Typically shounen style action series are not usually my thing. I find them to be completely silly and juvenile and cater to a demographic that I am just not a part of. The posturing and trash talking, the ridiculous reversals of fortune, and the long drawn out nature of the fighting usually cause me to lose interest. Honestly I am surprised this appeals so much to teenage males, who typically have the attention span of a goldfish. However, initially Needless seemed to be different, and appeared as more of a parody and comedy with an extremely enjoyable female lead. Eventually
...
though it loses its way and falls victim to the things that doom many of its brother anime; trying to be and do too much instead of sticking with what was working.
The plot, initially is about as basic and nondescript as they come. Needless is set in a post apocalyptic world in which a new race of super powered humans have emerged, possessing fragments of power that give them mastery over a certain skill such as fire, gravity, and magnetism. These fragments apparently have all come from a common source, a god-like being known as the Second. These altered humans are known as Needless. But there is a hard and fast rule however, while some fragments are more powerful than others each Needless can only possess one. It all sounds like it an interesting take on the superpowers genre, and it a lot of ways it is though the way that the powers are used begins to get annoying after while (more on that later). All is not well in the world of the Needless though as they are threatened by the extremely powerful Adam Arclight and his followers in which they face extinction from his scheming. Only the mysterious Adam Blade and his band of resistance fighters stand in the way.
Needless is chalk full of slapstick comedy, action, blood and death, explosions, fan service, and machoism. Fans of these are likely to find plenty to like. The real problem with the series as a whole is the pacing of its storyline. Things move along quickly in the first 1/3 of the series. Perhaps a bit too quickly, which may have lead to the problems it suffers from for most of the middle and late portions of the anime. The heroes find themselves trapped in a room where they must do battle with Arclight's strongest followers. The battles are action packed but they drag out...forever. The story comes to a crawl and these battles seemingly go on forever as almost half the anime is taken up by this one fight and set in this same room. The shocking plot revelation made during this arc is obvious to anyone with any degree of sophistication. Once our heroes finally manage to get out the rest of the series is almost completely taken up with flashbacks, plot building, and adding a conspiracy arc. While this made Needless' story infinitely better and more complex it again felt to me like a complete reversal once again in the theme. To me it was like the director couldn’t make up his mind. Did he want to create an echii action parody, a straight shounen fighting anime, or a complex story about genetic research and political intrigue?
A small rant is in order on the battles. I know that it is a staple of this kind of series to yell out and name all of your attack moves and special abilities, but really is it that hard to come up with some names that make some sense? After hearing "Little Boy" or "Dean Drive Fox Hound" uttered for the billionth time I just wanted to shove a pair of scissors into my ears. And seriously what the hell does Dean Drive Fox Hound supposed to fucking mean anyway? It’s nonsense!
The real tragedy is that what they were doing at the start was working. The best part of Needless is the characters, in particular Eve Neuschwanstein (try saying that ten times fast). She’s got all the body measurements to make her a fan favorite, but she has a hilarious and quirky personality to go along with it to make her memorable. She stupid, can’t remember anyone’s name which leads her to "shorten" people’s names into nonsensical words. She has a really cool special ability called Doppelganger, which allows her to change herself into basically anything of the same mass as she is. Unfortunately as the series progresses she tends to disappear more than a main character should from the action, thus taking away a lot of the appeal for the show for me since I really enjoyed her. Also her Doppelganger ability is used in ways over the course of the series that seem to be inconsistent with what the ability should really be able to do.
As for the other leads, Adam Blade and Cruz Schild the results are not as good. Blade is a silly and typical shounen male with an over-the-top character design complete with an unoriginal and clichéd personality (basically think TTGL's Kamina). Unless you love 12 pack abs and these kinds of stereotypes or this is the first anime you have ever seen, then you’re unlikely to be impressed by him. That being said he does have his moments of comedy gold and he is not completely without merits. Cruz is also a typical anime boy who reminds me of another TTGL character, Simon (the young version) in both looks and personality. Though he seems to have more sense than most of his shounen brethren, and stays out of trouble for the most part and leaves the fighting to those with powers. His greatest attribute is that he’s probably the only person in the show with a brain.
