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:

Ueki finds himself in a lot of trouble as he continues his battle with the odds-on favorite to win the whole tournament, Robert Haydn.  Robert is incredibly powerful and even though Ueki saved his life, the talented power user isn't pulling his punches.  Ueki's friends Sano and Rinko join in the fight, but even the three of them together aren't a match for Haydn.  The only advantage they have is Ueki's unwavering loyalty and the fact that he's too stubborn to quit.

Things take an unexpected turn when Mr. K turns up with a message from the King of the Celestial World.  It seems that the tournament is broken into two parts, and part one has concluded.  All battles have been suspended.  Robert is outraged but has also been having second thoughts about destroying the world when he gets the talent of blank.  When he tells his father about his doubts, he unleashes Hannon who actually eats Robert.  Hannon can look and sound like Haydn and takes his place in the tournament.  He has more power and even less conscience than Robert, a real challenge for Ueki.

Ueki and his friends soon find out about the second part of the competition.  In three weeks it will begin, and at that time the battle will switch to groups.  Each group can have up to five members, but the rules of the second part won't be released until it starts.

Only having four people in their group, Ueki and Ai go looking for a fifth.  Their search leads them to Hideyoshi Soya, a trickster who has no interest in joining a team. He and Ueki start off fighting, but they soon realize that they are more alike than different and have a lot in common.

The show continues to give solid entertainment.  Hideyoshi Soya is a great new character, and his wily ways adds a lot of humor to the show.  In the middle of a battle he'll shout out an ability "Power to turn a wall into a tidal wave!" but not one that he necessarily has.  It's great to see his enemies prepare for an attack that never comes.

Making the second part of the contest a team event is a little dumb.  It would have made more sense to have the team competition first and then let the surviving individuals battle it out for the title instead of the other way around.  I'm willing to give the show the benefit of the doubt however, and the team battles should be exciting and entertaining.

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:
 
There are no extras, only some Geneon previews.

Final Thoughts:

This was another fun volume.  While it isn't a great show, it is some fun mindless entertainment.  The new character, Hideyoshi Soya, promises to be interesting and the second round of fights looks to be more exciting than the first.  Recommended.