Mori Ai/Ueki Kousuke (The Law of Ueki
Mar. 17th, 2006 06:50 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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ship_manifestoTitle: The Law of Romance
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inarticulate
Series: The Law of Ueki (うえきの法則) and The Law of Ueki Plus (うえきの法則プラス)
Pairing: Mori Ai/Ueki Kousuke
Spoilers: Anime/manga through the first chapter of the sequel series (Plus)
Notes: This is a small fandom made smaller by the fact that the manga and the anime have yet to be released in English-- so all translations are by yours truly unless otherwise noted; corrections more than welcome, as I'm far from fluent.
What is The Law of Ueki?
I had no idea what to expect from Ueki when I first picked it up, other than that I had been warned not to judge by the first few episodes. I knew it was tournament anime, which I either love or tolerate depending on how drawn out the battles are. I knew that there was a girl named Mori who was a stalker and didn't participate in the battles, and was fully prepared to mentally set her aside as I do with most "stalker" type characters. I knew the main character was Ueki, and that he seemed very oblivious. I knew that there was a villain named Robert who fought with bubbles.
Aside from that, I was on my own.
The first episode was mainly exposition-- The Law of Ueki is a goofy series, and it knows it's goofy, but to get to the suspension of disbelief, one has to first be beaten over the head with the fact that it's a tournament where middle schoolers are picked to fight and given a power by God Candidates who want to become the next God. There are rules of course... one of them being the rule about zai (talents). Zai are something everyone has, but only power users can lose; if you attack a non power user with your power, you lose a zai. Zai can be anything from the zai of being liked by animals to the zai of dancing to the zai of weightlifting, and you earn a new one every time you knock out another power user.
Doesn't make sense? It's because The Law of Ueki is only bound by its own internal consistency. And the exposition is only important because our hero, Ueki Kousuke, is one of those power users.
Ueki Kousuke (植木耕助）
Ueki Kousuke is thirteen years old. In the manga, we learn that in addition to being the darling of the track team and an absolute genius in class, he's also so popular with the girls that he gets multiple love confessions from girls daily. He himself, though, is uninterested in romance, focusing instead on doing good deeds and helping the environment-- to the point where he seems utterly unaffected by the real world.
Kobasen (Kobayashi-sensei) is his hero after having saved him from a nasty fall, and so when Kobasen (also a God Candidate) offers him a power, Ueki takes it. His power is to change trees into trash, with the limitation that the trash has to fit into his hand. He is also, as later discovered, a Heavenly Being like the God Candidates themselves with all the power that implies and no idea how to use it, as he was thrown to earth as a baby.
I mentioned that he was unaffected by the real world-- I need to note here that this extends to losing his zai. Despite the fact that if he loses all his zai, he'll disappear, he keeps using his powers on non power users to defend the innocent and helpless.
Which leads to the other significant person in this essay...
Mori Ai (森あい）
Mori Ai is indeed a bit of a stalker-- also thirteen years old and in Ueki's class, she sees him using his power one day and decides that this is proof he's an alien. In following him around, she accidentally gets used as a hostage, and Ueki saves her by using his powers-- and later, as they find out, losing a zai.
Mori is very unimpressed with Kobasen at first. She's a normal human, and, unlike Ueki, she's very focused on the consequences of his continual good deeds.
"He's going to disappear. Ueki Kousuke is going to disappear! I don't know much about this "God Candidate" thing, but.... for a middle-schooler to be dragged into an adult's situation... is definitely wrong!!!"
-Mori Ai, volume 1
So, because she also has a penchant for helping those in trouble, Mori decides that she's going to protect Ueki's zai.
Together
That's how Ueki and Mori begin. Although they already knew each other, it's obvious that it isn't until this point that they get to know each other better. Unlike the stereotypical shounen hero/stalker relationship, there's a facet of genuine friendship and very mutual protection that shines through. In Ueki's first fight with a power user, Mori steps in front of a stream of fire to save Ueki... when she only has a theory that the power user won't be able to use his power on her.
