Ubel Blatt, Vol. 1

Übel Blatt #2-3

by Etorouji Shiono (Creator), Caleb D. Cook (Translator)

After twenty long years in the dark, the time has come for a confrontation with Glenn, one of the Seven Heroes!


Hatred...envy...confusion...Köinzell's heart overflows with emotion as he moves singularly toward his revenge, blade in hand! But it only takes an instant for the situation to take an unexpected turn...

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Sequential Art, Seinen, Action, Adventure

452 pages, Paperback

First published January 20, 2015

About the author

Etoroji Shiono est un auteur japonais.

Il affirme aimer la photographie et les voyages. Même si son métier de mangaka ne le laisse pas vraiment vivre cette passion.

Son éditeur est Square Enix. D'ailleurs, c'est Square Enix qui lui ont demandé de faire une histoire de Dark Fantasy. Etorouji tout de suite aimé l'audace de cette maison d'édition, alors il a commencé à dessiner ce qui est aujourd'hui Übel Blatt. Mais avant, il a crée les histoires de Broken Blood (Deux tomes), Extra Existence (one-shot) et six (One-Shot)

Reviews

[Doc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vengeance from the Borderlands

Just in case you think this is the beginning of the series let me assure you there is a bit before here in Ubel Blatt, Vol. 0 where we discover the betrayal and assassination's attempt of the main character of the story leading him to his present day urges of revenge against those betrayed the true heroes from his day. I will also warn people that this is a dark fantasy series and as such contains not only violence but also nudity and mature situations though none of these scenes are detailed hentai. If such things worry or bother you I seriously suggest not trying this series and for the rest I hope you enjoy. :)

After destroying the Heaven's Lance, Köinzell is on his way to the camp where he can find the so called 7 Heroes but vengeance is rarely easy when the odds are against you even if you have a legendary power. Besides it would be a fairly anticlimactic series if he got his revenge so fast and conveniently. :)

Now begins the true journey of a man betrayed by companions who painted themselves as saints who gained power among the people after betraying those that really saved the kingdom. New and old allies come and go as Köinzell gets his chance to face off against the first of his betrayers and those faithful to him.

[Karissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first volume in the Ubel Blatt series and I liked it better than Vol 0. The illustration is decent, not amazing, but well done. The story is epic fantasy in nature.

My biggest complaint about this series so far is the sheer number of characters that are thrown at the reader right from the start. By the end of the volume I had mostly straightened out who was who; but it was a struggle at first. I did really enjoy the action scenes throughout; they were well done and easy to follow.

The story jumps around a bit between past and present. The main premise is that Koinzell has determined he needs to kill the Seven Heroes in revenge. He ends up traveling with a group of other characters during his quest.

Bits of all of the characters’ pasts are slowly revealed. This is a well done epic fantasy story and by the end of the manga I was engaged and interested in the story. You have to be patient with the first part of this volume because it is a bit of both a character and information overload.

Overall this was a well done epic fantasy manga. The drawing and story is well done. There are waaayyyy too many characters introduced right away and this was a bit confusing. However, this settled down as the volume continued. I would recommend to adult and older manga readers who enjoy epic fantasy manga. This isn’t even close to being as good as Vinland Saga, but it is decently done and entertaining. I plan on continuing the series.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like it could be a really, really good story... if I had any clue what were going on.

[Bradley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ubel Blatt mixes a lot of things for surface cool in shallow waters. It is fantasy that has mythical beasts, airships, magical-sword-stuff, castles, two moons, and very medieval Dark Age living environments with atypical clothes of that period. It also features sex, flying limbs, betrayal, corny reveals and flashbacks. Some of these things come out of nowhere (sex), some of these things are used and forgotten (mythical beasts & airships) and then some of these things are too crucial to the story’s detriment (flashbacks & reveals). To be fair I glossed over the pages where normally I would take my sweet time.

All-in-all this manga can be an entertaining read if it’s what you’re looking for. It has a sense of cool, it is a bit mature (sometimes for its own sake) and it does feature some cool panels that stick out in my mind. There is an image of a character balancing on a scaffold looking like a gargoyle and those types of things are just plain cool to me. If anything I mentioned peaks an interest in you then you might find you like it. I will keep it in the back of my mind to give volume 2 a test drive. The beginning started out much stronger than the rest, so we will see.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good. Always so intense. A little over the top.

[Elias Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really great volume. I’m excited to continue with the series

[Yuliia · Rating 4 out of 5]

interested

[Lanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series is absolutely amazing. An epic fantasy tale of truly impressive scales, with a richly developed and clearly well planned out world. Absolutely brilliant artwork with amazing graphic fight scenes. A large cast of characters, including a badass, rather insane, and sympathetic anti hero protagonist who I absolutely adore. (koinzell is awesome!) & an great storyline with themes of vengeance & legends vs. reality.

I highly recommend this to anyone who loves both epic fantasy & manga. If you like really dark and gorey and adult series like "game of thrones" "black butler" or "shadowdance" you'll probably really enjoy "ubel blatt."

But seriously though. Adult readers only. This is way to graphic for the kids. Rated R for swearing, violence, and nudity.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

While less sexually gratuitous than the previous volume (but wow, is it uncomfortable in the one sex scene there is, with Koinzell looking so young), this is still a somewhat confusing, slow moving book. That feels strange to say about a volume packed with fights, but none of them feel like they're really in service of moving Koinzell's revenge plot anywhere useful, which is a problem. On the other hand, Shiono does a great job of showing how history is written by the victors, and the Seven So-Called Heroes wrote that book well. For all of its issues, I still enjoyed this, but it wouldn't necessarily be a series I'd recommend to others, if that makes any sense.

[Kit Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been keeping track of this book since november when I first stumbled across it on Amazon. I don't know why, as the description was rather vague, but as I finally got my hands on this beauty I was able to revel in all of its bloody glory. Honestly, this book was a diamond in the rough. While it does contain some rather... inappropriate scenes, I feel that they bring the story together in a way that a censored scene could not.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This thing is, like the previous volume, very graphic -- at times, rather gratuitously so. The ideas behind it are interesting, though, and the story keeps pulling me along.

[Serdar · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one might need a couple of volumes to find its stride.