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REVIEW: Needless DVD Collection 1

Girl's school uniforms or maid outfits are, bizarrely, the apparel of choice for most female characters associated with Simeon, while guys commonly wear apparel which shows off their rippling six-packs and sports impressively flared collars.

Theron, you might want to look into Serena Gonzalaz being a newcomer. According to a poster at AnimeOnDVD she might actually be veteran Houston VA using a new last name due to getting married.

The source material comes from the older-skewing Ultra Jump, though, which means that this is actually a seinen series. To expect the greater degree of sophistication more typically seen in seinen series would be a big mistake, however, because for its age classification, Needless is as immature as they come.

Theron, you might want to look into Serena Gonzalaz being a newcomer. According to a poster at AnimeOnDVD she might actually be veteran Houston VA using a new last name due to getting married.

MeggieMay wrote:

Theron, you might want to look into Serena Gonzalaz being a newcomer. According to a poster at AnimeOnDVD she might actually be veteran Houston VA using a new last name due to getting married.

Various online sources now list her as Serena Varghese-Gonzalez. Apparently we will have to update her VA profile.

EDIT: The review has now been updated to reflect this.

Although the animation production credits belong to MADHOUSE, one can be forgiven for mistaking this series for a Gainax production, as the animation style and certain artistic flairs are more indicative of past Gainax efforts (especially Gurren Lagann, from which the series takes some clear visual cues).

Quote:

Although the animation production credits belong to MADHOUSE, one can be forgiven for mistaking this series for a Gainax production, as the animation style and certain artistic flairs are more indicative of past Gainax efforts (especially Gurren Lagann, from which the series takes some clear visual cues).

Well, the truth is that the Needless manga was first released in 2004, while Gurren Lagann (manga & anime) in 2007; the Needless anime adaptation's character design hasn't been changed, virtually it's very close to the manga counterpart (with minor changes, e.g. reduced violence and fanservice).

TC-man wrote:

Quote: Although the animation production credits belong to MADHOUSE, one can be forgiven for mistaking this series for a Gainax production, as the animation style and certain artistic flairs are more indicative of past Gainax efforts (especially Gurren Lagann, from which the series takes some clear visual cues). Well, the truth is that the Needless manga was first released in 2004, while Gurren Lagann (manga & anime) in 2007; the Needless anime adaptation's character design hasn't been changed, virtually it's very close to the manga counterpart (with minor changes, e.g. reduced violence and fanservice).

I'm sure he's talking about scenes like this (from ep. 15): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7BdtdbqKs0

While TTGL has certainly been influential, all of it is part of the recent wave of animating in the Kanada style. It's not a GAINAX thing.

braves wrote:

TC-man wrote: Quote: Although the animation production credits belong to MADHOUSE, one can be forgiven for mistaking this series for a Gainax production, as the animation style and certain artistic flairs are more indicative of past Gainax efforts (especially Gurren Lagann, from which the series takes some clear visual cues). Well, the truth is that the Needless manga was first released in 2004, while Gurren Lagann (manga & anime) in 2007; the Needless anime adaptation's character design hasn't been changed, virtually it's very close to the manga counterpart (with minor changes, e.g. reduced violence and fanservice). I'm sure he's talking about scenes like this (from ep. 15): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7BdtdbqKs0 While TTGL has certainly been influential, all of it is part of the recent wave of animating in the Kanada style. It's not a GAINAX thing.

If you mean the mangs-style art, try AIC & Steel Angel Kurumi which I believe ADV tried to explain as more an attempt to show action or cutting edge artistic sense or some such & not an attempt to cheap out. Kurumi aired in 1999 And one of the characters (the impaled one) is named Kurumi. And Solva's dress in reminiscent of the Kurumi costumes.
Again Mr. Martin dislikes a title I enjoyed immensely. I have far less
hope for Black Butler set 2 which is waiting to be watched (probably after Megamind).
This is not as insane as Bobobo nor as weird as Dr Slump (though I've only read the manga). My interest is of course Koyasu who was also the lead in Bobobo so I spent most of my time on the Japanese track except for the couple eps so far he's had nothing to do in (like the 12th ep
where Mr. Martin seems so fricken concerned about the impalement...actually considering Eve goes to drill hand for battle, there are lots of impalements. I just can't get that worked up about a 2-ep villain getting impaled when one of our hero team AND the hero have holes in their chests from said drill. The whole ep of 12 Adam's lying there with a gaping hole in his chest. However, he's the hero. I'm sure they'll fix him)
You know "Black Spot" is a joke. They say "Black Spot" in the Japanese track & not whatever it would be in Japanese.

Watching the first 12 eps, I saw refs to mech (drill hand), the whole set-up is the post apocalyptic worlds of Fist of the North Star & Trigun (The flashback with Solva's past really reminded me of Trigun), but mostly the powers thing consistantly hits on Scryed. Any given ep will ref 3 or more other titles in action or style which puts it solidly in spoof-land which I very much enjoy.
Hell, when Adam's chest is opened, we see metal so I assumed
Dragonball Z Cyborgs, but actually the line was he's had metal & machines grafted into his body so more Wolverine which surprised me.
So maybe it's more enjoyable if one plays tie-the-bit-back-to-the-original, but it's in no way "stealing" ideas because the show knows it's all a joke.