Let's call this in short. Heavy Objects is about giant balls with guns hammering each other. Interesting, right? Well I could have liked it more. The main problem I can come up with is the fact that it adapts the first parts of the novel by the same name. I know little about the novel, but judging by the story progression in this long 24 episode anime...... well sufficed to say is that the story is not as fast paced as the action. Actually it never really develops more than the very rudimentary basics of storytelling. At some points of the anime I was geniuntly confused about it's target audience.
Premise 2/3
The premise is sort of really vital to me. And as usual the possibilities it gives is what makes me start following the anime. Heavy Object is no exception. It introduces us to a world where the face of warfare was changed by the above mentioned objects. This in turn dislodges the established world geopolitical order. So to say - it gives a Carte blanche to the anime to tell pretty much any story it wants!
Overall story progression. 1/4
This is where the anime fails hard. And I mean really hard. Pretty much at the start it gave up any idea of developing a cohesive story in favor of random jumping from battlefield to battlefield.I guess this is due to the fact that the author of the novels wanted to prolong them, but having in mind that I judge this as a standalone anime its kind of like amputating its right arm. Instead of a plot the anime relies on action. And that is completely fine - it is an action mecha anime. If I was 10 years old right now a would have been all over it. So I thought this was the sort of anime aimed for kids. And than the bane called fan service kicks in and a realized this is not a kids anime, but rather the leave your brain at the door anime. Which is not by any means a bad thing, but it obviously disappointed me as I was expecting more of an effort.
*Spoilers*
Ok the idea of wanting to return to the old style of warfare would have been really cool if they gave any sort of solid reason why they would want to. The reason given is that they want individual people to matter again in combat, because nothing says human life matters as whole platoon being mowed down by random machine gun. Actually the anime itself on numeral occasion proves why Objects warfare is so much more preferable. It's like they had all sort of plot choices and picked this one that admirably at the start was looking good, but by the end it's clearly seen that they had not planned to really explore the idea, but rather used it to create stereotypical antagonists. And please don't get me started with the "I want our country to speak one language so I am going to destroy this random city over here ". Yep if you are looking for a story, look elsewhere.
Pacing 2/3
The pacing is not bad. It's an action anime so it is fast. Yet their are some questionable cuts from one location to another that feel needlessly abrupt. And sometimes they stop everything for minutes to talk about something stupid that they obviously thought adds subsistence and gives you a chance for a breather. But in honesty it kind of killed the pacing.
Complexity 0/2
As above mentioned is lacking. Which is a shame with the interesting world they set up. We are stuck with the protagonists who evidently do not give a damn about how their world works wich is again a shame. Object warfare boils down to them outshooting each and the protagonist miraculously destroying them. Also every Objects has it's quirk. Which is nice. Some are multirole others are made to be used in a specific way.
Plausibility 1/2
Well it's also as you would expect. Because it's a military anime the said military left their common sense where you should leave your brain before watching this. Nothing says professionalism like sending a student and a radar technician to destroy the strongest military hardware in the goddamn world. I already refuse to hold it against anime the stereotype that only teenagers can save the world. Relations between different countries could have been explored more, I mean 24 episodes, but I am definitely asking something that they never had the intention of doing. For what it is ------- ok.
Conclusion 1/4 and Catharsis 0/2
Overall the story left me highly unsatisfied. It still has the promise of the beginning mainly because it did not spend it anywhere. It did not had a conclusive ending, because you know novels..... but I am not planning to read the novels on the base of what was shown in the anime and season2 is nowhere in sight(I think). So again if story is paramount and not only a basic filler your gold is not in this anime.
Overall Story 3,5/10
Characters Presence 1/4
Before talking about the individual personalities it pays to say what is the casts presence as whole. Well we have four main characters who admirably have chemistry between them. The minus here is that often they come as alienating themselves due to desire to extend the novel(I'm guessing). By adapting the beginning novels and the author obviously wanting to save character development for later leads to the main characters feeling underdeveloped and unmemorable for a 24 episode anime.
Personality 2/5 and Development 1/5
Frolaytia Capistrano - Is the 18 year old general(of course) that leads the unit where the other main characters are stationed. Plus being a general at the good age for a first car she is a female from a noble family that can have only males? She is a female from a family that can have only male children. Repeat yourself that a few times. But when you put aside this by all means masterful development I would have to say that she is by far the most developed one. (Both as a character and.....). She is a bit sadistic which is fun.
Qwenthur Barbotage is our MC. And how should I put it. He is just your basic run of the mill main character. He is painfully average. He's obviously smart and capable of magicly dropping plans to destroy the strongest military hardware out there, yet as a typical MC sometimes gets retarded as hell unable to add up 2+2, especially when it comes to Milinda - his romantic interest. And he is a student(of course - they all are not mentioning it again).
Milinda Brantini - the Object pilot. She is cute and .... inexperienced in social interaction. She pilots her Object Baby Magnum(cool name) masterfully, but is rather put down by the fact the the MC walks around smashing Objects with his bare hands. She suffered heavily from the "we want to flesh you out in novel 167" syndrom. Or at least I hope thats the case, because otherwise it would be an insult to her character. As for the romance between her and Quenthur refer to the novel 167 remark. For now it's only used for rather cheap humor(wich I liked, but than again.... it's me).
Havia Winchell - Well 167 remark again. He is a radio operator and a noble of some sort. He is the bff of the other male MC. And they do have very good chemistry. But most of the time he is just relegated to following him and making remarks about his messiah tendencies.
Supporting characters - ... well I remember only Ohoho(she laughs like that). Yep, but with main characters like this what do you expect of supporting ones.
Backdrop 0/2
Also character backdrop is mostly non existent and is used ones to establish Quenthur as coming of a decent family.
Catharsis 2/4
As whole what of the characters I liked is their promise not what they displayed. Admitably the ending was sweet, nice and promising, but was again undermined by the lack of will to move in any way from the established.
Characters overall 3/10
Character figures 2/3 Backgrounds 2/3 Animation 2/3 Visual Effects 1/3 Overall Artwork 5/8
Character figures are basic. Their military uniforms are questionable and weird, but they bothered to change the camouflage pattern depending on the environment so good job. Backgrounds are beautiful and get the job done. Animation and Visual Effects are Ok. I do like the choreography of object warfare and they might as well made the whole anime about the giant balls. Visual effect could have maybe been more memorable as this is an action anime and would have benefited by it. When all put together it's solid. It did have a quality drop, but for me was a minor one. Objects look like the tanks I used to draw when I was 7. More creativity would not have hurt them. Making it jump ain't creative.
Overall Art 5,5/10
Voice Acting 3/3 Music Themes 1/3 Sound Effects 1/2 Ending 0,5/1 Opening 0,5/1
Voice work is really good and one of the main reason that the interactions between character didn't feel completely lifeless. The music and themes were not annoying me, but are forgettable. The sound effects were default at best. The opening and ending do the job, but I skipped the hell out of them.
Overall Sound 6/10
Overall Enjoyment 7/10
Well story and characters are paramount for me. So it's logical that I should have hate it. But no it's more of a disappointment and I will not hold it against the anime that it did not answer my expectations. It's my fault for approaching it wrong. For what it wanted to do(brainless fun) it was a solid job. And I did have fun. The humor was fine (but over relied upon) and the fan service did not make me kill the dude who thought of it(that is really rare). And Object battles are spectacular to watch. So as an overall anime it's not that good, but no one said everything has to be Steins Gate - if you know what you are getting in to you can have a ton of fun with it. And a second season can improve it massively.
Overall score 4,8125/10
