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「ガリバーを縛る雑兵たち アラスカ極寒環境雪上戦 I」 (Garibaa o Shibaru Zouhyou-tachi Arasuka Gokkan Kankyou Setsujou-sen I)
“The Little Soldiers Who Tie Down Gulliver The Snowy Deep Winter Battle of Alaska I”
The first episode of a new sci-fi series means exposition, but Heavy Object manages to make the process painless, and even fun at times. Combined with big-ass war machines, some lovable rascals, and maybe even some flirting, it’s a solid start.
The Luscious Sci-Fi Backbone
Though I’m known as the fantasy writer around here (I’m not the ecchi blogger! *tsuuuun*), the truth is that both fantasy and science fiction scratch the same itch. They ask and answer the same question: What if? (What if people got sucked into an MMO, what if we colonized Mars, what if elves and orcs were real, what if women with ginormous boobs had adventures instead of back pain, etc.) That’s why they’re two of the primary vehicles of speculative fiction, with the third being horror. And while fantasy tends to ignore the feasibility of its enhancements (we all know magic doesn’t exist, just roll with it!), science fiction retains a thin veneer of feasibility. It’s not only “What if?”, but “…and maybe it could!” (Check out this short article excerpting an interview with Dan Harmon, creator of Community and Rick and Morty, for more take on that. Turns out that once upon a time, Jack and the Beanstalk would have been called science fiction.)
I tell you that to explain why I suddenly decided to blog a bunch of sci-fi shows, other’n the fact that Zephy is on hiatus, and because I couldn’t let Milinda “Princess” Brantini (Suzuki Eri) and her sexy pilot suit go unblogged. (I-I’m not the ecchi blogger, I swear!) But more than that, it has to do with how I’m going to be approaching the sci-fi elements of both this and Comet Lucifer.
I don’t think a lot of the things depicted in Heavy Object are terribly likely to happen. I’m fairly bullish on peace—or at minimum, that we’ll continue to avoid all-out wars between highly developed nations. It’s unlikely that such a complex leap of technology like the Objects could burst on the scene all at once (unlikely, though not impossible). Some of the technobabble instantly struck me as ridiculous. It would take a lot of Objects to protect “a certain island nation” from an alliance of fourteen nations, especially since at least one of ’em has ballistic missile submarines loaded with nuclear warheads, which probably means (barring other changes) that the USA, Russia, France, the UK, and/or China is involved, and you really don’t want to go up against any of them (much less, in all likelihood, all of them). Etcetera.
But I don’t care! The point of sci-fi (to me) is not to anticipate what’s likely to happen. It’s to explore what could happen. The actual feasibility almost doesn’t matter. All that matters is that there’s a veneer of plausibility (however thin!), even if those in the know (actual scientists, engineers, physicists, etc) all know that it’s patent bullshit. Most of the sci-fi elements of Heavy Object are probably unrealistic, but the idea of massive sea, land, and sky cruisers duking it out in what amounts to nation state-level duels is interesting, so I’ll be giving the show the benefit of the doubt as far as its “science” goes. That’s not the point to me. The point is, “What if?” The point is the story.
If I was too vague on that, let me summarize: Don’t expect me to get into the weeds on how this or that sci-fi element isn’t possible, or is possible, or whatever. Where the tech is concerned, I’ll let it fly unless it gets cringeworthy. It’s the storytelling, plot, and the characters I’ll be focusing on.
Real Characters With Real Personalities, Right Off The Bat
“Enough with the dissertations, Stilts. What did you think of the episode?” Turns out, I enjoyed it quite a bit, even though it was nearly all exposition. That’s because Heavy Object did what so many sci-fi series do so badly: It made the exposition painless. (Or pain-light, if I’m being honest.) And it did that by not treating exposition as a pile of cold, hard facts that need to be spewed out as quickly as possible in order to get to the fun stuff. Instead, it used the exposition to reveal character.
Why don’t more shows spout exposition by having characters complain about the pointless tasks involved in their crappy jobs? Not only does that feel more natural than sudden, out-of-nowhere infodumps, it makes characters like Qwenthur Barbotage (Hanae Natsuki) and Havia Winchell (Ishikawa Kaito) instantly relatable. Don’t just tell us that smart bullets are a thing, mention them in the context of someone wasting smart bullets (and taxpayers’ money) in the pursuit of a hot meal! Of course, the whole thing was aided by the fact that these characters are all instantly recognizable, interesting, and likable, and have real goals of their own (inheriting their family’s estate, getting rich, etc). Even Milinda, who could have easily been an emotionless girl (trope!), but is instead shown to be curious, contemplative, and even a little snarky (anticipating Qwenthur’s student comment, calling him Mr. Sleepyhead, etc). Which is another thing many stories don’t do—why not introduce us to the characters after they’ve all met? Then we get to see them when they’re already interacting (and in the case of Qwenthur and Milinda, flirting? Shipping!), instead of suffering through the awkward getting-to-know-each-other phase with them.
If this show were a speech, and the plot and the world building are what the speech is about, then these character moments show how the speech is being delivered. So far, it’s getting high grades for execution. Though that shouldn’t be a surprise, since author Kamachi Kazuma has gotten pretty good after writing all those Index, Railgun, and more.
And Suddenly, A Cliffhanger
If I have any real qualms about the first episode, it’s the bald-faced exposition during the intro (though I respect how they showed the first battle against an Object, instead of having random mooks throw themselves at one in the present day—I’d call this one a necessary evil, to be honest), and the abrupt shift to a battle-in-progress at the end. I know the latter was supposed to be the hook that brings us back for episode two, but I don’t quite care about these characters enough yet for them being in mortal peril to concern me, and it just happened so quickly I couldn’t internalize it. But a few rough-ish patches in an introductory sci-fi episode is solid work, if you ask me. They had a lot to get across, and director Watanabe Takashi and his team handled it well. A promising start.
tl;dr: @StiltsOutLoud – The exposition is painless, & even fun, when it’s delivered by fun characters w/ their own goals, & even a bit of flirting #heavyobject 01
Random thoughts:
- I appreciated that the nuke was at least shown hurting the Object. I almost expected it to not work, which would have shattered my suspension of disbelief early on.
- Names like Object and Elite are ridiculous. It’s the capitalization that gets me, I think. When people name new technologies or anything, we don’t call them Guns or Tanks or Jets (unless you’re talking about the American Football team). They’re guns, tanks, and jets. We make up new words, and make them mundane. We don’t repurpose old words and capitalize them incessantly (usually). But even then, I give most SFF stories a pass for one or two silly names, so Heavy Object is easily in the clear. There’s so much thought in the world that I’ll roll with one or two things like this happily.
- This series definitely has some male gaze (trope!) going on. That shower scene was probably unnecessary, but appreciated. Milinda’s got a phat ass! (…what? I’m not the ecchi blogger, dammit!) Though I could have gone without Qwenthur hesitating to help Milinda out. Don’t turn stupid when the plot/ecchi demands it, Qwenthur.
- Itou Shizuka can be mad at me any time.
My first novel, Wage Slave Rebellion, is available now. (More info—now in paperback!) Sign up for my email list for a FREE sequel novella. Over at stephenwgee.com, the last four posts: The best content is in email, My morning routine, True Ends, and Rejection, the secret place, & fundamentals
Full-length images: 10.
