Needless

[Kurohane]

Originally Posted by Ynot

Nice to see there's still some people around here I looked around and found some links to prove my link to Kami's new manga is a legal website with the proper copyrights. So if you're an admin, hope this will be enough to convince you to not delete my links.

Article 1
Article 2

Now here's the link with the first two chapters of "召喚!! 剣豪学園".

And here's a small summary.

Spoiler for for fun!:

A girl (descendant of a famous japanese swordsman, 柳生十兵衛) has to fight a scary opponent and to do that awaken the awesomeness within her by using a special eyepatch handed down over the generations...but she has a metal allergy. The eyepatch is actually a sword hilt protector(tsuba) made out of metal.

I wonder where this manga will be going, but for an introduction it's nice enough. Not nice enough for me to want to buy it yet but who knows maybe in the future. My prediction, the principal will turn out to be evil. Don't have any sort of proof, just a hunch

Thanks for the links and info, Ynot.

[Solace]

We've checked the links, Ynot, it's okay to post them. And I'm glad there's some new stuff to read, too. ^^

[Avvesione]

I received the hard copy a while ago, but haven't had a chance to talk about it yet.

What I said earlier about it being Imai Kami's 4koma was not entirely true. The manga is a normal type of manga, very similar to Needless in many respects. The 4koma part I mentioned is the stuff that's published online on ARCADIA's website and what many of us have seen since last year when he started working for ARCADIA again. FWIW, the 4koma comics are included in the volume at the end as a bonus.

As for the manga itself, I strongly encourage anyone who was interested in Needless to pick it up. Not only do the two share many similarities, but Kengou Gakuen does improve on a few areas where Needless had some issues, particularly with its storytelling. Although it is broken up into chapters like any other manga, the pieces flow together more smoothly and the transitions are seamless. It doesn't have that typical pattern of story, build-up, climax, cliffhanger like many chapters in Needless had, so it reads naturally in this volume format.

Then again, it could also be because it isn't as heavy in its story as Needless was and seems to be a bit more action-y based on these first 9 chapters. It also seems to be a bit more fanservicey than Needless (probably because it's an all girls cast) but still the same type of fanservice with pantyshots and torn clothes. Comedy is there, too, which is refreshing to see.

I strongly, strongly recommend people to pick this up and give it a try. It's definitely the spiritual sequel to Needless until Kami gets around to starting Needless 2.

[Esclair]

Wait, we're not getting Needless 2?!

[Avvesione]

Originally Posted by Esclair

Wait, we're not getting Needless 2?!

We'll get Needless 2 eventually, but Kami said he wanted to work on another project first before diving right into Needless 2 after finishing Needless 1. That and he probably doesn't have the story for Needless 2 completely written, and will want to spend some time refining the story after the lessons he's learned over the last decade.

Apparently, he's had this idea for Kengou Gakuen for a while and he was working with different publishers to get it started. Now that he's started it, it sounds like it's only a matter of time before he finishing writing Needless 2 and starts that manga up again.

[Ynot]

Anyone still here? Look mom I'm posting in a necrothread!

I haven't seen any sort of activity from Imai Kami for awhile now so I'm starting to wonder if we'll ever see a continuation of Needless. I would love to be wrong though.

Anyways I've read Imai's prototype of Needless, "Blackspot". Since I forgot most of the kanji I once knew(I've pretty much stopped learning japanese since Needless ended) and Blackspot is two volumes worth of manga the only thing I got is the gist of it.

If there are enough people still here who'd like me to write down a small summary I will. Just realize it will probably contain a couple of mistakes and a few assumptions. Still, I think i can write something which will fill up that "black hole" of not having a clue what's going on in Imai's early work .

[Ladiusman]

Wow, this thread is over a year old...

Anyways, I've always been wanting to read this but somehow kept putting it off because of work and stuff. And just recently I binge read all the volumes and Needless 0. Oh, and I also watched the anime solely because of Koyasu Adam, lol. Well, wow what a freaking wild wide that was.

So, how's Imai Kami's other works, like Shirasunamura and Kengou Gakuen? And again, Needless 2 when?

[Ynot]

Ladiusman. I´m really happy Needless wasn´t finished yet when I started reading it. Coming here and talking about what happened and would happen next was something I always looked forward to when a new chapter was released.

Personally I´m not all that interested in Imai´s other works(or at least what I read of it so far). But then again it was only starting with vol 8 or so I really began to enjoy reading Needless.

