First Impressions – Heavy Object
Time to fight giant bowling ball mechs!
Yooooo! Welcome to the First Impression for Heavy Object and if you read our original thoughts on the Fall preview chart you probably know that this is coming to us from JC Staff and Kamachi Kazuma aka the original creator of Index and Railgun! So yeah count me as already excited because anyone who knows me they know I love Railgun, but anyway since this is a new series I fully expect things to have a slow start.
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In the future, all of our armed forces and all of our weapons and all of our military strategy, will be made irrelevant and obsolete!–by mass-produced Technodromes…oh boy, where do we start?
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Anime War, Anime War never changes.
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Giant Epcot ball of DOOM
Cannon everywhere!
Fosh// The world of Heavy Object is quite interesting thanks to the appearance of these giant bowling ball mechs with tons of cannons attached them or as they are called in the anime “objects” and upon their sudden arrival seem to have made all other military weapons obsolete? Even nuclear missiles don’t have any effect due to the object’s thick multi layered armor like an onion? Yes the object was just compared to an onion, but at the same it’s not like all war and fighting has been totally eliminated. Instead things have shifted more into other countries building their own massive object to fight other objects, there also some sort of agreement in place regarding how object on object fighting goes! Basically if your nation’s object is defeated you have no choice but to give up your territory and move on. Yeah that seems really silly, but like they stated in the episode only objects can successfully take out other objects and it is kinda obvious if your super weapon is blown up what can you really do? So I guess there are “rules” in place? After hearing that it made me think of Heavy Object as one giant video game and the countries are the big bosses that our main team has to fight? I just hope the encounters are completely different from each other without things being OMG WERE DOOMED oh wait let’s use THAT and activate some WTF super cannon to one shot the enemy! Or as most Index/Railgun fans know as the Touma punch! I just want some variety in how they win without a silly gimmick in place; however I wouldn’t put it past them to have something like that in place as a way to speed things along.
Milinda-“This mech is so easy to pilot.”
Character wise this first episode gives us a tiny preview oh how the main cast of characters will act like Qwenthur Barbotage who wants to study objects and fix them while having those crazy inner perverted thoughts about the girls of Heavy Object which is limited to just two for now. I did see a girl wearing a pink flight suit in the ED which I assume is the OP? I just have no idea if she is an enemy type or friend? I can’t recall her appearing in the manga, but anyway Qwenthur’s partner in crime is Havia Winchell who doesn’t really have anything outstanding for him yet other than being the butt monkey or unlucky Touma dude that Frolaytia Capistrano bosses around to do all the grunt work? So I guess he will be used just for comedic stuff? Speaking of Frolaytia she is the big boss or fanservice character much like Kaori Kanzaki from Index and those two characters are voiced by Shizuka Itou so it totally works. Rounding off the main cast comes the “The Elite Princess” Milinda Brantini who sorta comes off as being another Iona type from Arpeggio to me especially with her being super freaking quiet! Yeah I’m glad she isn’t a hyper character and she seems harmless for now as the silent main pilot. So who is your favorite character so far? Personally I like all of them minus Qwenthur who can be annoying but I look forward to seeing them go on these adventures battling other objects.
Game of war
Meet the two main bros.
Irene// So the first mech series of the season is out and to say that it was top-heavy would be putting it nicely. Now, to put my opinions into context, I have not seen anything from this writer. Not Index, not Railgun, nothing, I’m coming in completely new. So, from that perspective, what can I say about Heavy Object?
Well first of all, the title, and the names of these things are the laziest names since the soldiers of Shinra in FF7, were called SOLDIER. I mean, who was on the production staff that decided to be that uncreative. Even “aircraft carrier” sounds more creative than “Object”, at least that’s literally what the vessel does. But despite these ultimate weapons’ names, what exactly makes them so special? Well, honestly, I haven’t really understood that much either, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
The most interesting thing to start, is really the world building itself. In THE FUTURE, humanity has supposed developed even corner and cranny of land, eventually even going to live on the moon (though when we get to present day, the Alaskan tundra still looks as cold and desolate as it always has, so so much for develop every single speck of land…). Wars occurred between nations as they are want to do. I love how our main character says, “Man still hadn’t managed to eliminate the mechanism of conflict from their psyches.” All I could do was roll my eyes, say “no, duh.” and direct them to the recent season of Gatchaman Crowds. One day there will be a show that realizes that conflict is not necessarily a bad thing and that as long as there are human that are human, there will be conflict.
