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"If the two of us fight using the same technique, the one who wins... the one who wins is the one with the stronger fist!"
Adam Blade

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.

NEEDLESS is a sci-fi seinen manga by Kami Imai, which was serialized in Ultra Jump from 2004 to 2013. 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.


Tropes:

  • Accidental Misnaming:
    • 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".
  • 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. Adam Neuschwanstein might be the result of Gido's project... maybe.
    • Actually in the manga it's revealed that the "Apple of Eden" is what evolved some monkeys into humans, and now the 666 wanted to use it again to evolve humans into gods. The best of the Adam series and Eve project were supposed to be the first to become gods.
    • And now it's been revealed that Riru is the Eve created for Arclight.
  • 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 Warm-Up Boss. In the alternate past, however, he's a badass His You Shall Not Pass! toward the end further cements it.
  • Amazon Brigade:
    • Simeon's all-female Squad. They also star in the ED credits.
    • Simeon actually owns an entire army of bishoujo Needless.
  • And the Rest: The second exposition introduces the resistance as "A mysterious priest, Adam Blade! Eve Neuschwanstein! And others." followed by a group Face Fault.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 lands on his face.
  • Author Appeal: Nearly every man is gigantic with huge muscles and some sort of Badass Longcoat while almost every female is either petite or verging on Token Mini-Moe. The latter becomes more and more prominent as time goes on, as the huge musclemen are steadily phased out in favor of more and more cute little girls. It reaches a point where Blade himself becomes a cute girl in the final chapter.
  • 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:
    • Anyone who is cloned and has their original memories is considered this. Uten, Kafka, and Teruyama were brought back as clones.
    • Double hits. The real Teruyama has revived by Mio. Fans rejoice.
    • Same goes with Seto and Solva, after Blade gain god powers.
  • Beehive Barrier: Eve can shape her arms to form a hardened, metallic shield of this type.
  • Big Bad:
    • Adam Arclight. Partially. The Adam Arclight that Team Blade have been fighting the whole time was a clone. The real Adam Arclight is actually Saten who shares the Big Bad spot with Gido, the leader of the 666.
    • In the anime, it turns out that the 666 committee were behind Arclight's rise to power the whole time. However, thanks to Saten/Kyouji putting the Board to Death and Arclight in turn killing him off, Arclight returned to the top of the evil food chain.
  • Bizarre Baby Boom: The titular Needless, who are banished to the Black Spot.
  • Blasphemous Boast: When Kafka claims, that his Razor Wire could only be cut by God and Adam Blade actually cuts through them, he counters, that is makes him stronger than God.
  • Body Horror: Needless' regeneration will always be this, with Eve way ahead of the pack. Dr Mengrozes creations qualify as well.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: "You are the main character of this anime!"
    Kana: You're (Hatfield) not the main character of this MUSTACHE ARC!!!
  • Bring My Brown Pants: Mio wets herself when Satan walks up to her.
  • Calling Your Attacks:
  • Captain Obvious: Cruz. Also Disk, who's ability is to couch analyses in wads of cool-sounding Technobabble, but only ever uses her scan after the practical result, the only useful part of her observation, is already apparent to everyone.
  • Cerebus Retcon: You know how Eve has a really hard time remembering names? That's because she was trying really hard to remember Onda Shizuma.
  • Children Are Innocent: Subverted with Uten and Mio. And See-chanAdam Cyclops from NEEDLESS 1.5.
    • 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.
  • Clothing Damage:
    • Eve is a frequent victim... as if her outfit wasn't Stripperific enough already.
    • Lampshaded and subverted by the head mistress of St. Lily Academy. After deflecting Rin's attack, 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.
  • Combat Tentacles: Arclight's preferred method of attack.
  • Comedic Sociopathy: To levels that start continually increasing halfway through the first episode.
  • Confessional: Subverted with Momiji Teruyama's introduction, the booth winds up getting destroyed.
  • 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 an artificial Adam Project subject, having had the "Zero" fragment infused into him.
  • Continuity Cameo: Adam Neuschwanstein, Adam Blade's rumored future clone/transexual form/daughter from NEEDLESS 1.5, makes an appearance in the 82nd chapter of the main series, a very brief and almost purposeless one.
  • Cool Shades: Blade's. If they were a bit more pointy and orange, they'd look almost like Kamina's.
  • Cute Mute: Bishoujo Squad member Kuchinashi. Subverted.
