Super-late episode post, but I think it’s only proper to give it the closure. I’m skipping the Railgun 12 and 13 posts though; let’s just say ep12 was awesome and ep13 barely warrants a 50-word description.
Continuing from episode 23, Arclight has just disintegrated Saten and has memorized all his fragments. He then summons a massive grotesque ball of doom that, upon analyzation from Disc, is revealed to be a giant cluster of Needless cells. Blade then rushes up the cell cluster and strikes at Arclight, but even Blade is now no match for the rigged bastard, and he gets easily thrown aside.
Arclight then fuses with the cell cluster and goes super-saiyan.
As everyone stares in awe at this new Arclight, he declares that he shall annihilate everyone to become the sole holder of power, much to the dismay of his former underlings. After blasting the angry Aruka, Arclight gets confronted by Cruz, who finds Arclight’s betrayal unforgivable. Arclight thus decides to strangle Cruz, but luckily the gang saves Cruz at the last moment. Unfazed, Arclight counterattacks and easily defeats all of them in one go.
Before he could land his finishing blow however, something strange happens to his body.
Disc deduces that Arclight must’ve been inside Riru’s body for too long, causing his new cells to reject him. Spikes then begins shooting out of Arclight’s body.
Meanwhile, Cruz dreams that he’s in a blank world, and assumes that he’s dead. Blade suddenly appears, so Cruz takes the chance to ask him whether or not he regrets meeting him. Blade did not answer his question, but instead only replys that if obstacles get in the way, you just have to kick them aside.
Cruz then regains consciousness to find Eve healing him. Mio, Kuchinashi and Setsuna have already joined their party, and along with Blade defends them against some ravaging tentacles. Arclight has created some sort of large dome with them inside, while Disc observes that positive feedback is building up in his body, sooner or later blowing up to destroy the whole of Japan.
Time is ticking mercilessly, yet they cannot retreat nor defeat Arclight with their current strength. Just as Cruz decides to give up however, Aruka reemerges and tells him that it’s time to use his ability, causing the gang to misunderstand that Cruz has a fragment. Aruka clarifies Cruz’s ability as his keen observation and high IQ, which everyone agrees had gotten them out of a pinch several times.
With his confidence now restored, Cruz starts thinking of a plan to take Arclight out. He proposes that Blade initiate another reverse rejection reaction with Arclight, and in order to reach him 300 meters above the ground, commands the gang to build a curving runway with Mio’s teddy bear as the ship.
Solva repels the teddy bear upward with Mio holding her steady for the first 100 meters. Kuchinashi then fires her fragrance device as a makeshift engine (I lol’d, that was clever) while Seto neutralizes the bear’s gravity to have it acclerate quicker. The tentacles caught up however and tore off the lower part, causing Kuchinashi, Seto, and Setsuna to fall. Luckily, in the end the momentum of the bear is enough to propel Eve and Blade to the top.
Once they broke through the dome surface, Arclight is about ready to explode, as indicated by the red lights radiating from him like a disco ball. Nonetheless, he senses Blade and attacks him using black rays, which gets deflected by Eve’s shield. Blade reaches his target and smashes his forehead against Arclight, causing a RRR.
The two face off in some sort of mental plane, where Blade gives Arclight his Judgement: Death Penalty.
In the epilogue, Cruz narrates that Arclight has withdrawn after the battle, and Black Spot has finally gained peace. All the characters have left on their own seperate ways, returning to their previous lifestyles, while Cruz himself has joined a Hunter Guild and is living in a corner of Black Spot. He finds Teruyama waiting for him in the Guild one day, who directs him to two men that will be his partners for this mission. Cruz is overjoyed as they reveal themselves to be Eve and Blade. (Just to clarify, Eve morphed herself back from a man into a woman. Yes I want doppleganger too…..)
Final thoughts:
For a completely original ending, I guess that wasn’t too bad. I’m actually impressed at Madhouse’s refraining from giving Cruz some random last-minute godlike ability to end the series, instead merely relying on what he does best, which is conceiving plans and tactics. Despite Needless being completely action-oriented where brains don’t exist, Cruz’s colorful usage of the cast’s fragment abilities provides a much more satisfying solution than some lame power-up, IMHO. The episode itself was fairly entertaining, ranging from the super-saiyan gimmick to the tentacles that comes out of nowhere. Arclight at the end just withdrawing without an explanation felt a tad anticlimatic, but hey at least there’s a resolution.
As for the whole series, my final rating would be a 7.8, or slightly above average. Actually that might be a bit misleading, as “average” would be the last thing I’d describe Needless with. It’s probably one of the few series with excessive fanservice that I can enjoy without resorting to poking fun at it every half a line. Rather, it does it for me occasionally too! And in addition to some nice comedic timing and hilarious jokes, it also uses its overexaggeration pretty well, making it funny without getting too pretentious or coming across as :trying too hard:
Action is also one of Needless’s strengths, which Madhouse did quite a good job of rendering in animation. Unlike [ generic shounen title A ] or [ generic shounen title B ], the battles in Needless more often than not employs creativity in utilizing various fragments in specific ways, rather than featuring a boring beam/fist galore. In that regard, Cruz’s strategies were especially enjoyable.
Still, if it’s one thing Needless lacked in the beginning, it was a sturdy plot to hold everything together. A Black Spot created during some arbitrary World War III and a rlyvery evil person trying to take over it is hardly what I would call an intriguing premise. What’s worst was that nothing was developed in that field during the first, let’s see, 15 or so episodes, making it seem as though plot is something the publisher of a manga forces an author to grudgingly include into the series for completion’s sake. Blowing up buildings and generally hurting bad guys just doesn’t cut it. Fortunately, this was rectified in the later parts of the anime, where stuff like Blade/Arclight’s backstory was finally elaborated on, and the whole conspiracy surrounding The Second’s death was revealed. It just gives a sense of purpose to the thing; call it soul if you will.
Well, things were going pretty smoothly (I was well on my way to raising Needless to an 8) when Saten decided to pull a coup out of his arse and derail from the manga plotline. Not only that, but the events following it became a series of What Is This I Don’t Even and just omgwtfbbqs in general, which totally destroyed the pacing and plot.
So in the end, I can only say that if you want some whacky action, decent comedy and some lolfanservice to go along, try Needless. If not, there’s still a hundred series more worth your time.
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