NEEDLESS



NEEDLESS: In the near future, mankind has suffered from World War III, leaving extreme damage all over. Mankind has been forced to evolve. From this chaos comes a new species: "Needless". The Needless are humans who have contracted a "disease", as humans call it, which allows them to wield extraordinary powers. Their abilities include telekinesis, Elemental Powers, gravity control, adaptation, radioactive release and so on, all seemingly impossible.

The manga debuted in 2004 and is ongoing, and an anime adaptation by Madhouse aired in the summer of 2009. The anime has been licensed for US distribution with an English dub track by Sentai Filmworks, and is available online.

Not to be confused with The Needless.

"Kuchinashi: Don't worry, I'm not [that] interested in guys. Cruz: I'm pretty sure "that" is written really small in there! Kuchinashi: ...guys who make good traps are a-ok."
 * Accidental Pervert: A Running Gag in episode nine.
 * Action Girl
 * Eve Neuschwanstein.
 * Every female character in the show qualifies, really. The only one who doesn't do much fighting is Disk, and even she has some serious firepower.
 * Adam and Eve Plot: and they're not subtle about it. More specifically Eve was created for the sole purpose of bearing Blade's children, as said by Gido in Vol.7, due his DNA structure not being compatible with that of normal humans and other Needless..
 * Actually in the manga it's reviled that
 * A God Am I: Arclight.
 * claims this, too. Unfortunately for him, Arclight disagrees.
 * It seems that quite a few needless have developed god complexes, comparing themselves to God either because they're truly that megalomaniacal, or to intimidate their opponents.
 * Air Vent Passageway: Used when Disk and co infiltrates the Simeon building to save Blade. On the other hand, Seto and Solva aren't that subtle...
 * Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome: Kafka. When you first meet him, he's the Warmup Boss. In the alternate past, however, he's a Badass
 * Amazon Brigade or Lovely Angels (3 persons!), Terrible Trio: Simeon's all-female Squad. They also star in the ED credits.
 * Simeon actually owns an entire army of bishoujo Needless.
 * After the End Apocalypse Not: The Third World War destroyed major cities in the world including Tokyo, but nearly all of the world has been rebuilt and functions normally as depicted in Needless Zero. However, Black Spots remain as they were many decades ago.
 * And This Is For
 * And the Rest: The second exposition introduces the resistance as "A mysterious priest, Adam Blade! Eve Neuschwanstein! And the rest." followed by a group Face Fault.
 * Art Shift: The Blade vs. Kuchinashi fight shifts into an odd sort of rough sketch style before reverting to normal.
 * And briefly again in episode 13.
 * Perhaps the animators got lazy and decided to leave it in storyboard format.
 * Ass Kicks You: Mio uses both variations as her signature attacks.
 * However in a battle in Blade vs the Girl Squad, he was smiling as Mio's slowly land on his face.
 * Autobots Rock Out: 24/7
 * Awesomeness By Analysis: Cruz. Though he lacks any actual superpowers, he does have possess incredible faculties of analysis and deduction, which lands him in the role of The Strategist even before he realizes it.
 * Back From the Dead:
 * Double hits.
 * Badass: Overflowing with it.
 * Badass Adorable: Most of the girls.
 * Badass Biker: Eve.
 * Little Miss Badass: Bishoujo Squad member Mio.
 * Badass Grandpa: BQ, Geppetto's living doll
 * Badass Longcoat: Adam Blade, Adam Arclight. Blade's longcoat is torn.
 * Badass Preacher: Blade.
 * Badass Teacher: More like Badass Dean, but Madam Black, the headmistress of St. Rose Academy, definitely qualifies.
 * Took a Level In Badass: Later on, That's NEEDLESS for you.
 * Bait and Switch Lesbians: The Bishoujo Squad do well... Overwhelmingly Les Yay things in the ED sequence, but once finally introduced, are nothing of the sort.
