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NEEDLESS - 18

OP2 Sequence



OP2: 「Scarlet Bomb!」 by 美郷あき (Misato Aki)
Watch the 2nd OP!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2



「アグニッシュワッタス」 (Aguni Shuwattasu)
“Agni Schiwatas”

If you don’t like my one-off posts because you tend to follow a series via weekly coverage, feel free to ignore this one. For those watching though, this week of NEEDLESS was full of all kinds of awesome and if I watch something awesome, you can bet I’m going to talk about it! This series also features Aruka Schild, the girl who willing goes nopan. Need I say more?

I mentioned before that I wanted to cover the second half of NEEDLESS on Thursdays, but ultimately decided to cover Nyan Koi alongside Kampfer instead. Even still, I thought I’d try to make time, but last week’s indepth flashback on the Resistance’s demise just didn’t compel me to do so. This week however is a completely different story, as I’ve been waiting for Blade to open a whole can of whoopass on Cruz’s two-faced sister. Seeing as it finally happened, I had to post about this episode at the very least. As for Aruka, she’s lucky she’s voiced by the sultry Ise Mariya and willingly goes commando, or else she’d just be a bitch in my eyes. Instead, she’s a full-blown tsuntsun who’s just asking for someone to bring out her deredere. i.e. She’s hot stuff. That said, I guess it comes as no surprise that I’m hoping Blade strips her down to her socks. (Strip her Blade! She still counts as a little girl!)

For those unfamiliar with this series (and reading on), this show is completely over-the-top ridiculous with superhuman abilities, full of fan-service with both panty shots and girls getting their clothes torn off in battle, and most of all, an absolute riot that will have you laughing more than you thought you would. Some might say it’s a cheap attempt to mimic the comedic style of Gurren Lagann, but things are on a completely different level when you have unreserved fan-service both visually and suggestively. To top it off, you have Koyasu Takehito starring here and he’s unrivaled in the outrageous behaviour department. I can’t even imagine what he’s like in the recording studio when he “goes off”, but if you need someone to play a loud, unrelenting, and completely shameless character, he’s your man. For our female lead Eve, we have Kitamura Eri, who’s pretty hilarious in her own right when she plays dumb characters, plus there are tons of other notable seiyuu as supporting cast.

In terms of action, you have tons of superhero-like characters with specific abilities called Fragments (think Darker than Black contractors minus the annoying remunerations). Throw in cute young girls with lots of pantsu, underboob, pettanko, and every other sort of fetish you can think of and you have the aforementioned fan-service. (We even get male ass shots it seems!) Add in random jokes and silly super-deformed scenes and you have the same humour as Sora no Otoshimono. Mix it all together and you have anime magic. I haven’t mentioned this before, but I love this show. It’s so stupid, but so entertaining for all those reasons.

Since this is my first time posting about NEEDLESS, I decided to include the second opening and ending themes that debuted back in episode 14. I really like Misato Aki’s music in particular, so I just had to include the second opening. The ending theme on the other hand is sung by our Needless Girls, which includes a female version of Cruz (Endou Aya of Sheryl Nome fame). The ending theme is just a silly character song, but the sequence is full of tasteful shots for your viewing pleasure.

As for the actual episode, the biggest surprise is Saten saying he’s fallen for Eve and going easy on her during the fight. Later on, he also gives her an opportunity to “knock him out” so that she can save Cruz. Evidently, Saten has his own agenda but it remains to be seen what that is. For now though, he looks like he’s content with helping our protagonists. This leads us to the Aruka beat down. It seems our green-haired nopan girl was getting a bit overconfident with her Agni Schiwatas (”God’s Flame Breath”) ability and ended up blabbing about how Fragments abilities work. For high tier abilities like the Simeon Strongest Four possess, their use requires unlocking the deeper unknown regions of the brain. With the power of his Zero Fragment and this missing link information, Blade is able to “evolve” and become impervious to her attack by combining his understanding of the Agni Schiwatas and Fourth Wave abilities. Not only that, he’s aslo able to absorb the energy of her attack using the Fourth Wave and decides to unleash it back on her in his own way — an EVOLVED Vulcan Shock Ignition PLUS Little Boy that even has Teruyama jealous! With no way to harm Blade now, Aruka can do nothing but eat it. (OHHH SNAP!)

They’ve spent ten episodes in Shelter #3 now (almost half the entire series), but somehow I don’t mind one bit. However, it looks like they’re finally getting out of this playroom next time. Either way, I can’t wait to see what happens to Aruka.



ED2 Sequence



ED2: 「WANTED! for the love」 by NEEDLESS★GIRLS+
Watch the 2nd ED!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2

Preview



Reviewed by DIVINE