Frolaytia is quite the boss.
However, the entire game of war changed when the Objects (still a stupid name) appeared, having been created by a small island nation a.k.a. Japan. The face of the world and of politics changed that day. The UN eventually dissolved, nations crumbled, and there ended up being 4 conglomerates that rose out of the ashes to take over the land in a very haphazard and unstable manner. The Objects just so happen to be, despite their ridiculous design, the new atom bomb of this time, and there has been nothing created that can as of yet beat them. Because of them, all other military arms and weapons are deemed useless and no one bothers with them anymore. So…I guess no one uses chemical or biological weapons anymore? Small, personal conflict don’t happen anymore? How exactly does the Objects defeat those?
The Objects are basically just giant balls with extremely heavy and solid armor, very precise and powerful guns, that are piloted by a single pilot. The idea is that this created “clean wars” where it’s only a single pilot doing battle with another and that the loser has no option but to surrender once a fight between two objects has been decided. And yet, I just can’t buy that. There are so many other tactics that can be used in horrid game of war, that an Object would have no way of facing other than to just wipe even person off the face of the Earth. And it’s not in human nature to surrender so easily. Sure, I can see some doing so in the face of such a weapon, but many of history’s revolutions and wars have been fought and won by underdogs that were facing a power that was much stronger and superior in every way to their own. They had a cause that they were willing to face such odds for and would not give up and not back down. I can’t see that primal feeling changing, even so many years in the future.
The entire episode they are praising these Objects and how powerful they are, that I just can’t help but wait for hubris to kick in and something to show up these metal pincushions. But until that time. We have to get use to our two main characters and the girls that surround them. To begin with, we have our primary MC, Qwenthur Barbotage, a engineering foreign exchange student that wants to learn all he can about Objects. He’s a pretty interesting MC. He’s funny and not a genius or anything, but he has a good head on his shoulders. His insight is rather deep at times, and he doesn’t have many annoying quirks as of yet. I think he should be interesting to follow around during the series. Our secondary MC, Havia Winchell, is very similar, but he’s in that “rich best friend” mode that you see with many a secondary character. As a duo, I think he and Qwen (I am going to call him Qwen from now on) will be enjoyable to follow through this war torn landscape. They seem to be able to balance comedy with serious situations pretty well…at least for the most part.
Is Milinda happy? Sad? Angry? Who knows.
And now we come to our female lead, 14 year-old Elite Object pilot, Milinda “Princess” Brantini, who Qwen has a little bit of crush on. Her dandere nature and rather confusing statements don’t give us a real impression of her personality other than that she’s silent, she’s smart, and she’s not very social. I hope they do more to develop her as the series goes on, and please no more “malfunctioning belt” scenes. That was so out of place and heinous, that it lost any kind of humor it was trying to go for.
With Milinda having lost the battle at the end, I’m interested in where the series will go next, and while I need some more episodes to truly make up my mind on the series. I’m hoping that with all this exposition out the way, that we can get more into the plot and see what’s going on between these nations and what this whole war is about in the first place.
Wars will be waged
Spider-mech, spider-mech does whatever a spider-mech does~
Extra objects
Fanservice ftw
Qwenthur-“We can totally own some zombies with this shovel yo!”
Shes gonna pop!
Eventually they will run out of wild animals to hunt.
Milinda wants you to keep watching.
End thoughts
Well damn that was a lot of fun! I know most people are complaining that the first episode was a bit heavy on the information dump yes that pun was totally intended! I guess I can somewhat agree and disagree? I mean most of the information was describing how the Objects work like the armor and power source, but there were bits and pieces where the dialog was extremely wordy almost on bakemonogatari levels or whenever things focused on Qwenthur’s inner perverted thoughts where he just rambled on and on and on! Yeah I think his character might become more annoying as Heavy Object progresses and fun fact Qwenthur is voiced by Natsuki Hanae who played Inaho, Kuromine, Hikari, Kousei aaaandd Kaneki. Wow I hate some of those characters! I just realized most of them cry a lot, but anyway I look forward to more Heavy Object.
