Sunday Morning Manga Ep 64: ‘Undead Unluck’ Chapter 205 (Apr 28 2024)

On today’s stream: A live reaction to “Undead Unluck” Chapter 205. 

And read along as well: an initial script for today’s stream is below. 

After 12 PM Eastern, a recording of the stream will be shared on YouTube. 

An audio-only version will be available as soon as possible wherever you get your podcasts.

Pre-Recording Talk

Hey, everyone. I’m Derek, my pronouns are he, him, his. This is the 63rd episode of Sunday Morning Manga. 

We’ll get started in a moment, with a long rant about Chapter 103 of Akane-banashi. 

While I’m setting up, feel free to drop some questions in the chat. I’ll answer them in between recording and at the end of the stream. 

Disclaimers

Onto this episode’s disclaimers…

Anti-Bigotry Disclaimer

This is an anti-bigotry space: I oppose and denounce any form of bigotry, discrimination, or intolerance, as these are threats to the safety and well-being of every single person on this planet, especially people marginalized because of their identity, and these threats run counter to what my country, the United States, claims it cares about: diversity, inclusion, and equity. 

Any audience comments that express hate, prejudice, intolerance, or discrimination against any individual or group (on the basis of, but not limited to, their race, ethnicity, religion, nation of origin, gender, or sexuality) will be deleted by me from the comments section. 

None of this is at all to say that I don’t have prejudices and biases, especially unknowingly having them or practicing them due to how bigotry can be ingrained in institutions. And this isn’t to say that I don’t have areas where I can improve at practicing anti-bigotry. I welcome remarks that point out how I am practicing bigotry, so that I can improve at not practicing bigotry. I am interested in using this platform to engage in work to put into practice equity, diversity, and inclusion. 

(And speaking of: I’m still looking for alternate platforms to host this livestream and podcast. Seriously, I don’t want to be using social media whose owners are bankrolling that fucking orange fascist, and I don’t want to be using a streaming platform that is doing union busting. In case I’m not making my point clear enough: fuck that shitty bird app, fuck Google, fuck Amazon. So, if you have alternatives where I can host video streams and podcasts, please message me.) 

Onto the next disclaimers:

Ownership Disclaimer

Sunday Morning Manga is intended for information and entertainment purposes only. It is not endorsed by any companies mentioned, any persons mentioned, or any financial contributors mentioned. 

All names, pictures, and sounds are registered trademarks and/or copyrights of their respective trademark and copyright holders. 

All original content is the intellectual property of the speaker unless otherwise indicated. 

The views and opinions expressed are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any other persons mentioned in this episode. 

No Paid Endorsements Disclaimer

Aside from the names of Patreon and Ko-fi contributors, other persons, businesses, organizations, or entities mentioned in this episode are not sponsors of this episode. My remarks about those persons, businesses, organizations, and entities are not paid endorsements. 

Music

And I’m going to record the musical credits for the podcast earlier, as I have been behind on getting new credits recorded on recent podcasts. 

Music today included the tracks: 

“Los Angeles” by Muzaproduction. 

“Sunshine” by lemonmusicstudio.

And “For You” by nomaBeats (Hyeon Yeong Jeon). 

These tracks are royalty-free and available at Pixabay; links are in the description. 

Starting the Recording

With all of this out of the way, let me cue up to record today’s livestream. I’ll read from the script, then we can get started. And as I keep recording, feel free to jump into the chat with questions, and I’ll respond to them along the way. 

Okay, starting recording now. 

Intro

This is Episode 64 of Sunday Morning Manga for Sunday, April 28, 2024. It is not safe for work. 

Let’s get started. Welcome to Sunday Morning Manga. I am Derek S. McGrath, my pronouns are he/him/his. 

Accessibility and Links

You can find a transcript and links from today’s episode at dereksmcgrath.wordpress.com. 

Contributions are appreciated at ko-fi.com/dereksmcgrath. Purchases from my Amazon wishlist are also appreciated. 

And you can email me at derek.s.mcgrath@gmail.com. 

Livestream and Podcast Info

I livestream on Sundays at 11 AM Eastern–when not on hiatus–on Twitch and YouTube, @dereksmcgrath. A podcast version is then available on a later Sunday wherever you get your podcasts. (I apologize for not finishing podcast versions yet. I hope to share bonus content as a substitute soon.) Early access to the podcast and other works in progress are available at patreon.com/dereksmcgrath. 

Next Weekend: Catch-Up Episode

The next episode will be a catch-up on recent manga and anime I didn’t get to cover during my recent hiatus–more on that in a moment. You can listen to that catch-up episode live on Sunday, May 5, at 11 AM Eastern. 

