When news of Spy x Family‘s collaboration with Street Fighter 6 first broke, fans of the franchise were ecstatic—but the beloved Forger family must now make way for a newcomer. The next anime on Street Fighter‘s docket is Undead Unluck, a relatively young Shōnen Jump series that began publication in 2020. Like any Shōnen Jump series, it’s developed a deeply loyal fan-base that, more than simply wanting its success, wants to see it embraced by all kinds of media.
In the anime world, there’s nothing like a good crossover. Getting to see favorite characters cross into other worlds, making use of their mechanics and facing their personalities, can really bring them to life. At the same time, there’s nothing like a bad crossover—a cynical cash-grab that capitalizes on a contrived Venn diagram clustering the fans of either franchise. Spy x Family‘s collaboration with Street Fighter can give an idea of how Undead Unluck‘s upcoming collaboration might play out, and they can both provide insight into what makes a good anime x video game crossover.
What Is This New Collab About?
Undead Unluck Is Coming To Street Fighter 6, Sort Of
On November 28, Shōnen Jump News, an unofficial but highly reputable X account, shared brief information about the impending collab between Undead Unluck and Street Fighter 6. The collaboration will apparently launch on December 2, 2024 and will feature “in-game avatar recipes, stamps, collaboration titles and more”. Given that there isn’t any mention of playable characters, it’s unlikely Undead Unluck fans will be able to spam signature moves on the edge of the stage as Andy or Fuuko anytime soon.
Nonetheless, fan responses seem positive. The best-case convergence pocket of the aforementioned Venn diagram is apparent in the most-liked reply from @_EMan8_ which reads “DUDEEEE HELL YESS I love sf and UU😭“. Others are happy to see Undead Unluck getting recognition, while still more are simply saying “peak” or things of the like. There is one apparent worry, though, and it’s linked to the Spy x Family collab.
What Did Street Fighter Do With Spy x Family?
Fans Were Disappointed By The Collab’s Lack Of Depth
Spy x Family‘s Street Fighter collaboration was a letdown in many people’s eyes. Mechanically, it didn’t really add anything to the game aside from cosmetic changes. One particularly funny reply, written by @Belzebut20 (in Spanish), reads “If it is something similar to [Spy x Family’s collab], you don’t have to expect much, but if it isn’t… it will be noticeable 👀” with a picture of Yor and Loid’s avatar skins:
By all accounts, it seems like the Undead Unluck crossover will indeed be more of the same. Whether that’s a good thing is harder to answer. There’s been an increasing number of anime x video game crossovers, and the variable effort and passion behind them has divided anime fans.
Is The Anime X Video Game Crossover Trend Good?
If It Makes Fans Happy, It Makes Fans Happy—But That’s Hard To Do
To think about crossovers, they have to be forgotten for a second. In general, anime, video games, and collectibles have always bled together, rather than being cleanly separable. Gundam‘s legacy proceeded directly from its collectible figures. Pokémon started off as a video game, then became an iconic anime thanks to a loose adaptation, and it also birthed a collectible card game (CCG). By contrast, Yu-Gi-Oh! started off as a manga, received a CCG and a smash-hit anime.
More importantly, both birthed several video games both representing traditional JRPGs (Yu-Gi-Oh!‘s odd one out with the GameCube’s The Falsebound Kingdom) and video card games (Pokemon‘s, with the Game Boy Color’s Pokemon Trading Card Game). Crossing genres, media, and mechanics is nothing new in this domain. While Yu-Gi-Oh! became identified by its card game and Pokémon didn’t, it follows from their mechanics; genre and media crossovers need sense behind them to work.
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One particular master of this is the Super Smash Bros. franchise, whose DLC crossovers have been lauded far and wide for the amount of detail they have. On the other side of this effort-spectrum might be Fortnite. While Fortnite‘s frequent crossovers have become a meme, there’s nothing inherently wrong with a cosmetic collectible representing something a fan likes. Fans could argue that such things are low-effort, and while it might feel disrespectful to one’s favorite series to see so little effort applied, putting the series on a pedestal above the cynicism of fandom marketing has the ironic twist that it sometimes disrespects the intentions of the people behind that work.
