Once admired as the strongest swordsman of the empire, Ascheriit is betrayed and brutally killed by seven of his brothers-in-arms after defeating the evil forces of Wischtech. Twenty years later, Ascheriit's name has fallen into infamy while his murderers are now admired everywhere and dubbed as the Seven Heroes.
However, Ascheriit returns from the dead as a half-elf named Köinzell with only one goal in mind: to take revenge on his old companions. Soon joined by new allies who share his thirst for justice, Köinzell will stop at nothing to expose the crimes of the Seven Heroes and find ultimate solace.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
KANLen09
Übel Blatt — Congrats on conducting a speedrun that'll lose your audience right from the get-go. How did this happen and go so out of hand? I am a firm believer that when shows present their content in the typical fashion, it needs to be in the 3Cs: clear, concise, and consistent. Yet, some people just don't share that sentiment and proceed to yank the standard that's given in the vein of The Promised Neverland's bastardized sequel, rushing through the source material and providing little to no context; that, at the end of the day, may be what the anime envisioned it to be, but withmany crucial sacrifices along the way. And in this Winter season, there's one very respected work that got the Promised Neverland treatment so bad that I don't even know where to start: mangaka Etorouji Shiono's Übel Blatt (Evil Blade in German), one of the earliest dark fantasy stories serialized from 2004 to 2019 that saw its success internationally, to the point of being awarded in the seinen category of the Japan Expo Award in 2008 and even making it to France's Top 15 manga at one point.
Let's go from the top: being Clear of the story.
With Übel Blatt being one of the forefronts of the dark fantasy genre, giving way to series like mangaka Daiki Kobayashi's Ragna Crimson (which received Silver Link's adaptation from Fall 2023 to Winter 2024), you can tell that the manga series was at one point a huge influence on people wanting to create stories in the same vein, which is a clear sign that there's a fandom out there for such stories of violence, gore, and sexual predation that are unapologetic and captivating. Such is the likes of author Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo, which is how the revenge story of Köinzell, a half-elf child most distinguishable for the scar over his left eye, is on a quest of revenge against those who betrayed and killed him in the medieval fantasy landscape.
At this point I must warn you that although much of the review's context is from the anime, the manga itself provides so much depth that it's most baffling how director Takeshi Naoya could offer to re-edit much of its story to the point of being unexplainable (please refer to the ANN interview that's done recently).
If you thought that the series' story is just too much of an infodump to understand, the anime started at Volume 1, gravely skipping Volume 0, which provides context for how everything came to be, and it's important context that was sadly missing in the anime. The TL;DR is that there were 14 elite warriors (dubbed the Fourteen Lances) commissioned to deal with the evil nation of Wischtech that manifests itself in dark magic and powerful weapons. But the same group of warriors faltered along the way, losing some to the gravities of the land, leaving only 7 out of 11 heroes who abandoned the quest and the remaining 4 warriors eventually finishing the deed. However, it's at this point that the 7 warriors would ambush and eliminate the 4 to steal their credits and accomplishments and dub themselves the Seven (False) Heroes that supposedly were the ones who defeated Wischtech while branding the 4 as Traitorous Lances who had sold their souls to the evil nation itself, despite being the ones actually credited for the quest completion. And one of them is Ascheriit, a young boy whose potential is seen in swordsmanship to be tuteled from and help out the elite warriors and unceremoniously branded as a Wischtech defector. The years of betrayal lasted for 20 years, which is when Ascheriit came back as the half-elf Köinzell to exact revenge on the Seven Heroes who claimed credit for the work that they did not conduct.
The concise portion is overall done rather subparly, though to the extent of the limited runtime when it comes to anime, it's a much-needed sacrifice, or does it feel intentional to cut content and leave it as it is?
Going through much of Köinzell's revenge story against the Seven Heroes should tell you that he's really out to get their heads, and his half-elf self being able to be empowered by the twin moons of the world for some serious power. The journey that takes him to cities and nations wherever each of the Seven Heroes resides, while being on the chase as the glorified "Hero-Child" alongside his aides of smuggler Wied and underground tavern owner Altea, as well as Peepi, who has been with him from the very beginning, as well as the young and promising girl of Aht, Köinzell can't clearly do his revenge story on his own and needs help from all avenues that he can muster to deal his captors a serious blow.
