The Unwanted Undead Adventurer
As we spend our days studying or working towards set goals and objectives, it’s normal to feel that we aren’t quite reaching the heights we should now and then. This is normal, as we all have good times and bad times, but it’s easy to get discouraged and drop the ball during this time, leading to irreversible damage. This is why we must keep striving even at our lowest low, so that we may someday reach the place we desire, because we will at least have a solid chance of success this way. So as we keep grinding day in and day out, perhaps even repetitively, never lose sight of your ultimate destination!
“The Unwanted Undead Adventurer," also known as “Nozomanu Fushi no Boukensha," is a 12-episode TV anime series that aired from the 8th of January until the 25th of March in winter 2024. It was produced by Marvelous Entertainment, Pony Canyon, Hakuhodo DY Music & Pictures, Docomo Anime Store, Overlap, BS NTV, Bit grooove promotion, and Natsume Atari; licensed by Crunchyroll; and brought to life by Studio Connect. The main team behind it includes Soyama Takashi, Inoue Hiromi, Kubota Akira, and Yoshida Satoshi as producers. Featuring the genres of action, adventure, and fantasy, each episode runs 23 minutes and has earned a PG-13 rating for teenagers 13 years or older.
The anime is based on the light novel of the same title, which began publication on the 25th of October 2017 and is still ongoing. It is the work of author Okano Yuu and artist Jaian, published digitally in English via J-Novel Club since the 2nd of May 2018 and in print since the 17th of August 2021. A manga series of the same title was also released on the 24th of November 2017 and is still ongoing, getting serialized in Comic Gardo. Nakasone Haiji handles the art while the same author writes it. This manga was also published digitally in English via J-Novel Club since the 12th of November 2019 and in print since the 21st of September 2021. The sequel anime series for TV, “The Unwanted Undead Adventurer Season 2,” is also scheduled for release, but no other information is known at the time of writing this review.
The story centers on the protagonist, Rentt Faina, an adventurer with quite the wealth of experience but very few achievements to show for it. He ends up getting killed by a dragon upon discovering its lair while exploring a labyrinth, but surprisingly reawakens to discover that he has transformed into a skeleton, which is the bottom-of-the-barrel class of undead monsters. He begins fighting the other monsters in the labyrinth regardless. He learns that slaying them grants him experience, allowing him to reach higher levels of the undead evolution line, including those possessing their own flesh.
This revelation gives Rentt a new objective to grind towards, even in his lowly undead state: to keep evolving until he eventually becomes a vampire, the highest form of undead monster, almost indistinguishable from normal human beings. Despite being handicapped by the pressures of concealing his past identity and his monstrous visage underneath an unremovable mask, our MC manages to revert to a shadow of his former life. He is even given shelter by the beautiful Lorraine Vivier, an elite researcher and retired adventurer, whose surname he assumes to start over from scratch as a rookie adventurer. Despite the undead circumstances, he is still determined to achieve his childhood dreams of becoming a mithril-class adventurer while remaining cautious of his present bodily circumstances, because if he were to slip up, the Adventurers’ Guild itself would seek to exterminate the monster he had become.
The story department has its ups and downs, but it is undeniably slow-paced. The initial episodes set up the premise well, and I felt the story was developing at an enjoyable, intriguing pace. But things slow down significantly in the middle, faltering in content quality until it feels like a boring stretch of filler episodes that have nothing to do with the overarching plotline and offer zero development. This drag is unfortunate because they have a refreshing theme to play around with, even if it’s filler: discovering humanity even after being reincarnated as a monster. They also stray away from the typical Isekai series built around an undead character by choosing not to address the matter at all! Even when it feels like everything is going south due to his undead condition, be it losing control or even revealing his predicament, somehow it ends up not mattering at all. Problems are solved too quickly and never amount to pressing issues; they could’ve given our MC any interchangeable source of a power boost, but everything would still end up the same way. His identity seems like a big concern as well, but nope, it isn’t relevant for long.
On the plus side, Rentt’s adventurous life has a handful of intriguing twists and turns, especially because he gets to flaunt his treasure trove of experience as days press on. He consistently does good for the world and its people, serving as a heartwarming MC despite his struggles as an undead being. By the season finale, this plot thread reaches a turning point, even if the prior episodes got nowhere. Meanwhile, the world-building is half-done, with nothing that particularly stands out from your typical Isekai, but there are hints of a much more intriguing world lurking around the corner. As such, there is massive potential for a sequel to build on this half-cooked setting while processing the story, just so long as they don’t mess up the pacing again.
The Character department has to be my favorite, though, because they really put thought into them. Rentt feels like a very genuine MC whom you can easily root for, an underdog who will expend all his effort to reach his goals while remaining smart and kind despite his ghastly visage. They do bring in the overused “terrible around women” trope. Earlier, he was constrained by his human body, but now he grapples with the dilemma of his humanity after being revived as a monster. He is empowered to achieve his dreams, so does it really matter? His dream of becoming a mithril-class adventurer is rooted in a very clichéd backstory, but it's easier to connect with a wider audience by appealing to empathy.
The supporting characters are very solid, too, with great chemistry and dynamics with the MC, even if their base personalities and tropes are generic. Rentt’s connection with Vivie Lorraine has to be the most notable; it’s intriguing, and you could feel their mutual trust through the screen. The remaining characters stand out on occasion but fail to remain relevant in the long run, and they tend to disappear from the narrative without consequence. While we see bits and pieces about them later on, they’re largely forgotten. The more influential characters are introduced and remain consistent but lack depth and development. There are many avenues the series could take to help them develop in the future, but it chooses to drag its feet with more boring elements.
The Art and Animation department largely falls into the midcore category, offering nothing particularly noteworthy. The first few episodes have high production quality, but I felt it dropped later on, given that they were working with a limited budget. The same applies to the animation, which is unfortunate because the show is an action-fantasy series, making the fights quite underwhelming and tough to get hyped about. The character designs are standard for this genre, but their dark fantasy vibes are pretty neat. Nothing special about backgrounds and scenery either; it’s mediocre at best.
The Sound and Music department is pretty good. The opening theme, "IMMORTAL," by JUVENILE, is a solid piece with a somber, techno vibe, accompanied by dreary visuals. The ending theme, "Keep Your Fire Burning" by Mao Abe, is the real banger, though, fitting the show's themes perfectly, and the guitar intro just seeps into your soul while the chorus really picks things up, making it almost impossible to skip. The OSTs aren’t as impossible, but they at least tried to hype up important moments, even if the intended results were not achieved.
Overall, "The Unwanted Undead Adventurer" is a slow series that is enjoyable if you don't have high expectations. The character interactions are the highlights, and the cast themselves are fairly likable, especially the MC and Lorraine. It isn’t as action-heavy as you’d like, but there is some good human drama to keep you engaged. If you don't like these pros, avoid this one; there's nothing else to enjoy.
If Rentt’s slow, stubborn crawl back toward humanity hits a little close to home, you’re exactly who I write for. While he’s grinding EXP in the dungeon, I’m grinding through more underdog series, dark fantasy oddballs, and Gen X–flavored character studies just like this one—wins, whiffs, and everything in between. If you want more reviews that dig into the human drama behind the monsters (and flag which shows are worth your limited time), slide out of idle and sign up for the Pinned Up Ink newsletter here so you never miss the next deep dive:
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If you do decide to give Rentt’s journey a shot, you can grab The Unwanted Undead Adventurer manga and Blu-ray on Amazon here (affiliate link).