    Everyone: KUCHINASHI JUST SPOKE!?!
  • Death is Cheap: Pretty much anyone can be cloned and brought back through such a manner. Though how they come back is a different story.
  • Disguised in Drag: Cruz initially dresses as a girl to avoid suspicion at St. Rose Academy.
  • Distaff Counterpart: Adam Neuschwanstein from NEEDLESS 1.5, the counterpart of Adam Blade whose conection to him and Eve remains a mystery.
  • The Ditz: Eve Neuschwanstein combined with her inability to remember get into this trope.
  • The Dragon: Saten is the strongest of the Quirky Miniboss Squad, as proven when he reveals he is also part-God and obliterates Arclight and the 666 in the anime.
  • Due to the Dead: in the anime while Setsuna keeps an impassive face when Blade threw the corpse of another member of the Pretty Girl Squad, Kurumi, at her; Mio and Kuchinashi take the time to compose the corpse into a serene pose as Setsuna faces Blade down.
  • Eye Catch:
    • A voice growls "NEEDLESS".
    • In the dub, It plays a guitar riff.
  • Faceā€“Heel Turn:
    • One of the Bishoujo Squad has the power of 'Black Attraction' to force this via Brainwash.
    • Teruyama. Though it turns out it's a clone of the original who is dead.
    • And And Gido who was actually one of the two bigbad of the series.
  • Fanservice:
    • So, so much. Although the EDs and episode 6 take it to near-extremes.
    • In the words of Adam Blade, "There's always room for more Panty Shots!"
    • For Part II, the fanservice for Wholesome Crossdresser Cruz escalates ever single chapter. The latest one even has the front of his skirt ripped off, exposing his panties, with bulge and everything.
  • Fate Worse than Death: The Pretty Girl Squad sans Mio in ch 109.
  • Fearful Symmetry: Eve, as Setsuna, forces her to fight herself.
  • Fish out of Water: 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.
  • Five-Man Band Concert: The second ending has some of the girls as a music band in a Super-Deformed art style. Eve, The Ditz and deuteragonist, is the vocalist. Fragile Speedster Setsuna is the guitarist. Anti-Hero Seto is the grumpy keyboardist. Cute Bruiser Mio is the trumpeter, accompanied by her stuffed, Orichalcum bear. And Token Evil Teammate Solva is the drummer.
  • Four Is Death: Simeon has a Quirky Miniboss Squad of four.
  • Funny Background Event: Subverted. Arca complains that "Our family name is not Yamada" to a comically surprised Eve... While in the background, Cruz is holding his RECENTLY CUT OFF ARM in pain.
  • Gambit Pileup: Especially noticeable in the manga, by chapter 110 it is revealed there were at least five different agendas on the table. Commitee 666, Adam Arclight, Adam Blade, Saten - are only four of the involved planners, and very little you have seen in the early chapters, will remain unchanged by this moment. City Arc as a whole is one big The Reveal.
  • Gecko Ending: Starting from Saten interrupting the fight between Arclight and Blade, though the scenes with Saten after the elevator scene are anime-only too.
  • Gender Bender: In the finale, Adam fuses with Eve and becomes a woman, and uses his brief period of divinity to turn Cruz into a girl.
  • Gender-Equal Ensemble: The main team for the majority of the series consists of four men (Blade, Cruz, Gido and Teruyama) and four women (Eve, Disk, Seto and Solva). Later on in the series, Mio more or less permanently joins the group while Saten slips in and out of it, keeping the gender ratio relatively stable. Completely thrown out of balance in the final chapters, however, where Setsuna and Kuchinashi join the main group, Gido and Saten, who are revealed to be the Big Bad Duumvirate, are killed off, Blade becomes trapped in Eve's body and Cruz becomes a girl, making Teruyama the only man on a team of 8 women.
  • 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.
  • A God Am I:
    • Arclight. Judging from the history of the NEEDLESS world, what he said is not very far from the truth. Ouch.
    • Saten 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.
  • Good All Along: Arca sacrifices herself to save Cruz.
  • 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 the manga, Eve really destroyed Arclight's head with her drill... only to see it reform in front of her.
    • 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, Mio cracks Nanami's head open and Setsuna eviscerates Misaki.
    • Also in the manga Where Arclight eats everyone as well as other Needless in order to gain their powers.
    • The final chapter gives us probably one of the most disturbing shots in the manga. Gido tries to rush towards the dimensional gate as it closes. He's too late and the gate closes on him. The following page shows that it bisected him and gives us a good view of all his organs.
