(L) Übel Blatt

[myopius]

Let's see, I should do some sort of introduction-type blurb...


Ubel Blatt (Unlicensed)
Author: Shiono Etorouji
Genre: Seinen, Fantasy, Action, Adventure, Mature, Ecchi
Serialized in Young GanGan since 2004 (5 volumes currently, not including volume 0)
Site: http://www.square-enix.co.jp/magazin...on/ubel_blatt/

When Wischtech threatened to invade the fiefs of Szaalanden, the Emperor dispatched fourteen youths. Of these, the Seven Heroes halted the invasion to herald a time of prosperity while the four Lances of Betrayal were supposedly defeated.

Two decades later, the Lances of Betrayal have reappeared and formed a bandit militia near the frontier fief of Count Gormbark. A man with the black sword and a scar over his left eye slays an entire troop of that militia. He is identified as a boy, Kóinzell, and becomes as much an object of fear as of hope even as his own past, motivations, and purpose are a mystery to those he meets in his travel.

(I wrote this description up. Too bad I couldn't spoil volume 0 to write it....)

This is currently the manga whose new chapters I most anticipate. People have compared it to Berserk. I've looked at the description for Berserk and people's discussion of it and the characters and storyline don't look like they'd interest me, but I suppose it must be a valid comparison to many people, so I figured I'd offered it. I doubt Koinzell's character resembles the Berserk's protagonist much, though.

It's seinen, in other words it's not all just a story meant to make you go "ooo, ahh" toward the protagonist, although the protagonist is extremely skilled with the sword and possesses some supernatural characteristics/abilities. There's blood and gore, and there's also ecchi that's... very ecchi. It's set in a fantasy world, which means it's got the typical medievel-ish setting. What really involves me are the characters and the plot, and also the storytelling which takes its time.

Sushi Bar Manga is scanlating this, they're doing it fast though they're only up to volume 1 chapter 3 (there was a volume 0) out of the current 5 volumes that've come out since the series started in 2004 (basically, they've scanlated like ~20% of it since it started a month back, I guess).

Who else is reading this and what do you think? Eh, the fact that this topic hadn't been made already probably means there's a good chance I won't get much of a response, but someone must be.

[Same_Shark]

I'm definately loving the art. Hope the downloads come back up soon.

[Skullvex]

Anyone able to PM me a site with volumes 1-5 translated or are they not done yet?

[Hydex]

Not done yet.

Great manga, I "read" the raws, and it remains quite good so far.

[myopius]

SBM has a download site at <url removed> (note: they don't do licensed manga so I can post that, whew). Yes, they've done all of Volume 0 and 3 out of 8 chapters (which seem to be 35 pages) of Volume 1. They started nearly two months back and are releasing a new chapter every week or two, it seems (shortest: 5 days, longest: 14 days). Last one came out four days back.

Hydex, good to hear. I've been stalking the cover art for later volumes at amazon.co.jp and it definitely intrigues me (anyone who wants to do the same should put 978-4757519701 in the search box and you'll be taken to Volume 5).... For instance,

Spoiler for Awesome Volume 5 cover art:

Only problem = the sword is too short and thin. And this is completely random of me, but

Spoiler for Events of Volume 0, don't read unless you've read it:

it'd be interesting if she turned out to be the hero of the heavenly rule. Although the smile on her face makes me think she could be too unserious about it if she was. Yeah, no doubt someone like Hydex who's probably read that far and knows how totally off I am has a face like x.x upon reading my speculation. Those two people in the back left are probably Jeln and Klentz, and they may be traveling with her since they also have their swords drawn out, but maybe the cover art is just trying a convey a "Koinzell must die" vibe.

[Axispipe]

it's a great manga so far.... I'm up to chapter 20 waiting on the next translated release.

[gnajub]

anyone know how many chapters are out in japan?
i have 49 chapters [in RAW format of course] but i'm not sure that chapter 49 is the latest

[Xellos-_^]

Just read up to chp25.

A incredible story.

As the op said a Berserk like story. Betrayle, Sex and murder.

Hopefully the rest gets translated soon.

[Guido]

When I saw the title for this manga I immediately made haste (and no waste) and started reading it.

An hour ago I finished chapter one.

Surprisingly, Köinzell had me fooled thinking that he was a "girl", until I found out once Elenje changed his bandages that he is indeed a boy.