Director Takeshi Naoya even goes so far as to do a switcheroo around the characters for Köinzell's personal growth, which clearly is evident of the evolution of the MC himself. And yet, because of the extensive focus on him, bringing in censorship to remove all traces of sexual and erotic elements serves as his answer, alongside his idea of using iaido for swordsmanship skills and even going as far as to draw inspiration from his childhood love of Knights of the Zodiac for this. In other words, the de-sanitization of the source material itself...which, as you can tell, is NEVER good to draw out the full potential of the work itself (which is actually doable but omitted for reasons we'll never know).
The consistency, however, brings about all of the negative connotations of why the anime is ultimately inferior to the manga.
At first, I thought that Satelight and Staple Entertainment coming for a collab would help give the series some oomph, but it's undoubtedly clear that little to no effort was put into the anime at all. Sure, Takeshi Naoya did quote the statement of Satelight's involvement being only in the CG department and the artwork being "beautiful, perfectly capturing the fantasy world," for which I'll give credit for the cinematography here. However, that's no excuse for bad production, which in this show, is ALL OVER THE PLACE, and you can't shake it after seeing through the piss-poor animation, especially for a high-octane fantasy series like this one.
At least music composer Shun Narita had the composition alright for the anime, which may still not serve as a sigh of relief given all of the issues involved in other areas. And as much as I can praise GARNiDELiA's long-awaited return for the OP, which is a good song, Hina Tachibana's ED song just left me with mixed feelings of how to be properly engaged for a soothing song in the midst of such violence and gore.
Ultimately, what you get from an Amazon Prime exclusive show is the pandering of expectations with a more-than-complicated story and premise (that's not hard to understand, just interpreted VERY differently from the source material), compelling but unfulfilled characters (that are not explored much), and a production so off the charts that you can't even fathom surviving on the 3-episode rule.
Just read the manga from scratch; the anime should be avoided AT ALL COSTS for being butchered recklessly...unless you're like the director himself to say, "If you can enjoy it, then that's a stroke of luck."….to which I say: "Please don't push your luck."
YodaLover
There is nothing more frustrating than a great story of another medium, in this case manga, being absolutely butchered so disastrously. The animation art style is pretty lackluster and just overall doesn't fit the tone their trying to portray, but could still work if the story was even a fraction of the manga's. The fact is that they adapted this cutting out the context, the motivation, and anything that made me love it. This is a hollow shell of the material and it sadly doesn't even work as it's own thing. Save yourself the time and either read the manga or watch something else.
BananaChicken22
When I first heard that Übel Blatt was set to get an anime adaptation two decades after the manga started, I was honestly in disbelief. I thought it was one of those manga that just would never ever get an anime. I was hyped beyond belief, but I also feared the idea that it would get butchered, and the reactions I had seen online from the first episode would seemingly confirm my worst fears. Then I actually got around to watching it and…I actually ended up having a good time, with it being nowhere near as bad as people made it out to be. Icontinued watching the anime, and it kept getting better each episode, eventually hitting its stride halfway through. I’ll make a list of what I liked and what I disliked about this anime adaptation for the sake of making this review more objective.
What I liked
- The pacing and universe of the manga are generally well respected.
- The fight choreography is simple, but effective. The anime also doesn’t shy away from gore and bloodshed, so the tone of the manga is fairly well respected as well.
- The voice direction is absolutely stellar (with an honorable mention to Yuya Hirose as Köinzell, he really captured the essence of the character and gave a spectacular performance)
- The soundtrack is pretty damn good and fits well with the universe depicted.
- The animation is decent. Sure, it’s not the same quality you’d get from ufotable, Bones or Madhouse back when that studio was in its golden age, but it gets the job done for the most part. That being said…
What I didn’t like
- The sex scenes and the nudity present in the manga have been mostly censored. That was one of my greatest fears for the anime, but honestly, I came to expect as much the moment I heard it was set to stream on Amazon Prime (and since these scenes are mostly relegated to the early chapters of the manga, it’s as much of an issue as it is a non-issue).