Seeking Audience Feedback on Release Schedule

And while I’m on that topic: 

I apologize for the month-long hiatus on livestreams, as well as on the delay editing podcasts. There were additional tasks, professional and personal, that took priority. April also tends to be a busy month–which means that it may be better if I paused livestreams during those weekends and focus on what else I can write and edit. 

Moving forward, I do want to consider how to improve the release schedule for livestreams, podcasts, videos, and essays, including for weekly audiences and contributors at Patreon and Ko-fi. Which release schedule would you prefer? Would you prefer I make the livestream biweekly or monthly and take those breaks to write and edit longer-form essays, podcasts, and videos? Let me know in the comments section or email me at derek.s.mcgrath@gmail.com. 

Today’s Live Reaction: Undead Unluck Chapter 205

Until next weekend, though, let’s get to today’s live reaction, that being to Undead Unluck Chapter 205. Undead Unluck is written and illustrated by Yoshifumi Tozuka. The manga is translated into English by David Evelyn, with lettering by Michelle Pang. Undead Unluck is licensed by Viz and can be read at viz.com. 

I’m going to try to keep today’s episode shorter than I want it to be. To be blunt: a lot going on personally, professionally, and out in the larger world has taken a lot out of me, so I don’t have as lengthy of a preamble or recap for Undead Unluck. I can’t even talk about the strengths and weaknesses to Undead Unluck’s first anime season as I haven’t finished the Japanese or English dub. 

Recap

But I do want to say something about the current battle happening in the Undead Unluck manga. 

I won’t go through every last thing I had to say about this current arc–you can read my remarks over on my WordPress, as I may quote directly from parts of it for today’s recap. 

Ichico

I had written before in my recap that I wasn’t sold on the romance of Nico and Ichico. I appreciate the comments section for Chapter 204 on the Viz web site clarifying that the point now is that Nico is falling in love with the Ichico he will get to love in the future. That should be compelling, similar to something out of Ghibli’s Howl’s Moving Castle. 

So why is it, when Ichico says that Nico is the first person to win her heart, that I don’t feel it? I am hesitant to say that, because it could just be I don’t remember enough of the previous chapters where this timeline’s Nico and Ichico have interacted and that it is obvious that they love each other–because their bickering comes off less as engagement or tension and more as the ironic bickering that then somehow for no reason gives way to deep love. If anyone in the comments section could point to me chapters with specific moments in this timeline that show Nico and Ichico are already in love with each other, please send them to me in the comments or email me, derek.s.mcgrath@gmail.com. 

I just don’t know why their relationship isn’t compelling me–perhaps because right now they bicker so much, perhaps because I am cringing preemptively that this is a “lost Lenore” situation although not quite a fridging as this is Ichico making her own sacrificial choice. 

Or maybe it is because I’m not understanding why Ichico is so confident that her soul and Feng’s soul together will trigger Nico’s superpower to remember all previous time loops and as such the method by which to defeat Lan. 

Or maybe I’m upset thinking that, while I don’t enjoy Nico and Ichico’s dynamic, that doesn’t mean I want Ichico to die–and her explanation that, once Nico wins the language game, he can use the prize–to wish Ichico and Feng back to life–makes me think, “Oh, so since that is the plan, that means something will happen to disrupt the plan and force Nico to make a different wish, which will sacrifice Ichico and Feng’s lives,” the equivalent of, “Don’t explain how you’re going to do the heist, because that is foreshadowing how the plan will fail.” 

Oh, and then making Lan a yandere fascinated with Nico is just not working for me. Lan as just the embodiment of language was engaging; I just don’t see thematically or allegorically what Lan’s interest in Nico is supposed to tell us about language. 

It doesn’t help that, reading summaries of the previous time loop–yeah, I think that, if Undead Unluck had not inadvertently rebooted itself with Fuuko taking over as the lead protagonist, I wouldn’t have gotten into this series, because Ichico dying in childbirth just to give Nico guilt is a tiresome story trope. 

Feng

One more point before we get to today’s live reaction: 

I didn’t remember who Feng was. Then I had to read summaries on the fan wiki and TV Tropes–and it didn’t mitigate confusion for me, but such is the way with time loops in Undead Unluck. At least Nico has a better memory of what came before than I do. 

The Live-Reaction Itself

And with that awkward transition, let’s start today’s live reaction to Chapter 205 of Undead Unluck. The manga is written and illustrated by Yoshifumi Tozuka. The manga is translated into English by David Evelyn, with lettering by Michelle Pang. Undead Unluck is licensed by Viz and can be read at viz.com. 

[TRANSCRIPT TO BE INCLUDED HERE]

Wrapping Up

I’ll wrap up there. Thank you for listening to another episode of Sunday Morning Manga. 

Do you think Nico and Ichico’s relationship was handled better than I regarded it? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section, or email me, derek.s.mcgrath@gmail.com. 