OP Sequence
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OP: 「One More Chance!!」 by ALL OFF
Preview
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I enjoyed it, although honestly the only reason why I’m watching this is because I’m a big fan of Index/Railgun etc. Also, anyone else think the shape of the Objects are a bit… ugly? I mean having spheres is sort of practical, but damn do they look stupid.
don’t worry you’re not gonna find it ugly soon
Type “technodrome” on Google and you’ll from where they ripping off these things.
I’m not sold yet. It looks ok but I’m not sure this is something I want to invest my time with.
I had a few thoughts on this:
1. At first I was actually quite disappointed by the Objects. They’re just big tanks. I don’t simply mean design-wise. That’s fine. I mean the plot point that they ‘changed war forever’ or whatever. They’re not some newfangled, unimaginable technology, at least as far as we’d been shown. They’re just a big tank. It’s just asking “what if we made a tank with artillery cannons that could take out a fleet and armor that could ‘tank’ a nuke?”
2. They spent WAY too much time telling me how amazing and super-powerful Objects are. I GET IT.
That all kind of changed though based on the narration at the end (I don’t pay attention to pre-season info) that suggested this show won’t be about the heroes and how AMAZING their object is, it’s actually about how a couple of guys and one outdated object take down these superweapons, Shadow of the Colossus style.
That’s much more appealing and changes the whole tone of the first episode using every other sentence to remind us how amazing Objects are (seriously, can you imagine if we all sat around and philosphized about nukes CONSTANTLY). Assuming I understood that ending correctly, I’m on board.
PS: I’ll comment since you brought it up. The historical Object battle was silly. Even if we accept that a country could just magically invent a new technology that was 50 meters tall and could TANK NUKES without anyone noticing, you simply don’t fight wars like that. There have actually been a number of periods in history where a weapon was invented that was basically unstoppable (early Ironclads come to mind) and the military response to that is to go around. You would not send your entire 14 nation fleet to fight the single super-tank thing, you’d send one nation’s fleet to act as a distraction, the other 13 to bomb the homeland, then when they surrender you seize the weird super tank technology and the scientists that invented it. Done and done.
On the battle tactics: Yeah, agreed. Now granted, we don’t know the context of the rest of the conflict. They might keep referring to it as “a certain island nation” ’cause it’s fuckin’ gone, ’cause Russia and the US and others teamed up to wipe it off the planet after the first Object. But with only seeing what we saw, it seems silly.
As for the Objects themselves, I understood they were basically big tanks going in, so I’m not disappointed there. I didn’t expect them to be more than a basic spec-up in all battle parameters, lol. They are aggrandizing them a bit much, though.
Thank goodness someone thought the same. I’ve checked other reviews and no one is talking about the sheer absurdity of that initial battle that supposedly “changed war forever”.
It’s not just that any nuclear nation could turn their country to ashes far from the battlelines. It’s that even a nuke almost melted that thing. Two nukes could have done the job. Doesn’t that mean that any current nuclear power is still stronger than those objects?
Let me add some info from light novel.
Object has 100+ Anti Air Laser installed which render most Aircraft and Cruise Missile obsolete.
Those lasers didn’t save the first object from the nuke, so the chance to destroy it is still there. They can’t cover a whole country, so the option to render them useless by good old nuclear terror is still there. And the moment someone invents a great defense, the other party is already trying to invent anti defenses to render it useless.
I enjoyed the first episode, but my suspension of disbelief was still shattered twice: when they keep on saying how invincible the objects are; and then the whole issue with the belt, where a person feels so bad about touching a girl’s breasts that he’s letting her to die by suffocation.
aaaagh
How many times do I have to point out that missiles and aircraft are not rendered obsolete because you have a weapon that can survive them/shoot them down? WE ALREADY HAVE THOSE.
– The war in Heavy Object is not a full scale war, but small skirmishes for territory and resources that occur outside of safe countries.
– There’s a clear distinction between a safe country and a battlefield.
– Ignoring the limitations of laser technology and assuming sea level, a laser has a clear shot of anything at a distance of:
h – 50m
d = 3.57 x h ^ 0.5 = 25km.
That means a 50 km diameter deathzone for anything on the air surrounding the Object. And that’s if it doesn’t decide to perch on a higher ground. The range is even longer if satellite image is used in conjunction with the parabolic curve of a coilgun. A single Object is sufficient to secure and protect a tactical base. And nothing is stopping them from sending in multiple Objects.
– The first Object shown is a prototype. Any first generation Object is going to have a better targeting system, to say nothing of second generations.
– A method is already available to penetrate the armor of an Object: another Object. No other more efficient method has been developed in the HO verse.
– More explanations are yet to come about the advantages of Objects but I don’t want to spoil so I’ll leave it at this.
– You’re free to decide what’s plausible or not.
Yeah when it floated on screen in the opening I figured they were ripping off Ogre… And they were! Of course a Ogre is just a Bolo so hey.
Though the tendency of anime to have a certain island nation, that is some 30 years behind the only remaining superpower in the world in defense tech, surprising everyone with a sudden leap is getting boring.
I agree with you completely but unlike something like GATE, this I do completely take as a case of ‘we wrote it, we get to be special.’
Someone had to invent it, nothing in it seemed insanely super-powerful aside from the size/scale (and if there’s one thing Japan likely would jump the gun on, it’s making a big military weapon) so it’s not TOO hard to believe that a certain island nation could build it. And it’s not too eye-rolling because it doesn’t seem like they’re saying Japan then took over the world. Instead it’s just ‘they invented this first, then everyone copied it’ which is pretty much how military developments happen.
Gotta agree with Kale here. It doesn’t bother me if the Japanese do something awesome or if the superpowered space princess appears in Japan or anything. It’s their story, they can set it at home if they want to. It’s only when the Japanese are far better than they should be in a context where we know that’s pretty much BS that it rankles.
Granted, I only watched one episode of GATE, so I can’t comment on that much. Only via what I’ve heard.
All this is why I mentioned my viewing philosophy going in. When it goes to a lot of the setup, I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt because I doubt most of this is gonna happen. Maybe even our past is different here—what if Japan didn’t get to torn up in WWII, and they were still a military superpower? Or they caught up real quick in the years after conflicts started kicking up all over the place again. (Or they just never stopped.) There’s a lot we don’t know, and our assumptions as as much about our emotional reaction to the story as it has anything to do with the story itself.
So I’m trying not to make assumptions. I’ll take them at their word on the setup (to a reasonable degree), and see how it works going forward.
I think one of the keys is if its contemporary or not. Telling me Japan did something cool at some point in history is fine. You don’t have to explain it. History is weird. Stuff happens.
Telling me Japan today is just inexplicably a military power though is confusing and off-putting (or any other similar idea that we simply know to be not true).
oh, and yeah, the stupid breast strap scene was idiotic. The girl was literally dying from what we were shown. The chief had given him instructions to make sure she DIDN’T SUFFOCATE, and he was more concerned about copping a minor feel and stayed concerned enough that he did not help her out at all. She could have actually died for all the help he was. That doesn’t make him look funny or kind of perverted, it makes him look dangerously stupid.
The episode lost me at that dumb scene. It got my interest back by the end but that was just moronic.