Without summarizing all sixteen volumes of The Law of Ueki, I can only say that their friendship continues to grow as the characters themselves do. Mori steps definitively past the stereotype when she is given powers of her own and forced to participate in the battles, while Ueki finds new friends and continues battling for Kobasen's sake-- and yet the two of them are constantly in one another's orbit. In the quiet before the final battle, the five characters are given introspective scenes... one boy thinks alone on a cliff face. Another boy and a girl discuss crushes and getting over them.
Ueki and Mori's conversation isn't that significant on the surface. They discuss the final battle and their friends, and Ueki gives Mori a protection charm he got from his father, because "of all of us, you're probably in the most danger."
Looking closer, it's incredibly significant; Mori isn't the one in the most danger (or rather, she might be, but not because she's unable to defend herself)-- Hideyoshi, their companion alone on the cliff face, has a power that isn't useful in combat except through very creative use, and he is the only one of the five who hasn't won a match in single combat.
It's also significant because Mori notices something odd about the way Ueki is acting, and later on, in the final battle, she realizes what he's planning when nobody else does.
"DON'T DIE!!! The things you're thinking... They're obvious, so...!! Don't always try to do things all by yourself!! If you save everyone else, that's enough, that sort of thing... Cut that out, you idiot!!! You're not alone, because I'm here!!!! Because everyone's here!!!! You're not alone!!! So...
So don't disappear..."
-Mori Ai, volume 16
Ueki and Mori become closer as the series ends. It's understandable; they're the same age, they're from the same school, they're in the same situation. But the fact remains that they both chose to be there, that Hideyoshi is the same age and doesn't stick as close, that they're very important to one another.
In the end, it's as simple as what Mori says to Ueki right before the final battle in the series. "Sorry I was late," he says.
"I believed in you," she replies.
Ueki +Mori and Me
I can't quite put a finger on why I love this pairing so much; sure, I like similar pairings like Yuusuke + Keiko from Yu Yu Hakusho, but this pairing, I actively fangirl. I think it has to do with how proactive Mori is. Instead of standing on the sidelines if Ueki is in trouble, no matter what the cost to herself, she will jump in. Instead of waiting to be rescued, she will fight back in situations where it seems inevitable that she'll lose. She chose to be by Ueki's side to make sure he doesn't disappear, and she's not going to back down from that.
As for Ueki, it's more ambiguous. Being Ueki, he wants to protect everyone, so imagine my glee when I read the first chapter of Ueki Plus and it focused on Mori and Ueki. Specifically, focused on Ueki refusing to make an exception to his rule for Mori, then promptly asking her, specifically her, to remember him while he goes off to the main plot of Plus. Being a shounen series with younger characters, I doubt there will actually be any text, but I can continue to hope for subtext, because, really. Could you get any cuter?
Mori and Ueki manage to be a typical shounen genre hero and main female protagonist couple while being fresh, interesting, strongly characterized, and fun. And in the end, that's why they appeal to me so much, and why I can still start smiling at the simplest of moments.
Links
General Law of Ueki Sites
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
ueki - the LJ community.
Earthshine - an English language site with basic series information as well as fanart, forums, and perhaps eventually fanfiction.
Mori Ai and Ueki Kousuke Japanese Fanart
Because the English language fandom is so tiny, I tend to spend my time cruising for fanart.
- a Mori/Ueki, Sano/Rinko art site with clean, beautiful art and a few color fancomics. Go into the Memo section to see art not in the gallery proper.
- a site with an amazing amount of art, of which a large part is Mori/Ueki. Extremely cute.
- yet more art, mainly sketchy, but striking all the same.
- definitely not limited to Mori/Ueki art (in fact, it's in the minority, and pairs Mori up occasionally with other people), but the art is gorgeous, and it contains one of my favorite Mori/Ueki fancomics.
- again, not limited to Mori/Ueki, but has some of the most adorable fancomics, most of which should be easy to follow even without the ability to read Japanese.
Author:
inarticulateSeries: The Law of Ueki (うえきの法則) and The Law of Ueki Plus (うえきの法則プラス)
Pairing: Mori Ai/Ueki Kousuke
Spoilers: Anime/manga through the first chapter of the sequel series (Plus)
Notes: This is a small fandom made smaller by the fact that the manga and the anime have yet to be released in English-- so all translations are by yours truly unless otherwise noted; corrections more than welcome, as I'm far from fluent.
What is The Law of Ueki?
