Highlights
- Negators in Undead Unluck possess unique abilities that contradict the rules of the universe, affecting either others or themselves.
- The Union is an organization of Negators that takes on quests from a mysterious book called Apocalypse to combat UMAs and uncover the truth.
- Failing a quest introduces a new "Rule" to the world, highlighting the importance of the Negators' actions in shaping the reality of Undead Unluck.
The following contains spoilers for Undead Unluck, available on Hulu.
The Undead Unluck world is particularly interesting as it throws viewers into the mix without explaining much about itself. One of the major elements of interest in Undead Unluck is its presentation of "Negators", the resident ability-wielders of its universe who play a significant role in the developments that give rise to the state of the world itself.
Along with the Unidentified Phenomena or UMAs that give rise to the various fundamental laws of the Undead Unluck universe, the Negators are perhaps the series' most important agents. So, just who or what are the Negators in Undead Unluck?
Denier
In a nutshell, Negators are individuals who have, for whatever reason, developed a highly specialized ability. Each of the abilities possessed by Negators are characterized by their inherent denial, subversion or removal of a particular rule or set of rules that are integral to the Undead Unluck universe in some fashion. Due to this inherent trait of all Negator abilities have the prefix "Un-", ("Fu-" in Japanese). The term "Negator" is translated from the Japanese word 否定者, "hiteisha", meaning "denier"; which is, in this case, a "denier" of the Rules. This is the reason why each of the abilities has the "Un-" prefix. In a sense, their abilities impart rules upon the target that can contradict the otherwise immovable rules placed upon reality, and these abilities can have their own set of intricate activation conditions. There are two types: external-targeting types, whose abilities affect others, while self-targeting types have abilities that affect them personally.
The very first Negators introduced in the series are the protagonist, Fuko Izumi, and the enigmatic and undying man she has nicknamed "Andy". Dubbed "Unluck", Fuko's ability curates an incident of misfortune inversely proportional to the degree of fondness or positive emotion she feels for the target. Fuko's power is a point of immense trauma for her as it is the cause of her parents' death, and due to its destructive potential, it is a huge point of interest to the undying Andy, whose sole objective is to die a final and satisfying death. The series quickly reveals that Fuko and Andy aren't the only Negators, revealing the existence of an organization known as the Union; a band of Negators who have mysterious goals until the main characters join their ranks.
United We Negate
The Anti-Unidentified Phenomena Control Organization, upon introduction, is made up of ten members. Any Negator who isn't part of the Union is considered a UMA and hunted. Initially, the Union was hellbent on capturing Andy and eliminating Fuko; however, after their clash, and the deaths of two Union members, it became advantageous to join forces. The Union has ten members, each of whom possess their own Negator ability. Their role is to take on quests given to them by a strange talking book known as Apocalypse, the first "Artifact" ever found on Earth. It possesses vast knowledge of the world and sends the Union on quests to combat the powerful causes of various phenomena known as "UMAs". At this point, the vast majority of their abilities are a secret; however, Shen's ability is revealed during the battle with the zombifying UMA known as "Spoil". The goal of the Union is to continue to complete the quests and one day find out who exactly is behind it all – and take them down.
Each member of the Union is assigned a Roman numeral that corresponds to their ranking within the Union. Ranks improve the more quests a member completes, and at the time of writing, the number 1 Negator in the Union is the helmet-wearing Juiz. As part of the quests the Negators receive from Apocalypse, sometimes the reward is the reveal of the location of another Negator. Others that have been teased thus far include the mysterious Unburn, whose location was part of the deal regarding the capture of the UMA "Eat"; as well as the powerful-sounding Unrepair, who reward for the defeat of the UMA Spoil, and the invisible Unseen. Some of the quests also offer a chance for the Union to increase their seats, meaning that they can take on more Negators and improve their ranks. To be able to participate in a quest, one must be in possession of a Union emblem, which illustrates that they're one of the seats. Not many Negator abilities have been revealed at this point; however, the anime has shown the abilities of three Negators other than Andy and Fuko, and teased several more.
Rules
The reason why Negators have no choice but to attempt and clear these quests is that should they fail, a brand new "Rule" will be introduced to the world. Union leader Juiz claims that Rules have been added to their world 98 times in the past. Examples of Rules include things like sex, death and sickness; while an example of a UMA is the concept of languages, the defeat of which would result in a single global language. What makes Undead Unluck particularly interesting as a narrative is that the setting is undeniably some version of Earth; however, there are jarring differences, like the existence of monstrous UMAs, people with abilities, and the fact that the sun and moon are the only celestial body the characters see in the night sky. The concept of a galaxy is supposedly a UMA that will take effect should they fail one of the several quests presented to them in Undead Unluck episode 5. Through this strange system, the action or inaction of the Negators becomes the very reason why the world is the way it is, which, in a very strict sense, makes the Negators of Undead Unluck reality warpers.