History Manga / Needless

* CoolShades: Blade's. If they were a bit more pointy and orange, they'd look almost like [[TengenToppaGurrenLagann Kamina's]].

* BaitAndSwitchLesbians: The Bishoujo Squad do well... Overwhelmingly LesYay things in the ED sequence, but once finally introduced, are nothing of the sort.

* GenderEqualEnsemble: The main team for the majority of the series consists of four men (Blade, Cruz, Gido and Teruyama) and four women (Eve, Disc, 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 [[spoiler: Setsuna and Kuchinashi join the main group, Gido and Saten, who are revealed to be the BigBadDiuumvirate, 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.]]

* HugeGuyTinyGirl: A rare case where this applies to ''every'' character. All of the male characters with the exception of [[DudeLooksLikeALady Cruz]] are drawn as towering musclemen while all of the female characters with the exception of [[TheDragon Riru]] are drawn at the very least as petite and at the very most as [[TokenMiniMoe lolis]].

The manga debuted in 2004 and ended in 2013, and an anime adaptation by Creator/{{Madhouse}} aired in the summer of 2009. The anime has been licensed for US distribution with an English dub track by SentaiFilmworks, and is [[http://www.theanimenetwork.com/Anime/Needless/Watch available online]].

'''''NEEDLESS''''': In the near future, mankind has suffered from WorldWarIII, 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 [[CursedWithAwesome "disease"]], as humans call it, which allows them to wield extraordinary powers. Their abilities include [[MindOverMatter telekinesis]], ElementalPowers, [[GravityMaster gravity control]], adaptation, radioactive release and so on, all seemingly impossible.

!!''NEEDLESS'' provides examples of:

* SpiritualSuccessor: to ''[[{{Scryed}} S-CRY-ED]]''.

* XMeetsY: ''{{Anime/S-CRY-Ed}}'' meets ''[[{{Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann}} Gurren Lagann]]''.

** Heavily lampshaded and subverted by the head mistress of St. Lily Academy. [[spoiler:After deflecting Rin's attack]], she says that ClothingDamage acts as the LifeMeter [[NoFourthWall in this manga]] and thanks to her steel clothes, she is invincible against ClothingDamage and real damage.

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: Heavily Subverted. [[spoiler: Arca]] complains that [[spoiler: "Our family name is not Yamada"]] to a comically surprised Eve... While in the background, [[spoiler: Cruz]] is holding his RECENTLY CUT OFF ARM in pain.

* AGodAmI: Arclight. [[spoiler: Judging from the history of the NEEDLESS world, what he said is not very far from the truth. Ouch.]]
** [[spoiler: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.

* TheDitz: Eve Neuschwanstein combined with her [[ForgetfulJones inability to remember]] get into this trope.

* OtakuOClock

* LargeHam: '''EVERYONE'''. 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.

* OurAngelsAreDifferent: [[spoiler: They're EldritchAbomination aliens from another galaxy which spread the virus that is the Edens seed]].

* MyNameIsNotDurwood: 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".

* CrossDressingVoice: Cruz is played by AyaEndo, usually playing the CoolBigSis.

* JerkAss: ''Everyone'' except Cruz. Even ''the protagonists'' are JerkAss. [[spoiler:For example, when they laugh and trash talk over Kurumi's horrible death.]]
** 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.

The manga debuted in 2004 and is ongoing, and an anime adaptation by Creator/{{Madhouse}} aired in the summer of 2009. The anime has been licensed for US distribution with an English dub track by SentaiFilmworks, and is [[http://www.theanimenetwork.com/Anime/Needless/Watch available online]].

** In the anime, [[spoiler:it turns out that the [[spoiler: 666 committee were [[ManBehindTheMan behind Arclight's rise to power the whole time.]] However, thanks to Saten/Kyouji putting the BoardToDeath and Arclight in turn [[KilledOffForReal killing]] ''[[KilledOffForReal him]]'' [[KilledOffForReal off]], Arclight returned to the top of the evil food chain.]]