Yeah, not a great moment. It’s especially egregious since it woulda been way better (in all the ways) if he had just helped her out. Or if they’d just dialed down the danger from “She’s suffocating!” to “This seriously hurts. Help please?”.
especially since it still could have been ecchi. If they’d dialed it back a bit too ‘it hurts’ and he tries to help but keeps inadvertently copping a feel and she gets a bit indignant about it you still would have had your ecchi and he wouldn’t have looked dangerously incompetent.
@ KaleRylan – Maybe that was the effect that they were intentionally aiming for? (That Qwenthur is literally a newbie and hasn’t worked on every part of the H.O. yet).
Still, I also see it as a crazy dumb way to show Qwenthur’s incompetence.
I don’t care that he screwed up the strap, that’s fine. I care that he was going to let her die because he was afraid to touch her boob a bit. One is inexperience, the other is dangerous stupidity. They are not the same thing.
That was the only part that really broke it for me. I didn’t have any real problems with the rest of the episode, but trying to have an “OMG I might touch her boobs!!!1one” moment at a point where she’s in real danger of dying if he doesn’t do something overstrained my suspension of disbelief in ways none of the science or military or political stuff even came close to.
The only thing I could think of after that scene (besides, “How freaking stupid is this guy?!”) was, “What the hell was the point of all that?” There was none aside from attempted ecchi…at best, it was some poor attempt to waste a few minutes in order to fill in the episode or something.
It was exacerbated by the inner monologue dragging the scene out, which would have been ‘instantaneous’ in the original text.
When will the Incredibles appear and fight this heavy object
Uhm.. I could enjoy Heavy Object less the exposition and the stupid ecchi scenes. However, I am not so sure if I am going to follow this one. DanMachi started out meh but ended good so, who knows?
The ecchi eases up pretty quickly in the novels. Sure, it’s there, but there’s a hell of a lot more story going on to sink your teeth into. (‘w’)b
The ecchi was the worst part and you say there is more. Honestly, is it worth watching? Do the characters and plot make up for the lame attempts at service?
I had a horrible thought, this isn’t like the Infinite Stratos anime is it? All dumb fan service and dumber action.
Er, I think you misunderstood. Silivious said the ecchi eases up. It decreases. There’s less of it. Some will still be present, though there will also be more story to focus on as well.
I wouldn’t expect Infinite Stratos. This has never been billed as anything like a fanservice or harem anime. If it is, they’ve seriously buried the lead on this one.
Oops, sorry. Me has failed comprehension reading.
When I heard them say “a certain Pacific island nation,” I couldn’t help but speculate that it was really Tuvalu, using all of that .TV money to build the ultimate weapon.
Hey, it’s about as likely as Japan doing it without anyone noticing it. (In other words, not likely at all.)
There were a few scenes that irked me (the strap scene, and the CO is only 18? Yeah right.) But over all, it’s not a bad start.
I’m not a fan of heavy exposition when a series first starts. Show me an interesting and exciting scene, and hook me that way instead. If I have to endure 10 minutes of lecture, I’ve already closed the window and moved on. OPM did a much better job of expo than HO did, IMO. You don’t know everything by the end of ep1 of either show, but I found OPM to be much more entertaining along the way.
But once HO got out of lecture mode, it wasn’t bad, so I’ll keep watching it for now.
At least the elite wasn’t a fiery red-haired princess of a small country in Europe, using her overwhelming fire-based sword attacks to save her small country. That would have made her the third this weekend, and that could have been awwwwwkwaaaaard.
Thought that the intro background info dump was boring.
The “Objects” are what would happen if a Gundam made love to Happy Fun Ball.
I haven’t been hooked on the characters yet.
The “Objects” are what would happen if a Gundam made love to HARO.
I just love how the hangar for Baby Magnum reminded me of the Shatterdomes in Pacific Rim–even though Objects are less “humanoid humongous mecha” and more like “giant military mashup machines” of doom and destruction. In the case of Baby Magnum, it’s like a supersized Ball–or the unholy lovechild of a Ball and a Jaeger–with loads and loads more guns and a hover system similar to those used by land battleships in After War Gundam X.
And oh wow, Shizuka Itou (a.k.a.: Kaori Kanzaki, Meiko Shiraki, Luviagelita Edelfelt, Akeno Himejima and Hinagiku Katsura) is the base commander?
Even though this means it’ll take a while longer to see a new season of Index or Railgun, this first episode of Heavy Object pretty much did its job of getting me hooked (maybe because I’m more into the sci-fi aspect of things). Of course, there’s still two more episodes to go for those following the “three-episode rule.”
Your move, Gundam: Tekketsu no Orphans. (Technically, I’ve already seen it, but I’ll only comment on that once the first impressions for that show are posted.)
I’m surprised too. It can’t be a coincidence that they got Shizuka Itou to voice Froleytia. She has some things in common with Kanzaki Kaori. Similar wavy hair, both are 18, and both that have that intimidating factor. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised since this is the same author.
I think you can throw that one under the bus 🙂 Really boring.
Don’t worry about the physics too much Stilts, you’re right about it. All of it.
Simply put the author must’ve skimmed over composite armour articles and superheavy equipment without realizing that the former is already beatable with modern technology and the latter is heavily limited on where and when it can operate. Having something >1000 tonnes (at minimum) with its small contact points moving easily on rough terrain like that already breaks my suspension of disbelief. Don’t even get me started on how the thing remains functional after being hit with a nuke. At least the particle cannons are possible though 😛
Barring the insult to every physics textbook, my only real concerns here are the superfluous ecchi scenes (that seat belt scene was pointless and could have been handled more tastefully) and the character ages. Others may disagree, but I’m growing weary of having the pilot prodigies/officers be in their teens, it screams shallow self insert and IMO detracts from the story itself; older aged characters can be a boon to forging a proper sense of realism, especially for military-focused series.
If Heavy Object going forward can stop trying to push the hyped realistic angle in regards to the Objects (i.e. treat them like mechas), stick to having Objects beat each other to a pulp, and minimize needless fanservice then there isn’t much to complain about. Likely won’t be the greatest thing ever, but the show will certainly be entertaining.
I have a suspicion that the base commander may be older than she claims. On the other hand, the Princess is exactly as old as she seems, but I have heard semi-spoilery secondhand information on the origins of Elites that is intended to justify their ages.
Honestly, I can forgive the weight issue, I’ve been doing it for pretty much every sci-fi anime I’ve ever seen. The thing that’s harder for me to forgive is the complete lack of any understanding of anything resembling even the most basic of military tactics.
With the possible exception of the nuke, few if any military developments have ever been that important for their POWER since weapons development is generally linear enough that the previous weapons still killed well enough for decades if not centuries. Far more important than power has always been maneuverability. Speed. Cavalry, ranged weapons/firearms, aircraft, jets, etc, etc. The entire idea that a huge slow tank that doesn’t seem to have particularly long-range fire capabilities (compared to an icbm or a cruise missile or something) that could simply be avoided would somehow make all other weapons obsolete is just mind-boggling.
At least with Mecha, they fill the role of heavy infantry/fighter planes in a battle, which I can buy. Mecha would work as heavy infantry/fighter planes, they’re just needlessly complex and have the physics issues you mentioned. Objects seem to simply be an artillery platform, but the story is trying to act like they’re a (actually ‘THE’) front-line weapon, when in fact they would be almost useless in that position.