Well, we shall have to see if this story about a giant metal 8-balls going to war is going to be all that interesting or now. The 3-episode rule is now in effect and I shall be seeing where the story goes from here. Our main leads aren’t bad, and there was sufficient action in the this first episode to capture my attention. I do still have issues with pacing and movement and display of characters, but that is all things that can be easily cleared up with time. Time indeed will tell if Heavy Object is actually worth all the hype.
Heavy Object has done something I thought a Giant Robot show could never do. It bored me. There is a 40 meter mountain of metal that can withstand a nuke and fight off 14 allied nations united against a super special Island Country. And now all of mankind has decided to settle their disputes mecha a mecha. Why wasn’t any of this used to be slightly interesting? I will never know. But I do know that this show alienated me so hard in its first episode that you could tell me the Heavy Objects were fighting the Mazinkaiser and I still wouldn’t watch this. And let me tell you, I being a Hot Blooded Pilot myself, I coughed up a pint of blood typing that sentence.
About Tag Team
We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Yeah, this show needs a whole lot more time to unpack that exposition. It needs way more time to understand why something like the Objects came into being in the first place. But that really is Kamachi’s writing in general. Huge ideas, handled with clumsy charm. I mean, in one of the Index novels Show ▼
cause that is how he rolls.
To their credit, JC Staff did a good job filing down his more sophomoric LN drenched ideas and made them a bit more relate-able. So I guess we’ll see what they can do with this. The Objects themselves are kinda wonky, and I don’t understand why something that big and complicated is used in favor of conventional/total war. But, as I said, they need time to unpack it. I’ll give it a few more rounds. At least the fanservice is uncomplicated.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Well it beats 24 mins of explaining the world history of this series and eh nobody is perfect as far as writers go plenty of them suck at certain things.
This is why I hate LN adaptions LOL
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
…just wish they would find more interesting ways of providing information. Lead in narraration is low hanging fruit, kinda like “cable news breaking story! We just recieved word of some sort of attack BZZZZZT! Rioters are said to be eating the flesh of innocent bystanders bzzzzzt we repeat, shot them in the head” at the beginning of a you know what kind of film. It gets the job done, but I just want them to be more creative.
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
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
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
I saw that! I guess we just gotta wait until then Heavy object can fill that void~
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Things that are unnecessary:
– Bicycles for fish
– Galoshes on a duck
– Any more anime of A Certain Magical Index
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
I’m totally fine with no more Index anime. They should be cranking out Railgun stuff…
POWUH: 400-499 with 445 comments
that is so funny cuz i literally said something similar to your comment on RC. I pretty much said im in no rush for an index three, now as for railgun, i definitely wouldnt mind seeing more of that, especially considering the arc they would be adapting if that were to happen. Either that or just hand Index 3 over to Nagai tatsuyuki as well so that i can actually care more about what’s happening onscreen
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
I think most of Kamaichi’s lulzy ideas get better editing when he has to work with an artist. That’s a valuable filter, and it doesn’t exist in prose. Pretty much the same process when his material goes to a director, and series compositor.
Plus, I genuinely think that Misaka and crew are much more fun as characters, and that side of the Academy city equation is more interesting.
POWUH: 400-499 with 445 comments
pretty much. With Index/railgun, another factor that determines how one enjoys these series’ is whether they prefer the science stories or the magic stories. It’s like fantasy vs sci-fi and while ive always preferred the sci-fi elements of index (which probably adds to why i enjoy railgun more), i still think the magic side has some strong points.
But as you also mentioned, the characters on the railgun side are more fun. Barring kuroko, railgun’s cast is much more cohesive and that may be due to railgun’s focus on the trust between the girls and their camaraderie to which nagai helms better compared to index. In terms of characters on the index side of things, the only character dynamics i actually care about are toma and index’s as index is arguably the one character toma has a personal reason to care for her (the other females in his harem more or less only have his attention because of his gary stu personality to always be there for anyone in need….arguably) and that can be felt even through the mediocre writing and directing.
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 77 comments
I think he needs Urobuchi to write a story in the Raildex universe.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Don’t see why not. The author of Durarara and Baccano already has…
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
…oh, and the author of Oreimo as well. So c’mon Bocchi, bring that death count!
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Bah on this, too. As far as I’m concerned, they blew their chance when they retold the same story that Index Season 1 did. And didn’t they spend MORE episodes on it than Index did? So too bad.