The rest supporting cast is a mix of some very entertaining and memorable characters and more shounen stereotypes. With the exception of Disc, the rest of Blade's team of resistance fighters is uninspired. The ones who really shine are among Arclight's subordinates. This starts and ends with the Pretty Girl Squad of Mio, Setsuna, and Kushinashi. I found their antics to be the most amusing of any of the characters in the series. They are probably the objects of the most fan service, next to Eve, but for the most part it’s all pretty funny and just doesn’t feel as pointless as it usually is in other shows.
Artistically Needless is an uneven experience. The animation of the fights, action, and special effects are all topnotch. The service is well done, at least amongst the females, and they are cute and not too ridiculously proportioned. However the men are awful. I am on record as being a firm hater of bishies and effeminate men. While the men in Needless are certainly manly, they basically look like bishies on steroids. The fact that all of them looked pretty much the same (does anyone in the future wear shirts?) and the silly looking cartoonish muscles and impossible body builds took away from the art overall.
The absolute worst thing about this series is the music. The first OP "Modern Strange Cowboy" is without a doubt the silliest song I have ever heard and the worst example of Engrish lyrics gone wild. The second OP is not near as bad but still not that good and both the ED themes are average at best. Also the commercial break teaser halfway through is laugh out loud silly with the retarded sounding "Needless" being overacted by various male cast members. The acting overall is decent, but again the male voice actors over play their parts so much that they just sound silly.
Overall my final opinion on Needless mixed. I did enjoy many aspects of it, but it had more potential than it delivered. The schizophrenic direction and pacing are too much for me to ignore. Your enjoyment of Needless is likely to depend on your own personal tastes. If you love shounen action then you might want to give this a chance. I found it to be an average series at best.
Alternative Titles
Japanese: ニードレス
More titlesInformation
Type:
TV
Episodes:
24
Status:
Finished Airing
Aired:
Jul 3, 2009 to Dec 11, 2009
Premiered:
Summer 2009
Broadcast:
Fridays at 01:30 (JST)
Licensors:
Sentai Filmworks
Studios:
Madhouse
Source:
Manga
Theme:
Super Power
Demographic:
Seinen
Duration:
24 min. per ep.
Rating:
R - 17+ (violence & profanity)
Statistics
Ranked:
#29072
2
based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.
Popularity:
#1456
Members:
138,332
Favorites:
531
Available AtResourcesStreaming Platforms | Reviews
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Your Feelings Categories Dec 19, 2009
Typically shounen style action series are not usually my thing. I find them to be completely silly and juvenile and cater to a demographic that I am just not a part of. The posturing and trash talking, the ridiculous reversals of fortune, and the long drawn out nature of the fighting usually cause me to lose interest. Honestly I am surprised this appeals so much to teenage males, who typically have the attention span of a goldfish. However, initially Needless seemed to be different, and appeared as more of a parody and comedy with an extremely enjoyable female lead. Eventually
...
Aug 29, 2010
Needless is not for everyone, but it is a fantastic show as long as you watch it for what it is and are able to enjoy it for what it is. Still, while it was still airing I got the feeling that most people had misconceptions.
First of all, Needless is not a shounen. Needless is a shounen-parody. Or actually if I stick to proper genres I would agree that it's a seinen, and the reason why it is "full of shounen clichés" is because it makes fun of those classic elements by overacting them till they reach grotesque levels. It's important to understand that that ... Oct 10, 2009
NEEDLESS to say....
While Needless bears many similarities to a previous anime, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, I feel that these comparisons are unfair and often lead to many people rating this series down. Comparing one's work of art with the Mona Lisa is an unfair one, after all. Needless begins off on a very good note, full of high-octane energy and very manly characters. While it is admittedly similar to Gurren Lagann, it really stands in a class of its own. The story... what story? Fans of this series aren't really interested in the story, or at least in my point of view. Its a generic setting ... Jul 21, 2009
NOTE: I have not read the manga, so manga readers can go to the manga page for this show and talk about it there. This review is for the anime only.
