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Hello, everyone!
It's been some time since my previous Undead Unluck theory, but I come bearing fantastic news! I was actually right about something for once!
In my first Undead Unluck theory, I theorized that the world of Undead Unluck was in a time loop, with time being reset after the summoning of UMA Ragnarok and the subsequent destruction of the world. I had some of the details wrong, as I suspected, most notably the meteors flying around what should be empty space being the remains of the previous iteration of the Earth itself rather than the destroyed UMA Galaxy. I didn't anticipate that Juiz had retained her memories from one or more previous timelines, nor did I anticipate that an Artifact, fittingly referred to as Ark, would be used in determining who gets to keep their memories. However, I was right that Andy, or more accurately Victor, retained his memories not from being chosen or having an Artifact, but from simply negating his own death through his Undead ability.
Ordinarily, I would have edited the original post itself to go over what I got right and wrong, but I decided to go over it here instead because it's actually relevant to today's theory.
In a recent chapter, it was revealed that Fuuko's favorite manga, To You, From Me, strangely lines up with the events of the Union's battles with the UMAs, such as the "Rotten High School Melee Arc" having parallels to the battle with UMA Spoil and his army of zombies or the "Space Soccer Club Invasion Arc" mirroring the invasion of the Acks with Austra High School being destroyed in place of Uluru in Australia and the invading forces being defeated with the Spiral Shot of Justice in place of Juiz's Unjustice. Across 101 volumes (mirroring the 101 penalties that lead up to Ragnarok) the parallels prove too numerous and uncanny to ignore, so the Union assigns Fuuko to write a manga in order to infiltrate Shueisha's offices (Shonen Jump's parent company that runs many other magazines, including several shojo magazines) and examine You-Me's manuscripts. Upon finding the manuscripts, Fuuko discovers that not only are there a few arcs that were cut (one that would have revealed Billy's betrayal, the upcoming battles with the Four Seasons, and even Andy's past), but the manuscripts are still written in their original Japanese instead of being forcefully changed to English as all non-Negator related speech and writing was after the neutralization of UMA Language. This means that the manga was penned using an Artifact, one of a number of items that survived between loops and hold powers similar to Negators and UMAs while also holding memories from previous worlds.
This Artifact is held by Anno Un, the author of You-Me, who is famous for their secrecy. Their real name, age, gender, face, and even their voice are a complete mystery, with all interactions with their editors being done through e-mail or one-sided phone calls. If you've read my theory that all Negators' names are indicative of their abilities, you've likely already figured out where I'm going with this.
Unless it's some kind of ruse on the author's part, Anno Un is most definitely a Negator. Their name, or rather their penname, is clearly a take on "announ," the Japanese pronunciation of "Unknown," which is appropriate given how little about them is known. Their so-called "silent phone calls" with their editors may not actually have been silent at all, the editors may simply have had their memories of the sound of Anno Un's voice erased and then just filled in the blanks. We don't really need to rely on such idle speculation, though, as we have much more concrete evidence of Anno Un's ability.
After getting in contact with Anno Un through their editor, Fuuko is told to meet them in Canada and to bring her manga's manuscript. While waiting for Anno Un to arrive, Fuuko and Andy snack on some poutine and discuss how to deal with Anno Un, all the while Anno Un walks up behind them, picks up the manuscript, and reads it in its entirety, only making themself known to declare that they enjoyed it, but have some criticisms. Now, sneaking up on Fuuko is one thing, but Andy is a highly skilled fighter with several decades or even centuries of experience under his belt, so it's highly unlikely that anyone would be able to get the drop on him without an ability being involved.
So, what exactly can Anno Un's Unknown do? Well, quite simply, it makes Anno Un themself unknown. Unless they choose to make themself known, they can take any action without anyone being made aware. This could be achieved either through an internal-targeting ability (negating their own presence) or an external-targeting ability (negating others' perceptions of them). It's possible that Unknown is activated through Anno Un's silence, allowing them to maintain undetectability so long as they do not speak, but it's possible that they can deactive this ability through contact as well or simply by willing it.
This seems like an open-and-shut case, but I'm not entirely satisfied. After all, we still don't know how Anno Un was able to see the future for the past twenty years of writing You-Me.
