Law of Ueki 7

I don’t often go through my keyword search referrals because I find disturbing things.  Things I don’t need to know exist.  Like Astro Boy yaoi.  As soon as I read that, I imagined Astro and Cobalt, or Astro and Higeoyaji, or Astro and Ochanomizu… *shudder*

Anyway. Happier things include Law of Ueki 7.  I said last volume I wasn’t really getting into these solo battles with the members of Robert’s 10, but I liked the new Celestial Beast character.  It’s like the author heard me, because this volume was full of nothing but awesome randomness for about the last half.

The first few chapters finish off the battle with the last member of Robert’s 10 and then have the characters discuss what happens next.  Of course Ueki wants to go after Robert, but a King Candidate approaches him and tells him that his contestant is in trouble and has for some reason joined Robert’s 10.  The contestant turns out to be a kid Ueki made friends with earlier in the series, so after confirming that the kid and his King Candidate were reasonably true-blue (the King Candidate had to vouch for the kid, obviously), he agrees to find out why the kid is in Robert’s 10 and rescue him.  The kid is actually the mystery member of the 10 we haven’t heard about all this time.

Ueki levels up, and Ai jumps back on board, both of which are good things.  As silly as the jokes Ai makes are, the series just isn’t the same without her.  Ueki needs her badly.  The second half of the volume has Ueki, Ai, a girl who was a former member of Robert’s 10, and the worried King Candidate going to Robert’s hideout and participating in a game of Robert’s design.

What kind of game is it, you ask?  A beautiful one.  It’s obviously a tournament-style fighting game, but because the author knows you’re sick of those, he made Robert dish out some awesome arenas.  The first area is a giant cake, and every two ounces of cake you eat makes your opponent gain two pounds… or something along those lines.  The contestants are rather rotund by the end of the match, and it was a pretty weird battle.

The next one really took the cake, though (no pun intended).  Ai battled an assassin, which was sort of ridiculous and unbalanced.  The arena made up for it, though.  There was no air in there, so in order to breathe, you had to put on a Russian hat from a provided supply and do a little Russian dance in order to get oxygen.  If you weren’t wearing the hat and dancing, you had to hold your breath.  Really, it’s one of the greatest moments in manga.

What an awesome series.  I think this one may be fairly popular since I know it’s got an anime and the manga still seems to be coming out bimonthly, but it needs to be read by everyone.  It’s just such good clean wholesome fun, and also hilarious, that it’s hard not to force it on people.