Visionary Nexus Network

It’s been a while since the last Needless post, and I’m sure you all missed that just as much as I missed watching the series. I just finished both episode 5 and 6, but I won’t do my usual thing with this post. Instead, I want to take a deeper (not really) look into the series as a whole so far, and try to figure out why I keep watching it.

You might just say, “well why don’t you just drop it?” Well, I tell myself that’s probably gonna happen before I decide to watch an episode. I did it before I watched 5 and 6, telling myself, “Yeah, these episodes are probably gonna be so bad that I’ll drop the series after I watch them, most definitely.” Hasn’t happened. I’m still gonna watch episode 7.

I have no idea why this keeps happening. Aside from a character or two, I almost like nothing about this series, and I could be using the time I sit around watching and writing to do something more productive (like watch Bakemonogatari, or play Wild ARMs 5, dammit) yet I keep watching Needless. This bothers me. Am I some sort of masochist? Or am I just really tsundere for this show? Let’s get down to it.

I’ve done a bit snooping around in regards to this show, from reading other people’s blog posts (Hi Tamad) and even checking out topics on GameFAQs’ anime board about the show (for some reason, everyone loves it there) and feel the need to address some issues about the show.

Some people have said you can’t take the show seriously. Oh boy, trust me, I haven’t. I’d be so much more butthurt if that was the case. I think it’d be pretty hard to take a show seriously after seeing it has an ED like the one Needless has got. Even then, the show isn’t good. The only way I can describe it is that watching Needless is like flipping through channels on a very late Saturday night, but you don’t really care about anything that’s on, so you settle for whatever isn’t an infomercial. Story, characters, fights, humor, it’s all lackluster and even going into the show with low expectations will leave you disappointed. Trust me, I’m already pretty damn mellow with my anime choices; I enjoyed K-ON!

I’m normally very lenient on story, with everything unless it’s a friggin’ book. With games, I don’t like to focus too much on the story. If it’s good, great, if it isn’t, I’ll deal. Anime, it’s a bit more of a concern, but I can deal with a lackluster storyline. It’s not gonna kill me. Needless gives me a typical storyline, but christ, it’s awful at getting anyone to even want to care. Right now I’m watching Needless for the little girls, I think. Not even gonna deny it.

With all the names being throwbacks to biblical characters and themes, and with the recent discovery of “The Second”, who seems a lot like Jesus, I feel like I’m just heading into Xenosaga territory. Except, unlike Xenosaga, I’m not interested in the story at all and I’m barely even catching the biblical references because I’m too busy just watching for little girls. I didn’t even catch the whole Adam, Eve, Saten, and Eden Project thing until a friend of mine brought it to my attention after reading some of my posts here just a day or two ago.

I was too busy being drawn in to the damn fanservice (I have my weaknesses, shut up) to notice. This has made me come to the realization that Needless is just shounen for pedophiles (this is why you like it, Tamad), and I’m right where Madhouse wants me. I am at their mercy. With the wave of a hand, Madhouse can command me (and the entire population of GameFAQs anime board) to their whim if they wanted to. Madhouse is actually trying to take over the world using pedophiles, goddammit.

I can’t find myself getting attached to any characters in this show, either. Blade? Don’t care. Eve? Don’t care. Cruz? Please die. Disk? Okay, I like you. Yuri Girl Trio? I only like the silent one. Momiji? Doesn’t get enough screen time. See where am I going with this? It’s not like this show has touching backstory for any of them so far, or any great personality traits, either. The characters in this show are incredibly hard to care about, much less be entertained by, because all the damn humor in this show is pretty much ripped straight from Fullmetal Alchemist. But guess what, Fullmetal Alchemist also has characters and a plot that I actually care about as well as fights that are actually cool to watch. Why am I not watching that instead?

Speaking of fights, nothing has improved. Out of both 5 and 6, episode 5 was the only one with any actual fighting and it was lackluster as usual. Blade did manage to get stumped, as he had a fight with mute loli, and Blade was unable to memorize her ability completely, which gives me hope. I think? But, episode 5 had some really shitty animation. I mean, really shitty. I’m not one to notice bad animation too much, and some of it was on purpose and I let that slide, but, god, nothing ruins a fight for me like crappy animation. Shounen shows should save their budget specifically for those scenes. Sigh.

It’s also been said that the show is just making fun of itself. Well, it’s uh, not very good at it. If making fun of itself means just stacking cliches upon cliches, then I’m not impressed, nor amused. See, I’d rather have a show be clever in its attempt to make fun of its genre and/or itself, like Macross 7 or G Gundam. Saying that Needless makes fun of itself is just giving another example of something it just tries too hard at and then falls flat on.

So now that we’ve got that all out of the way, let’s take a look overall, shall we?

Pros:

• Mute Loli – Hey, her power is actually pretty cool and mute girls who speak entirely through writing aren’t something you see everyday.

• Disk – Another loli. I like her because she’s not retarded. She’s also a cyborg. Automatic thumbs up from me.

• The OP – It’s a good song.

Cons:

• Most of the other characters either suck, or probably won’t get much screen time at all if they’re decent.

• Fights are bad, and when you think they’re getting somewhere with it, the animation budget goes down the toilet or they purposely mess with the animation themselves. What the hell. Or, as seen in earlier episodes, Blade just comes in and fucks everything up.

• I don’t care at all about the story. Not even in the slightest.

• I am watching this show purely for the fanservice of little girls. That by itself should tell you something.

• Despite the above con, the ED still pisses me off.

Needless is for pedophiles and not really anyone else, that’s final. I probably won’t write another post about the series until the final episode, because I’m tired of ranting about a show I only watch for little girl panty shots.

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