The most obvious explanation is that the pen they wrote You-Me with had precognitive abilities, possibly drawing the manga almost automatically and convincing Anno Un that they were the author instead of a convenient tool for the pen itself, but that is quickly debunked when Anno Un uses the pen to defeat UMA Autumn's Juniors, monstrous UMA's that split off from Autumn, by drawing a guillotine that decapitates them. Clearly, the pen's ability is to bring what Anno Un draws to life, and as far as we know so far, Artifacts don't generally have more than one ability (ex: Rip's Blade Runner launches blades, Shen's Nyoi Kinko Staff can extend indefinitely, Fuuko's gun...is a gun), so it's unlikely that it has the ability to see the future. It could be that the pen holds memories from a previous timeline, but not only would this be an astonishing number of memories (several decades worth of detailed events rather than momentary flashes), it would also imply that Fuuko has joined the Union before, Billy has betrayed the Union before, and "Andy" has existed before this particular timeline, all of which we can say quite confidently is not the case given that all of these things were new to Juiz who has existed in an undisclosed number of worlds prior to now. Finally, it's also possible that Anno Un owns another Artifact, one that can see the future, and it's just separate from the pen. I am disinclined to believe this is the case, though, as not only would it be a bit strange from a narrative perspective to not allude to the fact that Anno Un has two Artifacts sooner, it also seems like there already is an Artifact that grants precognition. Under member Latla, whose ability allows her to alter the trajectories of attacks, has also shown the ability to predict the immediate future (ex: telling Rip exactly how he is about to die) and has been depicted carrying a crystal ball. Since attack patterns and future-sight aren't very clearly related, I think we can confidently say that precognition is not in fact a secondary ability of Latla's, but an ability she gained through external means. Since crystal balls are commonly used for fortune telling, it seems safe to say that a crystal ball Artifact would grant the ability to see the future. There hasn't been a rule established yet that more than one Artifact can't have similar abilities, but I would find it pretty strange if they didn't have some way to differentiate their uses. Therefore, I think there are two particularly strong possibilities that would make for interesting developments.
First, it could be the result of a UMA's ability. In much the same way that Andy has tamed UMA Clothes to act as a regenerating and shapeshifting outfit, Anno Un may have somehow conscripted the help of a UMA, possibly UMA Knowledge or UMA Future if either of those exist. However, during the fight with Autumn's Juniors, Anno Un gives Fuuko and Andy hints about their upcoming trials while also asking them to create an ending they could never see coming and using their future sight to keep blood from landing on Fuuko's manuscript. This suggests that the future Anno Un sees is not necessarily set in stone, but Anno Un is still forced to know the outcomes of any given decision. If a UMA is involved, I imagine that it has forced this ability onto Anno Un rather than being in a partnership with them. While this would be a very interesting development and seems quite likely, I would be much more interested in the alternate explanation: Anno Un's future-sight is somehow an offshoot of the Unknown ability.
Up to this point, we've only really seen Negators use one ability each. However, we have seen that through training, an ability can be improved in drastic ways, such as Victor being able to not only activate Parts Bullets without first cutting his body but also to have clones of himself grow from separated pieces of his body. Though the jump between presence-erasure and future-sight is much bigger than the jump between healing the main body and disparate pieces, it's worth noting that both of Anno Un's abilities revolve around what is known and unknown. UMA Spoil referred to Negators as "Rule Vessels," as opposed to UMAs which are the "rules themselves," so it's possible that with the right amount of training, a Negator can change the exact rules of their abilities. Rather than just negating the "known" details about themself to others, Anno Un may be able to negate the "unknown" to themself to learn things they shouldn't know, giving them both an internal- and external-targeting ability as opposed to being restricted to one or the other as we've been told Negators are. It would go against what we've been told about Negators, but it would also introduce a very interesting method for developing the abilities of the cast. What if Andy gains the ability to apply Undead externally and negate the deaths of others? What if Fuuko gains the ability to summon bad luck to herself, having it occur one step behind her and leading it to her opponent? With how creative the author has been with the abilities in the series so far, I'm willing to bet that they'd do a much better job coming up with alternate abilities for the cast than I am now, but the point is that Anno Un's two disparate but seemingly related abilities may set up a fascinating precedent for how Negator abilities change over time and with experience, a development that I would very much love to see explored across the Union, Under, and future additions to the cast.
Whether Anno Un's future sight is the result of a UMA's gift or curse or Anno Un's own development of their Unknown ability, it most likely won't be too long before we ourselves know the truth.
Until next time.