- …the budget for the animation was seemingly limited, and sometimes it shows (especially in the first few episodes). I’m not particularly picky about animation ever since I saw Ex-ARM, but I know it might put some people off so I put the animation in weaknesses as well for the sake of objectivity.
- The production team relegated the prologue volume to the OP, which may confuse newcomers. I personally still have hope that they end up adapting it as an OVA, but until then, I recommend newcomers to start with Volume 0 before diving into the anime proper.
Overall, I give it a 7/10 (and if not for the average start, it would easily be a 9 to me). If you’re not picky about animation quality and are looking for a fantasy anime that isn’t an isekai for once, you might want to check that one out. Sure, it’s not gonna be AOTY anytime soon, but you’ll have a good time regardless and frankly, that’s all that really matters at the end of the day, manga purists be damned.
Tharr
Luckily (for me), this review will be short(er). Don't know the sauce, don't care for the sauce. This anime is sht. Spoilers free. The animation, designs and VFX are horrible. No decent cinematography. Maybe a couple of nice frames, or even excellent one (most of them reserved for the last episode), and thats it. Sh***y soundtrack, the music (symphonic/heavy-metal/choir) always blaring while fighting occurs, like some epic thing is going down, while also some kind of music thing still goin on while no battle occurs.. The OP and ED are meh, it could be ok, but its not working for this anime. The VAs had noreal work, always "angry".
The idea for the story might be interesting, but the execution is horrendous. Full of plotholes, sh***y dialogue, lousy exposition dump, no character growth, no.. Wait, I'm sorry. No characters. OK, there might be something like a shadow of a character for some of the extras, but at that point, I was already considering this anime dead and buried.
Yes, the first episode felt somewhat interesting, but you'll get over it prety quick. No characters, no background, no world-building. You might think there is, but thats not how you do it. And the cherry on top: trying to seem special by using the german language for episode titles and names.
In short: don't do it. Piece of garbage, waste of time. Or this might work for the manga's fans, but for the rest of us, yuck. Even the fan-service (at least I think that was their intention) wasn't good.
I'm giving this a 2 for some frames and for the wisp of an interesting idea. (and because I reserve 1 for pure trash, cause no 0).
Have a lovely evening.
noctemsol
ÜBEL BLATT – Review Übel Blatt is what happens when a dark fantasy world promises depth, betrayal, and vengeance — but delivers it through a fog of uneven storytelling and underwhelming execution. Story Years ago, the mighty Szaalanden Empire sent fourteen legendary warriors to fight a powerful threat known as the Wischtech. Only seven returned. The official narrative branded the others as traitors and glorified the survivors as national heroes — “The Seven Heroes.” Two decades later, a mysterious, youthful swordsman named Köinzell begins hunting these very heroes. His identity is obvious from the start, and his mission is as personal as it is political: to unveilthe truth buried under years of lies and imperial propaganda.
The premise sounds excellent — a revenge tale that challenges heroic mythmaking. But the anime adapts this with breakneck speed and minimal care. Key events are rushed. Emotional beats are glossed over. Political intrigue is hinted at, then dropped. What should be a slow-burning unraveling of truth becomes a montage of vengeance with little narrative glue.
Worldbuilding
The world of Übel Blatt has the bones of something great: a decaying empire, corrupt nobility, feudal power structures, and morally gray institutions. There are monsters, magic, and twisted remnants of war — but almost none of it is explored in depth.
Everything feels like set dressing. Locations are vague. Social dynamics are barely present. You're told about the empire’s corruption, but rarely shown how it affects actual people. It’s fantasy without texture.
Characters
Köinzell is an archetypal dark hero — quiet, ruthless, and scarred. He should be compelling, but the anime never gives his trauma or personality time to breathe. His emotional range jumps from rage to silence with no transitions.
Supporting characters are forgettable, and the villains (the so-called heroes) are mostly cartoonishly evil or generically smug. None leave an impression. When side characters die, it's hard to care — they barely existed to begin with.
Animation
Visually, Übel Blatt struggles. CGI dominates action scenes, but instead of enhancing fluidity, it breaks immersion with stiff, awkward movements. Sword fights feel weightless and mechanical. Impact is completely lost.
Character animation lacks nuance — faces are static, body language limited, and emotional scenes fall flat. Backgrounds vary wildly in quality, some richly drawn, others nearly blank. The color palette is dark (as it should be), but the lighting is poorly handled, making many scenes murky rather than atmospheric.