Objects aren’t slow. Observe the top speed shown here:
https://randomc.net/image/Heavy%20Object/Heavy%20Object%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2022.jpg
Objects are deadly precisely because they are ridiculously heavily armed, impossibly durable, and ludicrously fast and maneuverable.
The reason why Objects render aircrafts and missiles obsolete is the laser tech that is developed to be fast and powerful enough to shoot all of them down. Objects are also much faster than they appear, with the exception of the first few Objects.
Also, an armor that can withstand all those attacks obviously don’t exist now or perhaps ever. But the point of this sci-fi story is to entertain the idea of such an armor.
Objects could move on those rough terrains because they’re not in contact with ground. The in-universe explanation is that it uses static electricity as suspension and a laser propulsion system for locomotion. Doesn’t make it significantly more plausible, heat dissipation being one of the few concerns, but eh. Writing sci-fi means justifying seemingly impossible things with a semblance of logic, however shaky it is. I’d buy the explanations.
1. They have not been shown moving even remotely that fast. We’ll see if they ever are.
2. The idea that having a heavily armored weapon makes aircraft and missiles obsolete is exactly what I’m talking about. It’s born out of a misunderstanding of what aircraft and missiles are FOR. The idea that armies are fighting armies is a misunderstanding born out of the fact that humans are generally fairly evenly matched. Armies/weapons are for destroying nations/killing people, and one of the best ways to do that is to simply be where the enemy army is NOT.
That is why missiles (and aircraft) are so useful, they’re ridiculously difficult to defend against. Not because we can’t build and deploy armor strong enough to deal with missiles or aircraft attacks (what do you think bomb shelters are?) but because you can’t build and deploy armor everywhere AT ONCE. So the way you would use missiles or aircraft in a world with Objects is simply have your Objects occupy their Objects while you fire your missiles at undefended command centers and/or cities. You will note that this is simply what we do with missiles today. Objects are big, but the idea that they have ‘changed war’ is silly. They’re big tanks.
PS: the idea that they’re that big and move that fast IS a physics break I have a hard time grasping. They very clearly should move at pretty much the speeds that the anime depicts them as moving at. And why would you even bother making a weapon that has the same guns on every surface and invincible armor able to turn quickly?
The armor prevents the Object from being an easy target, not make aircrafts obsolete. It’s instead the countless lasers the Objects are armed with. Any aircraft that approaches anywhere within the line of sight of Objects will be instantly shot down by the hundreds of lasers, railguns and coilguns on the Object.
I think it’s incredibly safe to say that we’ve entered not the realm of ‘science-fiction’, but ‘science-fantasy’… Ain’t that right KaleRylan? 😀
Oh, agreed completely.
People just keep missing the point: Aircraft would not be made obsolete by having a tank they couldn’t blow up, that’s not what aircraft are for. I mean you can and do use them for that on occasion, but it’s like their 5th most important feature.
And the fact that Objects can shoot down aircraft is just as irrelevant. We ALREADY have AA guns that have a near 100% kill ratio if a plane is dumb enough to get into their firing area. Aircraft are not for attacking well-defended targets (with exceptions), they are for attacking vulnerable targets.
Anyway, I’m done repeating myself so just to sum up: having a well-armored/AA-armed tank would not in any way effect the role of aircraft or missiles since we already have those and they simply have nothing to do with each other. Wars are not shounen battles, you don’t just pit weapons against each other and the biggest, strongest one wins.
It’s why I included the mecha part afterwards :P, I am perfectly fine with ludicrous sci fi machines, but mostly when they don’t try to paint themselves as realistic by insulting my knowledge (as that speed limit Wanderer noted can do). Mechas usually never go that in depth on their functionality, which ironically often makes them more believable.
I agree completely on the military tactics aspect too. Building on your point too Kale it is can be remembered that the heavy tank concept died out in the 50s once both Russia and the US/Britain came to the conclusion that huge amounts of armour could not make up the loss in speed, mechanical issues, and production difficulties. The superheavy died out even earlier (~1945) due to the same reasons. Contrary to popular belief as well these tanks also were designed as breakthrough support. Soviet doctrine for example had the heavies provide fire support for the mediums in order to facilitate the mediums’ movement into the enemy’s rear.
Objects only able to beat other Objects? Very unlikely. No matter how strong or intimidating you make your weapon, eventually someone (whether accidentally or deliberately) will figure out how to beat it efficiently at half the cost.
@FiveOVER
Static electric suspension and laser propulsion I’ll simply leave as near impossibilities in this example, the author would have been better sticking to ubiquitous hover tech and a nuclear reactor (IIRC this was mentioned though).
Funnily enough though lasers and laser defense are widely thought to be the next big leap in aircraft tech. Not so much because lasers shoot jets down, but because they blind the pilots. As a CIWS it certainly is one of the more believable bits of technobabble here along with the particle cannons.
Well said,
Really, the show set itself up for this by harping on how this weapon ‘changed war forever’ and made everything else obsolete.
If they had just said ‘big new weapon’ we would have all nodded like we do with every mecha show, but saying it makes everything else obsolete when its not even that revolutionary of an idea if it were real just makes us go ‘wait a second…’
Yeah, even the German Maus superheavy tank was quickly being re-imagined as a “steel bunker” meant to help hold back Allied advances in a certain area(s) rather than be an actual tank to fight other tanks or even support infantry.
It was just so big and heavy (don’t even get me started on the on-paper Ratte and Monster designs that made even the Maus look like…a mouse…lol) that most roads and bridges couldn’t support its weight (even though there were designs to allow the Maus to travel through rivers via a big snorkel and powering its engine with another Maus), and also made for an extremely easy target for what else, but AIR POWER. Even if the standard machine guns (.303 to 20 mm cannons) couldn’t penetrate the armor, things like the Tall Boy and Grand Slam bombs would make quick work of it (three Tall Boys are what took out the battleship, Tirpitz), as well as saturating it with napalm to kill the crew inside. After all, it doesn’t matter how big/powerful the weapon is if the crew meant to use it are all dead.
You know the trend, all main characters are required BY LAW to be no older than 20. Viewers couldn’t possibly be expected to identify with a character in their 20’s (gasp!) to 40’s (oh the horror!). Everyone knows that all kids in anime are geniuses that are experts and masters of their fields. Age, wisdom and experience are for losers.
To me, the purpose of fiction is first and foremost to entertain. Obviously, the main target audience find younger characters more appealing. Since the entertainment factor is prioritized, realism takes the back seat, and I feel that anime is no worse for it. I honestly couldn’t care less as long as the character is interesting, old or not.
@FiveOVER
The age demographic thing makes no sense when compared to western shows that have adult characters that younger demographics find just as appealing. Just look at a lot of CW shows for example.
Reminds me of the “argument” some people use when they claim they can’t relate to a female character who’s a special forces ninja warrior badass, but making them a male special forces ninja warrior badass somehow makes them somehow more relatable.
There’s also the fact that the average superhero is imagined to be about 32 (though there are obviously exceptions like Spider-man). This is just a cultural thing in Asia. Anyone past 25 is ANCIENT.