I had no idea what to expect from Ueki when I first picked it up, other than that I had been warned not to judge by the first few episodes. I knew it was tournament anime, which I either love or tolerate depending on how drawn out the battles are. I knew that there was a girl named Mori who was a stalker and didn't participate in the battles, and was fully prepared to mentally set her aside as I do with most "stalker" type characters. I knew the main character was Ueki, and that he seemed very oblivious. I knew that there was a villain named Robert who fought with bubbles.
Aside from that, I was on my own.
The first episode was mainly exposition-- The Law of Ueki is a goofy series, and it knows it's goofy, but to get to the suspension of disbelief, one has to first be beaten over the head with the fact that it's a tournament where middle schoolers are picked to fight and given a power by God Candidates who want to become the next God. There are rules of course... one of them being the rule about zai (talents). Zai are something everyone has, but only power users can lose; if you attack a non power user with your power, you lose a zai. Zai can be anything from the zai of being liked by animals to the zai of dancing to the zai of weightlifting, and you earn a new one every time you knock out another power user.
Doesn't make sense? It's because The Law of Ueki is only bound by its own internal consistency. And the exposition is only important because our hero, Ueki Kousuke, is one of those power users.
Ueki Kousuke (植木耕助）
Ueki Kousuke is thirteen years old. In the manga, we learn that in addition to being the darling of the track team and an absolute genius in class, he's also so popular with the girls that he gets multiple love confessions from girls daily. He himself, though, is uninterested in romance, focusing instead on doing good deeds and helping the environment-- to the point where he seems utterly unaffected by the real world.
Kobasen (Kobayashi-sensei) is his hero after having saved him from a nasty fall, and so when Kobasen (also a God Candidate) offers him a power, Ueki takes it. His power is to change trees into trash, with the limitation that the trash has to fit into his hand. He is also, as later discovered, a Heavenly Being like the God Candidates themselves with all the power that implies and no idea how to use it, as he was thrown to earth as a baby.
I mentioned that he was unaffected by the real world-- I need to note here that this extends to losing his zai. Despite the fact that if he loses all his zai, he'll disappear, he keeps using his powers on non power users to defend the innocent and helpless.
Which leads to the other significant person in this essay...
Mori Ai (森あい）
Mori Ai is indeed a bit of a stalker-- also thirteen years old and in Ueki's class, she sees him using his power one day and decides that this is proof he's an alien. In following him around, she accidentally gets used as a hostage, and Ueki saves her by using his powers-- and later, as they find out, losing a zai.
Mori is very unimpressed with Kobasen at first. She's a normal human, and, unlike Ueki, she's very focused on the consequences of his continual good deeds.
"He's going to disappear. Ueki Kousuke is going to disappear! I don't know much about this "God Candidate" thing, but.... for a middle-schooler to be dragged into an adult's situation... is definitely wrong!!!"
-Mori Ai, volume 1
So, because she also has a penchant for helping those in trouble, Mori decides that she's going to protect Ueki's zai.
That's how Ueki and Mori begin. Although they already knew each other, it's obvious that it isn't until this point that they get to know each other better. Unlike the stereotypical shounen hero/stalker relationship, there's a facet of genuine friendship and very mutual protection that shines through. In Ueki's first fight with a power user, Mori steps in front of a stream of fire to save Ueki... when she only has a theory that the power user won't be able to use his power on her.
Without summarizing all sixteen volumes of The Law of Ueki, I can only say that their friendship continues to grow as the characters themselves do. Mori steps definitively past the stereotype when she is given powers of her own and forced to participate in the battles, while Ueki finds new friends and continues battling for Kobasen's sake-- and yet the two of them are constantly in one another's orbit. In the quiet before the final battle, the five characters are given introspective scenes... one boy thinks alone on a cliff face. Another boy and a girl discuss crushes and getting over them.
Ueki and Mori's conversation isn't that significant on the surface. They discuss the final battle and their friends, and Ueki gives Mori a protection charm he got from his father, because "of all of us, you're probably in the most danger."
Looking closer, it's incredibly significant; Mori isn't the one in the most danger (or rather, she might be, but not because she's unable to defend herself)-- Hideyoshi, their companion alone on the cliff face, has a power that isn't useful in combat except through very creative use, and he is the only one of the five who hasn't won a match in single combat.
