Ueki no Housoku

The Law of Ueki

This anime starts pretty weak. When you first walk into The Law of Ueki, there's not really anything to pull you in. It's a shounen anime. Ok, sweet, shounen I can get in the mood for shounen. So what's the main character able to do? Turn trash into trees. Awesome! wait what. He can turn trash into..... trees...

That's pretty much what The Law of Ueki will hit you with. However, that's what turns this anime into something so brilliant.

--Story--
You've read the synopsis so let's cut to the chase. The story in The Law of Ueki is definitely not its strongest point. As far as shounens go, The Law of Ueki is ahead of its competitors. Ueki strives towards his goals one step at a time, while meeting characters who ultimately he befriends. Stick in some backstory for the characters and you have the formula that The Law of Ueki pretty much adheres to.

As for the actual plot, I would give it a 8. It's interesting, because even God has a backstory in this anime. Although the story does take a bit of a dive in the middle, and never really fully recovers. Other aspects of the anime (I.E. the battles, which is what Shounen is pretty much about) more than make up for it.

--Art/Animation--
There's not much to comment about. Everything is done as it should be. The Law of Ueki isn't an anime that's going to wow you with its visuals. Nor is it an anime
that you can't bear to watch because your eyes are bleeding. The anime doesn't cut any corners, and battles are animated to what they need to be. There's no
slow-mo hi-def sword battles in this one. But that's really not something The Law of Ueki should even be judged on.

--Music--
The music is simply great. It's basically your daily allotment of Jpop But of course, does it contribute to the anime? I would say yes. Some
of the fights and situations in the anime really get you pumped because of the added music, and that's what I believe a 8/9 under music should do for you.
Clearly The Law of Ueki is no Yoko Kanno composition, but hey it gets the job done and it gets it done very well.


--Characters--
The strong point of the anime is right here. At first, Ueki seems kind of empty actually. However, over time Ueki begins to really become that
character you root for. Sometimes his "justice" oversteps the line and you simply facepalm or headdesk, but thats a rare occurance.

The characters are well developed, because their backstories are superb.Each character becomes unique and well defined while all contributing
to the overall enjoyment of the show. Even the character I hated the most (Saru) had his good moments. Although a part of me wanted a little more
"interaction" between Ueki and Mori, alas it was not to be.

What's the best about the characters in The Law of Ueki, is that the anime also pays attention to the villains. Although they clearly aren't given
as much attention as the main heroes, The Law of Ueki really nails it by giving them just the right amount of attention. It's not a 1 minute "blah blah blah
this is why he hates Ueki/wants to win/hates person X/wants to destroy the world" nor is it an episode dedicated to a character who ends up writen off in the recap
time of the net episode.

--Overall--
Overall The Law of Ueki is a superb shounen. The creativity behind the battles makes it a very enjoyable watch just because you think
"Well how is he gonna get out of this one?" That question isn't simply answered by "OH MY GOD HE HAS ASCENDED AND HE'S KICKIN ASS!" There's actually thought behind each battle, and that's what differentiates the average shounen from the great shounen.

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___________________________________________ Review the 6th

Chihuahua Review(short&sweet): This is a good shounen(bunch of guys and action) to watch. There are alot of unique characters. Let me rephrase that there are a lot of UNIQUE powers here.

------------------------------>In Depth Review:<------------------------
STORY: This is not, I repeat NOT just some lame, generic kid show. The story here is a for spot to become God. Here angels become god-candidates who choose kids to give powers to and then let them battle. The main character Ueki who believes deeply in justice. This may still sound lame and generic but the story execution was great with fun interesting strategies in every battle. The only real problem is parts of the story didnt make sense. 200 abilities for one person and only 100losers so far(you'll understand later).

ART: Animation was well and the battles really drawn exceptionally well adding to the fights intensity. However at times the main characters look really young and it was really hard to take them seriously during dramatic moments. It does becomes unnoticeable with the addictive story.

SOUND: The opening and endings were REALLY good in this one and the background music was passable. The voice acting was great here with the infamous Paku, Romi playing the main Ueki. Guess that's why I thought of Full Metal Alchemist while I was watching this.

CHARACTER: The characters here were really well made and there were alot and after watching it, I doubt there will be a character that youll end up hating. So many powers(trash into trees, towels to steel, etc.) they're so weird but u cant not like them.>_< The powers even get stronger.

