Monday, December 14, 2009

[Ended] Needless: 4th Wall, Be Gone


Five episodes ago, if someone had told me that the story of Needless would wrap up completely by the end of the series, I would have laughed at their face and tell them that's impossible because up to that point Needless is in such a open ended (and in a way, endless) plot structure that it'd be next to impossible to wrap everything up within the next five episodes.

But guess what, not only it wrapped up the series nicely by the end of episode 24, it also explained almost everything in the story properly, including the world war III. That was some very well designed plotline.

Many had drew comparison between Needless and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Well, I do see the similarity in style of comedy and action. But I was never really amused by TTGL that much because it repeats things too quickly and too frequently. Needless on the other hand, in my opinion has a much more interesting way in storytelling by cleverly utilizing the 4th wall while secretly pushing the plot underneath forward. I guess you can argue that it really isn't that much different than TTGL in many ways. It's probably more of a personal preference than anything else.

Final scoreboard:

Drama: 87 (Depends on how you look at it...)
Comedy: 90 (Constantly breaking the 4th wall)
Action: 90 (Everywhere)
Art/Animation: 86 (Interesting)
Sound/Music: 88 (Heavy metal)
Character: 87 (Shallow, but fits the need)
Plot:88 (Hidden for quite a while)
Ending: 85 (Well terminated)

Re-watch value: 70 (Might still be funny)

Overall: 89 - Let's tear down the 4th wall

Recommendation: As someone who disliked
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann but liked Needless very much, you probably want to take my advice with a grain of salt if you have any different opinion on TTGL. I think Needless is a very nicely done and story with a semi-decent plot. If you are looking for something laugh out loud comedy with some good plot, you should give this one a try.

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