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 even more generic than you can think. There is useless boy who is reluctant to become a main character. There is a hothead, but also useless support character, screaming ‘LIIIITTLEEEE BOOOOOOOOOI’. There is ‘wanna-be-Kamina’ Blade man who smells like GAR barbecue. There is evil one, who is evil. They killed them of one by one. They have 4 mighty ones, and one ultimate boss, Adam Arclight. It is so generic, that makes it way too much predictable.
Honestly, there is no real plot there. It’s just fighting sequences that make this anime worth with screaming of characters all over the place. Over-the-top actions and series of panty shots. That’s all about it. Regardless, let’s talk about how story of Needless goes. First, there was Cruz. He met some hot-headed manly dudes and girls. They made a crew. There is an enemy to fight by default. They just fight. They went to boss lair. They fight again. Soon they meet boss. Fight. Done, it’s the end of the story.
One of the worst aspects of this series is pacing. Seriously, at first, it went fast; although it was ridiculous overall, pacing was not that bad. After that, they got trapped in that gigantic room with pretty girl squads for about… I don’t know, about 6 ,7 episodes? That’s ridiculous. They could’ve at least provide some other background other than that. It screwed up some of enjoyment I had when they were just laughing and kicking around before they went there. Actions are dragged out so much, due to extremely detailed explanations and ANALyses on each move and some babbling, waiting, shoutings that character does. Plot holes are so big; you will have plenty of time wondering; ‘Why are they even waiting for 15 minutes in the middle of fight just to allow enemies to have a think time?’.
However, the worst thing is probably that they failed to manage to keep the consistent and interesting plot itself. First 1/3 of the series was probably better in terms of fighting, or w/e. Later, it suddenly gets serious. Every aspect is basically ‘spammed’. It spams this serious and unserious mood about 10 times during one episode. Spammed slap stick comedies are timed so badly, most of time it ruins the mood horribly. There are so much spam of out-of-circumstance-bloods and nudities. Some plot twists are not actually a twist, since they were mostly predictable. It’s just spammed with absurdity. Funny thing is, ‘Side stories’ of needless were much better than its ‘Main story’. I enjoyed the entire support episode that those not contains the main stories. For example, flashback episode of Blade was better than Blade fighting with Arclight.
Art, was terrible. No, it surely was. Starting with character design first; characters are overly muscular and females are overly… um ‘something’. Their body shape all looks exactly same, so does their faces. Design of Cruz is probably the worst here, look at his neck first of all. They all looks like some kind of mass produced clones with different hair style and costumes. Speaking of clothes, they are even worse. Oh hell, they are just ‘LAUGHABLY ABSURD’. Extremely wide collars, un-matching colours… Those costumes are also, almost same for every single characters. The worst, is costume of Disk-san. She wears pyjama from the start to the end and it is clothes that someone like your grandmothers would wear. Action part animations sometimes become choppy, such as the part where they are screaming their ridiculous attack names. Other than that, animation was overall just fine.
Sound aspect was as poor as its art. Some audio effects are completely out of circumstances and break apart the atmosphere. OP was fine but it showed how spamming English language in J-pop can be resulted being ridiculous for actual English users. Ending… I better not describ; it’s lolicon fetishes. Well, that makes sense, since two things I can remember in Needless is spam of ‘LIIIITTLEEEE BOOOOOOOOOI’ and kawaii shots. Seiyuus send their most time… screaming. They sound all monotonous; you can’t say the difference between the voice Blade and Arclight when they are speaking, since they speak with exactly same emotion every single time. Moreover, the problem in their speech existed from the start; the title of, ‘Needless’ itself. Those who do not know English people might think its fancy name for calling super heroes, but I personally think it’s ridiculous. Also, there are some extremely uncomfortable attack names that seized me in pain, such as ‘LIIIITTLEEEE BOOOOOOOOOI’, ‘Dean Drive Fox Hound’, ‘Magnetic Worldo’ and even ‘Doppelganger’. They are spammed throughout the whole series and may decay your ear at the end of the series. Seriously, ‘LIIIITTLEEEE BOOOOOOOOOI’ is just the worst thing I’ve ever heard. I cried for overuse of misused English…
There is not much to say about characters, since they are, generic. They have nothing except of being brave or following some same clichés that shonen suffers most of the time.
Blade, despite of having some spam of irritating lolicon loving part, succeeded of being one of the coolest, and manliest one I’ve ever seen. Other than that, characters development and description is pretty much ‘dead’. They are empty, including Blade. They are just overridden by their cool abilities and failed to show what they have inside. Only one who actually showed that was Saten, but others; none existence. In terms of comical relief and some interesting plot, pretty girl squad and Eve was the only ones who were ‘interesting’.
Yes yes, I can ignore everything. However, I just couldn’t stand that Cruz guy. He is the worst character in this series. Everything is on his point of view, yet what he do get kicked and punched to death while everyone is fighting. The part where I died was when everyone is saying, ‘YOUR ONLY ABILITY IS THAT YOU CAN FUCKIN THINK’. Guys, everyone can think, even the most foolish person in this earth. They are all just common senses that Cruz has. Oh wait, maybe because that everyone in his crew is too dumb to even find out what ability of making things freeze and burn at the same time. (Temperature) And, in this part, we find one big plot hole. In his crew, there is a android who lived 300 with super computer brain, and there is also a doctor, who was one of the most professional scientist in the past. It makes absolutely no sense that Cruz becoming the only one who can ‘think’.
Eve is the only one character that makes this series at least a level of watchable. She is cool and very manly in terms of her spirit, which makes her only of the most ‘manlike female’ in the anime universe and also the best character of this series.
Needless is a terrible and good at the same time. Although it was spammed with ridiculous comedies, ‘LIIIITTLEEEE BOOOOOOOOOI’, bad art, monotonous voices, bad English, plastic muscularity and ‘Ability to THINK’, it was very very enjoyable, like most of shonen stuffs. Somehow, character success of at least not being dull. Actions are cool and so does their abilities. There are scenes that you can say, ‘hell this is just awesome’. Dragged episodes cut these enjoyments in half, but whatever. It is still enough.
So, in conclusion, Needless failed to become over the average anime in terms of its quality etc. every aspect. However, it was still enjoyable whatsoever. Needless will be forgotten, and I also do not particularly recommend watching this anime, but I can be sure that it was quite an experience having manliest characters and cutest females in one series with awesome superpowers.
