Kousuke Ueki, el estudiante de secundaria al que le han otorgado el poder de convertir la basura en árboles, se ve envuelto en una competición donde tendrá que enfrentarse contra rivales que tienen otros poderes sorprendentes. Durante el combate contra Robert, el competidor más fuerte, el tutor de Ueki infringe las normas para salvar a su pupilo de una muerte segura y acaba yendo al infierno. ¡Al descubrir el motivo del sacrificio de Kobasen, Ueki decide ganar la compatición a toda costa! A continuación estará en escena Yodogawa el nuevo aspirante a dios que se encargará de Ueki. ¡¡Sin embargo, está compinchado con Margaret, la tutora de Robert!!
We get the fight with Onimon, the dirt into balls guy, and his battle is nice quirky fun. Then we get the beginning of Robert’s 10 in Kurolage who can turn shadows into clay men. Robert’s 10 is a group I really enjoy. They’re threatening while still having that zany charm Law of Ueki does so well. We don’t get much of them here though, just Kurokage and one other member. Robert's 10 also serves as an antagonist through their differing ideals as they're willing to do whatever it takes to win and backstab each other. This contrasts sharply with the fairness Ueki fights with. I forgot that element and I look forward to that more (especially as it adds even more to one of my favorite fights we'll see later on). Kurokage's fight is fun though and not only in its spectacle of endless giant shadowy monsters and clones. He serves as a caveat to Ueki's justice in pointing out how doing things for the right reasons doesn't ensure it will be rewarded and can even be punished. It's not super deep but it is a fun dialogue to have with the theme of the importance of doing things that are just in asking the purpose of doing so even if no reward or even punishment occurs from it. While we've had sappier backstories and motivations this is around the time it's more common with I really have forgotten how much of Ueki's squad starts out as just Ai Mori, BJ, and sometimes other inconsequential reactors like the Tree Devil kid. They add fun dialogue but definitely as a reread I forgot how long they still are around until what I see as the real squad Ueki has.
My husband and I both read Volume 1 and 4 (those are the volumes we owned) of this series. We both regularly read manga and agreed that for us this series is only okay - neither bad or really good. The books both had a unique premise, the characters abilities and skills, as well as how they gained and lost them was one of the high points of the books for us. As well as the main character's Ueki's sense of justice and spirit. However I didn't really feel like many of the characters stood out for me, they seemed similar to the types we have met in previous manga adventures. Despite not having read the previous two volumes we didn't have much difficulty following along (or the need to purchase the previous books to see what happened) This series does have it's funny moments and it also has heart, so I can see how it could be enjoyable, however the artwork was not the best and I found myself eager for the fourth volume to end, so I don't think we will continue with this series, as at 16 volumes it's rather lengthy. Nevertheless I would still encourage people, particularly younger readers to explore the books if they are interested.