Law of Ueki 3

I still have one more DN Angel and several more HanaKimi reviews to put up, but I read this volume last night and felt an urgent need to talk about it.

This is seriously one of the finest younger shounen series I’m reading right now.  I don’t know how many people read it, but anyone who likes One Piece a lot would really like this.  Ueki is clearly inspired by Luffy but isn’t too big a ripoff, and the storyline vaguely mirrors the “King of Pirates” goal with its “King Candidate” goal… it’s got the “I wanna be like Shanks/Mr K!” connection, and hell, it’s also got goofy powers.  Well.  Imagine if Luffy only had Nami, there were no pirates, and it ran in Shounen Sunday… which though I like many of its series, is still kind of a poor man’s Shounen Jump.  That’s what this series is like.   Somehow I only got the Luffy/Ueki connection before writing this paragraph.

Anyway.  This volume was really amazing.  Prior to this, I was kind of on the fence, and though I liked the series, I was weary of it souring quickly.  This volume takes a brief break from fighting king candidates to offer you some motivation for both Mr. K and Ueki.   It spells out point blank their opinions of each other and brings justice into the storyline, which really makes Ueki more of a Marine than a Pirate, anyway.  There’s a really long and touching scene smack in the middle of the volume that gives you all the character development you will ever need for Ueki.  He actually talks about himself.  It’s ADORABLE.  Things happen to the characters that make me sad.  Really, this volume is just this big touching moment sandwiched between a fight between a tough opponent and another brief fight where Ueki really gets into it.

Yeah.  I can’t really talk about it more coherently than that without giving it away, but people who read One Piece should definitely read this series.  The fact that the main character is Luffy in school with the power to turn trash into trees and fight against people with powers like turning their head into diamonds and turning spit water into lava et al should let you know how quirky and awesome this series is.

The characters, though vaguely defined, didn’t drive anything to this volume, and the plot was a bit too weird to be comfortable yet awesome at the same time.  The characters were fleshed out into awesome and the plot was a bit standardized, but I still can’t wait to see where this series goes next.