 * Setsuna and Mio, at least. Kuchinashi is later revealed to actually be a lesbian, and in the manga, is currently crushing over
 * Also in the DVD version. Where she likes to
 * Battle Aura
 * Beehive Barrier: Eve can shape her arms to form a hardened, metallic shield of this type.
 * Big Bad: Adam Arclight.
 * when it turns out that the
 * Of course, thanks to Arclight's back at the top of the evil food chain.
 * Bizarre Baby Boom, Cursed with Awesome: The titular Needless, who are banished to the Black Spot.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: "You are the main character of this anime!"
 * Kana:"You're (Hatfield) not the main character of this MUSTACHE ARC!!!"
 * Butt Monkey: Cruz Yamada.
 * Calling Your Attacks: Practically anyone who can fight is prone to this.
 * And Subverted with Kuchinashi, who simply writes down the names of her attacks on a sketchpad.
 * Also before someone's fragment is revealed. They attack without saying their specail abilites.
 * Disc:Shout out a skill name and hit people!
 * Cruz:Wouldn't I be revealed instantly?
 * Captain Obvious: Cruz. Also Disk, who's ability is to couch analyses in wads of cool-sounding Techno Babble, but only ever uses her scan after the practical result, the only useful part of her observation, is already apparent to everyone.
 * Catch Phrase: "It's judgment time!" "Your sentence... IS DEATH!"
 * Children Are Innocent: Subverted with Uten and Mio. And See-chan from NEEDLESS 1.5
 * Confessional: Subverted with Momiji Teruyama's introduction, the booth winds up getting destroyed.
 * Clothing Damage: Eve is a frequent victim...as if her outfit wasn't Stripperific enough already.
 * Heavily lampshaded and subverted by the head mistress of St. Lily Academy., she says that Clothing Damage acts as the Life Meter in this manga and thanks to her steel clothes, she is invincible against Clothing Damage and real damage.
 * Cool Shades: Blade's. If they were a bit more pointy and orange, they'd look almost like Kamina's.
 * Combat Tentacles: Arclight's preferred method of attack.
 * Comedic Sociopathy: To levels that start continually increasing halfway through the first episode.
 * Confusion Fu: Saten keeps his actual ability secret and throws people for a loop with what appear to be multiple fragments. In the Anime original material (beginning episode 22 or so) And he takes this even further by hiding his true status as
 * Continuity Cameo:, Adam Blade's , makes an appearance in the 82th chapter of the main series, a very brief and almost purposeless one.
 * Cross Dressing Voice: Cruz is played by Aya Endo, usually playing the Cool Big Sis.
 * Crystal Dragon Jesus: The Second.
 * Clone Jesus: The goal of Shimeji Simeon. Adam Blade can supposedly become this if he memorizes enough Fragments... If he's smart enough to actually do that.
 * Culture Shock: the very presence of police officers in a somewhat still stable society in Tokyo, Blade and friends had a hard time trying to figure out what these people are while raiding the city, since in The Black Spot There Are No Police it was a completely new experience to the team.
 * Cute and Psycho: Solva
 * Cute Bruiser: Mio, whose ability is "Power".
 * Cute Mute: Bishoujo Squad member Kuchinashi.
 * Everyone:
 * Cute Shotaro Boy: Cruz.
 * Defeat Means Friendship: in a flashback.
 * Delayed Reaction: Many, many times.
 * Distaff Counterpart: Adam Neuschwanstein from NEEDLESS 1.5, the counterpart of Adam Blade whose conection to him and Eve remains a mystery.
 * Damsel in Distress: Eve, as of episode 6.
 * Badass in Distress: Even captured, she just don't stop to show her badassery. Just ask Arclight.
 * The Dragon: Saten is the strongest of the Quirky Miniboss Squad,
 * Dropped a Bridget On Him:
 * Enigmatic Minion: Saten.
 * Well, at least until episode 22 came around...
 * Eyecatch: A voice growls "NEEDLESS".
 * In the dub, It plays a guitar riff.
 * Face Heel Turn:
 * One of the Bishoujo Squad has the power of 'Black Attraction' to force this via Brainwash.