Asia? Nah… It’s a uniquely Far-East Asian thing… South-East Asians like me are just as perplexed as you are…
Fair enough, we’re getting specific. It is at least in my experience in Japan and Korea in pretty much the exact same way. I’d be a bit surprised if it’s not in China as well.
I have read one of the problems is adults are supposed to act in a very ridged way socialy in Japan most of the time so only high school and collage students are allowed to be human most of the time. This was a comment of what it was like to live in Japan not on anime. As a fan of Your Under Arrest and Patlabor this not quite the limitation. But even with those shows the normal hero’s quest starts with young people. In militaries the young people are the most relatable to the common person as the more senior non commissioned officers and higher ranking officers are in boss roles and not allowed the fun lower ranked characters have more often.
This not a new thing most hero tales from folk lore are young people. I guess even the west older people are more set in our ways and so less interesting or at least not as tied down with responsibilities. Also successful older people get more skilled and you get the hey he’s to over powered type of complaints as a skilled successful person is less relatable to the average fan.
@RedRocket
Great point about Japan’s characterization of their youth, which is why we see lots of HS anime as opposed to more adult drive anime. I was reading or hearing something about the way adults view their time in school as some of their freest, since adulthood for them is all about conformity and drudgery (not that that’s something the rest of the world is unfamiliar with)
Though that does seem to be more of a recent development (around the turn of this century) where we’ve seen a fair amount of shows specifically with HS aged or themed characters. We certainly saw HS themed anime, but there were more shows with adult driven plots, the great Patlabor series as you mentioned.
And looking Japan’s movie scene, it does have a fair amount of HS themed movies as well, so it’s not completely confined to anime. Heck, even Takashi Miike did a few HS films back in the 90’s!
I won’t elaborate yet on why Objects need to move that fast. All I can say is that its because of how a battle between Objects unfold.
@Pancakes
Yeeeeah, thought so (on the physics). I’m not super great at physics myself, but I know how to sniff out bullshit well enough. That’s probably why I write fantasy. I can just go “Lalala it’s MAGIC!” and get back to writing about explosions and whiskey. I mean character development and plot.
@KaleRylan
Ya know, it’s probably my fantasy chops that make me easily able to swallow the tactical snafus. I’ve watched and read as people tried to recreate the much more entertaining combat experiences of swordfights, battleship-style naval fights, and aerial dogfights for years now. We don’t like to write about modern combat ’cause modern combat is fucking BORING. We’ve gotten too damn good at it to make it interesting on a micro level. It’s only interesting on a macro level, but you have to go deeeep in the weeds to understand why this army is here & etc. Which is fun, but not what every story is going for.
I basically took it as the story trying to recreate the idealized (and never-really-existed) ideal of a tank on tank battle. They’re AT-ATs in my book. Any military-minded individual with a handful of firing synapses would say, “If this civilization [the empire] has trivialized faster-than-light travel, and has access to hover technology, why would they make their armored units walk around on four vulnerable legs? They’d make hover tanks instead.”
Because the AT-ATs were more interesting for the plot, and ’cause a bunch of people didn’t realize they were daft until well after the fact (it probably took me ~20 years, since I was a kid when I first saw ’em). Same thing. I don’t expect my sci-fi and fantasy authors to know everything about military combat. I just expect them to try their best. Though I do expect a little better from myself : )
On the age thing:
Honestly, that’s another thing I just started ignoring. All the characters are improbably young. Unless it’s plot-relevant, I mentally edit their ages up 5-10 years and be done with it. They say 18, I hear 23 or 28. I can deal with that.
I’m honestly pretty good at suspension of disbelief (I love AT-ATs) but the key is to suspend the RIGHT disbelief. Star Wars never told us that AT-ATs were the only weapon they use, just one (very cool) one. Heck, even Jedi aren’t presented as having really changed how wars are fought all that much, they still have infantry, tanks, transports, fighters, etc.
This on the other hand spent an entire episode telling us AGAIN and AGAIN (probably the source of my annoyance more than the story itself) how these things made everything else pointless. “Ha, why should we shovel a runway when planes are pointless now?” came up at least 3 times. The Objects themselves do not bother me (see: anime), it’s the idea that (is smashed into our head repeatedly) that the Objects are a sea change in war when they’re not even that revolutionary by today’s standards (barring the physical impossibility thing).
Honestly at this point the story would likely have worked better for me as a bit of a dark parody (their CO killed a bunch of people on her ipad and no one commented) on the pointlessness of war and what happens when you endlessly try to one up one another in making the biggest guns. Even the objects are a kind of weird child’s toy design of what the biggest tank would be. There’s no real design sense to them, no technical or military logic, just ‘if we take a tank and multiply it by 100 it’s 100 times as strong, right?’ And that idea itself would be kind of interesting to explore.
In related news, light novel editor Miki Kazuma deeply apologises that Index Season 3 still hasn’t been made yet.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-10-04/dengeki-bunko-editor-no-season-3-yet-for-a-certain-magical-index/.93770
they should just have nagai tatsuyuki handle index 3. id be more hyped if he took over the director’s chair in all seriousness. As of right now, im not that affected by whether index 3 arrives or not. Heck, id rather have another railgun season.
I doubt Nagai is in any hurry to get back into adaptations. Railgun S was sort of a one-off, given that he worked on the original season. However, his work is in demand these days, and it’s mostly anime original stuff (which is both more interesting and financially lucrative to a director) that he wants to be involved with.
Except we wont get a new Railgun anime because the manga author has stated that once they do Index 3, then they can do Railgun 3
@Rhoenkohr
yea im quite aware of that but a man can dream right……..sigh
@xxvan
bummer….
and also, in the end of the Episode. This HO got Destroyed from the last Attacker, with some kind of Heat Weapon. My guess would be Heavy Plasma Gun. The Enemy hit the Core and she ejected with the Emergency System, we see her on the Parachute
But, did not the Captain in the Scene to punish these two Slackers, not mentioned that she remote control other HO around, just with this Tablet? Perhaps these ones will finish the Attacker, and they can rebuild or fix the HO we know
and Yeah… You all know the Maus Tank of WW2? Well, it was not build, but thank to some Tank Anime we know it… Imagine, that there was even a Plan for a Huge Bigger Tank, named Ratte… And they already had troubles with the Mass of the Maus. No Bridge could hold this Mass, Rain is the natural enemy for its Tracks and so on…
So lets invent “Mass Effect” Element, where they find out an Element to reduce the Mass to nearly Zero, voila!! 🙂
Solution:
The Power Core also generate an G Force Field
Resolved
uhmmm, in all honesty i thought this ep was a textbook demonstration of how not to properly handle a narrative. The writing and directing is so subpar. Everything from the exposition to the dialogue to the context in which the characters behave just seemed sloppy. There is potential, but right now it is clouded in a storm of mediocrity. On a more positive note, i dont dislike JC Staff’s production values so there’s that to keep my attention but ill see how long that holds. Perhaps this can elevate from mediocre to a slightly enjoyable pass-the-time anime. Can’t help being patient as i just love anime in general
Ahaha, well you may be right. I might have been subconsciously grading on a curve, since sci-fi stories (and especially sci-fi anime) tend to go so exposition heavy so quickly, that them delivering it in an entertaining way was appreciated.