[Kurohane]

Long time no see. Yeah, we're all waiting on Needless 2 to continue discussion. I believe Imai said he was going to take a break, but it's been a few years now. Hopefully, he's started working on it, since both Needless 1 and Shirasunamura are complete.

[Ynot]

^ Yeah it's been awhile. Shirasunamura and Needless have been finished quite some time ago. He's released a volume of Kengou gakuen since then, but as far as I know the magazine which published that comic has been canceled. I have no idea what he's doing now. the last news item on his website is about a year old. I could really appreciate some Needless news after a two year(?) hiatus.

[Homura7]

Boy, it has been how many years? Glad to see everyone is doing fine. Remember me? I'm K. Shiruto.

[Ynot]

I finished writing a summary for the first volume of Blackspot. I've put a lot more time and effort in it than I originally planned(looking up unknown kanji page after page is tiring) so I'm feeling a bit drained and unmotivated to do vol 2. Don't know if I will do vol 2 with the same kind of zeal but if I do it will be a long time from now.

Spoiler for Blackspot vol1 summary:

Volume 1 opens with a downtrodden place, the city of havenots. A place where you
have to rummage through the garbage to survive. A place filled with poverty,
hunger and violence.

We see two men assaulting a young girl, but after tearing off her clothes a
young boy appears who beats up the two men with just one move and saves the girl.

2132:
We see two american soldiers, flying in a helicopter talking about
how tokyo was bombed in ww3 and the place is now a polluted wasteland where people who
lost everything are living. There's barely any electricity and the newly build city
around it (with electricity) makes the old city look like a black gate to hell
in the middle of a sea of light. This place is called BLACKSPOT.

The young boy(Kain) who saved the girl earlier is talking
with a women called Hayden. Hayden takes care of abandoned children in
the blackspot. Kain lives in her orphanage with a bunch of other younger children.

The girl whom Kain saved earlier is very anti-social and can't talk.
Hayden says she's concerned about people from Simeon who come there to try and kidnap
children will be there again tomorrow.

Kain wants to take the girl to the city and find her mother.
Hayden tries to talk him out of it but he won't let himself be dissuaded. Hayden thinks
to herself that Kain's voice is mysterious the way it persuades her.

The blackspot is seperated from the rest of the city by a big wall. Kain and the girl
travel to one of the gates in the wall. With a high powered swing of his fist he forces
t open and they enter the city.

We see the headquarter of Simeon, a medicine producing company. The
leader of Simeon (Abel) delivers a speech to a crowd. It's about how Simeon has managed
to decipher the part of DNA in humans responsible for the cells dying off when they get
too old. The he goes on about evolution, and how people's lifespan is too
short to gather knowledge. Luckily enough Simeon is in the process of
creating a drug which can expand human's lifespan many times over. Abel
goes on about how it's time for humanity start start guiding their own
evolution. Towards the end he is accompanied by his sister who also comes up
on the stage while the audience is chanting Abel's name.

Scene changes to Abel, his younger sister(Seth)and another man by themselves in a room.
The man says Abel's words are mesmerizing and have great influence. A lot of people would
like Simeon's support for the next election. Abel tells his sister to go to bed, after
which the other man ask Abel about the progress of the medicine. Abel says they already
arrived at the human testing phase(his face is looking very evil).

Back to Kain&co. He has entered the city, steals an apple and is chased after by the police.
The police of the city are people enhanced with machines(cyborgs) and even though it seems
Kain escaped them, they manage to track him down by flying. They ask for his ID, which of
course he doesn't have.

They suspect he's from Blackspot and start beating him up. Luckily enough a girl(Seth!)
sees the commotion and orders the police to stop. She says she'll pay for the apple.

Seth takes Kain and the other girl to Jefunne, a doctor. Jefunne examines the girl. It turns
out Jefunne is doing this work out of remorse for the shit he used to do as the head of
a laboratory for Simeon having to do with genetics and transplantations. He transplanted the
heads of a brother and sister back in the time, but it was a failure. He knows of the rumors
that that kind of stuff is still going on and Kain gets pretty upset with him, shouting he
won't let Simeon go on using children as guinea pigs.

It just so happens Seth (the younger sister of the head of Simeon) walks in and hears
what Kain said. She slaps him in the face saying her brother would never do such a thing and
leaves.

Kain releases his frustration by shouting and a glass wall shatters. Jefunne asks what just
happend and Kain shows him a major scar encircling his entire neck. He says it's his accursed
power, the power of the voice. Jefunne's face shows absolute horror and notices the glass
shards are surrounding the girl on the examination table (not one shard touched her even though
they're scattered all around her). Kain says he hasn't forgiven Jefunne, but won't seek vengence.

