Übel Blatt Season 1

Back in January, Übel Blatt caught my attention on Amazon Prime and I wrote up my first impressions of this fantasy revenge tale. Now that it's completed the first arc, how does the series as a whole fare?

As a quick recap, Köinzell is a young demi-human who is wreaking havoc throughout the kingdom as he seeks out the seven heroes of legend and murder them. For it turns out that these "heroes" are really frauds, traitors who turned on the four real heroes of the Wischtech crusades and executed them, after which they claimed the glory and took control of the empire as celebrated heroic lords. Köinzell is a magically resuscitated member of the betrayed heroes, Aschericht. And he's pretty pissed off.

Across 12 episodes we're treated to some pretty violent action, as Köinzell makes a bee-line for each Lord and seeks to overcome not only their corrupt bases of power, but also protect the innocent bystanders who believe him to be a villain. Along the way he meets people smuggler Altea, demi-human girl Peepi, vengeful princess Aht and a host of other allies who seek to either join the young man on his quest or use him for their own purposes.

The series is both served and undermined by the source material, which originated in 2002. It's very much of its time, which means it has a lot of semi-naked women in it, extreme violence and some rather cruel story beats. There's nothing clever or subversive about the series, it's very much a revenge tale of the most direct sort, and in terms of the story that's quite refreshing these days. Certainly the recent publication of the manga as an oversized hardback edition shows that publishers have confidence in the license. Be warned though - the anime is a severely watered-down version of the original tale which has a lot more blood, sex and gore throughout its pages, more in line with Berserk than your standard fantasy series. The more sedate nature of the anime may annoy Übel Blatt's fanbase, and it does arguably lessen the characters. Originally Altea and Köinzell have a night of passion when they first meet and this is omitted from the anime. I'm quite squeamish anyway so this suits me, others may not be so forgiving.

Seeing Aht and Peepi wearing very little a lot of the time felt a little uncomfortable as they're both very young, however it is arguable that this is a very "traditional" anime in terms of style and attitudes, so again, a product of its time and that may be appealing or off-putting depending on your preferences. I don't judge either way, but it's worth being aware of before diving in.

When it comes to the story, it's entertaining and well directed, the fight scenes being particularly strong. In terms of tone, it's all over the place. One moment a mad lord is slaying his sex slaves because he thinks they're really assassins sent by the "hero killer" to take him out, the next we see Köinzell dressed as a girl trying to blend into the civilian population. Overall though, the heroes are likeable, the villains cruel and thoroughly deserving of dispatch. My only observation is that the series is Game of Thrones-level cruel with some of the characters, and being a bit squeamish at this level of suffering, I found it hard to watch at times. 

Production is sharp and with lots of detail and eye-catching effects.

That said, production values are excellent, with sharp designs and stylish action sequences that deliver a visual feast. A sort of techno-medieval mix infuses every part of the design ethos, from blimps to floating cannons armed with "magical" armaments, the world feels grounded in its own mythology and that's appealing as you never know what you'll see next. 

I'd recommend the series if you're interested in heroic tales with a bit of edge - there's plenty of story left by the end of the first season, with lords yet to be slain and the heroes coming and going as the series deems fit, so I'll certainly be interested to see a season 2, hopefully it can continue to come up with interesting ideas to drive the story along and land an ending that satisfies to justify all the suffering you have to watch along the way.