Needless will have 24 episodes not 13
Needless tv Review
Story & Characters
All right, class is once again in session. Sit down. Now class, raise your hands you all know about the horrors of World War I and World War II, the War to End All Wars and the War That Was Ended by Japan getting Two Bombs and a Soviet middle finger On Their Watch. Uh-uh, I see one hand not raised in the corner. There you go. Raise that thing high and mighty with color. Yes. You need a good stretch every now and then. Hands down.
Now, how many of you heard of world War III? I see no hands raised. Well I got news for you: it did exist! Yes, believe or not, ladies and gentlemen of the MiniTokyo school of good uploads and anime/manga enthusiasm, the horrors of World War III did come to light. I shall provide you a map. Note this black spot on Japan? That, class, was where Tokyo used to exist. It's now a hole, called in these parts as the "Black Spot."
And so we have set the stage for Kami Imai's NEEDLESS, a story about humans that have gained the ability to make something out of nothing through these things called "fragments." You can be stronger. You can be faster. You can become a magician faster than you can say overnight.
Or...you can change genders like an unlucky androgynous fellow by the name of Cruz Schild, who-along with two other key players in defying the new world order led by research organization Simeon-this series is centered on.
You have Adam Blade, a beast of a priest that can remember any attack that comes his), and his partner Eve Neuschwanstein, who can shapeshift while burning energy like a freight train waiting to crash. And she is bad at names.
Throw in a mixed bag of different stock personalities- from the vengeful Adam Arclight, to the bumbling Simeon Girls, to a mysterious cyborg named Disk and the fire-wielding Momiji Teruyama-and we go to rating the storyline itself.
NEEDLESS falls short of the mark. First of all, why is this show going 24 episodes only? It's not going to cover the manga plotline well. And for those of you who read the manga (if you haven't, go read it right now-even a few pages-before returning to read the rest of this review), NEEDLESS has a story that will leave you in stitches, in tears, and raise your eyebrows for a second or two. I don't see that happening in a series that will only go 24 episodes. 52 episodes at the minimum would be a better option.
Darn this economy.
Secondly, they compromised the original story. The violence has been moderated. And some of the filler that you see is quite different than the manga version.
Third, it's a show that screams, "Hahaha, but haven't I have seen this before? Oh yes I have." Cheap, schlocky comedy juxtaposed with cheaper, schlockier service juxtaposed to fist-pumping action.
It makes me wonder: is NEEDLESS an action flash in the pan disguised as a comedy or a comedy disguised as an action flash in the pan? Or is it an action-comedy pandering to the sleazy nerd in all of us?
I ponder the question as I give this excuse-for-a-storyline a 4.
Rating:
Art
The art and animation for this show is nothing too revolutionary. It's standard. If this were animated before 1997, ladies and gentlemen, the animation for this show would stand out. From these reviewers' eyes, it looks like more budgeting could have been placed in this show.
Actually, I have a theory in place, and note it when I write it on the board, because there will be an exam later this semester on this at my own discretion. My theory is that most of the art budgeting may have been on that ending.
Nonetheless, Yuka Okamoto and Yoshio Kosakai did a passable job in the art and animation of the show. But NEEDLESS is a show that fall into the plateau of art and animation. It tries to be like Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
Nice try, fellas, but you're not GAINAX. 6 for this one.
Rating:
Sound
Now, class, we go to the music and casting of NEEDLESS, and this is where I will give it a few hand claps for the effort.
The first OP, "modern strange cowboy" by GRANRODEO is your cool, slick punk rocking, get-your-motor-running-to-the-center-of-the-Black-Spot type of melody. The second ED, "Aggressive zone" by the NEEDLESS Girls (who consist of a number of female seiyuu in this show, see below), is an aggressive appeal to the yuri fan-human in all of us. Methinks it’s just yer musical stimulus package and nothing less.
All right, have a box of tissues ready just in case. And it's not for the eyes, just to let you know. I am going to take a big risk and plunge in with the consensus that argue "the ED is what NEEDLESS should have been. It's the only redeeming quality about this show! All the other stuff is 'been there, saw that! In one form or another…' "
Enough of my rambling...back to the sound. The situational music for this show takes the big prize. Keep in mind that the prize is not ginormous, but big in that it is worth something compared to everything else.
Now we look at the voice acting. You will notice, class, some familiar faces in the lineup. They range from the old in Takehito Koyasu-the voice of Adam Blade (Raise your hands if you know Ryousuke Takahashi from Initial D. For those of you that did, good. For those that didn't, he played Ryou's voice.) and Megumi Toyoguchi (who plays Riru), to more familiar ones like Eri Kitamura, Aya Endo, Minori Chihara, Emiri Katou (what is she doing here!?) and Kaori Fukuhara.
All in all, it's not a bad day's work for this team of veterans. It's this combined with an equally
noteworthy score by Masaaki Iizuka and Tatsuya Katou that warrant an 8 for Sound.
Rating:
Presentation
Crikey, class! Did you see those words across the screen? Whoa, another set of words! And another set! This is just ridiculous.
Every character gets their attack written out on the screen, it seems, every two minutes. In my playbook, it's unnecessary corniness.
But that's just one part of NEEDLESS becoming a hopeless show to lay your eyes on.
While the music and voice acting meets the standard, and the art is passable, the storyline is NEEDLESS's undoing.
The staff may be having second thoughts about condensing a great manga into so short a span. Picture putting 20 pounds of meat into a sausage skim the size of your thumb.
They chopped up and watered the storyline, and even chose to leave out one of Cruz's defining moments. (You can look it up.) So I've heard. This could have given the show at least two redeeming qualities.
Instead, mainstream viewers will watch the show for the ending sequence.
Some diehards will carelessly take a gander at this, but my advice is to avoid this excuse of a show. It's depresses me to see that the heartless fools at Madhouse took the best out of NEEDLESS, rendering anime worthless while giving me a compelling reason to get off my chest that opting for the manga is priceless. I can care less about those who NEEDLESSly get a kick out of NEEDLESS. But I digress.
And with that...class dismissed.
Rating:
Final Verdict
5.0000 (moderate)
Reviewed by Hachiko, Sep 12, 2009
Comments
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kirakyuubi Sep 13, 2009
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Hachiko Sep 16, 2009
Even if they went 24 episodes, I am still convinced that it's too small a span to work with. A 52-episode junket at the minimum would have been most preferred.
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Fanatik007 Sep 16, 2009
good review
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Hachiko Sep 16, 2009
Cheers, ay.
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Fanatik007 Sep 17, 2009
nice review
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rukasu04 Mute Member Oct 05, 2009
Well, this anime is very funny :D
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mona12 Oct 17, 2009
soon i will see it
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SchRita Oct 27, 2009
Thanks for the review!
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kevin10133 Sep 28, 2011
good review, anime could have been better
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Drakill Jul 25, 2012
To be honest I actually enjoyed Needless. I would've given it a 7 maybe 8 out of 10.
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