The Fantasy Anime That Flips The Genre On Its Head

Before I continue this review, I need to review the wonderfully twisted premise of Unwanted Undead Adventurer: in the very first scene of the show, our protagonist Rentt Faina discovers a powerful dragon.

What results is no epic showdown…simply put, the adventurer gets eaten and we cut to the opening credits. We then see him waking up as an undead skeleton man with his mind intact, and he must now figure out how to survive in the hostile dungeon with an entirely new body.

If that had been the beginning and end of the premise, Unwanted Undead Adventurer would still be one of the more memorable recent fantasy anime series.

But in a fun twist, Rentt verifies a friend’s theory about “existential evolution,” and as he absorbs energy from the creatures he kills, he is able to basically level up into other undead creatures such as ghouls. Having ghoul flesh also helps him speak, a handy skill when he encounters a newbie adventurer who soon becomes a companion on his unconventional quest to return to life as he once knew it. 

As I mentioned before, one of the reasons I fell in love with Unwanted Undead Adventurer is that it had some very recognizable video game aesthetics.

Some of this came from the character designs: it’s difficult not to look at Rentt’s skeletal form and not think about the bony baddies I’ve beaten in Chrono Trigger and countless other RPGs.

While obviously not unique to this anime, the show having a character who could basically level up through constant dungeon grinding certainly reminded me of trying to max out character levels in some of my favorite games (looking at you, Elden Ring).

Another quality of Unwanted Undead Adventurer I liked but that some people may not be as keen on is that it didn’t try to tell some kind of epic story, instead focusing on what was basically a “slice of death” story.

Some critics have said that these first 12 episodes are nothing more than a collection of side quests, and I can’t exactly disagree with that. However, when the characters are engaging and the worldbuilding so interesting, I’m always happy to watch an anime just trying to give me one decent story at a time.

That brings me back to the final reason I love Unwanted Undead Adventurer: it’s the latest entry in a genre I like to call “anime comfort food.”

Like most nerds, I grew up glued to the TV watching shows like Dragon Ball Z, and one epic fight or another always kept me coming back for more. These days, though, I find endless battles boring and prefer a show like this where I get a perfect blend of characterization, quests, and the occasional fight, all without the tension of other series constantly trying to build up to the next climactic showdown.

REVIEW SCORE

The animation is solid, as is the voicework, which is why Unwanted Undead Adventurer has a 7.4 on MyAnimeList. I think that’s fair, honestly, and it gets a solid 3.5 out of 5 stars from me.

Instead of taking my word for it, though, you can start your own adventure by streaming the series on Crunchyroll, where I can only hope my list of unfinished shows isn’t experiencing its own unholy “existential evolution” each night.