It's also significant because Mori notices something odd about the way Ueki is acting, and later on, in the final battle, she realizes what he's planning when nobody else does.
"DON'T DIE!!! The things you're thinking... They're obvious, so...!! Don't always try to do things all by yourself!! If you save everyone else, that's enough, that sort of thing... Cut that out, you idiot!!! You're not alone, because I'm here!!!! Because everyone's here!!!! You're not alone!!! So...
So don't disappear..."
-Mori Ai, volume 16
Ueki and Mori become closer as the series ends. It's understandable; they're the same age, they're from the same school, they're in the same situation. But the fact remains that they both chose to be there, that Hideyoshi is the same age and doesn't stick as close, that they're very important to one another.
In the end, it's as simple as what Mori says to Ueki right before the final battle in the series. "Sorry I was late," he says.
"I believed in you," she replies.
Ueki +Mori and Me
I can't quite put a finger on why I love this pairing so much; sure, I like similar pairings like Yuusuke + Keiko from Yu Yu Hakusho, but this pairing, I actively fangirl. I think it has to do with how proactive Mori is. Instead of standing on the sidelines if Ueki is in trouble, no matter what the cost to herself, she will jump in. Instead of waiting to be rescued, she will fight back in situations where it seems inevitable that she'll lose. She chose to be by Ueki's side to make sure he doesn't disappear, and she's not going to back down from that.
As for Ueki, it's more ambiguous. Being Ueki, he wants to protect everyone, so imagine my glee when I read the first chapter of Ueki Plus and it focused on Mori and Ueki. Specifically, focused on Ueki refusing to make an exception to his rule for Mori, then promptly asking her, specifically her, to remember him while he goes off to the main plot of Plus. Being a shounen series with younger characters, I doubt there will actually be any text, but I can continue to hope for subtext, because, really. Could you get any cuter?
Mori and Ueki manage to be a typical shounen genre hero and main female protagonist couple while being fresh, interesting, strongly characterized, and fun. And in the end, that's why they appeal to me so much, and why I can still start smiling at the simplest of moments.
Links
General Law of Ueki Sites
ueki - the LJ community.Earthshine - an English language site with basic series information as well as fanart, forums, and perhaps eventually fanfiction.
Mori Ai and Ueki Kousuke Japanese Fanart
Because the English language fandom is so tiny, I tend to spend my time cruising for fanart.
- a Mori/Ueki, Sano/Rinko art site with clean, beautiful art and a few color fancomics. Go into the Memo section to see art not in the gallery proper. - a site with an amazing amount of art, of which a large part is Mori/Ueki. Extremely cute. - yet more art, mainly sketchy, but striking all the same. - definitely not limited to Mori/Ueki art (in fact, it's in the minority, and pairs Mori up occasionally with other people), but the art is gorgeous, and it contains one of my favorite Mori/Ueki fancomics. - again, not limited to Mori/Ueki, but has some of the most adorable fancomics, most of which should be easy to follow even without the ability to read Japanese.
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no subject
Date: 2006-03-17 12:56 pm (UTC)Although I'm a yaoi fangirl, I do like this pairing. They just fit well together, and it's cute not sappy, which is how I like my het XDDD
I never expected to like mori at all at first glance, but she totally grew on me, because shes her own character, and not completely dependent on Ueki like some other secondary female characters in other series.
Overall, very nice work. Thank you ^____^
no subject
Date: 2006-03-19 12:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-19 08:41 am (UTC)I agree completely with how this is such a creeps-up-on-you type of pairing! I totally thought she'd be among the more annoying leads, which is my normal reaction to stalker types, but Mori turns out to be so strong and determined to protect Ueki that she just completely won me over. Girls tend to not get to do the "I will protect you" thing as often. Her fights didn't feel like a gimmick to prove "oh yes girl characters can occasionally fend for themselves" despite the fact that most of the others have a lot more uh, battle worthy powers.
BASICALLY, Ueki/Mori is cuter than cute and totally OTP OTP! and then I go :< whenever they get broken up in fandom. (...mostly... J-fanart, as English fandom is rather small at the moment) Thanks for the recs~!
no subject
Date: 2006-03-19 12:43 pm (UTC)