Anime Review: The Unwanted Undead Adventurer

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The title itself hooked me. “Unwanted” and “Undead” in the same sentence? That’s the kind of odd combination that makes you curious. And you know what? I told myself, Let’s see how messed up this gets.

I expected a cheap, zombie-infested fantasy with predictable plot points and half-baked characters. What I got instead was a strangely heartfelt, unexpectedly deep story about resilience, transformation, and the human will to keep pushing forward even when your humanity is literally taken from you.

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The story kicks off with Rentt Faina, your average, run-of-the-mill adventurer who’s been struggling for years to make it big. He’s not blessed with overwhelming talent, he’s not the “chosen one,” and his name doesn’t exactly inspire fear in the guild halls. But he’s persistent — that kind of stubborn persistence you can’t help but respect.

After that, one day he is on a dungeon quest, and he comes across a monster that is far beyond his abilities. A dragon. And not the good-natured kind. In a nutshell, Rentt does not walk away out of that fight, in fact, he does not walk away at all. He dies. And this is where it gets interesting: rather than waking up in some afterlife he returns… as a skeleton.

At this point you would expect the main character to crumble into pieces, rage at the heavens or undergo some sort of existential crisis, and he does, to some degree, but Rentt is oddly composed. The speed with which he makes decisions, Okay, I am now undead, is almost unnerving. Well, I guess this will work. This is when I knew that this was not going to be that run of the mill overpowered fantasy story. It was a survival story.

It is also one of the finest aspects of The Unwanted Undead Adventurer, the pacing of the change in Rentt. It did not hurry. We are allowed to see him go through these difficulties, which include learning to live in an entirely new skeletal body, working out what he can and cannot do, and establishing methods of maintaining the appearance of a typical adventurer so that he does not scare off the people that surround him.

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The manner in which Rentt continues to struggle on even losing everything there is to lose is somehow encouraging. No family. No genuine friends that know the truth. No human countenance. But still, his ambition is not different: to rise to the adventuring heights. But now, the stakes are changed, all he has to do is hide his secret and remain alive enough to continue the pursuit of the dream every day.

The trip that Rentt took would not be as impactful without the characters that revolved around him. Then we have Lorraine, an adventurer and alchemist who is also an alchemist who proves to be one of the characters he can trust in the shortest duration. She is a sharp, low-key, funny, and refreshingly down to earth girl who is not afraid to tell you like it is, but will still assist you in finding a solution.

And then there is the guild and the other adventurers and even the monsters that Rentt encounters. All interactions seem to remind a person that he is always on the edge of a razor between retaining his secret and being unmasked. It is tight, but not in a way that is suffocating, more of a low tone drone that keeps you on your toes.

What surprised me was that I thought I was only getting a fantasy adventure with skeleton fights and dungeon crawls. I got that, sure, but I also got quiet moments where Rentt reflects on his existence. What it means to still have dreams when you’ve technically lost your life. What “humanity” means when you’re no longer human.

The anime sneaks in these philosophical undertones without ever getting preachy. It makes you think about identity and persistence in a way you don’t expect from something with “Undead” in the title.

In terms of animation, The Unwanted Undead Adventurer does not attempt to impress with fancy battles or unrealistic sceneries. Rather, it is more inclined to darker, duller palette befitting an undead character of Rentt. The tone is somehow heavy, even a little bit damp stone walls of the dungeons of which he visits can be sensed.

The monster designs are well made, particularly the skeletal Rentt. They hit that perfect eerie/functional balance so you are always reminded that he is no longer human without it feeling gross.

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Why I Didn't Stop Watching

Midway through the season, I noticed that I was no longer watching to see what happens. I was observing to notice how the mindset of Rentt changed. Was he ever going to find a cure? Would he lose more of himself to undead nature? Could he continue to care about adventuring once the truth reached the people that he cared about?

Each episode left me with enough intrigue to press the Next Episode button because I was actually interested in this gawky, stubborn skeleton and his silent perseverance.

Watching The Unwanted Undead Adventurer felt… weirdly personal. Not because I’ve ever been a skeleton (at least not that I remember), but because I’ve been in those moments where life strips away the things you thought defined you. Rentt’s story is about accepting those losses and finding new ways to move forward, even if the path doesn’t look the way you imagined.

In the end, Rentt might be “unwanted” by the living world, but his story reminded me that our worth isn’t tied to how others see us. It’s tied to how stubbornly we keep going when the odds are stacked against us.

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Thumbnail is designed by me on pixelLab and other images are screenshot from the movie