Back at the orphanage a girl has found an orange in the garbage which she says she'll keep
safe to give to Kain when he returns.

The girl on the examination table, is starting to scream but Kain manages to calm her down,
saying he'll never betray her and is sorry for scaring her.

Back to Abel and the other guy(cabinet minister). Again the other man wants to know about
the progress of the medicine. Abel says he'll have children in blackspot help him along with
the development and the cabinet minister will have to deal with the clean up. A police officer
comes in and tells about the intruder of blackspot that day (kain stealing an apple).Abel wants
to know why they didn't take him in after which the policeman say he was with Seth. Abel is
horrified and wants the blackspots resident brought in dead.

Back to Kain and Jefunne. The examination is done and it turns out the girl has a chip in her
head blocking the area governing her speech. The chip is most likely Simeon's handywork
according to Jefunne.

Kain is talking to the girl, saying when he saw her it felt like she was his little sister.
Kain says he once was a guinea pig for simeon too. He remembers little about it and has just
a photograph of back then. The photograph shows three kids(sort of). He says by finding the
girls parents he hoped to learn more about his own past too. He reaches the conclusion
Simeon must go down and he's the one to do it.

Kain ask Jefunne to take care of the girl so he can go and lay waste to Simeon, however
the girl doesn't want to be seperated from Kain and follows him. Jefunne notices she makes
decisions of her own free will, and is resisting Simeon's programming.

Flashback. A girl asks a boy whether he loves her. The boy answers yes. An operation room
where the doctors say the operation has failed. Two bodies with large stitches around the
neck. Kain notices it's the same as back then. The girl wants to see things through to the
end and Kain let's her come along.

A policeman enters the room and wants to kill Jefunne (because he performs examinations and
not requiring payment, and concealing blackspot residents) and Kain because of hygienic law.

Kain uses his voicepower to destroy him.

Back to Abel delivering another speech (yet again). Seth listens to the speech in which Abel
talks about coexisting in peace eventually with blackspot(but not until simeon can make medicine
which will protect the citizens from viruses). Seth wonders whether those are his true feelings.
She's also still thinking about Kain and how he doesn't look like someone who'd lie.

Abel talks to a policeman wondering why the blackspot residents dead body isn't there yet.
The policemen says sorry but the collecting of "raw material" from the blackspot is going along
nicely.

Back to the blackspot. The orphanage of Hayden gets a visit. The children think it's Kain
and rush out to meet him. It's not Kain. (surprising right? lol...no...no it's not). The
first kid to set a foot outside the building get's his head smashed in by a baton. Remember
the girl who was holding on to an orange for Kain? The guy holding the baton hits her so hard
in the head it goes flying. Of course she was holding the orange which now falls from her lifeless
hands and gets squashed under the foot of the baton wielder.

The guy says to Hayden they've come for all the kids. Four women (who look like a prototype
of Eve) stand behind him. Their right hand has been replaced by a mechanical claw like
contrapture. One of the children says the women look like the girl which Kain saved.
(protip: don't get emotionally attached to children in this manga).

In the meanwhile Kain is standing in front of the simeon building and enters it slaying a bunch
of men in black with weapons using his voicepower etc. However he uses it too much, is shot in
his shoulder and has to hide himself. He enters a room which turns out to be Seth's room!
He hides under the covers with Seth (the other girl is there too). Seth says she doesn't know
who to believe and wants to come along with Kain to see the truth for herself. She has feelings
for Kain.

The three of them go and look for the laboratory. We see Abel who asks to be shown the intruders
on the security system. An operator can't properly answer a question and get his skull crushed
by Abel (with his bear hand!). Another employee pulls a gun on Abel and says he's gone insane
and shoots him in the head. There's a big gaping hole in Abel's head but he isn't dead.
Employee gets turned into mincemeat while Abel asks if he forgot Abel is a god.

Kain and company are standing in an elevator. Seth says Kain has a mysterious voice and it
reminds her of her brother. They arrive at the lowest level B27. She says there's nothing
nefarious going on her and asks if Kain can't just go back and talk to her brother.

Kain says he smells blood and kicks a hole in the floor. There's a lower level apparently.
They lower themselves and Seth pushes a button hoping it's the lightswitch. A floor panel
shifts and Kain and the girl fall into water. There are cockroaches where Kain and the
girl fell into the water and Seth backs away before Kain can talk her into helping them
(she strongly dislikes cockroches). She helps the girl back up and gets an earful from
Kain about how it's very hard to help people when cockroaches are enough to scare you away.
Seth is the kind of naive "let's help people with love!" kind of person.