ENJOIMENT: I couldn't stop watching this when i started it was so addicting I always wanted to find out wat happend next. Everything blended so well! Very close to being a nine overall. Ending was nice and really hope there is a second season(heard rumors).

OVERALL: No matter how generic this anime sounds it is good and definately worth a watch. Even though everything about it is not that great, the execution was amazing.

Recommendation: If you like shounens with a dash of fantasy and magic watch this. If you like this then watch the Prince of Tennis or Full Metal Alchemist.^_^

If you dissagreed OR agreed fully with me on anything feel free to message me and discuss it. Always fun. @_@

WoofWoof

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Following a recommendation on hunter x hunter 2011, I ended up at The law of ueki, and after watching all the 52 eps, this is what I felt : it has a cliche plot, cliche side characters, cliche mc, cliche setting of a tournament, cliche concept,.......and yet.........non cliche powers, different style of fighting, outright comedy, and  cool character roles.(i shall clear the difference between characters, and their role in character part)

The story is based on a knock out tournament (a popular tag which few even classify as a genre of its own) and a final prize for the winner. This concept has been overused like the chunin exam of naruto, or hunter exam of hxh, or a recent example mirai nikki. Yet the execution is entirely different and unique in its own way. The story goes on like this- there are 100 god candidates chosen, and each candidate chooses a student (a middle school student) and gives him a power, and then the students fight between themselves, and whoever wins his candidate becomes the god, and the student gains a null talent, ie any talent he wishes. Moreover if a candidates student attacks a normal citizen the student loses one of his talents, and if they loose all their talents they will vanish without a trace. That is basically the initial setting. It becomes more intense as the show goes on. The few interesting points are the powers of the candidates, like MC has ability to turn trash into trees, another guy can turn towel into iron (looks lame at first, but it is splendidly used).

Animation 7/10 Sound 8/10
Animation is weak, but considering it to be a 2005-2006 anime it is not some exception. It gets it job done. The characters designs are pretty good, though it had room for improvement. No kinds of scenery or stuff is present to comment upon, but animation shouldn't become a barrier to watching this splendid shounen anime.

Sound was better than the animation. The opening song gave a peculiar vibe of some kind of depressing situation, but it was not much pronounced in the anime, probably due to its excess comedy. The osts were pretty good, and there doesn't exist much to complain about.

Story 8/10
Tournament battles are overused stuff. And the existence of a decent prize is not an exception. And obviously there exists some kind of powerful antagonist with his own perception of talents and stuff. On a broader view there isn't anything pulling us into the story, but on close examination there exists plenty of elements. First, is the MC, Ueki. He is shown to have a strong sense of justice, and much of the story evolves around the justice factor. Second, is its excess comedy, which was initially used to propel the viewer into watching more ep, and in latter eps, just as a medium to keep the story strong. Comedy is one of its strongest points, (caution : don't drink water while watching this, else water will be spilled.). Third, is MCs peculiar power trash into trees and the possibilities that arise from. Fourth, and the most important is INTELLIGENT BATTLES. This is its strongest points, it delivers incredible battles. Battles are planned, and luckily the MC can actually think on his own and uses many tricks to baffle his opponents. Once 15 or so eps, pass MC also levels up, in very very interesting ways, as such once past 10 eps, there will be little incentive left to give up this anime. The anime also delves into teacher student relationship, and values of morals.

But still, the story lacks many things. First, the initial pace is slow, it is ok with manga but in anime adaptation, they could have cut quite many chapters and may be they could finish the anime sweetly in 35-40 episodes. The chapters I am referring to are not too integral in the story development, and plays very partial role in character development. In fact, the first few episodes were boring, and focused only on MC, and as result few important characters got introduced as late as ep 20. The anime should have neatly deleted unimportant battles. Even in the latter half some battles seemed to be dragged on. And only final battle remained to be seen.