-Tokiro Oumaga
#fouryearsandananime
It's been some time since my previous Undead Unluck theory, but I come bearing fantastic news! I was actually right about something for once!
In my first Undead Unluck theory, I theorized that the world of Undead Unluck was in a time loop, with time being reset after the summoning of UMA Ragnarok and the subsequent destruction of the world. I had some of the details wrong, as I suspected, most notably the meteors flying around what should be empty space being the remains of the previous iteration of the Earth itself rather than the destroyed UMA Galaxy. I didn't anticipate that Juiz had retained her memories from one or more previous timelines, nor did I anticipate that an Artifact, fittingly referred to as Ark, would be used in determining who gets to keep their memories. However, I was right that Andy, or more accurately Victor, retained his memories not from being chosen or having an Artifact, but from simply negating his own death through his Undead ability.
Ordinarily, I would have edited the original post itself to go over what I got right and wrong, but I decided to go over it here instead because it's actually relevant to today's theory.
In a recent chapter, it was revealed that Fuuko's favorite manga, To You, From Me, strangely lines up with the events of the Union's battles with the UMAs, such as the "Rotten High School Melee Arc" having parallels to the battle with UMA Spoil and his army of zombies or the "Space Soccer Club Invasion Arc" mirroring the invasion of the Acks with Austra High School being destroyed in place of Uluru in Australia and the invading forces being defeated with the Spiral Shot of Justice in place of Juiz's Unjustice. Across 101 volumes (mirroring the 101 penalties that lead up to Ragnarok) the parallels prove too numerous and uncanny to ignore, so the Union assigns Fuuko to write a manga in order to infiltrate Shueisha's offices (Shonen Jump's parent company that runs many other magazines, including several shojo magazines) and examine You-Me's manuscripts. Upon finding the manuscripts, Fuuko discovers that not only are there a few arcs that were cut (one that would have revealed Billy's betrayal, the upcoming battles with the Four Seasons, and even Andy's past), but the manuscripts are still written in their original Japanese instead of being forcefully changed to English as all non-Negator related speech and writing was after the neutralization of UMA Language. This means that the manga was penned using an Artifact, one of a number of items that survived between loops and hold powers similar to Negators and UMAs while also holding memories from previous worlds.
This Artifact is held by Anno Un, the author of You-Me, who is famous for their secrecy. Their real name, age, gender, face, and even their voice are a complete mystery, with all interactions with their editors being done through e-mail or one-sided phone calls. If you've read my theory that all Negators' names are indicative of their abilities, you've likely already figured out where I'm going with this.
Unless it's some kind of ruse on the author's part, Anno Un is most definitely a Negator. Their name, or rather their penname, is clearly a take on "announ," the Japanese pronunciation of "Unknown," which is appropriate given how little about them is known. Their so-called "silent phone calls" with their editors may not actually have been silent at all, the editors may simply have had their memories of the sound of Anno Un's voice erased and then just filled in the blanks. We don't really need to rely on such idle speculation, though, as we have much more concrete evidence of Anno Un's ability.
After getting in contact with Anno Un through their editor, Fuuko is told to meet them in Canada and to bring her manga's manuscript. While waiting for Anno Un to arrive, Fuuko and Andy snack on some poutine and discuss how to deal with Anno Un, all the while Anno Un walks up behind them, picks up the manuscript, and reads it in its entirety, only making themself known to declare that they enjoyed it, but have some criticisms. Now, sneaking up on Fuuko is one thing, but Andy is a highly skilled fighter with several decades or even centuries of experience under his belt, so it's highly unlikely that anyone would be able to get the drop on him without an ability being involved.
So, what exactly can Anno Un's Unknown do? Well, quite simply, it makes Anno Un themself unknown. Unless they choose to make themself known, they can take any action without anyone being made aware. This could be achieved either through an internal-targeting ability (negating their own presence) or an external-targeting ability (negating others' perceptions of them). It's possible that Unknown is activated through Anno Un's silence, allowing them to maintain undetectability so long as they do not speak, but it's possible that they can deactive this ability through contact as well or simply by willing it.
This seems like an open-and-shut case, but I'm not entirely satisfied. After all, we still don't know how Anno Un was able to see the future for the past twenty years of writing You-Me.
