Well, if you’ve been following my twitter, you might have realized I just burned through episodes 2-19 of Needless in the past.. 7 or so hours. When I watched the first episode back in, what was it, Summer? I was left feeling like it could be something, but felt like it lacked any real direction. Boy was I wrong as hell. I had seen a few posts here and there by C.I, but I was never motivated enough to give it another shot. But I’ve found myself with really absolutely nothing to do until at least Thursday as far as Fall anime goes. Almost all my shows are concentrated between Thursday and Sunday, leaving me with nothing really new to watch in the beginning of the week. So, instead of picking up new shows I probably wouldn’t care for anyway, I decided to go through my backlog of stuff and see what I wanted to watch. It just so happened that a friend of mine also suggested trying out Needless again and linked me to a rather hilarious clip of the fight with Uten where Eve gets covered in that Dero Doro juice.
And caught up I did! I dunno if it’s just that the novelty is wearing off or if I just prefer anime in smaller doses now that it’s all around me, but it’s been a while since I’ve actually been able to run a really long anime marathon. I think the most recent one was episodes 15-26 of Darker Than Black, which I did in about a day a few months ago, but that doesn’t even come close to comparing with my 2-19 marathon of Needless today.
So what kept me so interested? Well, everything.
Yes, especially the imoutos.
Ok, ok, seriously, this show has it all. First, the characters. The characters themselves aren’t all that fantastic or especially original, but their interactions really breathe life into the show. All the back and forth between characters, the jokes and comebacks, are perfectly executed. And when they do actually get down to business, their interactions in a more serious manner are handled just as well.
Speaking of the more serious things in the show, I think the fact that Needless tries to throw everything at the audience – from giant Dragonball-esque battles to pantyshot fanservice – actually keeps the show from getting stale. The constant switching of modes, from serious to humorous, right back to serious, with a little bit of everything thrown into the mix really helps round it out. Some might say that this back and forth can be really startling and make it hard to tell what the show’s real objective is, but I think they handle it well enough that it’s not jarring. Rather, it’s the exact opposite. The changes of pace can be somewhat abrupt, but they come at perfect times in the story. They change the pace to keep things from getting too repetitive and boring. Which I suppose you could say is just as repetitive, but to each his own.
The fights are probably one of the things I like most about Needless. They’re completely over the top and out of control and that makes it easy to overlook the flaws, because you can’t take any of the fighting too seriously. While the battles are a big part of the story (hell, we spent what? 9 episodes inside that #3 shelter), they are there to give more completely absurd situations for the whole crew to deal with. And with that comes a multitude of opportunities for laughs.
Finally, a man who understands. Speaking of that, it’s true, a lot of the fighting is there just to remove the clothes from the delectable Pretty Girl Squad, but… is that really a bad thing? :3 Perhaps my glasses are too rose-tinted from the marathon, but I feel that Needless won’t let me down, even as I finish it up in a weekly manner. Maybe with a week or so to deliberate on each episode, I might actually notice the flaws, but I doubt that will dampen my enjoyment of the series. Because really, what show doesn’t have its flaws?
Anyway, if you are looking for a crazy, off the wall series with a bit of Dragonball-esque shounen fighting mixed in with a heavy dose of humor and are able to stomach some mild fanservice, Needless is a flawless fit. When I think about it, Needless really is the shounen fighter counterpart to Hayate no Gotoku’s romcom/harem. Needless probably isn’t quite as referential in its humor, but it has the same off the wall, seemingly random but perfectly timed humor.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go put the first ED on an endless loop. Kuchinashi <3
