Manga Review: Übel Blatt

Köinzell may look emo, but he prefers to slit your throat than his wrists.

When Wischtech threatened to invade the Empire of Szaalanden, the Emperor formed a party of 14 young warriors, armed them with Holy Lances and dispatched them on a mission to stop the invasion. 3 died on the way and they were called the Precious Departed; 4 betrayed the Emperor and were killed for it, they were named the Lances of Betrayal; the remaining 7 sucessfully completed the mission and were dubbed with the title of the 7 Heroes.

20 years have passed and the winds of war begin to blow again across Szaalanden .The Four Lances of Betrayal who were supposely dead reappear to launch a civil war right in the border lands. In the midst of these conflitcs appears a mysterious young boy with a scar over his left eye and a overwhelming swordmanship skill. Who is this kid who can slain whole regiments and has strange unnatural skills? In his eyes lays a dark past more old than his appearance betrays.

Story Synopsis

The frontier fiefs of Szaalanden are being threatened by a rebel army lead by the Lances of Betrayal, 4 traitors of the Empire who were though to be dead 20 years ago, The Spears of Betrayal. Near the position of one of the Spears, Kfer, a troop of 100-men was killed by a mysterious guy with a black sword and a scar on his left eye, so a hunt for that man begins. Later during a raid of a small village where that man was rumored to be, Kfer is killed by Köinzell, the young boy with a faint scar over his left eye, a swordmanship never seen for years and 4 black tentacles shaped as swords who come out from his right arm.

Will it Blend? – Army of Soldiers

During that incident, he is found by a party of the private army of Glenn, leader of the Seven Heroes, who wants to take him to the capital. The Emperor’s astrologer has foreseen that the Empire and the Seven Heroes would be threatened by a catastrophe and a hero would rise at the frontier. They think that Köinzell is this hero.

The rest of this arc revolves around the slaying of the remaining Lances of Betrayal and a revelation about Köinzell’s past, who may be the prophetized catastrophe.

About The Manga

Übel Blatt is a Seinen Manga serialized in Young GanGan by Shiono Etorouji, a recent mangaka who only has made a couple of One-shots. The manga starts by the Volume 0, which is acts as a set up introducing Köinzell’s past and motives. Excluding this volume, the manga has already 5 volumes released.

This ain’t no loli.

Reasons To Read This Manga

1. The Dark Fantasy genre of this manga is very appealing. Mix that with the fluid action scenes and the small breaks between them and you god a great story who doesn’t get boring.

2. A detail you will notice is the extreme violence and the very ecchi scenes. This isn’t really a reason to read but it is unusual to be so explicit in a japanese manga, so you may like the way those scenes are portrayed.

3. Köinzell’s past is revealed little by little during the manga and shows several aspects of his former life which makes us want for more info so we can connect all the events.

Übel Blatt it’s really hard to define or say why I like it (this post took me a whole week to make it and I’m still not satisfied on how I described Übel Blatt…). One thing is certain, not everyone will like it and some aspects of it can make you not like it at first sight (the first time I showed the manga to Impz, he was screaming “HENTAI, HENTAI, HENTAI!” ). But Übel Blatt has his own charm because it is this rough. The drawing style is solid and smooth, the plot is great if you enjoy tales of revenge and the supporting characters ha teir own appeal too. If you read Berserk or Claymore and liked it, you will probably like this too.

Slash and Dash.