 * Fan Service: So, so much...Although the E Ds and episode 6 take it to near-extremes.
 * In the words of Adam Blade, "There's always room for more Panty Shots!"
 * Fearful Symmetry: Eve, as Setsuna, forces her to fight herself.
 * Fridge Logic: Where did the container with super-concentrated Derodoro go? Probably inside Eve's body, she could easily hide it using her fragment
 * Four Is Death: Simeon has a Quirky Miniboss Squad of four.
 * Funny Background Event: Heavily Subverted.  complains that   to a comically surprised Eve... While in the background,   is holding his RECENTLY CUT OFF ARM in pain.
 * Gainaxing: So, so much...
 * Gambit Pileup
 * Gecko Ending: Starting from
 * The Glasses Come Off: Blade takes off his glasses when things gets really serious, or he never goes with them to said fierce battle in the first place. After the PF Blast, Blade never used them again, it also served to quite mellow him out, he got noticeable less of a Jerkass ever since.
 * Girl-On-Girl Is Hot: This is the most reasonable explanation for why the first ED is the way it is.
 * And/or because of Blade's personal tastes.
 * Gratuitous English: You know, the, uh, title of the show. Also in the OP/ED songs. "Are you ready to THE ACTION?!" "Jumping Prince Songs~" Also one thing you must remember.
 * Disc: DESTROY EVOLUTION!!!
 * Gravity Sucks: Seto's "Graviton" fragment.
 * Gorn: Thankfully the anime largely averts this, but
 * In a similar case, Setsuna, Mio, and Kuchinashi have a fight with two other members of the Bishoujo Squad, Nanami and Misaki. In episode 7 of the anime, the scuffle is played played mainly for laughs, but in Chapter 10 of the manga,
 * Also in the manga
 * Hammerspace: Even if Kuchinashi is
 * Episode nine gives us Disc producing a Hyperspace Arsenal made up of numerous guns from underneath her skimpy one-piece dress.
 * Headbutt Thermometer: Setsuna gives one to Cruz in the specials. However, she only does it to get a rough estimate, and then flips him around to try and get a more accurate reading using an... unpleasant... measuring technique.
 * Healing Factor: Part of Eve's doppelganger power. Not energy conserving.
 * Heel Face Turn:
 * And the anime allows to make one right before the final battle.
 * Also in the manga,
 * Let's not forget Saten,
 * Heroic BSOD: after learning of
 * Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Blade, though to a slightly lesser degree than most examples. Slightly.
 * Heroic Sacrifice: Aruka.
 * A more straightforward example is
 * Also subverted.
 * High School AU: While the show has a school of sorts, the DVDs contain a series of bonus shorts set at St. Lily Academy, an all-girls' school with Cruz attending as "Yamada Nadeshiko". Disc is the teacher.
 * Humongous Mecha: The Darumi GT Mk. 32 EX68000 Nitro FC, a giant mecha daruma doll built and piloted by Kanna and her underlings.
 * Iconic Item: The Bishoujo Squad's panties. It gets to the point where Cruz is able to tell it's Setsuna just by looking up her skirt.
 * Idiot Hero: All the good guys except Cruz and Gidou. Momiji Teruyama is a borderline case.
 * If It's You, It's Okay: This exchange between Cruz and Kuchinashi (with her sketchpad)...
 * Idiot Hero: All the good guys except Cruz and Gidou. Momiji Teruyama is a borderline case.
 * If It's You, It's Okay: This exchange between Cruz and Kuchinashi (with her sketchpad)...

"LITTLE GIRL. LITTLE GIRL. LITTLE GIRL. Well, she's technically a little girl. LOOKS LIKE A LITTLE GIRL."
 * Blade agrees about good traps being a-ok.
 * I'm Cold... So Cold...: Cruz says this in episode 17 after
 * Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Lots and lots of people, but the one with (literally) strongest impact is And that is not even the worst death-by-impaling in the manga.
