Final Impressions / First Impressions / Heavy Object

「野に咲く花に鎮魂の歌を, ベイビーマグナム破壊戦 II」 (Nonisakuhana Ni Chinkon no Uta Wo, Beibii Magunamu Hakaisen II)
“A Requiem for the Flowers Blooming in the Field, The Battle to Destroy the Baby Magnum II”

For this finale post of Heavy Object, I bring what I know all of you wanted – a dual final impression post featuring none other than Stilts himself!

And before I jump into the final impressions (since that’s what I usually do), can I just say that I called it? I’m sure I wasn’t the only one to realize the “mirror” connection, but it was surprising to see that it wasn’t spelled out for us like we were toddlers or something. See Heavy Object! You can make a thrilling and interesting story without setting Qwenthur’s plot armor to ungodly levels!

Also, I’ll never refuse an opportunity to see more Ohoho. Never!

Takaii’s Final Impressions

Overall, Heavy Object was just a damn fun show to watch. It may have used every trope known to man and sometimes stalled when it forgot that the focus was around nearly indestructible spheres, but I will be damned if someone tries to say this wasn’t one of those kick back and relax shows. From someone who had the pleasure of simply being a viewer and then getting the opportunity to take over coverage, I must say that trying to watch this show analytically definitely takes some of the fun out of it. When you have to find meaning in the character’s actions or more so want to find meaning, it’s tough when the story can go from being goofy to somber within minutes. That said, when the show did get serious, there was always something interesting to talk about. From the atrocities of war that a majority of us get to blissfully be unaware of to the moments where you genuinely wondered whether or not a character was going to get killed, there were some true gems hiding here and there.

What truly made the Heavy Object fun though has to be its characters and how they all managed to mingle so well together. Besides our main cast of Qwenthur, Havia, Melinda, and Frolaytia there were so many other memorable side characters I’m surprised I can remember them all! Unfortunately, not all of them have names as easy as Ohoho, but I’m sure if I were to describe a character we’ve seen, you wouldn’t have difficulty figuring out who I was talking about. But while we’re talking about Ohoho, can I just say that she’s probably my favorite side character? She’s trolling the entire world by making them believe she’s a busty 20 something all while being a ridiculously cute loli, she controls an Object by being faster than it’s A.I. and repairing it’s goofs, and to top it all she’s probably one of the few characters who could probably break through whatever good will the writers have for Qwenthur! A close second probably goes to Wydine, but with Arai Satomi doing her voice, how can you not love her?

Anyways, if you’ve made it this far, I hope you enjoyed the series as much as I did. Even with its obvious pacing issues and ridiculous scenarios that no normal person could survive, I think there was more than enough that made up for all of it. With its lovable characters, super memorable side characters, and a general story that made pretty decent sense, you have a truly decent anime on your hands here. And maybe it’s just me, but I always got a rush whenever Qwenthur did something that he totally shouldn’t have been able to do. Because like it or not, there’s nothing wrong with some good old fashioned heroics.

And with that, let me thank everyone for keeping up with the posts! I know it’s been a rough ride, but I hope you found something fun to cling on to. See you around the bend when the next season starts!

Stilts’ Final Impressions

When I first picked up Heavy Object, I was hoping for exciting military fun. Pulpy action, basically. The first few episodes, while heavy-handed with the exposition, combined instantly likable characters and friendly banter with some interesting ideas about the nature of clean war. That was a good sign, and I was in. Then the series shoved itself so far up its own ass that the whole act shattered and exposed the weakness in its bones.

The sci-fi elements of Heavy Object are not very good. There’s no way to sugarcoat that. The idea that Objects, which are basically just big fuckin’ tanks, would fundamentally alter warfare, or that the number of Objects would ever automatically determine the outcome of battles “cleanly”, fundamentally misunderstands both the nature of war and humanity. We’re delusional beasts. We believe in the million-to-one chance. Ain’t nothin’ gonna change that anytime soon, and big tanks with magic armor certainly aren’t going to do it.

Which would be okay, but the military tactics weren’t that great either. That’s fine in the Raildex series for which Kamachi-sensei is known, when it’s the intricacies of each characters magical abilities that matter, but it doesn’t work in an army group-level military setting. Add onto that how often one character or another was forced to hold the idiot ball to make the plot progress the way Kamachi-sensei wanted it to, and I was left frustrated time and again.

