Verdict: read if you have time | If you are a fan of the author it's a must read.
If you are familiar with the author, Etorouji Shiono, you would know his usual theme: stupid action, androgynous male and wacky characters. Ubel Blatt has all of that, but instead of a comedy, short burst of inspiration that the author worked on after a few rounds of wank and got bored, he decided to hold down the pedal a little this time. That's Ubel Blatt.
I'll quickly skip through the art, Ubel Blatt was beautifully drawn. The author polished his style from previous works and poured them into Ubel Blatt. His art style is rather unique, a rarity in today's world of art factory.
Ubel Blatt has a surprisingly strong basic plot for an author with 15 series in his name, all ended within a few volumes. The main character has very strong and relatable motivation. His decisions however were quite arbitrary, as the author waffled about for 15 god damn years, and you can even sense the deviation in tone as the story progressed as he changed magazine, editor, favourite girl at the soapland, porn genre and smartphone. Just about the same amount of time as the main character got lost in the woods. It is a basic revenge plot that spirals out of control and escalates into a larger conflict. If you binge it, it might feel a little rushed, with many characters being introduced briefly before being killed off or disappearing to do something else and never seem to be that important. I would remind you again that some gap between chapters lasted a few years, enough time for the unfortunate readers to re-read it a few times. That's not to say the side characters are not interesting or unimportant. They all have a certain impact on the plot but not always the overall picture. They have ample character development, sometimes more than the main character, for better or worse, as if the author took 2 years to build the subplot.
Jokes about 15 asides, there's something going on with Ubel Blatt plot that makes it hard to put down. The story is simple, straight forward with little intrigue and importantly, the reader does not need to read between the lines to follow. It might be simplistic, even shallow, but somehow, the passion of the characters to me really comes across. The main character's quest for revenge feels very personal while the supporting cast's determination to follow through with their beliefs were also given ample amount of pages. The thing about Shiono is he has done so much gag stuff that he can capture the flow of the story very well, telling it without being too wordy nor too little exposition. The charm is the action after all, and he did that with expertise, no surprise from his backlog of gag action works. The magic might be intensity and passion, which is strange because the main character is rather the opposite, cold and collected. It's not non-stop action, there are many talkative moments as well, but the authors dish them out with mastery, never flooding the reader with information. While it merely provides the background for the action, as you would forget all about them after you finish the chapter, they always provide the stake for the next fight. You seldom stop and think: why do they have to fight?
For me, this is why this is his magnum opus, even if its ending is very rushed and disappointing, much like the author's recent orgasm I suspect. To me, a piece of entertainment either makes me feel, or numb my senses. This is one of those that made me feel. I can always sympathise with the characters' struggle, even if they are a little cliche. I, like many, were disappointed that the author lost interest half way through the story and limped towards the finish.
A magnum opus in the pile low brow plastic wrapper might still be trash, but to me it is fun and beautiful in its own way, like a rabid rodent letting out a beautiful death rattle.
P/S:
Coming back to Ubel Blatt every few years had been a little guilty pleasure of mine. On this trip, it reminded me of why the shallow starting plot of “hero betrayed” in recent fantasy/isekai instant noodle comics irks me so much. Ubel Blatt handled that plot straightforwardly with all of the intensity and, more importantly, creating a somewhat actual moral dilemma about revenge. It doesn’t hit you on the head about why revenge is bad, nor did it indulge in “revenge porn”. Far from it. Every kill in Ubel Blatt was a struggle and full of sorrow and regret. These “revenge” plots do not have to be surface level nor appealing within 10 minutes. The villain does not have to be so straightforwardly evil. They can be selfish, lustful and prideful, yet as a reader, you can still sympathise with what they had become. It’s a trope for them to be so, because revenge is something quite personal and destructive not just to those around but also to themselves. That’s because the core emotional struggle of revenge is that you know revenge won’t make anything better, it can only make things worse, but there are things that are forgivable and things that just can’t be. It’s the agony of being alive, carrying all of that emotional weight.
How can the author add emotional weight to the main character being abandoned by his “classmates” as they got lost in another world? You have to have trust before betrayal. If someone you don’t trust or don’t like leaves you behind, that’s not betrayal, that’s “I’m going to live bitch”. It would leave no impact on the story, at all. Ideally, the betrayer should embody something like classism or cowardice, and it should be unexpected. It doesn’t have to happen “in real time” either. Ubel Blatt didn’t beat around the bush too much on the betrayal plotline, but it dedicated an entire first act to the mystery and not revealing its hand too quickly. Once it was revealed, it had more impact as you witnessed the world, the consequence and the betrayed man. It makes everything have so much more weight by treating the traitors as plot development and not a minor detail. Now, if the story is not about betrayal then don’t even bother with it. Get revenge out of the story entirely.
If a mangaka whose expertise is androgynous male, cross-dressing, magical girl can write such a compelling but simple plot, almost on a whim, there’s no excuse for writers and damn editors who keep on printing trashy copy paste web novels.
