In volume 6 of The Law of Ueki the battles between the power users, teens with strange but creative abilities, keeps getting more intense.  The Dogura Mansion story-line continues, with Ueki being forced to battle one of his friends as well as the most powerful member of the Robert's Ten.  Like the last volume, this one has the series picking up steam and actually becoming a bit interesting.  The series is starting to have some potential.

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 opens with Ueki and his friends still fighting matches in Dogura Mansion, a trap laid for the group by Robert Haydn.  The latest battle pits Kousuke against his friend Seiichirou Sano.  Sano has joined the Robert's Ten of his own free will, or so he claims.  Sano can turn towels into iron, and he's figured out a lot of unique ways to use his talent.  Fighting on a field where a giant jump rope makes the opponents jump periodically Ueki is at a distinct disadvantage since Ueki's heavy trees make it hard to fight while he's in the air.

When the Sano battle is near its end, the newest member of the Robert's Ten is forced to reveal the real reason that he joined that organization.  It turns out that he had a good reason, and one that changes the battle.  Soon after the revelation, Ueki has is matched against the most powerful member of the Robert's Ten, Karl Paccho.  This villain can mimic the powers of any user as long as he spends 24 hours with them.  He's managed to take the abilities of all the members of the Robert's Ten, and can call upon any of them at will.  Just when Ueki manages to counter Karl Paccho's powers, he comes up with new abilities including the ability to turn Ueki's thoughts into text messages.

After the grand battle with Karl Paccho, Rinko reveals some information about Robert's past.  It turns out that she grew up in the same village as Robert did, and he had a very rough childhood.  Are the things that happened to Robert as a child the reason that he wants to destroy the world?

This series is continuing to get better. Yes, some of the battle moves are a bit ridiculous and the fights can go on for a bit longer than I'd like.  Even so, the show is very creative and the background plot is fairly interesting, especially for a children's battle-of-the-week show.

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 US promo trailer and some Geneon previews.

Final Thoughts:

This show will never be considered a classic, but it's coming onto its own.  The story is getting a bit more interesting and they are managing to keep things fresh.  The show hasn't fallen into a rut like many anime programs aimed at younger children do.  It's worth checking out, especially if you have kids to watch it with.  Recommended.