 * Impossibly Tacky Clothes: When Strom, leader of the Overlord Guild, is introduced, he is draped with a floral-patterned cape. Then, he decides to fight and his cape lifts up, revealing his Homemade Sweater From Hell.
 * I Never Told You My Name: sneaks her way in Cruz's team. Though he doesn't find out for sure she's a mole until she turns on them, Cruz quickly becomes suspicious of her when she calls him "Cruz" as opposed to "Yamada" (his nickname, which everyone in the team uses instead of his real name).
 * Jerkass: Everyone except Cruz. Even the protagonists are Jerkass.
 * Not arguing the protagonists Jerkass-ness. But Considering the nature of the world they live in it's understandable. Also they didn't "laugh" and point, but rather gloated over the fact that they got past a very hard situation.
 * Jobber: An entire squad of would-be heroes get introduced in episode 7 and
 * Journey to the Center of the Mind: From chapter 76 onwards, gets  materialized in physical form in order to Simeon know, but something goes wrong as ,  is hit with one of  which triggers the plot, with  visiting the world sometime , also borders with Alternate Universe as  thus creating a different
 * Kawaiiko: Mio, who comes dangerously close to tasting like diabetes.
 * Just remember Blade's reaction when he sees her.
 * La Résistance: The resistance that Cruz was in. Was.
 * Lens Flare: Especially when it's involving Blade's Cool Shades.
 * Lighter and Softer: The anime compared to the manga though only with a few cases. Otherwise it just has more blood.
 * Limited Wardrobe: Played straight since this is an anime. However, Eve's power actually allows her to change her clothes, which she seldom does.
 * She has two oufits. Normal and Battle.
 * Somewhat justified because the entire part 1 (events of the anime) seems to takes place in the same day, and a lack of clothes can be an actual issue for the characters due to fights and lack of residence.
 * After becoming a Girl Squad member, Cruz was later prone to losing his clothing to the point where he's often wearing tiny shreds to cover himself with, despite having to keep the Girl Squad facade. He later wears a thin cloth to disguise as his sister, only to have that torn off again, giving Eve an inspiration for her current attire and having that literally taken from him as well. Also humorously stripped again by Saten just before returning from Blade's memories. Yamada finally gets another Girl Squad uniform and panties in perfect condition... for now.
 * The Bishoujo Squad lose their original outfits getting past an Iron Mountain security system, and switches to uniform. Nonetheless, they get the clothes back in part 2.
 * Disc has multiple bodies (with clothes) she can conveniently swap depending on the situation. Seen so far: Disc's Iron Mountain body, her smaller travel form which holds more data, and lastly (currently), her Full Armor Mode, which turns Disc into a full-fledged fighting character.
 * Eve obtains and adds stockings to her clothes as a result of Blade's fetish (due to Yamada's influence) in the alternate timeline. Eve later sticks with her Doppelganger clothes, possibly due to having to fight constantly. There's a lot about clothes to NEEDLESS.
 * Lolicon: Adam Blade. To an EXTREME degree.
 * Lolicon: Adam Blade. To an EXTREME degree.


 * It seems that even Arclight is too. Well they are brothers AFTER ALL!!
 * This would also explain why he has whole squads of pretty little girls.
 * Looming Silhouette of Rage
 * Loophole Abuse: It's a commonly known fact that all Needless only have one ability. What is Adam Blade's ability? Copying the abilities of other Needless, allowing him to freely use them. And it's a loophole he gleefully abuses.
 * Lotus Eater Machine: Kuchinashi's Lilith Temptation.
 * Lovecraftian Superpower: Arclight, and Eve to a lesser extent.
 * Made of Iron: Adam Blade's bones are reinforced with metal. Needless in general seem to be more durable than the average human.
 * Malaproper: Eve. Blade falls into too on occasion. Kuchinashi's Talking with Signs frequently includes a stricken homonym of whatever it is she's actually trying to say.
 * Magic A Is Magic A: It is an established plot point that all Needless have exactly one power, not more. Although Adam Blade, Adam Arclight, and are kind of abusing a loophole with their Mega Manning ability.
