The Winter 2025 Anime Preview Guide

Übel Blatt

When Wischtech was about to invade Szaalanden, the Emperor sent fourteen youths to stop the invasion. Three perished along the way, while another four were said to have betrayed the lord and were thus killed and called the "Lances of Betrayal." Only seven came back alive and became known as the "7 Heroes." Two decades later, a boy known as Koinzell began to hunt down and kill the Heroes.

Übel Blatt is based on a manga series by Etorouji Shiono. The anime series is streaming on Amazon Prime Video on Fridays.

I want it to be known that replacing the name of a thing with an insulting, childish alternative is basically the most hackneyed form of comedy known to man, especially these days, but dammit, it simply can't be helped. The opening scene of Übel Blatt is just tries so hard to be edgy and dark and portentous, only to smash cut to the credits on the funniest shot of a guy screaming his lungs out and getting drenched in gore. All I could do was laugh out loud in response. In that moment, the dead-serious Übel Blatt was instantly transformed into a much goofier thing: Öobly Blartt. I don't care that the main character's name is Koinzell. He can only ever be Öobly Blartt to me. I do care that his little girl sidekick's name is Peepi, though, because that is freaking hilarious and it only further proves the validity of this rechristening. Übel Blatt is dead. Long live Öobly Blartt.

To Öobly Blartt's credit, this is not a bad show. I clearly had some fun with it. In order to enjoy it, though, you will have to put yourself in the headspace of the people who created it. Clearly, Öobly Blartt was made by a bunch of young and overeager animation upstarts back in the 90s after their heads got full of too many light night binge sessions of Berserk chapters and Taisho energy drinks. The show must have been buried in a time capsule for three decades and only recently unearthed by Jeff Bezos' army of Putty Patrollers be added to Amazon's Prime's streaming roster in an effort to continue this very laughable attempt to pretend that the company didn't very publicly crash and burn Anime Strike into the ground less than ten years ago. This is the only logical explanation for the existence of a show that is dripping with so much earnest, ultraviolet angst. It is the very definition of "cool" to specifically the audience of sugar-addled adolescent boys that this cartoon was originally made for, when it was produced and put to film in the decade of grimdark OVAs and elves with giant ears that point sideways instead of up.

I suppose that it is technically possible that Öobly Blartt is actually the belated adaptation of a manga that the internet might reveal ran as late as 2019 but… nah, that would be crazy. Anyways, while I am confused as to why we would be covering an anime that clearly was broadcast when I was a toddler on the Preview Guide, I'm willing to run with it, since Öobly Blartt makes for a good time. This, of course, is so long as you are willing to bask in its immature edginess and ignore the clunky, flat look of a lot of its visuals. For me, that all added to the charm of the show, what with it being an authentic relic of decades long past, but if you were some reason wanting to pretend that this was the product of the anime industry of 2025, you might feel like it was trying too hard to live up to its more treasured influences. The vague worldbuilding and overconfident gestures towards emotional weight and drama that have in no way been earned will keep you scratching the back of your head at nearly every scene, wondering where you had seen this done before... just, you know, a whole lot better. You might even say it would drive you "Berserk."

As for me, while I'm not going to add Öobly Blartt to the top of my seasonal watchlist any time soon, I won't begrudge it for simply playing decent covers of other bands' greatest hits (that is, if I were operating under that ridiculous notion of the cartoon being a brand new anime that just premiered for the first time in the Year of Our Lord 2025). It's better than a bunch of the isekai crap we've had to deal with this week, at least.

I'm having a hard time getting a read on Übel Blatt, despite it being (as far as I can tell) one of the hottest properties of the season. Or at least one of the ones that the brands have the most faith in, based on the glossy hardcover release the manga has gotten. Part of this is because my brain is soup right now. After all, it's the Friday of the first week of school after a two-week winter break, over a week into preview guide, and a few days into the process of moving back into my apartment. I haven't eaten dinner yet. So if this review is a bit hazy and unfocused, that's on me.

Another part of it is that I just found it kind of unpleasant to watch. The motion and storyboarding of the animation is fine, not blowing my mind but competent. The male character designs are fine; I like Köinzell's little braids. However, the adult female characters are all dressed like they're working at Fantasy Hooter's, undoubtedly to give the underground tavern a sense of sleaze with the side effect of giving the male audience (and some of the female audience) something to ogle. I take issue with the rather unfortunately-named Peepi being put into lingerie, despite her being preadolescent and clearly uncomfortable. However, the biggest issue is the show's color design. Much like Even Given the Worthless "Appraiser" Class, I'm Actually the Strongest, the staff have decided that the best way to convey that a world is in a bad way is to color everything a nasty dun. Color exists even in dystopian religious oligarchies, people! Rainbows still shine on the villains!

Finally, I don't think it's just my brain being soup that Übel Blatt throws a lot at the audience. The Seven Heroes, greedy monks, legendary swords—it's not unusual stuff for dark fantasy or anything, but it doesn't devote a lot of time to exposition and it expects you to keep up. It belies a faith in the audience that few titles have these days in this era of second screens that I find respectable. However, it does mean that if you're not ready to invest yourself in the narrative, it's a lot easier to get bored because you don't know what's happening and probably will never find out.

We all have our own internal rating systems. For me, 3.5 can mean a few things, but here it means, “Seems pretty good, but it's not for me.” Judging on that super-fancy manga, it's for quite a few people. I have no objections.

Few anime these days throw you quite so far into the deep end as Übel Blatt does. However, that doesn't mean it's incomprehensible. We are given the setup right at the start, where 14 heroes set off to save the kingdom. Three died, and seven dropped out. The remaining four completed their mission, only to have the cowardly seven ambush and murder them on the way home to hide their shame and steal all the glory.

On the other hand, while we know the plot hook, we basically know nothing about the setting. Sure, it's a fantasy world, but is there magic? Are their demi-humans? What is the technology level of the world? None of this is told to us, it's just something we have to pick up as we watch the show. This adds a feeling of uncertainty and adventure to the show. Even Peepi, who is a country bumpkin, feels overwhelmingly more informed than we are about this world and how things work.

But more than anything else, Übel Blatt feels like an anime from a different age. Despite it looking as smooth and polished as any modern anime with a decent budget, the story and tone feel like something from the '90s or 2000s (which makes sense as the long-running manga on which the anime is based started back in 2005). It shares more with dark fantasy classics like Berserk and Claymore than most anime today.

With a straightforward revenge plot and a fantasy world that's already far removed from the modern stereotype, Übel Blatt seems off to a good start. Add that a main cast with mysteries aplenty and a classic dark tone rarely seen in anime to this day, and this looks to be a fun watch this season.

If you've read the manga this is based on – and if you haven't, the new fancy hardcover edition is gorgeous – you know what the opening scenes of this episode mean. But even if you haven't, there's something distinctly off about the way seven people calling themselves “heroes” are ganging up on one young man, slicing through his eyeball (a running theme this season) before presumably killing him. It's a study in how the world of Übel Blatt is corrupt even in its base mythology of the “Seven Heroes,” and it makes it clear why protagonist Köinzell has that hard edge to his declaration that he wants to get to their home turf.

It doesn't explain why he renames a poor child Peepi, a name she's understandably not thrilled with, but maybe it's all part of the other notable thing about the series' world: that while men are fully covered up to and sometimes including their faces, women wander around in clothing that barely covers the important bits. One scene of Altea leaning over doesn't even bother to pretend her outfit gives her the leeway to do so, and when Peepi is reclothed at Altea's tavern, someone puts her, a child, in what looks like lingerie. It wouldn't be an issue if everyone was similarly underclothed; when we can see that Köinzell and Wied, along with all the other male characters, are showing barely any skin, it's a problem. Still, thus far, the rape aspects of the early manga chapters aren't present, so that's good.

That out of the way, this isn't nearly as gory as I was expecting it to be. Sure, it's got plenty of blood, but it's also somehow less gruesome than Even Given the Worthless "Appraiser" Class, I'm Actually the Strongest. Is that because Köinzell is dealing the damage rather than receiving it? Possibly, but I think it's also a case of framing. We don't know much about Köinzell, but we do know that he's willing to jump in when he doesn't have to in order to save a girl he doesn't know, which makes him stand out as a beacon of goodness when the other characters are mustache-twirling corrupt monks or smugglers looking to make a buck. Even without knowing what his deal is, this makes it clear that he's good, or at least neutral in orientation.

The art for this episode is almost unremittingly dark, which makes sense but doesn't make it particularly enjoyable to look at. I wouldn't say that the animation isn't great, but rather that it's not all that easy to see it in action due to the grim color choices, although scenes of Köinzell's braids floating out behind him do look good. This isn't convincing me that the anime is better than or as good as the manga; in terms of which you ought to try, I'm still leaning towards “manga.” But it may still fill the Berserk-shaped hole in your anime life, and if that's appealing, I suggest giving it a chance.