Sound
Voice acting is mixed at best. Köinzell’s VA sounds appropriate but lacks emotional depth. Supporting voices swing between overacting and lifeless delivery, adding to the show’s tonal inconsistency.
The opening theme (“Zainin” by GARNiDELiA) is solid and sets the tone, but the ending theme (“Stella”) feels oddly mismatched. Background music exists but rarely elevates a scene. Ambient sounds feel generic, and action scenes lack the punch or tension needed to draw the viewer in.
Enjoyment
I wanted to like Übel Blatt. I really did. I waited for the full season to drop and sat down expecting intense drama, moral complexity, and grim fantasy themes. Instead, I got a fragmented, emotionally distant adaptation of a story that clearly deserved more time and care.
Pacing is erratic, the storytelling shallow, and the visual presentation fails to bring weight to key moments. I never fully connected — not to the world, not to the characters, not even to the revenge. It all just… passed by.
Final Verdict
Übel Blatt had the ingredients to be a standout dark fantasy anime: betrayal, empire, vengeance, and myth deconstruction. But in practice, it feels like a trailer for a better show. It's too compressed, too lifeless, and too careless to leave a lasting mark.
You might still watch it if you're morbidly curious or just want to see how bad a good premise can go. But fans of quality storytelling — even within this genre — will likely walk away disappointed.
Recommended for:
✔ Viewers with extremely low expectations for dark fantasy
✔ Die-hard manga fans who just want to “see it animated” no matter the quality
✔ People curious enough to finish it simply because they’ve started it
Avoid if:
✖ You expect quality storytelling or emotional depth
✖ You care about consistent animation, pacing, or character arcs
✖ You want your grimdark to have actual bite, not just aesthetic noise
Breakdown:
Story: 5
Animation: 4
Sound: 5
Characters: 4
Enjoyment: 4
Overall: 4.5/10
Sirgeras
Übel Blatt was a mid-tier but not bad dark fantasy manga. According to the world’s lore, sex is a fundamental driving force behind the characters — not just a fanservice element. In the anime, however, everything was drastically changed. Because of this, the dialogue was modified, and the characters come across as flat and stupid. The manga delivers its story in a burst-like rhythm, as if flipping through each page with momentum — while the anime feels like someone tried to adapt it by just scanning pages and animating them lifelessly. The manga is a genuinely enjoyable read, while this video adaptation is hard to sit through. Sadly,this decent manga won’t be getting a new fanbase.
Estagon
It's a good anime. Not the best, animation-wise, but it's got a good story. One of the few anime that makes me actually want to read its source material rather than wait for a new season! But not in a bad way, it's just that the story is very good while the adaptation is just good. Not an isekai, actually dark, interesting characters and concepts - it's a yes for me! Plot: 9/10 (darn good gritty dark fantasy setting) Characters: 6.5/10 (sadly they are tridimensional characters in a bidimensional setup, restricted by the number of episodes. Still, they don't feel dull or forced most of the time) Pacing: 8.5/10 (prettylively pacing, but it felt rushed in several parts)
Execution: 5/10 (frankly, while the story is good, the animation and audio are subpar. I WISH it got more budget, or a slightly slower pace... Then it would have been a masterpiece)
Overall: 7/10 (a remarkable dark fantasy story, hoping in a better-executed season 2)
KbraGmkAk
The plot is interesting and has good potential. Dark fantasy. but the way they handled the manga is a disaster. There is no plot, they jumped into it all of a sudden. You don't understand the characters or the concepts. There was literally no unity in the plot. As someone who can't read manga, it was very difficult to follow the events, people and concepts. I progressed by reading what I could find while watching to understand. And the anime quality wasn't good either. I didn't read the manga but it's an interesting plot but the way it's handled is terrible. And it's 2025 and the nudity issue is stillbeing carried out through female characters, let's accept the big characters to some extent but the Peepi character is basically a child and the way he's dressed is disturbing.
I didn't understand what's the point of showing the event that started everything so little and diving into the events without explanation. How the lead character was saved, what happened to him, what he turned into, there is nothing in the middle. And the bad characters; I didn't understand why these characters were sent for that mission in the first place. For example, the second bad guy who was killed didn't even know how to use a sword.
