Series background:

Kousuke Ueki is your typical middle school student until he encounters an odd man named Mr. K one evening.  This unusual person, out of the blue, offers Ueki his choice of super-powers.  Out of all the myriad of abilities that are offered, the young man chooses (drum roll please....) the power to turn garbage into trees.  Not what I would have picked, but okay.  With this power Ueki has to battle the 99 other middle school kids who have also been given super-human abilities.  (And just about all of them are as odd as Ueki's.  One person has the ability to turn cloth into steel, but only while he's holding his breath.  Another can turn water into fire, but only if the water is in his mouth.)  The winner of this tournament will gain the talent of blank, and the 'sponsor' who granted the child the power he used to win will become the Celestial King.

Each battle between 'power users' will go on until one of them is knocked unconscious.  When that happens the fight is over and the person who was defeated loses their power.  That sounds fine, but there's a down side to this power to: if anyone uses it to harm someone who isn't in the tournament, they loose a 'talent'.  These talents can be anything.  Ueki loses the talent "to be liked by girls" at the beginning.  He only starts with 11 talents all together and when they all disappear, so does poor Ueki.

Helping Ueki in this trial is a fellow middle school student, Ai Mori.  Her favorite pastime is to 'meddle', so following Ueki around warning him to be on the lookout for other people with powers is just up her alley.  Also joining Ueki over the course of the early volumes include Rinko Jerrard, a power user who can change beads into bombs, and Tenko a large heavenly beast that takes a shine to Ueki.  Tenko can change into a fuzzy bracelet if he wants so that Ueki can wear him on his wrist.

This volume:

The disc starts in the middle of a big battle, Ueki has taken out most of the Robert's 10, but he still has to face Taro Myojin, who can change a whistle (the sound that is) into a laser.  Ueki probably wouldn't have too hard of a time with Taro except for one thing:  Taro has two powers!  He can also turn cards into spinning saw blades, blades that act like heat seeking missiles and will follow Ueki wherever he goes.  With his trees being cut apart by the blades as soon as he can create them, it seems that Ueki has no hope of winning.  When he dodges the blades, Taro can hit him with his lasers.

After dispatching Taro, Ueki and his friends head off after Robert Haydn, the odds-on favorite to win the whole tournament.  Haydn is recruiting a new "Robert's 10" and one of his newest allies is Seiichiro Sano, a friend of Ueki who has the power to change towels into steel, but only while he's holding his breath.  The young tree-maker wants to rescue his friend from Robert's clutches and so he crashes into the group's new hideout.  Robert is waiting for him however and the next mini-arc is started when Ueki's group is trapped and forced to battle the new "10" recruits.

First Ueki has to battle someone who can change electricity into sugar.  It doesn't sound like a great power, but Ueki finds how strong it is after the user converts the sugar that he's sprayed over the arena back into electricity.  Next up Ai, who has no powers, has to battle Kabara, a skilled hunter who can use his power to fly.  Not only that, but he has the talent to shoot metal beads as fast as a rifle, making him an impressive opponent.  The arena that these two are placed in is rather unique too.  There is no oxygen.  The only way to breath is to put a Cossack hat on and dance.  If a player stops dancing, they stop breathing,

The final battle on this disc pits Rinko against Kabara in another strange arena.  This one is filled with giant cats, and if you touch a feline's nose, your opponent will change into a mouse.  The first one who gets eaten looses.

While this isn't a great series by any stretch of the imagination, it is very enjoyable.  The creative and unusual powers that seem to come out of left field are great both amusing and interesting, and the arenas used in the current story arc are just as fun.  While this is a battle-of-the-week show, the show's creativity and sense of the bizarre make it a lot of fun to watch.

Audio:
 
Viewers have the choice of either the original Japanese audio track or an English dub, both in stereo.  The English dub was a little heavy handed in the effects department.  In the very first episode they added some heavy echos to the voices in one scene which made it hard to understand what was being said.  It also sounded pretty stupid.  Because of that, I enjoyed the original language track a lot more.  Both audio options sounded good though, with nice range and clear dialog.  There wasn't any hiss of background noise.

Video:

The full frame picture looked very good.  The image is clean and clear, and the lines are tight.  This is a colorful show with a wide range of shades present.  The colors are strong and bright and add a lot to the show's look.  Digital defects are nearly absent, with only some very minor aliasing in the background.  Overall this is a very nice looking disc.

Extras:
 
The only extra included with this disc is a Japanese promo trailer and some Geneon previews.

Final Thoughts:

While this is a children's battle-of-the-week show, it has enough going for it to make it fun for adults as well as kids.  The strange and bizarre powers are great fun, and so are the unusual battle conditions.  While the series won't find its way onto many 'best of' lists, it's still worth checking out.  Recommended.