The most obvious explanation is that the pen they wrote You-Me with had precognitive abilities, possibly drawing the manga almost automatically and convincing Anno Un that they were the author instead of a convenient tool for the pen itself, but that is quickly debunked when Anno Un uses the pen to defeat UMA Autumn's Juniors, monstrous UMA's that split off from Autumn, by drawing a guillotine that decapitates them. Clearly, the pen's ability is to bring what Anno Un draws to life, and as far as we know so far, Artifacts don't generally have more than one ability (ex: Rip's Blade Runner launches blades, Shen's Nyoi Kinko Staff can extend indefinitely, Fuuko's gun...is a gun), so it's unlikely that it has the ability to see the future. It could be that the pen holds memories from a previous timeline, but not only would this be an astonishing number of memories (several decades worth of detailed events rather than momentary flashes), it would also imply that Fuuko has joined the Union before, Billy has betrayed the Union before, and "Andy" has existed before this particular timeline, all of which we can say quite confidently is not the case given that all of these things were new to Juiz who has existed in an undisclosed number of worlds prior to now. Finally, it's also possible that Anno Un owns another Artifact, one that can see the future, and it's just separate from the pen. I am disinclined to believe this is the case, though, as not only would it be a bit strange from a narrative perspective to not allude to the fact that Anno Un has two Artifacts sooner, it also seems like there already is an Artifact that grants precognition. Under member Latla, whose ability allows her to alter the trajectories of attacks, has also shown the ability to predict the immediate future (ex: telling Rip exactly how he is about to die) and has been depicted carrying a crystal ball. Since attack patterns and future-sight aren't very clearly related, I think we can confidently say that precognition is not in fact a secondary ability of Latla's, but an ability she gained through external means. Since crystal balls are commonly used for fortune telling, it seems safe to say that a crystal ball Artifact would grant the ability to see the future. There hasn't been a rule established yet that more than one Artifact can't have similar abilities, but I would find it pretty strange if they didn't have some way to differentiate their uses. Therefore, I think there are two particularly strong possibilities that would make for interesting developments.
First, it could be the result of a UMA's ability. In much the same way that Andy has tamed UMA Clothes to act as a regenerating and shapeshifting outfit, Anno Un may have somehow conscripted the help of a UMA, possibly UMA Knowledge or UMA Future if either of those exist. However, during the fight with Autumn's Juniors, Anno Un gives Fuuko and Andy hints about their upcoming trials while also asking them to create an ending they could never see coming and using their future sight to keep blood from landing on Fuuko's manuscript. This suggests that the future Anno Un sees is not necessarily set in stone, but Anno Un is still forced to know the outcomes of any given decision. If a UMA is involved, I imagine that it has forced this ability onto Anno Un rather than being in a partnership with them. While this would be a very interesting development and seems quite likely, I would be much more interested in the alternate explanation: Anno Un's future-sight is somehow an offshoot of the Unknown ability.
Up to this point, we've only really seen Negators use one ability each. However, we have seen that through training, an ability can be improved in drastic ways, such as Victor being able to not only activate Parts Bullets without first cutting his body but also to have clones of himself grow from separated pieces of his body. Though the jump between presence-erasure and future-sight is much bigger than the jump between healing the main body and disparate pieces, it's worth noting that both of Anno Un's abilities revolve around what is known and unknown. UMA Spoil referred to Negators as "Rule Vessels," as opposed to UMAs which are the "rules themselves," so it's possible that with the right amount of training, a Negator can change the exact rules of their abilities. Rather than just negating the "known" details about themself to others, Anno Un may be able to negate the "unknown" to themself to learn things they shouldn't know, giving them both an internal- and external-targeting ability as opposed to being restricted to one or the other as we've been told Negators are. It would go against what we've been told about Negators, but it would also introduce a very interesting method for developing the abilities of the cast. What if Andy gains the ability to apply Undead externally and negate the deaths of others? What if Fuuko gains the ability to summon bad luck to herself, having it occur one step behind her and leading it to her opponent? With how creative the author has been with the abilities in the series so far, I'm willing to bet that they'd do a much better job coming up with alternate abilities for the cast than I am now, but the point is that Anno Un's two disparate but seemingly related abilities may set up a fascinating precedent for how Negator abilities change over time and with experience, a development that I would very much love to see explored across the Union, Under, and future additions to the cast.
Whether Anno Un's future sight is the result of a UMA's gift or curse or Anno Un's own development of their Unknown ability, it most likely won't be too long before we ourselves know the truth.
Until next time.
-Tokiro Oumaga
#fouryearsandananime