Though to be honest, it’s probably just that characters complaining about their jobs is really relatable to me. I’ve spent a lot of time in their shoes, lol
hahaha the job complaining was the other plus for me…i was kinda reaching when watching this premiere :)..though as i mentioned before, the potential is there
Gee, I felt as if I heard Kamijou Touma’s voice (this is used in a sarcastic tone)
more crappy cgi……*insert emotocon for yucky taste face*
So where did Qwenthur come from I could have sworn from the books it was spelled Quenser?
s and th are interchangeable in Japanese since neither exists. Best not to question spelling.
Fall 2015’s anime season is officially abysmal. After viewing a good 6 shows, I have given up. The majority of shows this season are entrenched in nonsensical ecchi scenes that does nothing to the story, but disrupts the immersion. Stilts downplays the faults of this series, among with other Fall series, as being unnecessary, but “appreciated.” Personally, I have just grown tired.
After watching the first 5-10 minutes of this show, I let out a huge sigh. I predicted that the main character, who at the time was shoveling snow, was going to land some gig where he would be the top fighter/action hero in the series and eventually marry a princess or a wealthy girl even though he is a “plebeian.”
A mere minute passed when we were presented with the “shower” scene and the introduction of a blushing princess.
Seriously you guys, I will not force myself to watch this drivel, nor ignore the trash and remain hopeful of a “brilliant” storyline that might peak through inbetween cut scenes of awkward and needless accidental sexual assault scenes and pointless sex slap stick comedy.
I know I am in the minority here, but quite frankly I am tired. This show is trash and so is the majority of the new fall shows of 2015. Just like you can’t slap lipstick on a pig and expect it to be a human, you can’t ignore the poor writing, irrelevant scenes, and terrible cgi and call it a “solid start.”
I cannot guarantee anything, but I’d say at least give it the 3 episode rule.
Minority? Nah…
To put it another way, you could say that people have come to feel extremely stifled by the sheer preposterous inaneness that has come to characterize mass multimedia ‘entertainment’ in general… Everything from games, to movies, to music, to literature… Many people the world over just feel the same… What is abominable is how people don’t seem to even TRY bringing into the spotlight the works that should be lauded and paid attention to in the first place…
Even within the confines of business itself, it will eventually prove to become volatile and unsustainable. The reason being that the market itself keeps on shrinking and shrinking and shrinking… Though I do also have to admit that a lot of people just can’t come up with good things…
Oh well, enough blowing my top and waxing creativity, and just focus on the few select shows that seem to be somewhat worthwhile… Seriously, my God is this Fall season a FAR CRY from the Fall season of 3-2 years past…
That, or we become our own anime producers… Sounds a lot of fun if you ask me 😀
I didn’t really expand on the specifics on what I was talking about but generally from where I live, mass multimedia entertainment feels sooooooooooooo samey that it’s made me feel the creative ‘BLAHS’ more than ever… In fact, I’ll constantly reiterate that it is indeed a lot easier for the ‘interesting’ things to prop up, but the platforms to push them out need that extra momentum to really thrive, and from how things seem from my limited point of view, it all almost comes off as somewhat of an apocalyptic showdown between the truly excellent and the truly inane. Yeap, that’s just how it feels like in South-East Asia… Boy oh boy, are you guys lucky in that sense… That, or what’s being pushed like cocaine to the masses smothers the good and interesting stuff further into obscurity.
In the meantime… If miraculous things do begin to happen (hah, I can talk all day long about what’s surprisingly happening in Malaysia, anime and literature wise), I’d gladly promote them non-stop, just so that people actually get to know and support them.
Essentially, what I’m trying to say is that, the awesome stuff NEEDS better promotional platforms so that information is transmitted effectively.
So yeah, I’m pretty much like Stilts in that I’d rather promote the good and just ignore the meh, or make some interesting ones myself.
I think it’s because of the cliquism that clever producers have managed to manufacture around a lot of entertainment that at the top of the chain is owned by a lot of the same parties working in tandem that they’ll just get shit on and ostracized by the peers for daring to admit they like something that isn’t super popular or dislike something that isn’t. IMO it’s all a scheme to drive a fake competition and wedge between people that leads to higher profit margins as they try to outspend each other on the same old tired over-promoted content.
If people genuinely can’t find something to like that’s kind of a different problem though. Personally I found the intros to Gundam, OPM, Lupin III, Haikyuu Season 2 and Noragami to be very good and Comet Lucifer and Young Black Jack were at least decent (I’m on the fence about Heavy Object still very much) I’m still looking forward to Sakurako-San, All Becomes F and the new Garo to see what those are about.
The good thing about Fall and why I disagree that it’s abysmal at least compared to the rest of the year is that at the very least there are options besides light novel and fanservice stuff for the first time in a while. Yeah sure there are two series airing on Saturday that seem like the exact thing thing to the point where it’s set off a mini alarm among anime fans and yeah the same old The Story thing is the most popular stuff ever in Japan yet again, but at least there’s options, something that is becoming pretty unique to Fall. If you still don’t find anything than a hobby change might be in order, which is something I’m even considering next year, but while things are decent I’ll stick with anime.
Asian media in general I’ve noticed has an especially serious problem with formula and brand loyalty to just a small handful of ideas pretty much all across the board. In Music it’s all about the 48’s and Johnny’s boy bands and that hasn’t changed in years. One Piece has been the most dominant manga series for over a decade, in anime it’s been The Story series for pretty much the entire decade so far with Love Live being a very recent new arrival with the potential to pull something similar for the second half of the 2010s and in games there seems to be a particular beholdence to Monster Hunter, Pokemon and Dragon Quest. PC Games? It’s all about the eroge, specifically Key and Type/Moon.
All of this wouldn’t seem to be a problem if it didn’t seem so stratified where one brand or idea sells gang busters guaranteed unconditionally every single time while everything else no matter how much gets poured into it completely flops with very little in-between which IMO kills the very idea of creativity and makes people think it’s not even worth trying in those Asian media markets with everything so utterly dominated by one concept. It’s very very tough and stagnant for sure but on the positive side it makes me count my blessings as a Canadian when people complain about Comic Book movies cause I know it could be a whole lot worse. At least there will be new artists and ideas that catch on in my region of the globe, but there’s little guarantee of that in Asia where the likelihood of old franchises dying out with nothing new to replace is more likely.
TL;DR: Based on all the things I’ve read about the Asian multimedia market over the last year I sympathize strongly.
So true! While there are regional differences within Asia itself, the general trends surrounding entertainment so singularly point towards highly standardized and rigid adherence to convention that you start to feel very caged. In India there’s frickin’ Bollywood, in South Korea it’s uber-melodramatic K-dramas and over-produced dance pop songs, same thing goes for South-East Asia with horribad religio-centric melodramas to over-the-top and coarse action flicks and cheesy horror movies… (Not so for Thai, South Korean and Japanese horror movies, you tend to shit your pants with those) Then there’s your Japanese stuff that’s either so self-absorbed and incomprehensible or go on about things in incredibly safe ways… But these are basically what’s both ‘Mainstream and Popular’, and are in no way reflective of what’s actually going on with people these days. Indeed, you could say that personal tastes have become stratified enough that there’s always an audience for something, no matter how small.