Special Thanks

Special thanks to Emily Lauer, Ellak Roach, and Alexis Duran. 

Thanks to Ko-fi and Patreon Contributors

If you like what you heard, let me know! 

Contributions at ko-fi.com/dereksmcgrath and patreon.com/dereksmcgrath are appreciated. 

Please include a note to let me know what you liked in the episode and what you would like to hear more of. And your contributions give you the opportunity to recommend works for me to cover each week. 

Other People’s Awesome Stuff

And if you like what you heard–or didn’t like what you heard–check out other people’s awesome stuff! A blogroll of recommended people to check out is at my site, dereksmcgrath.wordpress.com. 

The Final Word with Frangela

Today I am again promoting the podcast The Final Word with Frangela. If you didn’t already, please listen to Episode 336, titled “Sorry Losers and Crappier Winners.” 

I again ask: why has this orange jackass not been held without bail and kept in prison? He is an ongoing threat to judges, attorneys, potential jurors, and potential witnesses. If he was held in jail right now, more people would take seriously the threat he is and recognize his criminality. This fucker says he will exonerate January 6th insurrectionists–the January 6th insurrectionists who attacked police officers. 

Fuck that shit, fuck this orange dipshit and fuck this orange dipshit’s encouragement of violence against police–arrest him and hold him without bail right fucking now for the current indictments and for the same crimes he is repeating right fucking now before he further destroys this country. 

In any case, please listen to Episode 336 of The Final Word with Frangela wherever you get your podcasts. 

One More Thing

And while still on that topic…

The news is depressing and disappointing. So that I don’t extend today’s episode longer than I wish, and to avoid centering global tragedies around myself instead of around, you know, the people suffering from direct action by multiple governments and other powers, I’m going to list the following out: 

First, you vote for Democrats. 

You don’t vote for the Republicans promising a bloodbath, not the Republicans using Nazi-esque language to debase and dehumanize immigrants, not the Republicans who lie, not the Republicans who would love to decimate Palestinians and could not give a shit less about Israel. 

You vote for Democrats, that is the only correct way to vote going into November 2024. If you can legally register to vote where you live in the US, check and update your registration at vote.org and make sure to vote for Biden and Democrats all the way down the ballot. And campaign for Democrats at postcardstovoters.org. 

Second, as numerous people are already doing in their protests nationwide: be responsible in protests–which audience are you trying to reach, how are you building a coalition, which tactics are you using to convince those in power to concede to your demands, how do you do all of that without hurting people, how do you do all of that while being a responsible person who would never stoop to antisemitic, anti-Jewish, anti-Arab, anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian bigotry? There is no way a protest movement is ever going to build a coalition that includes every single person on the planet, but it is not a hard bar to clear to build that coalition without you yourself acting like the bigots, bad-faith actors, and fundamentalists out there. 

Third, if you’re in college administration or local government or state government, why are you calling in police? Why the fuck are there literal Nazis marching in towns who never get the least bit of push-back by communities or police, but there is this super-fast work to call in cops? It is bad enough much more work was needed from 2017 to 2021 for colleges to oppose fascism and bigotry–and instead are now destroying DEI initiatives and banning books. And now those same colleges want to stop protests? Why should I be surprised that colleges and universities would rather do a show of force to impress a bunch of rightwing fascists in our congress than tell them to take their sham congressional hearings and shove it up their asses: no college president should tolerate being lectured to by a Republican about antisemitism if that college president is opposing all such forms of bigotry and when that Republican is a fucking Nazi who is working to elect a bunch of other antisemitic, homophobic, transphobic, women-hating, racist, dumb-as-fuck asshole Republicans. 

Finally, as I say every episode, ans to pretty much repeat myself: you need to vote for Biden and Democrats. You have a better chance helping Palestine against Netanyahu’s madness, and a better chance helping Israeli protesters get that fucking dipshit Netanyahu out of office and into prison, if you are voting for Biden and other Democrats. If you can register to vote in the United States, and if you are refusing to vote for Biden and other Democrats in November 2024, then fuck off–I was never going to be able to convince you anyway. 

Next Time

That’s all for this weekend. Next time, let’s catch up on recent anime and manga I didn’t get to cover during the previous hiatus. 

Schedule updates will be posted at youtube.com/dereksmcgrath. 

Until next time, as I say each week: 

If you can register to vote, check your voter registration at vote.org, campaign for Democrats at postcardstovoters.org, vote for Democrats…

And stay safe out there, people: make sure to mask up, get vaccinated, install adblockers, prevent artificial intelligence from stealing your work, register to vote, campaign against fascism and against war and against ethnic cleansing and against genocide and against terrorism, and learn and practice anti-bigotry. I’ve been Derek S. McGrath. You have a good afternoon. Bye.