And I don't understand why the lead actor gets emotional while killing these scoundrels.
Only good thing this anime is the opening theme. The opening theme was very good, it was a nice song and it has lyrics that fit the lead character very well. I never skipped the intro.
slavemaster_1991
Disappointing. Painful to watch. Bland. Rushed. Watered down. I remember reading the source manga back in the day, it didn’t leave as huge of an impression as something like Berserk did, but it was good in its own way. And yet, this way was completely lost in translation to anime, with an added insult of being low on budget. Let me dive a bit into details. Visuals. This is the most noticeable problem here: it is just bad. From basic characters with lacking details and missed tone to combat sequences animated into 5 still frames or forced into loops to drag the time. How can afight in manga have more frames than the anime adaptation of said manga? Half of the effects look like cheap CGI strapped onto a static frame, some effects just didn’t make it into the anime at all. Things that are supposed to be grotesque and shocking look comically bad. To put it simply: anime looks way worse than manga and misses both tone and style of the original work.
Sound. Cheap empty BGM, uninspired OP and ED, voice acting is so-so, the sound overall is just there.
Pacing/adaptation. This is the second huge problem that is just too big to ignore. The problem is simple: adaptation tried to make this title “safe”. But dark fantasy requires the world to be, you know, DARK. Gore, cruelty, violence, sex - all of it was in the source material, half of it got tossed away for no apparent reason. It was not supposed to be a show for all ages, why are you neutering it? Why didn’t you adapt the intro arc that set both the tone and story? Why did you thin everything down to the point where even I, a person who read the source material, was constantly getting a “wait, this isn’t right” feeling? I may only guess how confusing the experience for anime-only viewers was. Yes, the main events made it into the anime (even though in a very low-quality form), but the details are missing, and that makes the story confusing and bad.
Overall: a huge missed opportunity. The source material was really solid and could give us a good anime title, but “look how they massacred my boy”. Just go read manga, do yourself a favor, and forget about this abomination.
SuperAdventure
When this was announced, I saw the cover art of a cute elf boy (he's actually demonic) with long braids and thought- oh yes sure this looks interesting. When I learned it was an epic fantasy, I was excited. When I found out it's actually a very long manga series that started in the early 2000s- I was surprised. When Amazon picked it up- I was apprehensive- but I have access to someone's ^_~ so no problem there. But when I saw the first episode of the anime.... I was laughing. How does this look so terrible? Why is that monster head just sitting thereon the ground and why does it look so goofy? Why is everyone in this show so dead serious, but I'm finding it hilarious?
Ubel Blatt (which I quickly nicknamed Ubel SPLATT, then Ubel BLEAAAAAARGHHHH!!!) is one of the most perplexing viewing experiences I've had this year. I'm still on the fence about whether it was actually good or not. To determine that- normally I look at the production, everything I see on screen, how it flows together, how well it's written, being as objective as possible then adding in how entertaining it was overall as a more subjective take and score it that way. But here; the two sides of that are REALLY far apart. I mean really, really far.
So, the animation. This is a pretty big studio eh?
I mean, the titles I see under Satelight aren't small properties. So what the hell happened here?
The first problem is with the set design: most of the backgrounds are fairly standard fantasy-world architecture; wooden houses, stone fortresses, cobblestone streets, wagons and horses (and elephants... oh you just wait- we'll get to that!!!!) Well there's nothing wrong with the world, but everything is covered with this purple and black goo THE ENTIRE 12 EPISODES and it just makes the whole thing look dim and difficult to see. It's trying to be GRIMDARK, okay fine. Then there's the characters- they're a mix between very pretty attractive characters like Koinzell, the main protagonist who is a reincarnated (not in the isekai sense trust me) warrior in the body of a demon boy. Aht, an equally cute warrior with a skimpy outfit, and a pink haired girl (unfortunately named Peepi... just roll with it) like most of the female and Demi-human characters look nice. Then there's the men, who all look like they came from Berserk. Big, muscular, ugly bastards. But none of the characters move well. At times, they make a shocked face and just stay still; and 2D cutouts of the characters are just moved up and down on the screen without any of their limbs moving!!!
