As someone who's been a shonen meathead all his life, I can promise you that nothing gets my blood pumping quite like a sound power system. Whether it be the overcomplicated gobbledygook of Nen or the straight rock-sock em slugfest Dragonball's "ki" provides, I'm all for the cutesy chibi descriptions, nutty strategies, and ludicrous abilities.
However, not all power systems are created equally. Some of the worst can be so incomprehensible or smooth-brained that you wonder how anything works. The best overall aim is to center a world or story and be visual metaphors for a character's development. And while the competition in the anime sphere has gotten steeper than ever, Negators from Undead Unluck has become a new favorite of mine.
Despite the often tragic nature of their abilities, I fucking love the crazy superpowers and oh so riddled with loophole interpretations the series provides. What locks me in, though, is their theming to the overall story. I may not have lived as long as Andy, but I've seen enough people, whether it be through personal preference, fear, anxiety, tragedy, or even the world itself, define their experiences and get held back.
This is why, especially here and now, I'm trying to expand my thinking and interpretations of the world to operate like I have no limits. This sentiment, I think, is a beautiful subversion to the typical "surpass your limits" or "get stronger" narrative in which so many other shonen operate. Still, even with the utterly unconventional nature of Undead Unluck, there is a clear pecking order.
And I hope to find it out today. Hi, the name is Donniedrako15, and I welcome all of you non-regenerating degenerates to my official, totally not professional ranking of every Negator from weakest to strongest!
UMA's
Okay, let's go over some rules first before we get into some crazy shit. First up spoilers for all of Undead Unluck up until chapter 191. Second, due to the nebulous nature of Negators, this is all my subjective opinion. I'm not a battle debater, and even though Undead Unluck has gotten a lot more popular, it still needs to be more niche of a series not to have the most up-to-date or consistent scaling.
The most common I've seen from respect threads and vs battle wiki put most of the current verse around city-level AP with massively hypersonic speeds. Considering characters like Top can run across the world in a few minutes and Andy fires attacks from the sun to Earth, though these will probably be lowballs as the series continues. Combine that with other haxes, and the best way to do this is an even playing ground is this.
1. Regardless of Loop, only the strongest version of each Negator will be used here.
2. Any UMA, artifact, or fancy tech the character has on the person will be part of their arsenal (Creed's weapons are fine, but not his nuke or canon).
3. Think of the rankings as how well each Negator fares against another in a 1v1 fight. Also, the criteria for winning will be KO, death, and indefinite incapacitation of the main body (you'll see what I mean later).
4. To be fair on abilities requiring sight, each matchup will occur in an empty Tokyo during the day, with plenty of range for negators, which require an environmental advantage but plenty of cover against other abilities.
With those pesky UMA's out of the way, let's begin.
30. Kenji Yokezu Unavoidable
Look, when I said every negator, I fucking meant it. Kenji can't avoid the bottom place like my pa with his lottery. For those who don't remember him, Kenji is the predecessor of Void's Unavoidable ability. Instead of using it to punch people's lights out, Kenji's interpretation is geared towards seemingly being unable to avoid certain phenomena, like winning the lottery till he died a presumably peaceful death at 98.
Which kind of just makes me question what fucking tragedy or extensive trauma did this guy even have? From the brief panels we saw of him, he seemed to be still able to move around on his lonesome and wanted to win the lottery in chapter 139, so he's not doing poorly. Shit, I wouldn't even mind risking my parent's lives if it meant I got guaranteed winning the lottery; I've got college loans to pay.
Jokes aside, though, for obvious reasons, Kenji's version of Unavoidable and age means he isn't avoiding getting placed at the bottom, which is funny, given who's next.
29. Lucy Unhealthy
I get that God is supposed to be a dick, but this is a whole new level of petty. This isn't even a semi-sucky superpower. This is an unforgiving terminal illness. Getting introduced into the first half of the Ragnarok arc, Lucy's Unhealthy essentially puts Lucy in a permanent Covid 19 spell.
Her literal only saving grace is that Lucy can technically circumvent the self-targeting nature of her ability through astral projection, one of the rarest abilities in Undead Unluck. Through this, Lucy, if Master Rule Luck was on her side, could use this to pass Unhealthy to her opponent and even get some safe recon.
