Needless

Needless is a manga where humanity is about to be distinguished by humans with Super Powers called Needless. Most of them are evil working under Adam Arclight who is basically a god. Speaking of gods, the powers of the Needless are basically abilities from the Second who is basically Jesus. And a few characters are closest to him in ability because they were cloned by him as means to be used as weapons. Basically the goal of the good guys which include one of the clones Adam Blade to defeat Adam Arclight and save the world. Super powers in this series are standard but the characters use itin clever ways which make them unique. And fights involve characters to figure out how to counter said power and how various abilities are connected to 1. Unless they are clones of Jesus which basically allow him to use multiple abilities and copy those of their opponents. But even the broken main character has to figure out how to overcome the members of Simeon's Pretty Girl Squad which consist mainly of cute girls that experienced military training despite their looks. Basically the fights are badass spectacle and strategic. Characters are also amazing. Blade might be a controversial character since he is into young girls... he suppose to be a priests and the show makes fun of priest stereo types. While that creates a lot of creepy but comical moments, it also serves as a weakness when fighting the far more experienced Simeon's Pretty Girl Squad. Arclight is your average villain and has a mightier copy power to Blade. His goal is to become a real god pretty much. Eva Neuschwanstein is Blade's closest friend has the ability Doppelganger that allows her to transform into different people. She is also insanely powerful with cool moves like a turning her arm into a drill. She is bad with names so she nicknames everyone. She needs a lot of calories to fight at full power which is why she drinks some weird soda with 5000 calories. Schild Cruz is a child without Super Powers but he makes up for it with his analytic abilities which serve as crucial means to beat any Needless they encounter. He is often victim of comic relief jokes and punishment. There are other amazing characters too with my favorite being Setsuna who has the Fragment (basically what the abilities of Needless are called) Speed who is basically the leader of the main Pretty Girl Squad the protagonists encounter. But there is also a mysterious character named Saten who's intentions aren't clear and some green haired masked woman. The show is amazing but often it doesn't take itself serous. The tone shift can be bothersome and some images can be considered deviant. The artstyle is unique to the manga and it has a lot of badass female characters in it. Highly recommend giving it a read.

I’m writing this review out of my memory from reading the manga, which was quite a while back. For that, I apologize for the half-assed impression this review might pass. Needless is a weird mix of post-apocalyptic battle shounen with gag anime qualities, as well as a sprinkle of ecchi (which is almost always accompanied by extremely over-the-top situations behind it, à la To Love Ru and other works of the genre). The plot follows the wacky adventures of Cruz Schild and his companions, Adam Blade and Eve Neuschweinstein (as well as the allies they make along the way), in, as previously said, a post-apocalyptic Japan. Goingstraight to the point, don’t expect insane worldbuilding or character development; Needless does, at the most kind of takes, a serviceable yet unimpressive job at both. However, that is usually remedied by the engaging pace of the story (which almost always follows either the main cast of heroes or the cast of villains) and sincerely funny moments in the overall plot (although that is obviously subjective). While I might avoid objectively classifying Needless as some sort of parody of perverted shounen manga of the time, I can’t help but point out how the series embraces all the most glaring stereotypes of said genre; for example, the “needless” themselves, which are essentially mutants who developed supernatural powers after the nuclear war that created this manga’s universe—most specifically through the “fragments” of the first needless (which is kind of like a second coming of Christ in this world). This relates to many relevant plot points of the series, like the origin of Adam Blade and Eve, the evil organization Simeon, and other generic tropes such as the involvement of corrupt government officials, crazy yet unique effects to specific to relevant characters, etc. The series is also unapologetically horny when it comes to its ecchi moments, which serve as both important character elements (think Adam himself or the surprisingly “perverted loli” archetype embodied by Disc) as well as genuine plot-developing moments, which the manga pulls off quite well (and, of course, pure fan-service moments as well). It’s honestly quite nice seeing a series that so honestly (and shamelessly) embraces this culture; while it might certainly not be interesting for most modern Western weebs, for containing the author’s own personal preferences (lolicon and some other stuff). It never gets too graphic, though. Like previously said, the characters aren’t particularly remarkable; actually, they are as plain as they get. Take Adam Blade, for example: he embraces the boisterous and perverted protagonist, while Eve pulls of the kind-of-dumb-but-actually-really-cool heroine, and the main antagonist, Adam Arclight, being pretty stereotypically evil for the “I’m the strongest and most perfect living being in existence”-esque characters in shounen. That being said, and this is something the manga does better than the anime, it actually gives quite a hefty amount of time to explore the backgrounds and pasts of the most relevant characters during the second half of the manga. While nothing genre-bending, it is sincerely engaging and fun, considering the approach utilized by the author of not throwing an obscene amount of information into a couple of chapters (which the anime unfortunately commits as an error). I won’t enter into the merits of how difficult it is to adapt a manga to animation, especially since the anime team probably did their best with what they had (after all, the manga was not yet completed during the airing of the series), but it is still unfortunate, considering the second half of the manga is really good compared to the first half. It is important to mention that the author retcons quite a lot of points established during the first part, usually through sudden plot twists (another shounen stereotype!), so make of that what you will. Anyways, I might have come off as judgmental, but I sincerely enjoyed this series. Like i said, it definitely won’t click with many nowadays, and might even be considered rubbish or outdated by others, but it is so unserious that it works. I can’t help it; I’m a sucker for these “dumb fun” shows. I guess, in a way, Needless is the ultimate celebration of all shitty, pervy battle shounen manga, and I feel like that is obvious when you reach the final chapters of the manga. If you’re someone who embraces the perviness inherent to old-school weebery, I feel like you will have a good time reading Needless. Also, the pen name of this series’ author is “Imai Kami” (今井神), which probably is a pun on “I’m a Kami.” I guess this dude was pretty unserious from the get-go. I respect that, honestly!