Although I've only seen 3 episodes at this point, I think I've seen enough to write a fair review. I'll update it later of course to reflect the future scope of the story, because at this time it's still not completely clear what's really going on. Besides the fact that we know Simeon is evil, what the Needless are, and that they are after Adam Blade. STORY: 7 (Good) The story so far is typical of a ... Oct 30, 2009
I feel this show hasn't been getting the love it deserves and I think the only way to rectify this is with a semi thought out and heartfelt review so here I go
(it's the first one I ever wrote so be gentle) Story Okay now get this it's about bad ass muscle-bound lolicon loving mutant Priest dude who lives in Japan after several countries decided to bomb them for some reason and so everyone got super powers. He fights an evil organisation filled with other muscle-bound mutant dudes ... May 14, 2011
NEEDLESS was one of the first anime I started watching as it was airing, when I first got into streaming new shows via fansubs. The shininess of watching brand-new shows hours after airing in Japan still hadn't worn off for me, so that may have somewhat influenced my opinion of the show. Regardless, NEEDLESS is a crazy, action-packed, explosion- and fanservice-filled ride through a post-apocalyptic wasteland straight out of Fist of the North Star or sCRYed.
My reviews have gotten a lot of 'Unhelpfuls', so I'm gonna try and stick with the usual format and see if that's more palatable. Story - 6/10 Unfortunately, this is ... Oct 12, 2009
When I first watched Needless, I thought the first few seconds in "Blah blah blah, story line, narrating, etc..." But then out of nowhere, "WE'RE MODERN STRANGE COWBOYS!" The moment I heard this song, I knew I may just have found my new favorite anime. Which leads me to say this, the music and overall sound in this series is BEYOND AMAZING! Sound (10)
As for that "Blah blah blah, story line, narrating, etc..." it is pretty much the gist of the entire story. I suppose settings after World War III are pretty common and that the series is kind of like a mix of Scryed ... Jan 13, 2010
There are probably a ton of things that could be said about Needless, but in the spirit of this series we will just narrow it down to something simple. Needless! is a show you will either like for what it is, or hate it for the very same reasons.
Needless is a pretty simple show with an equally simple concept. Have a mix of characters with noticeable personalities brawl it out in a span of 24 episodes, accompanied by some great art, fanservice, GAR, gore, comedy and a fast phased metal soundtrack that won't fail to get your blood pumping. In a future where Tokyo has ... Aug 30, 2009
Ever since Kenshiro informed Zeed and his gang they were already dead, the badass traveling a post-apocalyptic wasteland (shirts optional) looking for ass to kick has been a staple of anime, to the point that nowadays it's almost always a parody.
Needless continues the trend of parodying the genre, by including something almost all anime seem to have nowadays, moe fanservice. STORY: Overall the story is nothing special, it's the same thing we've seen before. The action tends to be done fairly well, albeit usually fairly one sided. The only thing that holds it back from being a 7 is the tendency to needlessly (pun ... Jan 4, 2010
There are some animes that will end of being forgotten from people’s memory, and be marked as ‘generic’ anime. We call those anime, ‘Needless’.
To describe what needless is; it focuses on multiple theme of being manly, being comical, being serious, being eechi but also being ridiculous itself. It’s anime for ‘GAR’ I can say. Spammed action sequences take majority of this anime, and there are tons of plot holes even on those actions. It follows typical shonen style plot and full of clichés. There is nothing good about anime except the fact that you will actually enjoy it regardless to how horrible it is. Actually, it’s ... May 29, 2010
I have to say that this is the worst anime that I have seen in a while and I'm surprised I made it through the whole thing. The only redeeming quality of this series is the main character Adam Blade who is just entertaining to watch.
Story: Cliche and predictable are how I would describe it. It tries to throw a few twists at you but I saw them coming far in advance. It tries very hard to be epic and over the top but lacks a well thought out story Art: Animation was pretty clean, but the fact that characters cloths would regenerate and wounds would be healed ... Jul 15, 2012
Alright, this is my first review, I hope this goes well.
