It took me about 5 minutes into the first episode to figure out this show wasn't going to have the greatest plot ever. The whole show is just a glorified tournament. The way the show explains all the rules is a girl arbitrarily stumbles across some one using their power and so someone decides to just explain everything in depth to her for what really comes down to no good reason. In short the new king for the celestial world is going to be picked. Every candidate can select a middle school student from earth to fight for them and give them 1 power. Then they all fight until one wins. At least the show gives a reason why the fate of the world is in the hands of a bunch of school children.
Even though it isn't a spectacular story it isn't all bad. The show did manage to throw a few plot twists in that genuinely surprised me, and I found very enjoyable. However no matter how you rap it up the show can't change the fact that the story is just an excuse to string together a bunch of fights.
What could possibly be the most interesting thing about this tournament is the powers people get. There is the power to turn trash into trees, towels into iron, and electricity into sugar. The powers are kind of like “I guess I could see how that might be useful in some way possibly”, but the power aren't exactly my first pick material. There some other more practical powers like that power to turn beads into bombs or rings into rockets. Even these power aren't “I can blow stuff up with my mind” good. As odd as it might sound these powers are actually the thing that makes to show enjoyable. People end up coming up with some very creative ways of using these powers. There is also a limiting factor to powers. If someone can figure out someone else's limiting factor that will give them a great advantage. Seeing characters come up with strategies with seemingly useless powers is the best part of the show.
Ueki the main character and Mori the female lead easily stand out as the strongest characters in the show. These 2 actually have some development to them and even though the clueless hero and the bossy damsel in distress has been done before I still found them fun to watch. In second is Ueki's teammates that join him along they way. They all have decent enough personalities although it maybe a little bit on the quirky side. There will be more then a few “I am going to fight for my friends” type of speeches, but I found I ended up caring about all of them by the time the show finishes. They may not get the same treatment as Ueki and Mori, but they all get their moment in the sun. If nothing else they are good for a few laughs. Lastly there is the numerous amount of opponents. A lot are just there so that a fight can happen, but some do get a sappy back story. During the fight they will somehow see the error of their ways. Even the main enemy is fairly thin. It my not be a 5 star cast but at the end of the day they managed to made me smile.
This is a show that is only going to appeal to action fans. I wouldn't consider the story or characters bad but I have a hard time seeing anyone go through 51 episodes of this show just to see how the story plays out or what happens to the characters. The fights themselves are quite interesting. I can honestly say I have never seen many of the powers in the show and will probably never see them again. Most importantly a lot of interesting uses of these powers will keep you guessing what will happen next.