@WhatTha
At RandomC, we have always preferred to damn with faint praise. Now, I enjoyed this episode, though that might be because I went in expecting … well, mostly what we got. I’ve gotten quite good at calibrating my expectations, which unfortunately means I’m rarely shocked, but also means I’m rarely utterly disappointed.
But even if I hated it, I wouldn’t have wanted to shit all over it. I don’t like to poison the well for others, to have them enjoy an episode and then come here and have me screaming, “You’re wrong!”. I prefer to do as I did with my recent Overlord post—if I didn’t enjoy it, I explore why, not string it up and let it dance the hemp fandango.
I do think you’re jumping pretty quickly on this, though. It may very well not end up being the second coming of Oharuhi-sama (it may end up being middling, is what I mean), but I very much doubt Qwenthur is going to be marrying a princess anytime soon.
@Nishizawa Mihashi @Nishizawa Mihashi
I feel like there’s a lot of lament over how bad this season is. And this season might be bad! It didn’t look strong to me going in. But the season is four days old. I’m not passing judgement on it yet.
I just feel like people are awfully quick to jump to judgement, which—I mean, can you imagine how that feels? As the author? We prepare ourselves for it, for the misplaced anger that’s as much about the reader as it is about your story (and you), but it sucks. I don’t want to do that to others.
If I start a story and I don’t enjoy it, I don’t say it’s trash. I watched one episode of GATE and then stopped. I don’t know the story. I just don’t have any interest in finding out That’s all.
@Nishizawa Mihashi
If by “the business” you’re talking about anime in particular, you may be right. The anime industry’s profit structure is pretty messed up, and it’s narrowing who they’re making anime for. It’s probably not endlessly sustainable, though then again, we were talking about the house of cards falling on podcasts (& even before that) years ago, and it hasn’t happened.
But if you meant all those industries you named, that’s shortsighted to say the least. There’s more fantastic literature and music available today than ever before. Movies are easier to fund and produce than ever before (though of course, you’ve got to be clever about it). Indie games are blowing up. American TV is in the middle of a renaissance. Just because the anime industry seems to be on the downswing (which I’d point out that people have been saying for years, though I’d agree with it even so) doesn’t mean that everything is terrible. (And yes, the day will come when anime are cheaper to produce as well.)
I’ll be honest. I don’t get the pessimism. I don’t see the profit in it, nor the fun. I’d much rather build up people (and stories) than tear them down. And if they don’t deserve to be built up, I’ll quietly set them aside and focus on those who do (or in my case, try to write ’em myself). Seems more fun to me.
American movies are in a weird spot. I saw an article about it somewhere recently and it was saying how if you actually look at the record-breaking profits, something like 90% of them were made by the top 3-4 films (basically a couple of Marvel movies and Jurassic World). So while, if you like comic movies, then we’re in kind of a good place, for films as a whole outside of the 6 or so blockbusters a year that make all the money we’re on a fairly major and semi-catastrophic downswing.
I’d agree on the other things though. TV has been doing well (I don’t really watch tv), Literature is actually undergoing a resurgence, Music is… fine I guess (I move between countries regularly so I just hear what’s around me), indie games are growing which is great (mobile games are concerning in their sheer mindlessness though).
Whoops… Looks like my comment ended up linking to the one different from Stilts’ reply… Aiyoyo… How lah like this… Nishizawa be so brain-dead right now…
I can comment a bit on music. An entire essay could be devoted to current trends, but in general band revenue comes increasingly from concerts and merchandise; barring the big performers smaller groups have begun to either directly fundraise their recording costs and/or adopt a “pay what you want” model for their songs. The result is a flourishing of underground acts that find new fans via the internet and a cutting out of the record label middleman that started with Napster and Limewire.
Also slightly disagree on games Stilts, the indie market is setting up for a contraction. There’s too much choice for games that are too similar to one another. Fire up Steam for example and a large chunk are 2D pixel scrollers, Minecraft clones, or RPG Maker series. Gamers are also increasingly holding off buying stuff until sales (unless it’s for games like Fallout 4), which has killed some companies and is quickly threatening others; ironically Gamergate of all things helped to show just how financially stretched some developers are. People just don’t have the money to throw around aimlessly at shiny new things anymore.
Movie profits are in a weird spot, aye. It’s increasingly an almost venture capital-style business, where movie studios place huge bets on several movies, knowing that one or two will probably pan out, and that’s their year right there. But it’s also easier and easier to make good film on the cheap (or so says a friend of mine who’s working to become a director in Austin, so grain of salt), because the tools and whatnot are getting more affordable. But it, as with anime, still requires a lot of manpower, so it hasn’t become as democratized as music or literature.
The music industry has definitely changed. Like you said Pancakes, more revenue is from concerts and appearances, less from sales. Which is a change, but not necessarily bad. It means more people can break in and play (and establish a direct connection with fans), but they’ve probably got to pound pavement to make a living at it.
And like with literature (and jackasses like me), the middlemen are going away. Which is great, ’cause I like 70% margins instead of like 12%, haha
I’m less of a gamer nowadays, so I can’t comment with a huge amount of authority, but at least the tools to make non-AAA games are more accessible. Doing a good (and non-derivative) job is up to the creators, though.
True, true, so very true. One important factor that I’ve been researching about on a currently infrequent basis is resource wastage and poor management practices in the multimedia production process, as me and 3 other dudes are planning to set up our own multimedia production company roughly 3-5 years from now. In fact, I’ve read a few articles and man am I shocked by how much money production teams end up wasting due to marketing tactics and a lack of knowledge of the products they need to use in the production process. At that time, I was reading on camera equipment in film making.
@WhatTha I don’t know what 6 shows you’ve watched, but every season has its buds (some more than others), and whilst there have been some rubbish premieres over the weekend (Heavy Object included – I thought it had one of the worst and most boring exposition dumps I’ve ever come across in all my days of watching anime – I couldn’t get past the 7 minute mark), there are still a load of shows with promise that I recommend you check out!
I don’t know what you have or haven’t seen but just to name a few good shows: The second seasons of Noragami and Haikyuu!! will both be a treat for anyone who enjoyed the first seasons, the new Lupin III series serves as a good starting point for those unfamiliar with the franchise, if you like the Monogatari series then Owarimonogatari should satisfy, Utawarerumono has the potential to be the epic fantasy sleeper of the season, the new Okada Mari Gundam promises be anything but boring, One-Punch Man delivered a fantastic first episode, and Comet Lucifer and Conrete Revolutio are two colourful originals worth checking out as well.
It’s easy to get bogged down by the ‘lows’ of any given season, but I don’t think this Fall is any worse than what we’ve seen for the past few years. There are still plenty of shows to air (some of which look to be big hitters), so there should undoubtably something for you to enjoy. If you didn’t like one thing, I’d recommend moving on – that’s what I’ll be doing with Heavy Object and the generic-fantasy-action-harem-school anime that we’ve got this season.
The comment about the 6 shows that I watched that I ended up disliking are from the “new” new anime series and not from a second/one millionth season one. I am happy that Noragami and Lupin III returned. This comment was mostly for the “season one” fall series and not for the others.
This arc represents the LONGEST title of all anime/manga/light novel arc titles of all time. In fact, how do you even pronounce this under 10 seconds?
I’m still waiting for more Index/Railgun series to be animated even if it takes 10 years from now.