Abel and the cabinet minister are following the progress of the intruders and the kabinet
minister(concerned for Raziel's safety. We don't know who or what Raziel is yet) urges Abel
to go and meet his blood relative for a ten year reunion. He also says the present from
blackspot has arrived.

Kain and company reach a large door with the words "keep out , laboratory 13". Kain asks
how Abel would open a door such as this and Seth answers he'd say "it's me" but only her
brother's voice could open it.

Kain manages to open it just like Abel would and they enter the laboratory. A security
robot attacks them soon after (which looks just like a testament) but Kain destroys it.
Time for a break! They rest up a bit and eat an apple which Kain still had on him (along
with a bunch of other apples, a comedy relief moment if there ever was one).

Seth wants to know why Kain thinks Abel is doing bad things. Kain talks about how he used to
be a guinea pig, his head transplanted etc by what was to become Simeon later and the kid
with him is also a Simeon guinea pig. After the talk ends they notice the kid is gone.
they look for her and Seth asks Kain what her name is. Kain says he doesn't know and he'll
have to give her one.

They find the girl who is looking into a room, horrified. It's a room filled with specimens.
Humans put together like a bad puzzle, floating in tubes. A genuine freakshow for the morbid.

Flashback of a girl who asks a boy whether her loves her. The boy says yes. She keeps asking
really and the last time she asks for confirmation she turns into something resembling the
poor guinea pigs floating in the tubes plus a mad/evil look in her eyes.

Seth is still in denial and wants to tell her brother of the evil things going on in Simeon
but Kain says looking for the truth is different from indulging in fantasy and they should
look further.

They walk further and see a man..with a baton (yep it's the kiddy killer!)
He welcomes them and asks them to follow him.

A collage of different things. A girl who asks whether a boy loves her. A boy who says "I hate you".
Two babies with one having a head growing out of his stomach, called devil's children and Kain
who says everything is heading towards a conclusion.

A two page spread of a large open room. On the left we have Abel and on the right a mountain made
out of humans grown into eachother and a female figure connected to it by her feet and one hand.
Both the mountain of flesh and the woman look enormous.

Abel welcomes Kain and Seth wonders why they recognize each other.

Which concludes the first volume.

[Kurohane]

Thanks, Ynot!

[Ynot]

Finally some news about Imai Kami!

If you've been keeping an eye on his website you'll know it has been rather dead for a very long time. Some people were starting to wonder whether something seriously bad had happened to the mangaka. Well, there's some news about him.

http://ln-news.com/archives/44430/post-44430/

Apparently he's going to do a comic adaptation for an online novel? I'm not entirely sure. I would've preferred Needless 2(naturally), but I was already starting to think we'd never hear of him again so this is kinda good news.

[Kurohane]

Originally Posted by Ynot

Finally some news about Imai Kami!

If you've been keeping an eye on his website you'll know it has been rather dead for a very long time. Some people were starting to wonder whether something seriously bad had happened to the mangaka. Well, there's some news about him.

http://ln-news.com/archives/44430/post-44430/

Apparently he's going to do a comic adaptation for an online novel? I'm not entirely sure. I would've preferred Needless 2(naturally), but I was already starting to think we'd never hear of him again so this is kinda good news.

The wait will be worth it if he's taking time to iron out the details for the first few arcs and an outline of where to go from there. Also getting the work continued for publication might be difficult (plus the other stuff he's working on). I'm reminded of 3x3 Eyes where it was 5-6 years after the manga ended that we got the gaiden that was only a few chapters, and after another 6 years, the full blown sequel started.

[Ynot]

I'm a patient guy Kurohane so I can wait but Imai has repeatedly had health problems so that did make me wonder. Btw, if it's going to take as long as 3x3 eyes to get a sequel I really hope I'm still alive and my taste in manga hasn't changed!

[Ynot]

Look what I found today

Main page is https://hobbyjapan.co.jp/ for mods if they want want to check the legalities of this link etc

[Kurohane]

What is this?

[amtro]

A preview of the manga adaption of Infinite Dendrogram.

[Ynot]

Originally Posted by Kurohane

What is this?

Like amtro already said, it's the preview of the manga adaptation of Infinite Dendrogram. It's originally a web novel and now a manga too. I believe up until chapter 7 of the novel has been translated.