Übel Blatt

Episode 8

Übel Blatt's terminally dull anime adaptation lumbers clumsily into its next story arc with a leaden groan in episode 8. Now that his first target, Landgrave Schtemwölech is dead, Köinzell is the talk of the kingdom, even featuring as the vilified subject of propagandized stage plays. Köinzell wanders aimlessly, disguised as a woman, unable to gather usable intel on his next target, the creepy and paranoid Batterygrave Barestar (what's with these godawful names?). To any other viewers still bothering to stick with Übel Blatt this far, I want to ask “why?”, because trudging through this awful show week by week makes me feel as frustrated as Köinzell.

I can't bring myself to care for any of these characters. They're not only drawn in the most flat, uninspiring style, their overly simplified and colorful designs clashing garishly against the detailed, dark purple backdrops, but their personalities are flat too. We know so little about Köinzell that it's almost impossible to care for his revenge story, and his companions are so lightly sketched they're practically cardboard cutouts. Who is Peepi, other than a poor little waif that exists as a joke name, and a vulnerable frame upon which to continually place totally inappropriate clothing? In only the second image of this episode, we see all three main female characters stripped to wear skimpy exotic dancewear. It isn't remotely sexy, it's exploitative and uncomfortable, not to mention totally unnecessary. Similarly we know almost nothing about Aht or Altea, nor why they bother to follow Köinzell around.

For a dark fantasy show to be entertaining, it needs good characters, an interesting world, decent stakes, and compelling action. Übel Blatt has none of these. No character is compelling, the show is boring, the action animation is laughably poor, random shit happens for no good reason, and I am rapidly losing patience with it. The only ray of light in this desperately sub-par installment is the introduction of four knights of the Order of the Seven Spears charged with eliminating Köinzell. Female knight Elsaria at least seems to have some kind of personality and a decent design. Whether she can help lift Übel Blatt out of its terminal spiral into pointlessness and tedium remains to be seen, however.

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