So this anime, based on the images Stilts provided, doesn’t make it into my watch list for Fall 2015 animes. That’s all.
I’m glad you like it Stilts, I honestly didn’t know how you would take it all in given how briefly they touched on the backstory of the world and the Objects. There’s definitely more tech talk from where that’s from, and that’s just for the ‘standard’ Objects, not even considering those ‘unique’ Objects in the OP.
War, war never changes…
Overall, I like it. HEAVY exposition (sorry for the pun!) made sense. “Certain island nation” definitely did not keep Object monopoly long , as was with US nuclear monopoly after WW2. Interesting thing, while nclear age heralded relative peace due to entire nations effectively mutually keeping themselves hostage, Objects heralded age of warfare where all other weapons were demoted to extras if not helpless watchers.
It seems all countries that survived obtained Object tech, while others perished precisely because they could not manage that feat.
What I loved is hov they instantly subvert the notion of “bloodless” wars where only few object pilots are invovled in combat when the base commander mentions off-hand about bomabrding some dogged guerillas who didnt see the “reason” in retreating in face of superior firepower (maybe they just didnt have anywhere to retreat?).
It seems our non-heroes (they openly admit being non-heroic slackers) will soon about to find out how grisly is the reality of combat, especially as the sole Heavy Object in the base is quite low-performance general purpose unit. If enemy manages to get it out of action, they might end up themselves in”retreat under fire” scenario…
And while i liked the comedic parts, the ecchi stuff was totally unnecessary. Guess this has become a feature similar to standard Hollywod romance-thrown-into-action-movie, whether it fits or not. We just will have to live with it.
The deer hunt with smart bullets reminded me of scene of “Red Storm Rising” where Soviet soldiers in Iceland hunt a deer with Mi-24 helicopter’s .50 caliber (12,7mm) machine gun…
The “clean” war thing is ripe for subversion. I sort of rolled my eyes when they talked about that, knowing it wouldn’t last long, lol
Maaaan, I haven’t thought about Red Storm Rising in a long time. I was probably like 12 years old when I read that, haha. I was a precocious child ^^
Clean war goes way back older than dirt. Even successful for short periods time to time. Back then it was my hero vs your hero winner gets disputed territory.
I’m not sure where I read it, but I think the term Object was inspired by the Soviet Union and thier designations for experimental weaponry, EG Object 279: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_279.
ahaha as the player of World of Tanks I instantly recognized the idea…
The Soviet Union screws us again! *shakes fist*
I have grown a fine despisal of these types of characters.
But the episode’s end gives me hope for the series…
I actually liked the episode a lot more than I thought I would after the first few minutes. I don’t LOVE the characters yet, but I like them. The shower scene + the first few seconds after I heard the elite girl’s voice made me think: oh, another emotionless character… But that doesn’t seem to really be the case after watching for a bit longer, though she seems pretty reserved(not a bad thing). Didn’t like the suffocation part but it was alright, I suppose. The main character looks like he’d be some smart kid that will somehow do amazing things(maybe?), which will be interesting, but I hope it won’t be something like Inaho’s kind of opness.
I really liked that the end of the episode showed them being a part of some war(?), because it gives me something exciting to look forward to in future episodes. Also glad they didn’t just throw the war part at the start/middle of the episode, because then I’d not know the characters enough and end up looking forward to only their badass moments(I assume there will be some) and be impatient with any slice of life(?) moments after. Not hyped for the next episode exactly but will definitely watch to see where the series goes, it’s at least interesting enough for another episode or few.
While you focus on the viability of the Objects, I’m quite baffled on what I saw on the battle preview where the two guys running around the field while those gigantic Objects were duking it out. I mean… come on. It’s no man’s land. They could easily die from the impacts of those shots, yet foot soldiers seems to be supporting the object?
Typically ground personnel does what the gigantic weapon can’t do; infiltrating, spying, transporting supplies, etc. They don’t usually dukes against HO unless they have some screw loose/extreme situation which force them to do so.
for now at least.
It’s interesting since it’s been years since the original material of Heavy Object was released and only now we’ll get to see an animation of it. tne animation quality seems nice, but it’s only the first episode, so there’s still room in both ways. i’m already hooked espescially since the story could lead anywhere. but then again, the Opening (or Ending) is quite foreshadowing.
Can’t say that the first episode blew me away. At least the girl talked more than expected.
Yep nothing new was playing a game called OGRE with these things back in late 1970’s. Ability to take a nuclear weapon was one of the ideas. Now in the game there were tanks and powered infantry suits as Ogre could not be everywhere and tanks and infantry could wear down the Ogre with different tricks. Now these Ogre had huge treads so more believable not as cool.
The opening was face palm bad. Figures don’t fly that close or as close together and with this problem would fire missiles from far off and peel.
Ships don’t fire from where you can hit them with a direct fire weapon like a beam weapon. Also ships sail far apart in modern warfare. Ships fire missiles from way way far over the horizon. On land rail guns and superguns could take out the Object from again way over the horizon. Super guns from hundreds of miles away should be possible.
Now modern warfare with the vast majority of the casualties caused by artillery fired from places far away is not much fun in stories so I’ll put back on my very heavy suspension of disbelief goggles and enjoy.
Perhaps this Attackers? (The Ships and Planes) was thinking the Enemy (or Prey) just have Slingshot and Bow
But seriously, if i can not Break it, then i should make Sure it can not Move and sit there like an Duck. No where to go
If you can not break this first Prototype, send it to the bottom of the Sea. Well, only these Tubes alike thing keep him afloat like an Oil Platform. So, how it works from the bottom of the Sea? Can it withstand the Water Pressure? okay okay.. Perhaps nobody saw the Forest because there was so much Tress in sight…
If the Main road do not work, try the Side lines
also, History of WW2 battles…
To avoid any harm, i do not tell you the Names. But 2 Super Battleships was doomed with only 1 Torpedo…
-Overly long narration
-Too much hype on the Objects
-The illogical belief that the war can be “clean” when it’s two superweapons duking it out. And then showing us a scene where the winning Object proceeds to clean shop with the enemy base not too far from where the losing Object is deployed.
-The bloody MC narrating about war, in such a calm passive voice he might as well be talking about Robot Wars
-Bloody boring first episode, I don’t feel the tension of an ongoing global conflict, or these people were even in the military.
One word came to me when I saw the Heavy Objects…… where the hell is a BOLO when you need him/her.
Found the Technodrome! Boy, they loaded it with extra laser cannons and rocket launchers.
Object Vs Object? BullS**t. Just give Hanae Natsuki’s character an orange mech (or an orange tank, truck or jumping-suit ) Objects just go down like flies.
Hell, yeah! If he’s gonna save a blond-haired princess (whether a nickname or actual nobility), ORANGE is the way to go. Not even losing an eye will stop him. 😀
More casting gag is having Kaito Ishikawa on board– the two have met before in another piloting series (Pilot’s Love Song). 😀
narration in the beginning are way too long and boring. I stop watched it after the first ten minutes.
Looks like Advanced Wars if the entire world monopolized those black hole weaponry.
Next please. What’s with these boring shows this season?
Give me the same feeling when watching Arpeggio for the first time.
Will rate this one a little bit higher due to no 3dcg character.