In a way, Heavy Object reminds me of some Okada Mari anime. Kamachi-sensei has never been afraid to just make things happen to worsen the situation for his main characters, which is true of Okada-san as well. The only problem is that the edifice it all stands on in Heavy Object is so shaky and the actual drama/tension he creates feels so lopsided that it doesn’t work, whereas Okada Mari drama usually does work (though YMMV, and she can certainly go too far). An asspull can be forgiven if it works, but in Heavy Object, it rarely did.

The series was at its best when the conflict was set up intelligently, and when the situation was made difficult for both sides. The Iguazu Mountains and Amazon City arcs (ep 10-14) were probably the best, since the Mass Driver Conglomerate was desperate and cornered, but still dangerous thanks to an uncommon tactic that was broadly understood, but for which the ramifications weren’t always immediately clear. That, along with stakes on both sides, made it interesting and fascinating and tense, something which no other Heavy Object arcs quite managed.

I wish they had continued the utilization of more characters that was begun in the Kamchatka diamond mine arc. That added a new layer to the series that the all-Qwenthur-and-Havia-all-the-time show doesn’t have. All in all, I’d say that recent arcs have been an improvement, but not so much to change my basic impression of the series.

Heavy Object is a B-movie in anime form. It’s not terribly well thought out, the characters frequently do nonsensical things, and the tone is often oddly light in face of all the death and explosions that happen, in a way that’s almost incongruous rather than irreverent. Plus, all that banter and fanservice. And a B-movie can be fun! Granted, it was partially hampered (for me) by deciding to blog 14 episodes + this final impression, which forced me to think too much about a series which I really shouldn’t have thought so much about if I wanted to fully enjoy it, but ah well.

Heavy Object wasn’t good, but it wasn’t exactly bad either. Okay, so it was bad, but it was bad in a way that doesn’t stop it from being entertaining, usually. There are worse things, I suppose. Even when I stopped blogging it, I usually watched new episodes pretty quick, and since I’m regularly 5-10+ episodes behind on series I’m legitimately enjoying, that’s got to count for something. I’m not sure what, but something. Probably another sign that I’m insane.

Epilogue:

25 Comments

  2. Team Yaho and Team Ohoho, which side are you?

    Anyway they will be missed definitely… Heavy Object got its own ups and down but for me it has more ups… And I really like the brotherhood and teamwork of havia and qwethur.

    Jeffers
    Reply

  3. The only time that the idiot ball bugged me was when Qwenther was shocked that Slader Honeysuckle (god his name is so distinct that I still remember it XD) was using unorthodox tactics (individual object parts) to try and takeout Hime’s object.

    I was like “hello you’ve been disabling/destroying objects with unorthodox tactics since the 1st ep any enemy force with a brain would eventually try similar tactics against you”, but over all heavy object has been a fun ride XD.

    Devastator001
    Reply

  4. If only Ohoho-chan was only a few more years older, then there would’ve been a good cat fight between her and Milinda-chan for some popcorn entertainment….

    Even when the events were forced up pretty hard onto us viewers to continue anything (all those coincidences…*rolls eyes towards back of head*). I virtually give up on how believable can the plotline be and all that plot armor everywhere and focused purely on the banter between our hax duo of Quenthur and Havia, as well as the peeps surrounding the two.

    Still, great run overall.

    info600
    Reply

  5. Poor Stilts you did not get to fully disengage the disbelief filters because you started blowing it and get to fully enjoy this as the fun buddy cop, popcorn B movie fun it was. I was with you very fed up at first but I noticed comments by those enjoying and I believed even you mentioning the B movie feel. Takaii also did not get all the fun.
    Almost all giant robot shows are double face palm stupid military wise just by using very thin armor large fighting units using a impossible level of fuel. So I have gotten used to enjoying my fun while turning things off.
    Glad I got into Star Wars before I got anywhere fully close to the infantry officer and history buff I am. It’s even more military stupid than this at times.

    This last two episodes had to use the Idiot Ball with the radio transmitter to get drama but I still liked how serious it got. I expect Qwenthur will collapse in a heap and be put back in the hospital right after the credits roll, him actually going out I found realistic but only if once the adrenaline runs out he goes back to just survived almost dying status. Yes once the blood is replaced and the hole patched up your technically near full functioning except you have a major fatigue factor going on and the body wants to go back to fixing the damage not moving around.
    Saw the Yaho clip so I finally get that. Qwenther how you going to juggle all the women you got especially the ones with big ass death machines?

    I will miss the fun from this show, nothing great but very enjoyable once I switched to B movie mode. Can’t overthink things, modern steal production makes swords way superior to traditional making Japanese style (a way to overcome some of the limit that inability to heat the steel hot enough put on weapons, the human arm can’t get slightly close to the pressure that hydraulic rollers and yes Ten Ton Hammers used in steal mills can put on the metal), and airlines don’t allow you to carry on your sword but I still love Kill Bill.

