Übel Blatt

Episode 7

Without pausing for breath, episode seven continues the inexplicably mutated monster/angel-formed Köinzell battle against Landgrave Schtemwölech and his army of mind-controlled fairy girls. Cackling with insanity, Köinzell makes a short work of the girls before dismembering and then eviscerating a screaming Schtemwölech who begs for mercy. “We used to be so close,” he whines, “Please don't do this.” Köinzell dispatches him without a second thought, declaring “That was just the first of the seven. Six more left.” Übel Blatt's edginess isn't lessening one bit, though that's unsurprising – it is marketed as a revenge tale, after all. If you're not all in on Köinzell's blood-soaked quest for vengeance by this point, then you should realize that this story is absolutely not for you.

For some reason, Schtemwölech's castle starts to crumble as lake water spews in through cracks in the masonry. Was Köinzell's demonstration of occult power so overwhelming? We check in on still-sobbing Geranpen, cradling his dead “big bro” Fargo, and even see a cloyingly sentimental flashback detailing their first meeting. Geranpen had the potential to be an interesting character – a man who looks so terrifying that everyone assumes he's a bad guy when in reality he has a heart of gold. Unfortunately, his sheer stupidity, gullibility, and deeply irritating, out-of-place campiness conspire to make him a groan-worthy addition to any scene in which he appears. It strains credulity that he's even alive having been stabbed through the torso multiple times, but he then seemingly dies needlessly when a deluge of water whisks him away.

Exhausted and diminished by his magic expenditure, Köinzell's not quite the man he was, to the point he's regressed to looking like a painfully thin fairy child around the same age as Peepi (who returns after a brief absence, along with former people smuggler Altea). The main cast are all back together, however briefly, before Wied and Scharen decide to go their separate ways, leaving former lone wolf Köinzell with a trio of women followers – Peepi, who seems to have fixated emotionally on him, Aht, who for some reason seems to idolize him despite him killing her brother and Altea… who hangs around… just because? I have no idea. I assume that character motivations and backgrounds are a casualty of the talentless adaptation from manga to anime where so much essential context information was removed.

One potentially interesting development is how the people of Mollan mourn their dead Landgrave so deeply. Despite being such a horrible man who betrayed Ascheriit, and subsequently sacrificed hundreds of fairy maidens to prolong his life, it seems that he was loved by his people. Could it be that he was a decent ruler, despite his secret evil deeds? Köinzell doesn't waver in his determination that all seven “heroes” need to die, but Peepi is notably rattled by the people's devotion. If the other “heroes” are held in such high regard, Köinzell's quest to kill them is likely to cause societal ruptures. There's potential there for a nuanced exploration of the morality of power and the types of people who become leaders, but I don't have much confidence that Übel Blatt's anime will do the topic justice.

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Übel Blatt is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video on Fridays.