BTW, for some odd and freak reason Übel Blatt revived on me thoughts about Deltora Quest (anime) but don't heed my words.

After reading through chapter one this manga is a solid seinen title, since there are adult situations, sex, violence, and gore. However, if I compared the content in it with other seinen titles of the same caliber, then I say it is fairly normal and mild.

Besides that, to me Übel Blaat feels like a sum of Berserk, Record of Lodoss War, and Rurounin Kenshin (because the main character, Köinzell, is fairly kind and non-violent at first glance but when pissed off or getting serious turns into a merciless slasher).

[Cocopuffs240]

im just reading it but it already has me addicted

[Xellos-_^]

it is a incredible series. One i do NOT want to see made into a anime. As anime ver will have the level of sex and violence tone down considerably.

Can you imagine how much black ink will be waste if Ubel Blatt is made into a anime.

[Tiamat's Disciple]

It could be done really well if a decent company picks it up Xellos.

It's actually one of those i want to see as an anime >.<

[D a m i e n]

I cant understand this hype around this manga, even less the fact people compare it to berserk.
The artwork is childish the character have the stereotypical look of a shonen manga, the main guy supposed to be a hero of about 25+ years (before the story even begin) yet he is turned into a 14year through a plot-twist in order to appeal the teenagers.
There is some sex scene in order to appel an even a wider range of readers. those scenes come out of the blue and the 14years old boy has a sexappeal that put James Bond to shame (it really feels like : " zomg this kid is hot i feel like a female pedobear when i look at him). not to mention that every girl in the story is falling for him like bugs on a bugzaper.
The mainguy power is the typical overpowered shonen power.
sure there is some violence but /shrug nothing that spectacular.

the manga will turns out to rediculous once you reach the bald cleric dude that cries everytime he gets emotional.

basically it s a typical shonen with just a little bit more mature touch. instead of being aimed at a 13~14 years old audience this one is aimed to a 16 years old audience.

it s eons away from manga like berserk, gantz, shamo, eden.

[Tiamat's Disciple]

Well Damien, thats exactly how i feel about Berserk. I think beserk sucks, its nothing but mindles violence with sex thrown in as an afterthought.

Ubel is different, it actually has a solid story to build on, and does it fairly well. Is it perfect? Hell no, but thats part of its charm.

The main hero, Koinzell is far from being superpowered. And the reason for his body form makes more sense than anything out of berserk. He can only use his abilities under certain circumstances, it's not like he ruins around with them blazing all the time. If memory serves aswell it's also a seinen (or the korean equiz) not shounen.

It's not like berserk, it's better than beserk. For me atleast, better than gnatz and shamo, another two i got bored of very quickly. In a lot of ways it's better than Eden aswell, though i do like Eden. However there's a huge flaw in all of your comparisons, they japanese, Ubel is korean.

I don't try and compare manga to others, i prefer to enjoy each on their own merits. Sure i'll look for other manga buy the same mangaka, but i don't bother trying o compare them. Next thing you know you'll be comparing Elemental Gerade and Air Gear or something.

[D a m i e n]

i first wrote a whole wall of text giving my argument at why Berserk is far ahead of ubel but since we both have our opinion and none will convince the other it would just end up in a boring bickering for the other readers so i ll just reply to the 2 point about violence and sex in Berserk.

i think Berserk is far from mindless violence, Violence raised to a level that makes it almost "beautiful" due to all the detail and the work done to picture every small details. Violence is pictured much better in berserk, the graphism is also much closer to art in berserk than drawing in ubel, i m not saying ubel is not well drawn.
i dont remember Sex being just an afterthoug as you state in Berserk. in Berserk the sex scene serves a purpose in the current plot instead of just a woman randomly coming toward koinzel and telling him "do me!!!! (midget)"

ubel is imo an attempt to do a dark seinen manga (or whatever is the equivalent in korean) but failing to get free of the shackles of the shounen genre. i think ubel could have been good but it was done walking inbetween 2 paths.

i dont compare manga either but when someone brings the comparison between 2 books i concider i can just give my opinion about the comparison.

[Xellos-_^]

like you said, there is no point in arguing since neither side will convince the other. So the questions is why are in this thread abut Ubel Blatt?

If you didn't like it why say anything about it? Your behavior borders on trollish.