It's alright when they're flying over scenery or just walking around a town, but when they start fighting (which happens in this anime A LOT) things really fall to pieces. A good chunk of the action actually is stills- just stills, no movement, and it looks so cheap and flat it just brings out laughter again and again- for scenes that are supposed to be dramatic and momentous.
The storytelling. Here, I'm afraid it's not much better.
I don't need to spoil this in a review, but I can say it really does storytelling the same way it does animation. It just jumps from scene to random scene, showing people running going "RAWWRRR!!" and knaves getting slashed in half etc, then Koinzell or another character will jump off a dragon or something and slash someone- then there's a scene with two people talking to each other- only to realize it's a flashback or something shoved in. It's an absolute mess. The pacing, the dramatic timing, it's all over the place. It basically just feels rushed. Like the studio got commissioned to adapt several volumes of a manga but with just 12 episodes. Rather than pick one arc, they decided to just jam as much as possible into this and run.
But over all of this, there were moments Ubel Splatt JUMPED THE FUCKING SHARK so high I could only put my hat on and tip it to the man who thought "Oh yea, I've done a good job on this"... and no moment captured that feeling better than the invasion of one of the cities by enemy troops, who deploy a couple of ELEPHANTS with their cavalry..... Oh sweet Jesus.... I don't think I've ever laughed harder watching an anime in my life. That there, that was some God Tier level of GOOF.
They don't move (obviously) but oh man ...
So was it entertaining? Hell yes. That's what makes this weird- it's another one of those so-bad-it's-good experiences; except it shouldn't have been bad in the first place. It SHOULD have been better. At no point was I ever bored watching this, I liked and cared about the characters, only for the flaws of the awful animation and the clumsy pacing to SUBTRACT FROM THAT EXPERIENCE.
"Just go read the manga" is what I'm going to be told, but I'm watching the anime, and no matter how good the manga is the anime has to be judged on its own merits and I'm afraid- it's just average.
JayJTheJet
I don't usually write reviews but this anime was so bad and it annoyed me so much that I had to write something to avoid people from going through the same suffering as I went by watching this. The MC is terrible, he starts with one personality and then keep changing it from time to time. To be honest, there are no good characters on this anime, they're all awfully written and the execution is even worse. The plot is all over the place to a point where there is no ACTUAL plot. The revenge story goes away pretty fast, they just keep introducing new stuff withno explanation whatsoever, random flashbacks thrown in the middle of the episode to try to explain what is happening on the screen.
The animation is bad, the effects are bad, the fight scenes are bad. If you watch with censorship it's even worse because while 1 sword swing might cut someone in half at one point, in another swing it just throw people around like a club, like the sword can't cut anymore. It just make no sense.
Anyway, just don't watch it. I binged all episodes together and I've felt like some of my brain cells died a little bit.
HERMIT_PAIMON
I don't know what to say exactly . when it got announced i was hyped because manga is pretty dope with dark fantasy and revange arcs but studio literally ruined everything . it's like studio tried to compress story . so, i advice to read manga before watching adaptation because starting eps are hella confusing for non manga watchers . Art style , ost , characters design and voice acting are good the only thing it lacks is pacing , execution of story telling and more emotions into build ups . Hope so , they can improve in next season because plot is pretty intrestingand catchy . All i say it's a must watch for dark fantasy lovers .
Dh4rku
1. Plot The plot is very interesting and has a lot of potential, however, they don’t execute the climax scenes well, as they lack impact. - 8/10 2. Main character The main character is cold but, at the same time, shows emotions, making him feel more human. He is well-developed, and we can understand why he seeks revenge. - 7/10 3. Side characters The side characters lack depth and backstories; they just exist. However, they have good designs. - 5/10 3. AnimationThe animation was okay sometimes it showcased beautiful scenes, but nothing incredible. - 6/10
4. Opinion
This anime doesn’t have incredible animation it’s mid. The side characters are also mid, but the plot is very interesting. The hero was betrayed and now seeks revenge on the traitors, who are seen as heroes. The reason I didn’t drop this anime is that I love revenge stories, and the idea behind this plot is incredible. However, they don’t put enough impact into the climax scenes. So, in my opinion, this anime is a 7/10.
