Übel Blatt Review

Why Did I Choose To Watch This:

Übel Blatt seemingly had the perfect synopsis. With the promise of a dark fantasy and with revenge as the leading theme, it was exactly the type of anime that I was craving to watch. Revenge stories are a niche that I absolutely love, so how could I pass up on this. Not to mention the main character had such a sick looking character design. There was no way this anime was going to flop… right?

Plot Mechanics:

Quick Summary:

The story is set in a dark fantasy world where 14 knights were chosen to partake in a dangerous quest in order to save a kingdom. Unfortunately, three of these heroes died before even reaching the final stage of their mission. This is where the plot starts to get interesting. Seven of the eleven remaining warriors wanted to turn back and abandon their mission in fear for their lives. Meanwhile the other four, including the main character, decided to go through with their king’s orders and ended up successfully fulfilling their mission. Now, here’s where it turns into a revenge story. The seven knights who decided to turn tail slaughtered the four knights that completed the mission, including the main character, returned home and claimed the glory for themselves. They were celebrated and eventually given the title of “Seven Heroes”. To add insult to injury, they slandered the four knights who actually completed the mission. In turn, those four deceased knights were given the title “Lances Of Betrayal”. Twenty years later, the main character is seemingly reincarnated. Although we don’t know how and why he’s back, he has a new body, a new name, and the intention to carry out the deadly mission of slaughtering the “Seven Heroes” and exacting his revenge.

Plot Execution:

Here’s where I’m going to get real. Outside of the first two episodes, I had no idea what was going on. The pacing was horrific and it felt like things were happening in the story for no reason. The flashbacks came out of nowhere and it was extremely hard to put the pieces together. Things went from point A to point B with no fluidity and it just kept getting worse.

Plot : 7/10

Flaws, Challenges, & Deficiencies:

Firstly, the pacing was atrocious. There wasn’t really a time where the viewer had a second to process what was going on. There were too many significant things happening in the story that weren't portrayed very well. This left me completely lost. By the time I was on the third or fourth episode I was completely lost.

Secondly, the biggest challenge for me was the German names used in the story. I’m an anime fan from America, and have never had problems with Japanese names. But this was extremely difficult. This may be due to my own personal language barrier struggles, however it definitely was a struggle for me. Part of the struggle was because of the fast pace but the other part was that these names were being thrown at us without any context behind them. This made it that much more difficult to follow what was going on in the story. Again this is probably a personal problem with me rather than the anime.

Lastly, the battles really didn’t satisfy. Upon actually encountering the main antagonists in the story, we didn’t get much build up. We also got even less of a finish. It didn’t deliver when these antagonists were defeated. In a revenge story, the best part is seeing the main character have a satisfying victory, but that didn’t happen at all. It all sort of felt “blagh” for a lack of a better word.

Flaws, Challenges, & Deficiencies: - points

Art/Animation:

The art and animation weren’t all that bad. The character’s art looked crisp. The night sky and the overall world that this story took place in looked beautiful. The signature double moon looked sick too. The animation wasn’t the best however. Not only were the battles unfulling but they were also dull when it came to the animation. It wasn’t bad, just not great.

Art/Animation: 7/10

Character & Character Designs:

The main character Köinzell looks like a badass. A demihuman, similar to an elf, with a scar across his eye. With white/silverish hair. Köinzell’s character design is easily a top tier design for a main character in a dark fantasy. The other characters looked pretty cool too, nothing in comparison to Köinzell but they still perfected the dark fantasy theme.

Köinzell’s character wasn’t anything that would put this series over the top. Yes, this is a revenge story, and the character’s in these series typically have no mercy and are lethal. Köinzell clearly had a good heart and was “soft”, but when push came to shove he delivered without hesitation. Other than that we didn’t see a lot of his personality. I’m assuming most of the character development is left for future seasons if there are any developments at all.

Character & Character Designs: 8.5/10

Overall Rating/Recommendation:

Would I recommend Übel Blatt? Hell no. Going into the anime for the first time, the plot seemed nearly perfect. The backstory and the build up felt so hype. However, this was an easy let down for me. I would truly only recommend this to people that have time to read the manga or watch the show after completing the manga. I haven’t read it personally, but I’ve been told that the manga adaptation is a lot better. It would probably be easier to reread the manga compared to the extremely fast pacing of the anime.

Overall Rating/Recommendation: 5/10