  • Hammerspace:
    • Even if Kuchinashi is stripped off, she still has her pen and paper to write down her words.
    • 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. Also, Adam Arclight.
    • Later used on Yamada to save his life, thus opening speculation about Yamada having a fraction of Eve's power.
  • Heelā€“Face Turn:
    • Mio, teaming up with Yamada after the Eden's Piece massacre.
    • And the anime allows Aruka to make one right before the final battle.
    • Also in the manga, Geppetto's Living Doll replica BQ and Rin, the St. Rose Academy serial bomber.
    • Let's not forget Saten, or should I say Kannazuki Kyouji, Dr Gido's assistant?
  • Heroic BSoD: Cruz after learning of Aruka's defection. Her slicing him open didn't exactly help.
  • Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Blade, though to a slightly lesser degree than most examples. Slightly.
  • Heroic Sacrifice:
    • Aruka. Subverted, it's just a facade to defect to Simeon. Later played straight in the manga.
    • A more straightforward example is when Yamada had to drag Eve out of the underground junkyard while climbing as it collapsed..
  • 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.
  • Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: A rare case where this applies to every character. All of the male characters with the exception of Cruz are drawn as towering musclemen while all of the female characters with the exception of Rira are drawn at the very least as petite and at the very most as young girl.
  • 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 Pretty Girl 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)...
      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.
    • Blade agrees about good traps being a-ok.
  • I'm a Humanitarianā€Ž: There are several cases of this but what happens to Riru at the hands of the black attraction controlled Pretty Girl Squad (sans Mio) in chapter 109 takes the cake.
  • I'm Cold... So Cold...: Cruz says this in episode 17 after being burned/stabbed close to the heart by his sister and enemies.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Lots and lots of people, but the one with (literally) strongest impact is Kurumi's death. The wooden stake that pierced her was almost her the size of her body. And that is not even the worst death-by-impaling in the manga. And don't forget Arclight.
  • 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: Mio 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).
  • Jobber: An entire squad of would-be heroes get introduced in episode 7 and are immediately killed by Adam Arclight.
  • Journey to the Center of the Mind: From chapter 76 onwards, Blade gets his memories materialized in physical form in order to Simeon know all his and Eve's secrets, but something goes wrong as Blade destroys the gimmick which invaded his mind, Cruz is hit with one of Blade's memories shards which triggers the plot, with Cruz and Saten visiting the world sometime around 7 years ago, also borders with Alternate Universe as Blade's memories somehow shuffled joining his present and past memories thus creating a different 7 years ago setting.
  • Kawaiiko: Mio, who comes dangerously close to tasting like diabetes.
  • La RĆ©sistance: The resistance that Cruz was in. Was.
  • Late-Arrival Spoiler: The Fourth Elite. The story talks about how Simeon's Fourth Elite has never been seen, and how the Fourth Elite wears a mask to hide the Eliteā€™s face. When the Fourth Elite finally does show up, the series makes no attempt to hide the color of the Eliteā€™s hair and eyes, making it painfully obvious who it is. The 3rd disc menu of the dub blatantly reveals it, as do the next episode preview of the episode right before The Reveal.. as does the episode title of said episode.
  • 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.
  • 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. As it turns out, Adam Arclight and Saten share the same ability
  • Love Makes You Evil: In the anime Riru genuinely fell in love with Arclight after their first meeting... when he implanted Eden's Seeds into her in a Nightmare Fuel moment...
  • Lovecraftian Super Power: 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.
  • 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 Saten/Kyouji Kannazuki are kind of abusing a loophole with their Power Copying ability.
  • Magic Skirt: Arca's Simeon costume comes with one. Probably Justified, as she doesn't seem to be wearing anything under it...
  • 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.
  • Mask Power: Arca, the fourth of Simeon's four strongest 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. His clone has a stigmata and is now capable of making anything invisible.
  • Master of Threads: Kafka's Needless Fragment is called "Kandata String". It allows him to create and control string of enough tensile strength to cut through people, rocks, metal and even entire buildings.
  • 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 is covered with blood.
    • Done a lot more after that. There will be a dramatic moment... then suddenly it's comedy for a bit. Subverted after the flashback we get of Blade, Eve, Gido, Arclight, and even Kyouji's past, where humor disappears.
  • Near-Death Experience:
    • Yamada had one, after he was sliced by his big sister Arca. The guys that were already dead even greets him "Welcome to Hell" and reserves a seat for him in their Mahjong table.