    RedRocket
    Reply

    3. Yeah, blogging hurt the enjoyment of this one. And ditto on Star Wars. I can’t look at those AT-ATs now without thinking how dumb they are, but at least the underlying story is still enjoyable, and I got to experience it before I thought too much.

      Stilts
      Reply

    1. Yes this Show began as an B Movie and ended up as AA Movie class for me, since episode 10 they enter A Class. And since Episode 13 they enter slowly AA. As if someone Scriptwriter good better over time, the “technical geek” stuff for this Orbital Mass Cannon Object was well made homework, since there it began to rise for me

      Worldwidedepp
      Reply

      1. also looks like in the end they befriend our Ohoho Girl, i think this Chocolate are an Valentines present, and i just curious how the white day present of her looks alike? an Chocolate cake like her Object? 🙂

        Worldwidedepp
        Reply

      2. the base of them become friends was founded in Episode 07, with their UNO alike mission. Both where teasing each other about Qwenthur. So they where like Naruto and Sasuke

        Worldwidedepp
        Reply

  8. Yo, that finale when the OP2 kicked in was super hyped !!! And well played, they made us focus on the mirror so obviously that the true chekhov’s gun was the entire CVD process that Qwenthur used The Information Alliance being willing to help out for free was a bit convenient but other than that it wrapped up neatly.

    While it had a bit of a weak start trying to find it’s groove, I thought Heavy Object steadily improved throughout. I love the concept of a mecha series without the usual pilot MC with a ‘special’ machine from the start. Love all the characters but the main duo of Qwenthur and Haivia really is the best buddy pairing (without shipping implications) in Anime. From an adaptation point of view it really went a lot better than I would feared- mainly it didn’t suffered from the rushed pacing that plagued alot of JC Staff’s LN adaptations and personally I thought the compromise that they did end up making were reasonable. The added fanservice in the first half was hit and miss but I think someone must have told them to cut it out because they were almost absent in the second half.

    Chaos2Frozen
    Reply

  9. Convenient, over-the-top, and, quite frankly, unbelievable on the whole, but the series manages to keep the action ridiculous enough, the comedy funny enough, and the girls adorable enough that I can forgive it after the first arc. It isn’t greater than the sum of it’s parts, but it made those parts work. There will never be one, but I’d watch a second season.

    Aex
    Reply

  13. Well, given how Heavy Balls was based on a premise that should have been less fantastic and more a kind of ‘what if’ on actual warfare than Index, it ended far less believable than the latter at all. Even putting actual Gundams instead, would have resulted more believable and entertaining than those ridicule ball shaped mega-tanks. Everything looked just so stupid.

    Solaris
    Reply

  14. The thing people forget about Objects is that it is a whole different kind of warfare than current era, so judging it from that standpoint means we just don’t “get it”. Making a comparison with Gate, when the character of Pina was surprised about how the SDF was using turtle formation without cover, it just seemed silly to her, although from a contemporary point of view it makes total sense.

    I think a good comparison to how “Objects” changed warfare would be WWII and the concept of air superiority. On one side you had Japan building these massive “can beat any ship at 1-1 combat” juggernauts, then here came USA with thier “more dakka” approach and just used planes to overwhelm them to the point the 2 biggest ships ever built couldn’t do a damn in the end.

    Or then you have Vietnam and the Gulf wars, where you had a superpower with all new toys avaiable, and huge tanks that could kill you dead until you died before you even knew you were dead, and cruiser missiles that could hit from the other side of the country… but at this point you had already started ignoring close range combat, and suddendly guerrilla tactics become a lot more effective and your side starts to take some notorious damage from people that aren’t supposed to be able to because, after all, you are the ones with the tanks.

    I think the difference between Heavy Object and other Mecha animes is that while most other series show you a scenary where “the Giant Robot(tm)” is at their prime, Heavy Object shows you the point at which the warfare gets so specialized that it becomes weak against more primitive forms of it.

    Fighterdoken
    Reply

    1. Everybody gets the gist of it, but the premise is just silly when you have this overpowered device that is supposed to change warfare forever and… it’s just an oversized tank. -.-”
      Moreover these tanks can flat out mountains and burn cities with one shot and two idiots on a fucking jeep always avoid being fried because of plot armour. The premise is just weak.
      Kamachi should ave put a little more imagination with this.

      Solaris
      Reply

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