Shelf Life

My Dog Skip

Back when Geneon was releasing The Law of Ueki, I always hid the discs at the bottom of my review pile, putting them off until I forgot about them. I don't quite understand why I had such an aversion towards watching the show, but I think it might have been a combination between the lackluster character designs and the fact that the story just sounded stupid. Junior high kids battling each other to win some coveted “talent of blank” prize? Lame. Then last week, I ended up with the boxset re-release, and decided that it was time to finally review this thing, and I'm surprised how much time it sucked up before I finally stopped watching. That's my way of saying maybe I was wrong.

The Law of Ueki is, by no means, a masterpiece of any kind. It follows shonen tournament recipes very faithfully, from the silly speeches about righteousness to the ludicrous new powers that each new character always possesses. Yet despite its silliness, it's oddly captivating, because it's so darned goofy. Essentially, there are 100 candidates from another world (which world? Nobody knows or cares!) who are competing for the spot of Celestial King. They win this position by granting one junior high student of their choice one special power. Those kids then have to fight each other, and the last one standing not only gives his/her sponsor the King title, but also gets to pick a “talent of blank” of their own. Of course, this could either be used for good—or evil. Such suspense. There's also some caveats, like losing your own personal “talents” whenever you use your powers against non-fighters, and so forth, but those aren't terribly important for the review right now.

Naturally, the main character Ueki (whose power is to turn trash into trees) is the one to beat, and he reluctantly squares off against a variety of power-users, like someone who turns coins into wind, or a guy who can effectively change the weight of matter. What makes this show somewhat fun is not so much the story, which is riddled with plot holes and collapses in internal logic, but the fun ridiculousness of it all. Watching Ueki shooting trees at people is kind of fun, especially because you never know what new power he's going to encounter, and he certainly doesn't win all the time. It's kind of like how Naruto dupes people into watching conflicts that last for 10 episodes, because you say to yourself, “Okay, I'll go to bed after this fight.” It's frivolous, but enjoyable, and while it's far from being one of the better shonen fighting shows out there, it's a big time suck. Before you know it, hours have passed, and you've spent all day sitting around doing nothing.

I have one major gripe, though, and it's not about the show. It's about the packaging. The full series is released in this ungainly clamshell case with an extra plastic flappy disc-holder thing inside. For some idiotic reason, the discs aren't actually labeled with volume numbers. Sure, they're factory-packaged in order, but god forbid you shuffle them around. Then you have to stare at the little catalog numbers and figure out the order from there, when the whole thing could've been avoided if someone had decided to plaster big-ass numbers on the damned discs.

Sure, the series is really absurd. Yeah, the fights are completely nonsensical and are explained away by one-liners like, “Whaaaaaat? How could he still be standing???” But it's vibrant and popping with color, and the fights are fun to watch, even if half of them are just people charging at each other and jumping around. I certainly enjoyed myself while it lasted, and if there are others out there who are looking for a way to melt away some hours, this is a good way to fizzle up a few brain cells.[TOP]

The next boxset re-release on my pile was Utawarerumono, an ex-ADV release that one of the marketing managers once told me was jokingly refered to as Under-water-Ray-Romano. It's a mouthful, and part of me wonders if that isn't why more fans don't talk about the series. That, or maybe because it's also really boring.

Imagine waking up one day with no memory of who you are, or how you got to some village. And strangely, you've got a horned mask on your face that you can't take off. That's the position that the main character Hakuoro finds himself in. Instead of wailing in despair, though, he eventually settles into his new surroundings and eventually becomes a respected healer. However, bad things keep happening to the village, and our stoic hero must take responsibility for the villagers and keep them safe. Based on an interactive computer game, the narrative also plays out like a game, where mini-incidents happen every episode, only it's much less interesting because you're not the one controlling the events.

Part of the reason for this is the utterly boring characters. Each character, including the masked protagonist, plays one very specific role. There is the loud, brash one, the wise one, the angsty teeneger, and so forth. Hakuoro plays the trustworthy leader who is so good and virtuous that nothing could possibly lead him astray (except for some interesting twists near the end). Everyone loves him and looks up to him no matter what, and while those are certainly good traits in a leader, his lack of internal conflict for the first part of the series makes him a very boring person to watch.

Utawarerumono is not a bad show. It's interesting, if only to see this specific world that the characters live in, but it falls short of what it's capable of. The characters are never fully developed to a point that's satisfying, and the problems that the villagers face are never exciting or suspenseful until the last two volumes. It's one of those shows that "gets better," but I'd hesitate to watch the series again just to reach that point.[TOP]