When I first saw this anime here, I thought that it would be just another shounen beat up anime, which I haven't really even watched, because I have always kinda shyed away from them. Well, I decided to give it a try and began watching this. The voice actors were for the most part pretty unknown ones to me, they haven't been in any other animes that I have seen, at least ,not in any positions from which I would remember them. It soon became pretty clear, that the anime isn't your typical shounen beat up ... Jan 22, 2019
Final verdict and tl;dr for convenience:
Needless has no redeeming qualities when it comes to being as basic of a concept as a shonen duke-it-out. It's a poor and a mecha-less attempt of capitalizing on the hype for TTGL's "post-apocalyptic rebels with an attitude", and as such, it is rushed and bare-bones. I seriously recommend a critical re-watch if you somehow thought that anything above 6/10 is deserved, but I understand if you judge your anime by your personal watching experience. --- The visual style and premise seem alluring, until you start watching it. Needless is a very basic shonen duke-it-out with a very basic plotline and, ... Feb 9, 2015
May contain minor spoilers, will leave out story spoilers.
I'd like to sum this up at the beginning, but don't want to give it away just incase you haven't seen it. The story was actually the best part, in a sense. Needless is about people who have supernatural powers called fragments that allow them to do wild shit. The first 7 episodes of this are amazingly badass, it really sucks you in and the story just takes off quick and runs full steam ahead. I can't really elaborate on the story without giving too much away, but a group of Needless go take on ... May 2, 2011
Well, i hadn't had this much fun watching an anime for some time. It was first aired in Dec, 2009 but only found this particular anime about 2 weeks ago. Didn't watch it right away, but when i watched the first episode, i couldn't stop watching.
Very few Anime's hook me like this one. It reminded me of Gurren Laggan for some reason. I'm not very versed in the Anime lingo, i cant tell you that this is a seinen or shounen or what not. I just watch them cuz i enjoy watching anime. Doesn't really matter to me what it's called do don't expect anything ... Sep 10, 2013
Needless
This anime is about the aftermath of a World War 3. A bomb was dropped on Tokyo city and as a result, some people gained strange powers like controlling fire or water or having great speed or strength and stuff like that (much similar to that in Sekirei). These people were given the name Needless (which is also the anime's title if you hadn't noticed). This anime is a perfect combination of action and comedy together with time to time ecchi. The story in this anime is quite good. It's basically about a group of Needless fighting another group which is oppressing them. The story has ... Apr 11, 2012
if you like x men then you will like needless. needles are mutant humans with powers.
the story. is great its about this guy named Adam blade and he has to fight the dug company know as Simeon. the story is 10 out of10 the art. the art is bright and colorful and great for a 2009 anime . 10 out of10 sound. sound was very good and it has a very good dub. sound 10 out of 10 the characters are very good and funny and Adam arc light is a very great bad guy and one of my most fave characters and funniest is eve . ... Dec 12, 2009
First off to compare this anime to gurren lagan is absurd...Ok i can see the similarities in the characters of Kamina and Father but other than that, nothing alike. There is no real storyline, and the little that is there is not amazing..It was interesting enough for me to watch the whole series. I love anime with action and this is action packed, with cool abilities for each character. I do enjoy that but to compare it to Gurren Lagan..give me a break, that was still to this day one of the best anime I have seen, and although I enjoyed needless
...
Nov 10, 2009
I don't know about you, but I love this series more than I loved tengen toppa gurren lagann. I really didn't like the whole Chibi Mecha theme in Gurren Lagann. Anywho, this anime is EPIC in terms of story, characters and ACTION. I think this anime has it all: fan-service, epic fight, supernatural abilities, and ... blood and gore. If you were a fan of Gurren Lagann or even a fan of action genre-based animes, please do consider watching this series. I highly recommend it.
Jul 3, 2013
This anime is a combination of both action and comedy together including the cuteness of girls. To me, I am fine with moe. I only enjoy this anime is because of the characters and the funny plot combined with great action scene. I don't come and watch this anime just because of panty shots.
Episode 14 is the most funny part when Adam Blade says "The reason is Girls. You look like a young girl and I'm already in paradise". To me, all the characters are badass and I like most of the characters except for Curz Schild. At least Cruz Schild instructed people in the last ... |