Warning: SPOILERS Initially I watched this show in dub and I can say it definitely hindered my enjoyment and immersion in this show. None of the voice acting was that great and the monologuing was almost unbearable. If you ever try to watch this please do it in the sub.

Plot: This anime is essentially one giant tournament arc, and the power system compliments it surprisingly well. The powers, as bizarre as they are, keep you entertained with the unique ways some of the characters use them. The main issue with it I had though was how they kept adding different parts to it seemingly randomly to help Ueki grow stronger. These different parts being the sacred weapons and the level 2 sort of just appear randomly with no foreshadowing or mentioning whatsoever.

Characters: This category is the primary factor to why I enjoyed this anime so much. Although at the beginning there’s nothing great about the characters. Ai was just an annoying girl who screamed and Ueki was just… boring. After Ueki got squashed by Robert in around episode 7 was where the shine of this anime first started surfacing. We got to see the first glimpse of Ueki’s sense of righteousness that he embodies. Mr. K’s influence from his righteous act of saving Ueki really hit him to allow for the start of his development and character progression. Ueki is a great main character that encapsulates the themes of the show marvelously. Righteousness is the main theme presented in this show, and Ueki perfectly embodies it. As Mr. K says, "I can't tolerate people who fall below my own standard of righteousness. I've observed a lot of people since I first came here, but none of them possess the righteousness I was seeking. I was beginning to lose interest in this realm... thinking of going back to the Celestial world. Then I met him... Ueki possesses the sense of decency that I discovered was extremely rare in this world... And his righteousness was true." In Ueki's battle with Onimon,(Ep.8) he shuns Onimon for having to rely on the talent of blank to protect his village, Onimon replies, asking what he would do with it. Ueki doesn't know and hasn't thought about it, "Then why are you in these battles in the first place?" Ueki says "To protect the talent of blank from evil... That's what Mr. K wanted... That's our righteousness." He is only doing it out of his righteousness, because that's just what he represents. Over the course of the show his righteousness only grows with the rest of the cast. All of the main cast get a decent amount of depth and development. Even the antagonists like Robert and Hanon effectively serve their narrative and thematic purposes. Thematic being how righteousness is stronger than evil. The majority of the smaller antagonists also get smaller backstories to understand why they’re in this tournament in the first place and you can see the variation with each story and the dynamics of all the opposing teams are slightly different in their own ways. The only thing I think wasn’t used to its potential was Ueki and Mori’s dynamic. Don’t get me wrong it wasn’t bad, but it just wasn’t used to its potential. We don't really get to see either why Ai followed Ueki so much. No backstory to their friendship, nothing. I really think that Ai was the weakest in the main cast despite having the 2nd most screen time. At the end of the show they did add on it a bit by displaying the trust she had for Ueki but they could’ve definitely capitalized off of it more.

Music/animation: Let’s start with the animation first. This anime was released in 2005 so you do see the black bars on the sides, but the animation wasn’t bad. You can easily see what’s going on at all times, and I never had any issues watching it at all. There wasn’t a moment where it looked clunky either it showed what it needed and that’s it. With this entire anime being a tournament arc you’d expect the fights to be dull since this anime is relatively old but it’s actually the opposite. The fights are always thrilling to watch. The climaxes of Ueki's fights are always exciting because he barely ever wins off of sheer brute force. Ueki uses his powers very smartly to win and winning by simply outsmarting the opponent adds to the thrill of the fight. It's not even just Ueki, Sano and Rinko had some great fights where they only won through smarts. Even with this anime releasing around 2005 with not the greatest graphics it still holds up today because it's still easy to tell what's going on, the unpredictability of the fights and the music is still great when it plays at the end of a fight. The soundtracks are great and always adds to the fight scenes and emotional moments.

Inconsistencies: While I do love this anime, there have been a select few parts that either don’t make sense or just don’t work out. For one, the jokes. This one only applies to the start of the series because the jokes were too heavily reliant on the cringe factor of them and they weren’t funny at all. The most prominent one I’m thinking of was when Ueki was on the subway and he was just randomly dancing because he heard music and his body just couldn’t stop because he had “the power to dance.”
The second inconsistency I spotted was a bit more of a problem that ate away at me. That was when Ueki fought Robert for the 2nd time he said that his “Level 2” was being able to use multiple sacred weapons at once. But many episodes later he said that he never unlocked his level 2, and that he really needed to keep training for it. Despite that, I can’t think of any more besides just those 2.

Overall:
This anime is character based, and doesn’t take itself too seriously, and with that I love it. The themes are executed well through multiple characters and dynamics.