Übel Blatt ‒ Episode 4

To say this episode is marginally better than the last isn’t saying much – at least it’s vaguely coherent. We kick off with Köinzell facing off against those nasty brigands, of whom he makes short work. Their leader complains that he was presented with his fancy blade by Schtemwolech’s henchman Fargo, so he should be immune to being attacked, but no one cares, not even Fargo himself when he randomly and rather conveniently appears out of nowhere.

Fargo’s a blue-haired noble who murders his brigand minion before he can blab about his dastardly plans for the kidnapped Miruel-Mirael girls. It’s obvious that Fargo’s a villain, and his act of praising Köinzell for his swordsmanship doesn’t convince either our haunted murder boy or his sort-of-ally Wied. Wied’s still fixated on finding Scharen, and while Geranpen seems clueless, Fargo admits he knows something, inviting Wied and Aht to his keep to see the missing princess. Predictably, this doesn’t go well, with Fargo instead unleashing a horde of undead monstrosities to kill them.

While Wied and Aht are otherwise engaged, Fargo dons his hilariously on-the-nose villain mask (he looks like he’s cosplaying as an extra for Eyes Wide Shut) and proceeds to the refugee camp to slaughter Keffi’s parents. Keffi sleeps through the entire ordeal, which probably isn’t meant to be hilarious, but kind of is. Not even Peepi’s shrieking wakes him. This is the kind of story where if kindly adults offer to take in an orphaned child, they’re likely to be murdered shortly after. We barely get to meet them, and already they’re been transformed into a hideous deformed monstrosity by Fargo’s mastery of Wischtech’s Dark Arts. Why does he do this? Presumably, he’s just pissed off at Keffi foiling his Miruel-Mirael trafficking operation, there’s little nuance or interiority to his actions.

Köinzell breaks out his unholy tentacle swords (which are pretty cool) and severs Fargo’s arms, but can’t finish him off because suddenly a bunch of people appear and assume he’s behind Keffi’s parents’ transformation, chasing him off despite Peepi’s claims to the contrary. No one believes Peepi. Köinzell’s saved by Wied and Aht who have escaped certain death because Aht randomly summons a magical beast just in the nick of time, because that’s something she apparently can do. Not sure why she waited until she and Wied’s faces were almost eaten off by their new friends, but very little in this show makes sense.

What makes even less sense is Aht’s tearful admission to Köinzell that she no longer sees him as an enemy for murdering her brother Kratt. It somehow turns out he saved him. What? Did I miss something here? It feels like important plot points are being skipped past in a race through the source material, new viewers be damned. I hate it when shows make me feel like I’ve not been paying attention when in reality it’s due to piss-poor storytelling.

At least some of the action scenes are reasonably okay, with a couple of smooth and bloody shots for Köinzell’s more violent escapades. At other times the animation is so hilariously limited it’s hard to believe it’s from the same show, let alone the same episode. Übel Blatt‘s production is so scattershot and inconsistent that I can’t believe for a moment it’s doing its source justice. It also doesn’t help that Amazon Prime Video chose to initially release the episode without English subtitles, though there were nineteen other languages to choose from! If I wasn’t obligated to continue reviewing this disappointment of a show, I’d have dropped it already.

Rating:

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