I agree with your stuff above that Railgun characters are better than Index characters, but that’s a REALLY low bar. Index herself is probably the singularly most annoying character I’ve ever encountered in anime, and the others might as well have been cardboard cutouts that Touma carried around.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Hmmm, must not give in to giving the reply more oxygen…
POWUH: 400-499 with 445 comments
eh, it wasnt really a retelling more than it was filling in all the blank pieces that were missing in the original accelerator arc, which i wouldnt classify as a retelling at all. I didnt judge railgun S for “treading the same story from index” but rather how it told the story this time around and what new content it brought to the table, to which it brought enough to justify a whole 16 eps. Plus railgun S was the first time i ever sat down and said, “hmmm, this series can actually be good when it wants to be”.
The index series has always been like a 5 to 5.5 out of 10 for me but railgun S was the first series were i felt that it actually told a story with some care and respect and i wouldnt mind seeing more from the railgun side of things; A 7/10. And yes the railgun cast is not that much better but ill take what i can get if the direction stays as smooth as it did in Railgunn S because the next arc (if they ever adapt it) continues to build on the characters
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
It covered an awful lot of the same ground, and spent an awful lot of episodes doing it. If they’d said “If you want to know about this other part of the story, see this other series” I would have liked it much better (and I said as much when it was airing). But no, they retold the whole thing.
But a lot of my point is that I like a lot of things JC Staff makes. And I’d rather have them give a try on something new than more of the same of Railgun, or worse of Index. There’s a likelihood I’d like something new they make (say, something like Shimoneta, despite its downward trend). There’s almost a certainty I wouldn’t bother with S3 of Index, and that I’d just watch Railgun to go along with the crowd. I rank the things about the same as you. I gave Railgun S a 7, down from an 8 on Railgun.
POWUH: 400-499 with 445 comments
birds of a feather flock together 🙂
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
Agreed! More Railgun! The core four girls have such great rapport together. And I love it when Misaka blasts something.
POWUH: 400-499 with 445 comments
careful highway…you may not want to incur the wrath of die-hard fans
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Should I make another list of things I don’t really care about? 🙂
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
…speaking of oxygen…
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
yep. Oxygen is something he should not care about.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
*Grabs a front seat to watch the lynching* 😛
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Lynched and crushed by balls of steel…
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
Well this started out showing how not to impart information to viewers–some of it was unnecessary, some of it went into more detail than necessary and it was a MASSIVE info dump. By the end my eyes were glazing over and I was BORED.
As for the names in this show–OMG. Calling a super weapon “Object” is about as lame as it gets. And apart from Millinda the names of the characters are god awful. You can get away with one such name, but three of them? Especially the MC’s! What a mouthful that is!
The belt squeezing, boob bit was terrible. Not that Millinda was having the life squeezed out of her, things do malfunction, especially when someone screws up. It was how the MC stood there dithering about saving her life because that meant he’d have to touch her boobs and “defile” them and her. And he went on and on about it, not just for a couple of seconds before realizing her life came first. Listen up, baka, when someone’s life is in danger considerations about modesty go out the window if that’s what it takes to save their life.
So far the writing of this show doesn’t hold out much hope for it. But let’s hope that now that the info dump is out of the way there’ll be time to spend on the story and developing the characters. But it’s too late to change the character names.
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
Yes, “Object” is the stupidest most uncreative weapon name ever. As for the main characters, Havia isn’t too bad, and I’m just going to call the other guy “Qwen”. It sounds much better and is easier to remember.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
For no real reason that I can describe, I actually like the term, Object. Again, dunno why, but it just POPS for some reason. And this one is called, “Baby Magnum”! Magnum, meaning Large or Great. Baby Large!
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I like “Object” as well. It gives it an overwhelming incomprehensible feel, like you can’t encompass the idea with something more specific. Kind of like the first atomic bombs were referred to simply as “the device”. They’re something on a scale that defies human understanding.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Would you prefer “doom ball, death ball, Sphere of fear.”
LOL
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
Not something that overblown. Battle Sphere, maybe.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
But part of the point is they’re not all spheres. “Object” is fine.
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
“Now witness the firepower of this Fully Armed and Operational Battle Sphere!”
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
All “objects” henceforth I shall refer to as Titans. Of Collegia Titanica. All operators: Princeps.
So, when are the legions of Titans going to brawl and create smouldering ruins?
