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Needless - is it actually Needless?


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Bento-Box



Joined: 08 Sep 2009
Posts: 1049
Location: Florida
PostPosted: Sun Oct 25, 2009 2:58 pm Reply with quote
So, I was bored and looking for something to watch since there are no new eps of anything else I'm watching and I came across Needless.

Looking on ANN, it definitely has mixed reviews, but most lean toward garbage. I was wondering if anyone else had watched or was currently watching this.

The opening theme kinda startled me because it was like Ed Guy metal music with a pounding double bass drum feel. After the initial shock, I was bombarded with busty girls wearing outfits that I'm not sure could be called clothing and DBZ-built men without shirts. Oh. Everyone has a cape. . .

The series is set a long long time after WWIII and apparently a nuke was dropped on Japan, dividing it in half with the Black Hole. It's not explained why in the first episode even though what feels like a massive amount of information is thrown at you, but the people known as the Needless have super powers that vary from person to person. And there's a definite bad guy making people's lives miserable and tons of people are killed trying to stand up to him. That's where the series starts. The story looks like it's going to follow the journey of a young boy who was among the rebels against the bad guy (who's a Needless) and the Needless Priest who saved his life.

The series is done by Madhouse and I was immediately reminded of Trigun once the episode made some headway. While the humor is a little different and the action sequences aren't as creative or fluid (at least not yet), I kinda feel like I'm watching a sex-ed up version of my favorite anime and just kinda know that this is gonna fall short of expectations if I start setting a bar for it. The animation isn't the best I've ever seen but it's definitely not the worst.

I like that all the music is metal because I think I've gotten used to always hearing mainstream rock or some kind of funky groove played during action sequences. It suits the series well. I think the soundtrack may end up being the best thing that comes out of it though.

But I really wanted to see if anyone else found the ending strangely out of place for this series. I've seen this kind of thing before with like Elfen Lied where the series had a completely different tone than the music they slapped onto the end (even though I really enjoyed "Be Your Girl" anyways). In Elfen Lied's situation though, the lyrics kinda did work a little bit. But the ending of Needless? I dunno. It's all J-Pop-ish and has loli-type girls cuddling and kissing and laying in compromising positions. I just kinda stared at it and thought "what was I watching again? and what does this have to do with it?" The girls they're showing haven't been introduced yet (I mean, I'm only on the first ep.) but I should HOPE they get introduced because this feels SO outta place and as if they're just using this kind of ending to grab attention to the series (which it's obviously not getting or else people would be talking more about it here and would have more than 59 ratings on ANN).

Just wanted to see if anyone else had stumbled across this oddity and what they thought of it since I couldn't find a thread for it already. To name something "Needless" is a little gutsy when you think about it. If the series was really AWESOME and astonishing, then it would be ok. But I think this one is gonna end up getting made fun of.
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12skippy21



Joined: 25 Nov 2008
Posts: 785
Location: York, England
PostPosted: Sun Oct 25, 2009 6:33 pm Reply with quote
Bento-Box wrote:
If the series was really AWESOME and astonishing, then it would be ok.


Do not worry it's not Smile
I am still watching this series mainly cause I love the metal music used and that once I start a series I pocess an underlying complusion to finish it. You mentioned Trigun but I think this anime is trying to intimidate TTGL minus the heart plus excessive panty shots.
I cannot write much about it because it is overwhelmingly average but if you have a stupid sense of humour and want to turn off your brain for half an hour I would recommend this as a good time killer.

Since you referred to the three girls, as an indicator to what this show is like, the pink/red haired loli (name escapes me) has an attack entitled 'Hip Attack' where she slams her ass into the face of the opponent which causes them to fly across the room. If that is not stupidly funny I do not know what is Laughing
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RHachicho



Joined: 07 Oct 2009
Posts: 897
Location: Essex, UK
PostPosted: Sun Oct 25, 2009 6:56 pm Reply with quote
Nah it's pretty needless just sometimes it takes the mick out of itself and then it can be quite funny however that just dousn't excuse the rest of the show imho.

I really tried to like this series as I love those kind of tongue in cheek Animes that laugh at themselves while giving a really cool visual feast of action and babes but as you have probably noticed the babes are about all this series has. Even the action is boring and cliched with lots of move yelling and instant movement whats more the moves themselves are all Anime stock in trade.

I gave up on this series at episode 12. If it suddenly gets better after that i wouldn't know.
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Kruszer



Joined: 19 Nov 2004
Posts: 7981
Location: Minnesota, USA
PostPosted: Sun Oct 25, 2009 7:31 pm Reply with quote
It's not great, but it's got that over the top, stupid fun, feel to it like Scryed did. I can honestly say that I get a kick out the style of humor and all the unnecessary fanservice. It seems more like it's a satire of shounen for comedy purposes rather than something to be taken seriously.

As for the ending theme, yeah definitely doesn't fit, but you'll know what it's all about when those characters are introduced. Wink

*Also loves the soundtrack*
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the Rancorous



Joined: 08 Feb 2006
Posts: 2248
Location: Hunting the Dragon in Gransys
PostPosted: Sun Oct 25, 2009 8:29 pm Reply with quote
Kruszer wrote:
It seems more like it's a satire of shounen for comedy purposes rather than something to be taken seriously.

That is the most accurate way to put it. Its more like a parody that pumps up the bad-ass meter and just has fun with itself. The closer should tell you flat out that is not to be taken seriously Wink .

Quote:
As for the ending theme, yeah definitely doesn't fit, but you'll know what it's all about when those characters are introduced. Wink

Maybe I misunderstood you, but what struck me so funny about that is the fact that those three girls NEVER behave that way in the actual show. Or at least as of ep 16 they haven't.
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Bento-Box



Joined: 08 Sep 2009
Posts: 1049
Location: Florida
PostPosted: Sun Oct 25, 2009 8:58 pm Reply with quote
Glad to see that other people are gonna follow this. I'm talking my boyfriend into watching it with me, but I don't think showing him the ending theme first was a good idea. lol I just couldn't wait for him to get home to show him how odd it was.

Since I like comedies, I'll definitely keep watching it.

I love the musical soundtrack so much. A lot of metal is hit or miss for me.

And I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more of the characters with their jagged capes. Anime smile
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egoist



Joined: 20 Jun 2008
Posts: 7762
PostPosted: Sun Oct 25, 2009 9:36 pm Reply with quote
Needless to say, Needless gives me a needlessly great amount of needless fun with its needlessness. (yarr, try recording your voice while saying this)
But, seriously. It's always a relief to watch this show. It's a joke after another and there's hardly any serious stuff going on.
Up to episode 10 it's gonna be about the same, gathering companions and all. After that there's gonna be a lot of fanservice, and at episode 15-16 the plot kicks in.(ep. numbers aren't precise)
Good art, good music, likable characters and it's not oversaturated with fanservice(unlike certain shows that keep showing the girls' panties for ages). Well, there's plenty of fanservice, yes. But it's always mixed with comedy.
The first ending is just fanservice, there's nothing to understand about it. Basically, enjoy it or don't watch it at all. There's a new opening and ending halfway through. I don't enjoy loli stuff either, but I found this ending likable.
This show definitely deserves a "good" rating.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 10:12 am Reply with quote
I watched a few episodes of Needless when it started, but I kind of got bored. I had no idea whether it was trying to be a comedy, or be an action as it kept changing sides. Plus I felt kind of awkward looking at that the priest's masive abs and Eve's large assets were kind of scaring me away. My description I gave to it was a lot of needless things, I might finish it eventualy, but it didn't realy stick with me at the time.
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RHachicho



Joined: 07 Oct 2009
Posts: 897
Location: Essex, UK
PostPosted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 2:14 pm Reply with quote
Hmm maybe im taking the show a bit too seriously this is probably the kind of thing I should watch when I come back from a night at the Pub. Trying to watch it sober though I didn't find the jokes that funny at least not after the first three or four episodes.

It's probably also true to say that explosive annoying female characters annoy me unless they are done REALLY well about the only ones i ever got on with was Lina Inverse and Chidori Kaname and this series's version gets an awful lot of screen time. And trumps Lina on the Annoy-O-Meter by about a factor of 10.
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Kruszer



Joined: 19 Nov 2004
Posts: 7981
Location: Minnesota, USA
PostPosted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 8:09 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Maybe I misunderstood you, but what struck me so funny about that is the fact that those three girls NEVER behave that way in the actual show. Or at least as of ep 16 they haven't.


Not really, no, but the series does get significantly more pervy once they show up, and the echi/yuri laden ending fits better.
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egoist



Joined: 20 Jun 2008
Posts: 7762
PostPosted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 9:12 pm Reply with quote
Episode 17 was perfectly fine though. I believe the yuri/ecchi content is gonna be greatly reduced from now on, since the girls are no longer in the spotlight. And yeah, some seriousness was added within this episode, because Yamada-kun's spoiler[sister is back], so they don't have time for all the ecchi/yuri stuff. Although, I wouldn't mind seeing spoiler[his sister] in some yuri scenes. Wink
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Bento-Box



Joined: 08 Sep 2009
Posts: 1049
Location: Florida
PostPosted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 8:58 am Reply with quote
Finally got to ep 3 of this one. (Been on a Shugo Chara binge to the end of the series)

Still about the same for me. Pretty funny at times, but getting a little drab. I feel like I'm just getting bombarded with the same gags over and over at this point. Don't really like the new flame guy either. I'm looking forward to the girls . . .
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The Grey Ghost



Joined: 03 Nov 2009
Posts: 27
Location: Cary, NC
PostPosted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 11:26 am Reply with quote
This show had my friends and I yelling at the screen. It's an insulting attempt at a shonen fighting show. Here, have some Fist of the North Star with some Guilty Gear and Mega Man. No, that is fail.

As the first episode faded out, we thought we could relax in that it had ended. Then the end credits happened and the venomous expletives again flew.
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Kruszer



Joined: 19 Nov 2004
Posts: 7981
Location: Minnesota, USA
PostPosted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 1:30 pm Reply with quote
When something does that (combining elements from other things in a non-serious manner) it's a form of media called a satire and it's supposed to be insulting. A satire uses irony, parody, sarcasm and the like to make fun of or denounce the thing(s) it is portraying. It's a shounen series for people who have seen way too many shounen series and can say "Haha! That is from Series X" and "LOL, they're making fun of Series Y there!" and generally just have a good time laughing at all the cheesyness and stupidity.
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Bento-Box



Joined: 08 Sep 2009
Posts: 1049
Location: Florida
PostPosted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 1:38 pm Reply with quote
I haven't watched much shonen, so I was initially confused at first, but I'm getting the hang of it now I guess.

I guess to some people it would be like watching a more extreme Abenobashi without ever watching anime.
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