As for Ubel Blatt and Berserk. Other then some supercifical resemblance the 2 are very different. As Guts and Konzell are different characters with very different motivations.

[myopius]

From my perspective it's okay to be critical as long as you're willing to discuss your opinion. Although to be honest, anything is okay with me, as long as people are paying attention to good manga. =)

I recently read (up to the latest chapter of) Berserk at the recommendation of my friend who had been telling me it's great for months. So I read Ubel Blatt before I read Berserk. There are certainly a few big plot points that make them resemble each other, and I can see the influence, but Ubel Blatt isn't Berserk or a lesser Berserk. I'm really behind on Ubel Blatt so my description may be somewhat vague, but here's my comparison.

Similarities: Koinzell and Gutts are both people who are struggling emotionally after a severe trauma which marked the end of their previous lives, in a medieval world, and end up greatly influencing and occasionally traveling with the people they meet, and occasionally put at odds with people who are misinformed about him like the Church, with some sort of "prophecy" afoot, generally in pursuit of someone(s) they want to kill. In short, an amazing number of (surface) similarities.

Differences: Gutts is a good man with the personality of a loner who's struggling to keep his rage from betraying everything he cares about, while Koinzell is a cynical emo who lost everything and put himself on the path of revenge to try because he can't find any other life for himself. (Koinzell isn't someone who cares about nothing but his desire for revenge, he's someone who's struggling to find meaning for his pseudo-existence in a future which no longer appears to have any use for him and furthermore believes he's the bad guy.) The setting and background plot of Ubel Blatt contains much more complexity/variety and is explicitly characterized, while Berserk's background is generic and only provides depth as it's immediately relevant while relying on intense imagery to characterize events (e.g. Volume 0 ended with a short but powerful revelation by Koinzell about his past with more flashbacks shown in later chapters when relevant including at least one vignette-like flashback omake, while Berserk took a whole 10 or 15 volumes to slowly develop the back story, with many two-page spreads that had few or no words). Ubel Blatt has sort of a "cute" atmosphere occasionally but with few if any direct jokes, with ecchi that's somewhat overt, while later volumes of Berserk contain quite a few silly character interactions (e.g. Puck+Isidro = a comic duo) and the ecchi is totally indirect (more "artful" than "pornographic"--doesn't really earn the letter "H"). And like I said, I'm way behind on Ubel Blatt, but last I checked it seemed that Ubel Blatt was slowly taking time to develop Koinzell's past through occasional flashbacks while maintaining most of its focus on Koinzell himself, while Berserk had a giant flashback arc early on and the latter half of the series ("latter" with the #/volumes produced so far, I mean) has a pretty split perspective between Gutts's party and Femto's party, with pretty much zero flashback arcs, and most the time that's spent on Gutts' party is spent developing other characters (like Schierke, the witch) way more than Gutts himself.

People enjoy things for different reasons. Some people, for instance, might like Clannad because of the subtle romantic develop and clever character interactions (me), others because of the intense character drama, others just because of the moe. If all you care about in manga is setting and plot elements, you'll probably see a lot of similarities between these two manga, but otherwise I see a lot of differences.

There are many people who claim that Ubel Blatt is shounen-y that I'd like to think there's merit to it, but I can never hear an explanation which satisfies me. I guess the only thing to say is just that "shounen" is a demographic and thus is determined by the magazine it's serialized in, not an individual's impression or assumption based on some purportedly immature or cliched story element. Well, if it's too kiddish for you guys, the only thing I can really do is just apologize for your loss. Consider getting more in touch with your inner child sometime, whatever that may mean to you. =o

[Xellos-_^]

looks like each vol is on e 6 month rls schedual. Since vol6 was rls in 09/25/2007, vol7 won't get rls till 03/25/2008.that is a long wait.

[Kupownage]

Ive read through chapter 27, I think this is a pretty good manga (not on par w/ Claymore or Gantz but still good). Honestly I much prefer this to Beserk simply because the main character feels alot more developed. There really seems to be some motivation behind him, other then randomly killing everything in sight. (Only got to chapter 8ish on Beserk before i had to put it down)

All around the story has a couple stereotypical chars, and im forced to agree on the sex in this manga, it does seem just "thrown in". Not really sure what's up with that, but I guess they just needed some nudity for kicks.

[Xellos-_^]

The raw for upto ch63 is rls.

Anyone know where i can find the Chinese ver of this?