    • The anime gives Cruz a second one. This time, Blade pops up to give him some genuine words of encouragement for once.
  • Nosebleed:
    • Blade + young girl = this.
    • Kuchinashi the first time Cruz starts crossdressing.
  • Number of the Beast: The 666 Committee which oversee Arclight and Simeon's actions. They're all Needless and lead by Gido.
  • 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.
  • Our Angels Are Different: They're Eldritch Abomination aliens from another galaxy which spread the virus that is the Edens seed.
  • Power Copying: Adam Blade's Fragment "Zero" Overcomes the "one fragment, one power" restriction by allowing him to memorize other fragments. Adam Arclight has an even stronger version of this ability, "Positive Feedback Zero", and is using it to become unbelievably powerful. And then there's Saten...
  • Power Perversion Potential:
    • Disk's Scan ability can gather information about anyone they might encounter. Blade's first question? "Can you give me girl's measurements?" It's used that way half-way through the series to "punish" Setsuna, Mio, and Kushinashi.
    • When Blade attains God-Powers, he resurrects Solva and Seto "naked".
  • 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. In the current manga arc, Yamada had to gather everyone — from murderous living doll to serial killer drop-out to mad young girl genius to a cyborg head to ward off an invasion by Simeone Clone Squad led by his sister.
  • 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.
  • Robot Girl: Disc the informant, who is technically a Hollywood Cyborg, but comes across more as this. This also makes her Really 700 Years Old (actually, only few decades older than she looks).
  • 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.
  • Secret-Keeper: The headmistress of St. Rose Academy reveals to Yamada she knows he's not actually a student there. However, largely since he significantly helped in stopping the school bomber, she makes him an official student and further states that his true identity is of no relevance to her.
  • Super-Deformed: The second ending, which also features a Five-Man Band Concert and more gratuitous fanservice shots.
  • Superhero School: Supervillain, St. Rose High School which is owned by Simeon to train its army of bishoujo Needless.
  • Talking with Signs: Kuchinashi. The anime is courteous enough to actually show her writing them half the time.
  • Theotech: One of the main characters of this sci-fi is a lecherous clone of a messianic figure named Adam Blade, who opposes the 666 Organization alongside his companion Eve.
  • 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.
  • 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 looks a lot like Blade, her name is Adam Neuschwanstein and she lives with Eve in the same regular church, Blade 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 Adam Neuschwanstein's conection with Blade and Eve as she is shown to be around the same age as Eve in the current Needless, she might be a clone as she has Blade's collar and a fragment on her forehead, or a gender-bent Blade, or a daughter with an absurd growth spurt...
    • Based on the events of the final Chapter, the girl is actually Blade who had fused with Eve resulting in her current appearance
    • 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?!
  • Took a Level in Badass:
  • Twinkle Smile: Blade in the first opening, while showing off his six-pack.
  • 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 Arca joined Simeon was to create a paradise for all Needless.
  • Vapor Wear: Arca, 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.
  • Wham Episode:
    • Chapter 108 has Arclight reveal that he plans to spread Edens seed across the world via clones to wipe out most of mankind and evolve the remaining ones, aliens are trying to appear on earth through a imprisoned dimensional gateway that is slowly breaking through its cage with mankinds only chance of fighting against them is by evolving via the edens seed, Solva and Seto are dead, and Gido is the leader of 666.
    • Chapter 110 continues it with Arclight being revealed to have been a clone of the real Adam Arclight all along who turns out to be Saten. The real Arclight then devours the heart of his clone and has Riru devoured by the Girl Squad.
  • Wholesome Crossdresser: Yamada after the Eden's Piece massacre, due to him being on Simeon's wanted list.
  • 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.
    • Whenever any comedic scene is shown, there's more than likely guaranteed an all-out over-the-top "shock" reaction from the other characters nearby, especially Cruz. Even when comedy isn't involved, the fight scenes just love to ham it up in the anime. Greg Ayres once mentioned that many of the actors just loved dubbing the anime because it allowed them to just go all out and have fun with the reactions.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
    • Adam Arclight pulls one on ALL his followers in the anime Gecko Ending.
    • In the manga, it turns out Adam Arclight is a clone created with a defect that would fully come into play when the real Adam Arclight, Saten, decided that he had no further use for him. Furthermore, he has Riru devoured by the Girl Squad.

Alternative Title(s): Needless

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