The Mangaka Gives Sense To Undead Unluck x Street Fighter Collab
Yoshifumi Tozuka Is A Street Fighter Mega-Fan
The Undead Unluck collaboration is a fitting example of this. One final reply to be mentioned contextualizes the collab in terms of mangaka Yoshifumi Tozuka’s adoration for fighting games. The post from @TheRealZekkikun reads as:
Given how often Tozuka references fighting games *and* is confirmed to be a Master rank Kimberly player in the game, this collaboration actually makes sense. I’m ecstatic! UU is my favorite modern SJ series!
The key phrase lines up with other fans who have responded mentioning how happy Tozuka must be: “this collaboration actually makes sense”. It seems that the sense behind a crossover is one of the most important things. But “sense” is a tricky word—what does it actually mean for something to “make sense”? The answer is that there are a lot of answers, but that actually gives a lot of room for a healthy crossover culture, too.
Even if the collaboration isn’t good or the most exciting, as long as it seems like it follows from the source material in some way—even if it’s just the mangaka’s love of fighting games—there are likely to be fans who embrace it. A convergent fanbase can bring sense to the wildest things: Naruto colliding with TMNT, for a recent example. It works, though. Having that sense of purpose behind a crossover is critical. Fans are very quick to pick up on when something is a labor of love as opposed to something done more cynically.
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However, this doesn’t just apply to disdain for cynical money-grabs; several fans responded asking “why?” in response to the crossover just because they didn’t grasp the sense behind it. Even if it’s possible to explain, that doesn’t mean people have to buy into it. A deeper and more mechanically involved crossover gives itself a sense of purpose; it justifies itself by the amount of work that went into it.
On the question of depth, though: if anime and video games aren’t really that separate after all, and if a crossover makes fans of a franchise happy, is there anything to balk at? Is it necessary that a crossover be deep and involved to be satisfying? In general, no. The satisfaction comes from an appreciation of either or both franchises—ideally a mutual appreciation shared with the home series for the visiting series.
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It’s perfectly fine to be a fan who loves a series enough to want to display it everywhere. It’s perfectly fine, too, to be a fan of both or either franchise(s) who sees the crossover as a chance to get collectibles—Dragon Ball‘s collab with McDonald‘s is weirdly satisfying. It’s perfectly fine, above all, to service those fans without sucking the life out of your dev team for an in-depth collab. While many Undead Unluck fans are excited, others remain skeptical of the collab’s value after Spy x Family‘s treatment.
Granted, the collab could definitely go deeper. It also doesn’t have to. Perhaps the second-most important takeaway would be that, from basically every angle, Undead Unluck makes a lot more sense for a Street Fighter 6 collab than Spy x Family; the first-most important would be that a lot of fans are happy to hear about it.
Source: Weekly Shonen Jump/X
Spy X Family
“Spy × Family” is a popular Japanese manga and anime franchise that blends action, comedy, and spy elements. The story follows Twilight, a secret agent tasked with creating a fake family to carry out a mission, unaware that his “wife” is an assassin and his adopted “daughter” is a telepath. The series, praised for its humor, heartwarming moments, and dynamic characters, has expanded to include anime adaptations, a feature film, and various merchandise.
- Created by
- Tatsuya Endo
- First Episode Air Date
- April 9, 2022
- Character(s)
- Loid Forger , Yor Forger , Anya Forger , Bond Forger , Franky Franklin , Sylvia Sherwood , Yuri Briar , Damian Desmond , Fiona Frost
Summary
“Spy × Family” is a popular Japanese manga and anime franchise that blends action, comedy, and spy elements. The story follows Twilight, a secret agent tasked with creating a fake family to carry out a mission, unaware that his “wife” is an assassin and his adopted “daughter” is a telepath. The series, praised for its humor, heartwarming moments, and dynamic characters, has expanded to include anime adaptations, a feature film, and various merchandise.
The world warriors return in Street Fighter 6, the latest entry in the 35-year-running Street Fighter franchise. This sixth entry takes place at the furthest point in the timeline, post-Street Fighter 3rd Strike, released in the late 90s. SF6 will feature an urban/street style emphasis with a highly stylized graffiti art style and a hip-hop-focused soundtrack, aligning it more closely with the third entry. Several classic world warriors will return, and a brand new collection of warriors, such as Jamie and Kimberly, will bring unique fighting styles reminiscent of characters from previous entries.
- Top Critic Rating:92/100 Critics Recommend:98%
- Released
- June 2, 2023
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
- Cross-Platform Play
- PC, PS4, PS5, & Xbox Series X|S