 * Magic Skirt: 's Simeon costume comes with one. Probably Justified, as she doesn't seem to be wearing anything under it...
 * Mask Power: prior to The Reveal.
 * Master of Illusion: Uten's "Bermuda Apport" power allows him to make things invisible. It's a somewhat limited ability, but he uses it quite effectively.
 * Mega Manning: Adam Blade's Fragment "Zero" Overcomes the "one fragment, one power" restriction by allowing him to memorize other fragments.
 * Mind Control:
 * Ms. Fanservice: Eve.
 * My Name Is Not Durwood: Cruz (aka "Yamada") and Teruyama (aka "Uchida"), both conferred upon them by Eve. Both of them don't like it very much.
 * A flashback reveals that when Blade and Eve first met as children, she called him "Ishida".
 * Mood Whiplash: Everyone is worried when a holographic screen showing Adam Arclight appears on the sky, and right before he finishes introducing himself...the guy takes four naked girls to the head. Cue the "We're having technical problems" screen with a poorly-drawn cartoon rabbit and turtle with a very childish background before switching back to the ominous mood again. This is aided by the fact that Arclight wasn't used for humor up until that scene... nor after.
 * Should be noted that, when Arclight comes back online, his fist
 * Done a lot more after that. There will be a dramatic moment... then suddenly it's comedy for a bit.
 * Near-Death Experience:
 * The anime gives Cruz a second one. This time, Blade pops up to give him some genuine words of encouragement for once.
 * The Nicknamer: Eve.
 * Nosebleed, Wingding Eyes: Blade + loli = this.
 * Kuchinashi
 * One Steve Limit: There's both an Adam Blade and an Adam Arclight. Teruyama ends up mistaking one for the other.
 * Opening Narration: Every episode except the last five.
 * Otaku O'Clock
 * Panty Shot: Several dozen an episode.
 * Playing with Fire: Momiji Teruyama, Arca Schild, and to a degree, Saten.
 * Post Modernism: In spades.
 * Power Perversion Potential: Disk's Scan ability can gather information about anyone they might encounter. Blade's first question?  It's used that way half-way through the series to "punish" Setsuna, Mio, and Kushinashi.
 * The Professor: Cool Old Guy Gidou.
 * Punny Name: "Kuchinashi" is the Japanese name of the gardenia flower. It also means "No-mouth".
 * Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Many Needless gangs in the Black Spot are exactly this, as mentioned in Needless Zero.
 * Rape Is Love That Makes You Evil: Riru genuinely fell in love with Arclight after their first meeting... When he implanted Eden's Seeds into her in a Nightmare Fuel moment that looks suspiciously similar to tentacle rape...
 * Razor Floss: Kafka's "Kandatta String" ability. Blade and, later, Arclight are able to do this after memorizing the move. Of course, it usually winds up being The Worf Barrage.
 * Rearrange the Song: The Killer Girls Idol Singer trio that appears in episode 19 are singing a song that is, on closer inspection, a remixed version of the second ending theme.
 * Refuge in Audacity: Pretty much the genre.
 * Retirony: Lampshaded by Teruyama in the preview segment at the end of Episode 18.
 * Robot Girl: Disc the informant, who is technically a Hollywood Cyborg, but comes across more as this. This also makes her Really Seven Hundred Years Old (actually, only few decades older than she looks).
 * Rule of Cool: Overloaded with it.
 * Scars Are Forever: The doppleganger ability seems to leave no scars after healing any injury... on the anime, the manga shows it leaves scars, just ask Cruz.
 * Shinigami:
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Is it Disc or Disk? Arca or Aruka?
 * Spider Tank: Testaments.
 * Spiritual Successor: to S-Cry-ed.
 * Stripperiffic: Riru's outfits. Eve's normal attire also comes very, VERY close.
 * Super-Deformed: The second ending, which also features a Five Man Band Concert and more gratuitous fanservice shots.
 * Super-Hero School: Supervillain, St. Rose High School which is owned by Simeon to train its army of bishoujo Needless.