If you watched the anime first, READ THE MANGA! You will be surprised to see what they changed. The show does not do it justice. I'll say one thing first, you have to be able to stomach little girls being weirdly/ridiculously sexualized. I know it sounds awful with my opener being something like this, but bear with me. This is one awesome manga. The world building is very strong, and the power system is unbelievably enjoyable. You really get the sense that this is a genuine world with real people who have their own feelings and emotions. The powers, fragments, have an interesting origin and theway they are used/developed and explained, you'll find to be a nice touch to the otherwise wild story. At some points, it is a very serious series about humanity and their motivations, but other times it's a high school ecchi comedy. There are many tone switches, and it never takes itself too seriously until you reach the actual plot nearing the last acts. That might make or break the series for a lot of people, but I found the weird comedy skits and situations to be a good break from the darker elements of the series, which can get really morbid at times. The comedy is mostly lackluster, but what can you do with it? It aged badly and you see it clearly. As for character writing, it happens to be Needless' weakest link. Some characters are genuinely plot devices without much purpose, and only a few are well developed later on. Aside from the fact that they stay mostly flat/static as characters, they are so much fun to read and are very endearing. You will slowly grow attached to the characters and end up hoping for their succession, static or not. The weirdness of this manga is highly overshadowed by the sheer coolness of its characters. I commend Kami Imai for being able to write such cool women and men who can still be goofy. The art is also very lovely. With a touch of shonen cuteness and the hypermasculinity of seinen, it's nice on the eyes for fans of both men and women. The two-page spreads are really pretty, and the drawings are consistent, clean, and appealing. I've read this manga about three times, and I still find it cute, interesting, and fun. In conclusion, this manga is flashy, outrageous, exciting, and most of all, a good experience. I always recommend this series to whoever I can, and I recommend it to you reading this now. I give the amount of crap this series has a pass simply because I loved the world so much. As long as you can handle the fanservice, it is one of the most memorable manga you'll read, and the ending is even more memorable.

There's way too much to say about needless, it's very good series it's very funny it's entertaining amusing and has tons of twists and turns that I would never have seen coming that is one of the reasons why this is so funny the sure absurdness that happens from time to time is just insane. ~SPOILERS~ What can I say the art style is pretty basic, I mean it's nothing special, and the story is kind of basic as well but the characters and their development are paramount. It is amazing how well these characters not only interact with each other but with outside parties, it's thestory that is very engrossing again I use that word a lot in the reviews but it's for a reason. Cruz turning into a girl at the end, nope I did not see that happening at all that was amazing, oh and the world turning into, or at least Japan turning into, a knee socks nude only Society for females that was that's pretty legit and extremely funny. There's a lot less nudity than I thought there was going to be in the series and there was also quite a few extra nipples that I didn't see coming around the corner I'm trying to fit words into this review to make it seem like a really good manga that you should read but I'm having difficulty because words just are not good enough for it is just so good I really did like it a lot. I'm going straight to Needless 0 which I should have read in the first place I mistakenly didn't because they refer to it a lot. I know my score says 7.5 / 10 but entertainment value I would say it's a like a 9 5 / 10. It is very entertaining, and I would definitely recommend everyone read it even if you're against that nudity BS. That's fine but like I said it doesn't really show up in the series a lot it's mostly cleavage, panty shots, and fanservice more than anything else so it's not super super sexual which it's totally nowhere near that. Worth multiple reads with 100% backing.