The problem is that in the current meta of loop 101, she's now the hands-down worst user of the ability, and she needs more stats to put distance with other Negators. So it's best if Lucy calls in a wicked sick day for the royale.
28. Sadako Kursu Unchaste
Oh, Billy, you're one of my favorite characters. Still, we got to talk about what exactly your thought process is behind including a second-rate K-pop stan alongside your merry band of mercenaries. Since we technically didn't see this ability go off, we had to deal with speculation until she was reintroduced.
From what I've understood, so long as Sadako does her funny idol pose, she can entrap her opponent, Cupid's Arrows style, unless they fulfill two conditions. One is never experiencing romance, and the other is having a true love you've spent loads of time with. It's a condition that leaves one of my favorite Andy x Fukko scenes and one of the most confusing weaknesses ever.
Because, like, even if we aren't pretending that half of the current Union isn't essentially a meet cute, the weakness specifically states true love, not inherently romantic love. So by proxy, would that mean that those with familial love (Isshin, Enjin, Phil, Anno, etc) or platonic love (Titana's love for Billy as a pseudo father figure and Tella's toatallly platonic love with his bro Billy) also be fair game?
Regardless, even if Sadako's ability was viable, she has no stats that say she can't get blitzed or overpowered by any other Negator. So, Sadako is performing for an audience of zero.
27. Backs Unback
Not escaping from the borderline silly picks hillBilly did for Under, We've got Backs. And just like Rosa Parks, she will have to go to the back of this Greyhound bus (I'm black, btw). Given her rare ability, I'm not sure what she precisely negates. From what little we've seen, it seems. Backs can create this widespread adhesive substance, capturing items over a wide range at a decent speed.
With those in mind, she could capture a couple of opponents by simply spreading her ability outward, but if her brief skirmish with God is to be believed, Unbacks has a fatal weakness. She feels whatever physical stimuli Unback's film goes through. Given that she felt burned by her Unback making contact with God's power, it seems true. However, this problem is in a series with better restrainers or contact-based abilities. Backs must save her Agoo's and Achoo's in this placement.
26. Enjin Banababa Unburn
I'm not going to lie to you, broskeefs; when I heard Fukko would get everybody from the previous Loop together, I didn't think everyone would be relevant. In hindsight, I should've let Tozouka cook, though, especially when he reintroduced Enjin. With the feats he's displayed in Loop 101, we at least know he is a decent fighter, even if he seemingly knocked out some fodder who was sick from his ramen.
We also know he's decently fast, as he could serve 50 bowls of Ramen faster than Fukko and her entire gang could. And he also... and did that ... Yeah, I think this is where my praise ends. Despite having one of the craziest feats in UU, Enjin's Unburn is still super situational. Negating combustion should mean that Negators with explosion or flame-related attacks could be rendered useless with the right timing.
However, considering that attacks are rare or just add-ons to other fighters' kits, Enjin will serve better as a food truck to all the soon-to-be-defeated fighters. Still, my boy Enjin does at least win the award for being not only one of the few Negators who can end the world but also the largest AOE of any ability. So, at least you got something, my man.
25. Ichico Nemuri Unsleep
Is it ironic to say that this inquisitive insomniac rests relatively early in these rankings? In defiance of having arguably the worst Negation ability in the entire series, Fukko's intervention with Soul Calibur did wonders to give Ichico a fighting chance against the living bunny, cranium-challenged cook, and old gambler.
Like Lucy, Ichico's astral projection makes her one of the most unique negators in the series; she can do everything Lucy can with two significant advantages. One is the Psycho Pods, which can shoot lasers, make barriers, record surveillance, etc. Plus, unlike Lucy, Ichico can force any of her opponents' souls out of their bodies with one good hit. Combine that with her intellect being on par with Nico and her endurance being unironically some of the best, and practically, she's golden till you start thinking for a second.
While most of the verses aren't well-versed in astral projection, some negators, especially the external targeting kind, should still be able to harm or hinder her. Remember, Negation abilities lie in the soul, and as such, they can still be activated through their interactions with the physical world, even if we don't get a lot of examples of this. This means all these extra tools only get her slightly above a couple of characters. Like most support fighters, Ichicho needs more stats or means to fight independently. Still, she's a welcome support.