Ueki no Housoku

Unbeknownst to most humans, a bizarre tournament is held to decide the next ruler of the Heavenly World. In this tournament, 100 Heavenly Beings known as the "God Candidates" are required to search among the middle school students on Earth, and transfer their powers to a student of their choice. The chosen ones will then battle each other, representing their God Candidates. The victor of this tournament will be awarded the "Blank Talent"—allowing them to choose any one unique ability they so desire—while the God Candidate they represent will obtain the position of "God" and become the king of the Heavenly World.

Participating in this grand tournament is Kousuke Ueki, a middle school student who is given the power to turn trash into trees by his homeroom teacher, Kobayashi. Despite the concerns of his classmate, Ai Mori, Ueki embarks on a journey to pursue his own sense of justice after witnessing the people around him misusing their powers for selfish purposes. But as he encounters talented power users such as Seiichirou Sano, Rinko Jerrard, Robert Haydn, and Hideyoshi Soya, he realizes that achieving his goal might be harder than it seems.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Ueki, Kousuke Main

Park, Romi Japanese

Sano, Seiichirou Main

Hoshi, Souichirou Japanese

Mori, Ai Main

Kawakami, Tomoko Japanese

Jerrard, Rinko Main

Noto, Mamiko Japanese

Tenko Main

Saitou, Chiwa Japanese

Soya, Hideyoshi Main

Yamaguchi, Kappei Japanese

Haydn, Robert Supporting

Saiga, Mitsuki Japanese

Kobayashi Supporting

Mori, Katsuji Japanese

God Supporting

Kosugi, Juurouta Japanese

Anon Supporting

Fukuyama, Jun Japanese

Urasaki, Nobumitsu Producer

Takahata, Yuuichirou Producer

Watanabe, Hiroshi Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Inoue, Kazuhiko Sound Director

Reviews

Aug 5, 2009

Ragk

Recommended

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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Apr 9, 2010

bokenhiebing

Mixed Feelings

Most action shows gives a group of people some of the coolest most destructive powers ever imagined. Cutting huge boulders with a sword, blowing stuff up with their mind, shooting laserbeams from their eyes, and so on. “The Law of Ueki” decided to go in a different direction. It decided to give a bunch of people some useless powers, throw them together and see what happens.

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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Apr 8, 2021

marslander

Not Recommended

Funny

Preliminary (5/51 eps)

Nothing original about this anime. Many inconsistencies in the story line. Characters are boring and everything they do is predictable. I would have watched more of this anime if the dub was better, it's almost unwatchable. But the issue is not just the voices, the issue here lies in the script, it has this constant narrator feel. The girl, Ai, keeps narrating and describing the events as they occur, it's not necessary for that to exist here. We know how to watch anime and enjoy it without an obnoxious narrator voice coming from a character in a middle of a fight scene.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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