Characters 9/10
While characters are mostly typical of shounen animes, their roles are quite varied and unique. There doesn't exist a character who is powerless at first sight but then after intensive training becomes op. The charcters develop, become better but only according to their capacities. Starting with MC he pretty much masters his powers, and his development his most pronounced. His leveling up is extraordinary, and he uses his new powers very intelligently and there are many spontaneous combos which he uses to defeat his enemies, and at times I was forced to say Brilliant! Other characters like Mori, rinko and Sano play integral role, and they too level up with unexpected variations. They receive ample development mainly because of solid back stories. The characters are carefully chosen by the author and he has intelligently played with them and the role that everyone plays is incredible. (If I were to elucidate it would be a spoiler).
Interestingly, even god is a character and surprisingly has a backstory. Tbh I was quite amazed at the description of the god, and more interestingly he is a prominent source of outright comedy

Enjoyment 9/10
I srsly enjoyed this anime, mainly because of highly intelligent battles, and some of the battles might even rival that of hxh. I was also amazed at the non cliche powers, among all I liked the antagonists power the most (can't spoil). The outright comedy was evident and there exists no episode which won't make u laugh. Added to this was powering up of the characters which added spice to the anime. Lastly and the most important part, that it has a good and actual ending, and not some lame original ending. 

Even then there exists many points to be criticized. First, irregular pacing, and dragged on battles. Second some cliche elements like nakama powerboost and some friendship stuff. Third, excess comedy, which at times turned into forced comedy. Fourth and the most important part is that it deals with MIDDLE SCHOOL kids. The anime had vast potentials, and with highschool students and a bit of seinen feel, packed with awesome action scenes and intelligent battles could have turned out better in many respects, because the idea of middle school kids fighting didn't really appeal to me much. Fifth, teacher student relationship was quite pronounced but again seemed to be a bit of excessive.

Overall 8/10
On subjective reviewing it deserves 9/10, but on close inspection and objective reviewing I can't render more than. 8/10. As such the anime should have lasted not more than 35 eps, with fast pacing and appropriate development. Had it acccomplished this feat, it might have become a showcase masterpiece and shared its stage with other good animes.

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I've come to realize that with all the newest animes coming out recently, there are still others that people seem to have forgotten, that or they've never heard of any of these shows. I'm talking about the kind of animes that are really good and underrated, but seem to have slipped under the radar.

The Law of Ueki, is one of those shows.

Plot:
God has created a tournament, called the battle of the supernatural powers, to decide who will take his place as the ruler of heaven. All 100 god candidates must pick a middle school student, give him/her a strange, yet unique power, and act as their fighter. The winning candidate will become the new god and the fighter will receive the talent of blank, which will give him/her whatever talent he/she wants. However, there are people who want the talent of blank for their own greedy and selfish desires. Enter our hero, Kousuke Ueki, who only wants to compete in the tournament to protect both his friends and the talent of blank with his power to turn trash into trees.

The show is a shonen anime which means it'll have cliches, fillers, over a 100 episodes, and a plot that soon goes nowhere halfway through the show. Here's the thing though:

It doesn't!

The show is very unique in it's way to take whatever cliches most shonen anime seem to have, and execute them in a way that makes the show barely boring at all! It does have a rather odd and bizarre look to it all, but that's the nature of the show. Credit should go to the director, Hiroshi Watanabe, for making the show hyperactive and zany for one moment, action-packed and intense the next ( usually at the same time ), and sad and dramatic when needed.

Art/animation:
Studio DEEN did a good job on the show. While not lush and slick as most action shows, it's still decent and very above average. It's bright and colorful and the fights are still entertaining to watch and visually pleasing. The character designs will remind you of shows of Zash Bell, but they're not too bad.

Music:
All the ops and eds are nice and good to listen to. The rest of the music is decent and passable.

Voice-acting:
Japanese: excellent! The show has an all star cast of seiyuus (romi paku, tomoko kawakami, mamiko noto, kappei yamaguchi, jun fukuyama, souichiro hoshi, etc.) and they all did a nice job playing their roles.

English: terrible, just plain bad! The voices for the characters were painful to the ears and the acting was just dreadful! There were some that were ok, but it's really not enough to save the whole dub.

Characters:
Probably the strongest part of the show. All the characters are given a great amount of depth and development as well as backstory to why they wanted to fight. No matter how major or minor anyone in the show is, you'll just end up rooting for them as they struggle to be want they want to be, even the bad guys are hard to resist!

Enjoyment/Overall:
What I said has already been said, the law of ueki is a show that shouldn't be missed by anyone, wether a shonen fan, action fan, or anime fan in general it doesn't matter. As stated earlier, this is an anime that slipped past under the radar without anyone knowing of it and deserves the full viewing it deserves. I had a blast watching it, I'm gald I watched it to begin with, and I hope others out there will to.

If you liked this review, feel free to comment me, if you didn't liked it tell me and i'll understand.
Later

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