 * Super Move Portrait Attack: Including Combination Attacks.
 * Super Speed: Bishoujo Squad member Setsuna.
 * Surprisingly Good English: Every fragment/ability in the series is listed with Kanji and a good English equivalent.
 * Talking Is a Free Action: And for Kuchinashi, writing is, too
 * Talking with Signs: Kuchinashi. The anime is courteous enough to actually show her writing them half the time.
 * Testosterone Poisoning: Oh god.
 * There Are No Police: To extreme levels, The Black Spot has no known Law Enforcement Task Force and Police Units to speak of, it reaches Culture Shock later in the manga when Blade & Gang raids Tokyo, the presence of real police officers attempting to stop their raid manages to makes the team completely dumbfounded, with they living in The Black Spot since childhood, Blade and friends actually has never even heard of such concept to protect and serve before.
 * The Ditz: Eve Neuschwanstein combined with her inability to remember get into this trope.
 * This Is a Drill: Eve likes transforming her hands into drills.
 * Time Skip: Even before Imai Kami started working on Needless in a official magazine like Ultra Jump he had the whole storyline set in his mind years ago, back then he just wrote a few doujinshi stories and Needless 1.5 is one of them, Kami confirmed that the story is set 2 years after the current plotline; Needless 1.5 was collected officially in the Needless Zero volume which is filled with prequel - before the current Needless - stories after said "sometime" in the future chapter. The chapter itself doesn't explain much it just features a girl who, her name is and she lives with ,  is nowhere to be seem, the girl just fights a few Testaments and nothing really relevant happens. As Kami said the story is only set 2 years after the current Needless is hard to presume  conection with  and  as she is shown to be around the same age as  in the current Needless, she might be a clone as she has , or a gender-bent , or a  with an absurd growth spurt...
 * Also is in Kami's plans to continue Needless 1.5 after the current Needless is finished, on his blog he mounted an image despicting a time-line flow chart with the current Needless to Needless 1.5, according to him if everything goes well it will eventually lead to Needless 2 after the current manga is finished.
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Eve's Super Derodoro Drink. Note that it's different from Super Dorodoro ("Muddy") Drink - which is probably the generic version or somesuch. The former contains 5000 kcal(!) per can; Eve needs much more than that to use her Doppelganger Fragment.
 * This is spoofed in episode 6, where she cockily challenges the Bishoujou Squad after downing a can... Only to find out that it's Derodoro Light, which contains no calories at all. As Eve herself puts it: "WHAT THE HELL'S THE POINT, THEN?!
 * The Tokyo Fireball: The birth of the Black Spot.
 * Troperiffic
 * Twinkle Smile: Blade in the first opening, while showing off his six-packs.
 * Unsound Effect: The most common is "dramatic" for when something dramatic happens or someone's just being overblown, but also "pleasant" used for punching someone in the face.
 * Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Blade. Yes that Blade. Gido wonders where he went wrong.
 * Utopia Justifies the Means: In the anime, the reason joined Simeon was to create a paradise for all Needless.
 * Vapor Wear:, whilst in her Simeon costume. Lampshaded by Cruz in the preview segment at the end of episode 17.
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting: Eve's Doppelganger ability.
 * Waterfall Puke: When Blade and Momiji get a taste of Eve's Super Derodoro Drink.
 * Wave Motion Gun: Saten's power can be used for this, amongst other things.
 * Wholesome Crossdresser:
 * World of Ham: In and out of battle. Eve's doppleganging gives the potential for every voice actor to get in on the fun, even for the more subdued characters.
 * World War III: In the backstory.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Eve and Setsuna.
 * A Lampshade Hanging occurs because both Eve and Setsuna have literally blue hair and similarly blue outfits, and they as well as Disc comment about how having very similar characters in an anime is not exactly a good thing.
 * You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Eve and Setsuna.
 * A Lampshade Hanging occurs because both Eve and Setsuna have literally blue hair and similarly blue outfits, and they as well as Disc comment about how having very similar characters in an anime is not exactly a good thing.
 * You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: