First Impressions / Heavy Object

「蟻とキリギリスの戦争 オセアニア軍事国攻略戦 I」 (Aritokirigirisu no Sensou Oseania Gunji-koku Kouryaku-sen I)
“The War of the Any and the Grasshopper The Invasion of the Oceanian Military State I”

This episode is all silly flirting, jealousy, Qwenthur being dense, sex appeal, and exposition.

Sex Appeal, Flirting, & Jealousy

I’m beginning to strongly suspect this entire series is just an excuse to have silly, flirty, romcom antics with a girl in a sexy Eva suit. Which, er—I feel like more attention could be paid to the excuse, but I don’t mind that reason! (Nope, not at all.) This episode is some coalition nonsense against a dictator, blah blah, who cares. The important thing is that it introduces mini-skirt Santa! (Plus bonus mini-skirt Santa, because you can never have enough.)

The Intelligence Union’s Elite/pop idol, who shall henceforth be known as Ohoho-chan (Kanemoto Hisako), is, let’s face it, another excuse. This time: An excuse to show us a jealous, tusndere Milinda. Which was great! The more interesting thing to me is that dense Qwenthur made me laugh instead of facepalm. That’s almost certainly because I stopped taking this show seriously weeks ago, though I think Havia acting as the audience stand in and pointing out how dense he was being helped a lot. Either way, there’s not a lot to say. Banter. Sexy. Tsundere. Aural sex, for some reason. All did its job, even if that last part was weird.

Australian Dictator

Oceania is apparently Australia, which would make those natives they’re wiping out the Australian Aborigines. It also means Australia has a dictator, which is hilarious for some reason. I think the last time Australia had an absolute ruler, they were British. I would have thought they would be smart enough not to go down that road again. Also, slaughtering the Aboriginal people is a bit rude. When you have a single 0.5th gen Object (a barely-better-than-the-prototype, I guess?), probably best to keep a low profile.

Really, what struck me is that the military tactics were crap again. The more I watch of this show, it makes me think of pre-WWI style military organization stapled on top of a post-WWIII(?) world. It just doesn’t fit. The limited war was bad enough, but here their intelligence is trash. If it’s the Four Great Powers (capitalization necessary, natch) versus one rinky-dink dictatorship, they should have easy air superiority, and also satellites. Even if drones weren’t the obvious next development back when Kamachi Kazuma-sensei started this series, they’d still have manned jets, which means they should be able to fish out the enemy Object in no time, and then sick all twenty coalition Objects they have on it. Done and done. Wouldn’t even break a sweat.

Instead, they send seemingly two guys, Qwenthur and Havia, in to scout after they’ve lit up the area WWI-style. Maybe they sent others too, but if these guys are such hot stuff, why are they getting shit jobs? Ditto to why they were cleaning the runway in the first scene. And of course, Qwenthur is going to white knight for the little girl, because we need to have a plot here. Honestly, I liked him better when he saved Milinda because she had been protecting them all that time. That was built on an assumed relationship. This is just him being a trope. Once again, Kazuma-sensei is bad at war and human nature on a macro scale (after Alaska, these guys should be talking up war bonds at most), which really shouldn’t surprise me. And doesn’t. At least I’m getting what I expect.

Looking Ahead – Qwenthur Saves the Day, Because Lolicon

I feel like there were interesting angles we could take here—something to do with the paparazzi … probably others—but we’re going with the “Qwenthur saves the little girl” one, so whatever. Honestly, I don’t care. Just get back to Ohoho-chan flirting with Qwenthur to annoy Milinda eventually. I enjoyed that.

tl;dr: @StiltsOutLoud – This episode is all silly flirting, jealousy, Qwenthur being dense, sex appeal, and exposition in an Australian dictatorship #heavyobject 06

Random thoughts:

  • I forgot to mention, but once again, this episode was almost all exposition. Normally that would annoy me—and for the flute thing, it was bizarre—but I’ll make allowances in certain situations.
  • After everything this show has done, did it just make fun of mobile suits? You gotta admits, it takes giant balls to do that. Ahem.
  • “If it’s a cat fight, do it in swimsuits!” SECONDED.

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: Stephen, what is best in life?, It depends, Momentum & mental space, and The best content is in email

Full-length images: 08, 10, 13, 27, 29.

 

Preview

57 Comments

    1. It doesn’t really matter. At this rate we’re not likely going to see anything other than volume 1, so if it’s the worst stuff out of the series, congratulations author: you just wasted your entire anime on your crappy material without touching any of the good stuff. You also perpetuated the impression that many anime viewers have of light novels: that being that they are, almost entirely, worthless trash, because 99% of the adaptations made from them are not very good. The fact that most LNs start off poor and get better doesn’t come across very well when the adaptations only show the poor stuff and never get to the “getting better” part.

      Wanderer
      Reply

      3. As Stilts said,I think we will be finished with Vol 1 material at either episodes 7 or 8 at this pace.

        And there will be an interesting character introduced at Vol 2. The plot at Vol 2 and above is thankfully is much more than Object here please destroy it.

        Kerfirou
        Reply

  3. Kamachi Kazuma claims he wrote Heavy Object as a literary experiment, where each volume is basically a collection of short stories.

    “I thought the first volume could be…a starter pack that explained the basic setting and actions of the characters (and) the makeup and values of the different parts of the world. Then the subsequent volumes could be something like expansion packs.

    My intention was to have a timeline that continues with each volume, but where you can pick up and enjoy any volume (provided) you have the basic information from the first volume. I hope you readers can check to see if I was successful or not.”

    Do you think he was successful?

    zztop
    Reply

    3. Do you think he was successful?

      D-does he know that most Western novels are written like that? Or at the very least, they’re written so that a reader is brought more or less up to speed after the first few chapters, where prior events and worldbuilding jazz is reiterated.

      (Side note: That’s something I honestly never understood—or more like, I didn’t start writing until after the internet was a serious thing, so I’ve always been able to google where to start in a series. I’d never just pick something up on Book 3 and go with it. That’s why I’m only doing minimal reminding in my second book—mostly just to remind people who read the first one a year ago. But I digress.)

      (Side note #2: My second book is actually a collection of short stories—well, technically they’re novellas, but I think of them as shorter adventures, or episodes—within a larger series, so that ain’t a new invention either. Though maybe he just meant an experiment for him. I digress again.)

      Like Goodwill Wright said, whether he succeeded or not remains to be seen. If you want to see a series where exactly what he was trying to do is done well, though, I suggest reading Atomic Robo. Because of the nature of a long-lived atomic-powered robot created by Nikola Tesla who does action science all over the world (srsly, it’s awesome), each book jumps around in all different times, so you can read ’em in any order and it works. I’m going to hazard a guess that Heavy Object doesn’t have the secret sauce to make that work unless the character development remains minimal to none.

      It could be fine as a linear narrative, though.

      Stilts
      Reply

  4. Oceania also includes New Zealand and I do believe the Philippines and even Singapore are classed under it? Not 100% sure about the latter. But I’d assume they’d be referring to Australia judging by the land mass and fauna.

    I believe when they said “native” they probably meant Australians in general. None of the dead characters looked like Aboriginals, and there was also a blonde dead one. Aboriginals are so far incapable of being blonde as far as I’ve seen.

    I doubt the writer who wrote Heavy Object would go into enough detail to distinguish Aboriginals/Torres Strait and “others” and most likely just generalized all “citizens” of Australia as native. It is the future, maybe racial backgrounds have been blurred in favor of factions and geographical locations?

    Either way, I doubt they mean Aboriginals specifically.

    Goodwill Wright
    Reply

    1. The source novels only refer to “tribes/natives that had lived in Oceania since ancient times”. I assume Kamachi is referring to the Aboriginals here, although perhaps the anime is trying to avoid specific racial distinctions.

      zztop
      Reply

      1. Either that, or again, even the source novel may have just made a generalization (or mistranslation). At the least in the anime, they sure aren’t depicted as aboriginal, that much is for sure.

        Or this is an alternate universe and they “aren’t” aboriginal but just simply natives?

        Goodwill Wright
        Reply

    3. Technically, the Philippines and Singapore are often considered to be a part of Southeast Asia rather than a part of Oceania. But I guess there is some overlap. (Either that or the author had to come up with his own idea of space-filling empires…)

      Incognito
      Reply

    1. “His hands gently hold my body while his tender lips lay upon me.

      His tender yet crude breaths makes me tremble uncontrollably. I tried to but I couldn’t stop myself from squeeling.

      Despite his seemingly crude nature, his fingers softly caresses me and wraps aroubd my body”

      c2710
      Reply

  7. Time for another episode of The Misadventures of Havia and Qwenthur. Anyways I was also baffled by that whole suit and flute thing, like what kind of training was Milinda supposed to be doing and how the flute’s sound was affecting Milinda’s suit. I’m also guessing she was communicating through the sound of the flute? Which was maybe why the texts got all jumbled up when Havia and Qwenthur entered.

    That was interesting too, how Milinda’s emotional state was showing even when she’s inside the Object. It was funny how Havia signaled to Qwnethur Milinda was getting grumpy just from the way the Object moved. Not to mention who knew Objects had those controllable tentacle-like thingies.

    I gotta say too that’s one interesting career switch there, on how mercenaries who can’t get work became photogrsphers and/or journalists. Guess it’s one way to get back at the things that took away your way of life.

    Oh and Ohoho-chan Stilts? I like that name! Can’t wait for her formal introduction, even if we’re already seeing her in the opening.

    Zhinvu
    Reply

      2. The ending credits lists her as おほほ(Ohoho) actually so you’re not wrong in calling her that. I was hoping the anime would be the one to give her a name as she remains unnamed even after 10 volumes. One minor character in Railgun was unnamed in the manga before he was given a name in the anime.

        belatkuro
        Reply

      3. Hah, score!

        Personally, I don’t bother to name characters all the time. It’s annoying. Only one of my unnamed characters (whose named by her title instead) is planned to be a recurring character, though, and she’ll get a name eventually. Probably.

        Stilts
        Reply

      4. There seems to be a kind of allure if a girl’s real name is unknown. Like it adds to a sense of mystery. Like back then when Tachibana Himeko from K-ON was simply known as the girl sitting next to Yui. Come to think of I think there were other anime girls whose real names were never revealed but I can’t remember. Only Kuroyukihime from Accel World and now Ohoho-chan come to mind.

        Zhinvu
        Reply

    2. Ohoho-chan is pretty much her official name. Even the author calls her that. She’s also hot.

      You’d be surprise on how old she is. Which will probably be revealed in the anime.

      vaans02
      Reply

      1. Show Spoiler ▼

        Zhinvu
        Reply

    3. “I’m also guessing she was communicating through the sound of the flute? ”

      She was using the IR Laser eyeball tracker system, that was mentioned as an excuse for her eye colour, to type on the keyboard.

      So I think they were having her multi task with some form of distractive feedback based on her music.

      Adam
      Reply

  10. @STILTS

    They literally couldn’t find it, even with Satellites (12:48). It’s like looking for WMDs in Iraq again, even with all their technology Oceania is working some camouflage magic where they’re hiding a tree in a forest.

    Chaos2Frozen
    Reply

    1. Yeah, I considered that. Really, it’s a confluence of things. They have satellites. They [should] have absolute air superiority. If they don’t have spies, then this society is dumber than I expected—I already don’t really buy that mercenaries became freelance reporters, of all things, but I definitely don’t expect the CIA and KGB (or whatever they’re called now … SVR? GRU? FSB? I forget which one I’m supposed to be afraid of) and all them to lay down their wire taping easily. They could have also used more than two guys to scout ahead, or if they did, mention as much.

      Barring that, they already somehow know the enemy is hiding their Object in or around water storage plants. They have twenty Objects. Even acting two in tandem, they could knock out ten water storage plants at a time. They’d be done quickly. Though that’s another issue.

      I do understand that big things can get lost. I was just listening to a Hardcore History earlier about how convoys of 50-100 merchant ships would slip through the German U-boat lines. Ditto to your WMD point. It’s just that so many things appear to be done badly when they have so many things on their side that it’s mind-boggling.

      They should at least have sent in more than two damn guys! *rabble rabble*

      Stilts
      Reply

      3. looks like Intelligence Union is literlaly run by spies … Putin Russia anyone?
        and, well there are places where even most advanced intelligence fails, if future Australia is such harsh dictatorship, it might be hard to palce agents inside, and with abundance of forests plus literally entire continent to hide single Object it can be intel nightmare…

        ewok40k
        Reply

    2. If there is really an 0.5 Object there. Perhaps they get feed the entire time with false infos where to look. Yeah, conspiracy of using these 2 Objects “UN” for their own Dirty work

      WorldwideDepp
      Reply

  12. Yep, it’s really better not to think much about it. Let there be catfights with the most expensive weapons ever created by humankind. Satellites? Useless. Planes? Only to justify those two guys doing cleaning duties. Bomb a forest and then send the same two guys to see if there are natives (shouldn’t the order be reversed?).

    All is just an excuse to blow things up and enjoy the fanservice. Seriously, it’s only because the show sometimes pretends to be serious that we analyze it more than Infinite Stratos.

    Mistic
    Reply

  13. Even with the fan-service I have been enjoying this show. I’ve come to like the characters at this point i can say I don’t dislike any of the main cast. While the was mentality makes little sense this show seems to be one of those turn off your brain a little and go along for the ride type of affair.

    Gouka Ryuu
    Reply

  15. they should have easy air superiority

    Based on the opening episode where the original object decimates everything thrown at it from air or sea I think the conceit we’re expected to accept is the idea that Objects are absolute masters of all domains. So, from the author’s perspective air superiority dictated by aircraft count isn’t really a thing anymore because the second your plane(s) come into effective range the Object blows them all out of the sky.

    Admittedly, that would be a pretty effective way to blow someones cover but that point of view also makes maned fighter craft little more than death traps and a waste of resources that would better be spent on more Objects.

    I’d say the bigger problem than the “Why is everything focused around Objects now” argument (because disappearing down these kinds of holes is what military spending is awesome at. See 60’s Fighter planes with no cannons because ‘missiles are going shoot everything down before you need them’), is the idea that something like this would come to the fore and no one would be working on or come up with an effective countermeasure to it that far was more cost effective than another multi-billion dollar death ball.

    Dave
    Reply

    1. To be fair, my thought was specifically that they’d fly planes over in the expectation that they would either sniff the Object out, or get shot down and sniff them out that way. Drones would be better for that, but most militaries would spend a few pilots that way, sadly.

      Stilts
      Reply

      1. One of the problems with trying to use aircraft to find the target is Ohoho-chan just told us you could set objects up to power external items.

        In your own territory with time to set it up, that means it could power remote anti-aircraft lasers set up at arbitratry distances via buried power cables.

        That would have required the Oceanians to be thinking a bit outside the box, but since they’ve got only one obsolete Object, you’d expect them to be doing something.

        Especially since this segment doesn’t seem to be the 2 first gen Objects verses a second gen Object engagement that the relative advantages of both design styles would imply was likely.

        Adam
        Reply

      2. They made it sound like it was an Intelligence Union quirk that they fed the power back to their bases. Also, they could power anti-aircraft weaponry without the Object, and that could be destroyed by conventional aircraft.

        I just know I’d use satellites, aircraft (jets & helicopters), and spies first. Then, if I were willing to blast the entire area with my Objects (which I apparently am), I’d do that next. Then, if I needed to send in ground troops, I’d do that, but I’d send in my valuable Object-killing saboteurs NEVER. They’d be too valuable to waste on scouting if they’re apparently the only ones in the world who know how to sabotage anymore.

        Stilts
        Reply

  16. Hmmm, I love the whole rivalry between Milinda and Ohoho-chan over the dense guy.
    Jealous girls are fun.
    Of course, I hope we get to the Ohoho-chan reveal because it is a big one or should I say a small one.

    rh75
    Reply

  17. My guess: Oh-ho-ho is actually a loli, and her “G-cup body” is a holo-projection of sorts by her faction to keep enemy spies deceived (and to earn money for her concerts?).

    John_Titor
    Reply

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