While a climax traditionally refers to a story reaching the point of highest tension, in Japan, a climax refers to the end of the story, so Undead Unluck reaching its “super climax”, combined with getting a color page, all but says that it's ending in two weeks.
This, of course, isn’t the first time Shōnen Jump has done something like this. Mashle: Magic and Muscles and The Promised Neverland, for example, both d their final chapters as a “super climax”, and even My Hero Academia and Jujutsu Kaisen's endings used that terminology, it just wasn’t reported because their end dates were already d at that point. The use of “super climax” for numerous manga before Undead Unluck makes it clear that Undead Unluck is ending, and that shouldn’t be a shock to anyone who’s been caught up with the manga.
Undead Unluck’s Imminent Finale Makes Its Final Arc Even Worse
Why Undead Unluck's Final Arc Is So Divisive
The worst part about Undead Unluck’s imminent finale is how much it emphasizes the already divisive nature of its current arc. Recent chapters have been criticized for how much they’ve sped through the story without allowing any meaningful development, most notably in how the Master Rules were defeated in a single chapter after so much build-up as the biggest threat to the Union. Undead Unluck all but confirmed to be ending soon makes the rushed pacing of recent chapters even worse by eliminating any chance of a fleshed-out conclusion, and that makes it even harder to remain invested in things.
With how demanding the schedules of a weekly serialization can be and how even popular manga often have to plan their endings well in advance, the pacing issues of Undead Unluck aren’t entirely the fault of series creator Yoshifumi Tozuka, but even so, the stellar writing and action of Undead Unluck made it a series that deserved better than a typical rushed and lackluster manga ending. There’s still a chance that Undead Unluck can end on a satisfying note, but as is the case with manga in and out of Shōnen Jump, that’s very unlikely, at this point.
Source: @WSJ_manga on X.