PS. I think the “Heavy Objects” are in reference not to the mecha…
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Titan was taken otherwise objects would be titan balls
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Fear the Titanic Balls of Unobtanium! 😀
POWUH: 600-699 and LN Enthusiast with 623 comments
Then prepare yourself for more bizarre names in this series. Kamachi’s naming sense in this series is off the charts. Just to give you a teaser: the guy in the OP who was raising a gun, his name is Show ▼
I kid you not.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Well, it looks like he’s gone “off the rails” with HO. He started off in a fairly standard place…But we can see he started with the Birdway girls at the very least.
Which leads me to a tiny regret: I kinda do want more Index anime, but that’s burden the LOLi-Defender must bear…
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 105 comments
Fine, just let Yoshiyuki Tomino’s ghost write all the names here. At this point anything would literally be better than what actually exists
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
^ ^
The argument officially started here…and yet it somehow ended up right over here….
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
*deorbits Class E Asteroids into both* 😛
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Probably a way of saying “Why wrack your brain coming up with an overly complicated name?” Just make a shortcut and call it a day. 😉
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
I KNOW RIGHT! What did they want something cool? Either way I bet money people would still laugh at whatever name they used instead of object.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
Apparently the author had no trouble wracking his brain to come up with an overly complicated name for the MC and some other characters.
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 163 comments
“I just hope the encounters are completely different from each other without things being OMG WERE DOOMED oh wait let’s use THAT and activate some WTF super cannon to one shot the enemy! Or as most Index/Railgun fans know as the Touma punch!”
You mean like this?
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Hahahaahaahahahahahaahahahahahaha YES <3
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I definitely feel the Index/Railgun vibes in this so there’ll be no complaining from me. A lot of exposition for a first outing but undoubtedly a necessity to lay the story’s groundwork out and explain the titular machines.
Qwenthur and Havia seem cool enough and it should be fun with Frolaytia giving them hell for possible blunders in the future. However, it will take some time warming up to Milinda. She’s rather hollow as a character.
ANN has this as a 24 episode series. So if the pacing feels slow to some, there’s the reason right there. If it’s a series that gives the feel it’s the start of something much bigger, I’m willing to bide my time. This, to me, fits the bill and can see myself sticking with it until the end.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
I know right?! I fail to see why people gotta bitch and cry that they had to explain the world history and wtf an object was vs just saying stuff like the world had war we needed super weapons THE END otherwise we would be confused.
They have some fun characters and I can agree on Milinda I usually have issues liking the quiet Iona, Yuki nagato and Rei clones that never talk and when they do its like HUH? WHAT? SORRY I CAN’T HEAR YOU.
I tried explaining that to the others since it has 24 episodes obviously it’s gonna be slow.
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
To me, I think it was the manner in which they did all the exposition that actually confused me more. It felt like too much at one time, that should have been spread out among episodes rather than all at once. I don’t mind them taking their time telling me stuff and revealing things, as long as they give the right amount per episode.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
ANN article: Dengeki Bunko Editor: ‘No Season 3 Yet’ for A Certain Magical Index
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Yeah I saw that and RIP Index s3, but he never said it wasn’t ever going to happen so there is still hope!
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I liked the show. Yeah, it bogged down a bit at the beginning with Asahi Kuromine giving us a long monologue, but overall, I thought the concept wasn’t bad, and the activity, once they got to it, was rather interesting. It also makes the point that the “ultimate” weapon just isn’t. People will think of a counter. And there are limits to what you can actually come up with, because of the consequences. So I can see the impetus to come up with a ‘clean war’, although I’d rather there be no war.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Yeah this wasn’t sooooo bad as people made it out to be and I can see why 7mins of dialog would get annoying, but id rather have them get that out of the way early vs skipping it entirely or simply saying “we got a big weapon that goes pew pew, now lets fight!!!!”
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
After I got over how lame the first gen Heavy Objects were, I liked the first episode. Another one of this season where I’m in the minority (which is alright by me).
I didn’t mind the initial dialogue at all, but I like that sort of thing (Horizon and *monogatari are two of my favorite shows). I don’t need anything new or ground-breaking, as long as it’s enjoyable, that’s all I’m looking for. Which is probably why I’ll never be a good critic.
I do wonder if those things have any sort of close-combat weaponary. Else you could just Skywalker rush that AT-AT Walker. Jam up one of those guns and have it explode, dealing internal damage.