Heavy Object

Whats more fun than huge tin cans filled the fuck up with weapons?

Story:
Another meche. I like the concept of the story, where in this new age of man nobody dies because of a major rule to let survivors leave, not to my surprise that it doesn't last long. Other than that the story is pretty straightforward and fun. (7)

Art:
Meh. Its pretty good for the most part. The only thing that brings down this value is horrid mechs that look like giant tin cans with machine guns sticking out of everywhere. Like if you placed a magnet in the middle of the United states and set it to attract all guns in each state. Ya stupid right? Also Murica. (7)

Characters:
What i majorly disliked about this manga is that i liked all the characters. Each one was interesting so it left me wanting more than what i got out of this manga. The only thing i disliked was that the main female becomes a princess who needs saving, and the main male becomes your typical knight in shining armor. (8)

Enjoyment:
Again, meh. It was... Ok? I liked it up until the horrid ending. The ending was exactly meant to open up the manga for a second season or continuation, but nope never happened. It was a cool story with a few comical moments. There were a few events that were bluntly obvious that they were going to happen, but then others that were unexpected. The "fun" although didn't last. (6)

It was a pretty good idea and was executed fairly well. Characters were fun, and there were moments where i thought everything was going to go down the crapper. The manga was just not too inspiring. It could have been a lot better and LONGER. Because of a poor ending and semi fun concept, its 6/10 at best. Its an average manga that deserves no more praise than it does more weapons on its mechas.

Through the course of history, wars have been fought due to resources, idealistic disagreements, or as a way to ward off what some may believe to be a threat. Hand weapons such as swords and spears, guns, tanks, and a multitude of tactics have been used to fight off opponents and are used as killing methods so that each side may achieve their goal.

In the world of Heavy Object however, there's not really any insight on why there's a war is going on and the choice of weapons are objects called, well, Objects. Is this necessarily a bad thing? Not completely, as the work still provides for a goofy and nice read.

The story is a classic case of the underdog hero saving the damsel in distress. As a whole, there's many comedic and goofy moments, so sorry to those who expected this to be a dramatic story of the consequences of war.

Kwenser is the usual naive white knight character of this tale who is in Alaska to study objects. Is there a specific reason? Well, the story does not give insight in that either so his real intentions remain unknown through the work. Then you have the Princess, the Damsel in question who acts odd and is not a traditional princess. Finally, there's Heivia, the regular perverted friend who decides to help out Kwenser. While the characters are nothing new to the scene, they are likable enough to keep reading.

While the series is some what fanservicy, the art for the characters is rather good and fits with the series. The design of the the Objects are rather simple though and not really complex.

If you just want to have a good silly time that does not have much background to the world, this short read will be able to accomplish that.

If you were to find one underlying theme across almost all of Kamachi Kazuma's works - it would be systems. For each universe he creates a system, and we then follow a series of characters adventures both working within and against said systems.

For Heavy Object, the system is the concept of a 'clean war' - which is enforced by the use of 'Objects', giant 50m+ spherical, 200,000 ton+ machines of war, which are covered in over 100 different cannons, lasers and railguns, and can survive a direct impact from a nuclear explosion (they are basically slightly more realistic versions of the giant mechanised weapon, i.e Gundam) . Humanity has moved from the Nuclear Age of war, to relying on these giant monstrosities as proxies for battle. An Object can only be defeated by another Object - and this adage is what allows the four world powers to engage in wars without sacrificing 'flesh-and-blood' lives.

However, our heroes Qwenthur and Havia make one rather profound error in this age of the 'clean war' - they defeat an Object as 'flesh-and-blood' soldiers. This leads our pair, and the various other characters of the 37th CMB, across the world in a series of events that would almost make you pity our heroic pair, if they weren't complete idiots.

--

At its heart, Heavy Object is a comedic David vs. Goliath action adventure with a pair of rather unconventional heroes who are inclined to complain about almost any order they are given, make a pass on any female they come across, and somehow manage to ruin any accomplishment they perform. It is designed to be somewhat modular - in which after the first volume you can read almost any other volume out of order. Some would argue that this leads to the series suffering a reduction in individual character development. However I like to disagree. The format of this series doesn't require a lot of individual character development, it's almost an 'Object of the week' format which is more about the antics of our heroes along the journey rather than an overarching plot.

I would still recommend that the series be read in volume order however. Character development is actually present, although it's more like receiving small patches for each character as each volume progresses. It's not explicit, but it's still there - and there are some things you may learn in an earlier volume that are not mentioned at all in a later volume, but can provide some added context to a later situation.

--

Qwenther is the brains of our two-man operation. He's in love with Objects - and perhaps he enjoys them too much. He'll pant at any opportunity to get close to an Object and its secrets, even if it belongs to the enemy. He's also not an actual soldier - he's a 'battlefield student'. This means that he doesn't actually get to carry any weapons, other than a seemingly infinite supply of plastic explosives.

Havia is the muscle of our two-man team - but that doesn't mean he's an idiot. He's incredibly intelligent radar-analyst who never actually gets to analyze radars, and has undergone the military training to survive any battlefield. He's the opposite of Qwenther when it comes to Objects, he's ready to make a run for it the moment one is mentioned although circumstances unfortunately never allow him to.

Milinda is the 'princess' of the 37th, and is the Elite Pilot of their attached Object, the Baby Magnum. She's incredibly competitive when it comes to Objects, seeing as hers is a near obsolete First Generation, and quite possessive of Qwenther, which only he hasn't realized yet. She is actually an incredibly skilled Elite, and can often hold her own against most Second Generation Objects she comes across, until our duo can set her up with the perfect shot (whilst our duo hopes that she doesn't kill them by accident).

Frolaytia is the commander of the 37th CMB. An opportunity to make a pass on stylish figure seems to account for 30% of our duo's motivation to actually get anything done. She's a Japanophile whose relatively cruel demeanor hides her soft attitude towards her subordinates. Her attempts to prevent our ever unfortunate problem duo from entering any trouble with simple tasks often ends up in them causing even more chaos, and this loop is the basis of many of the series events.

Besides our four main cast and the numerous individuals within the 37th, each volume tends to have one or two additional characters who receive a fair portion of the spotlight. They vary from allies to enemies, and many of them often will reappear in subsequent events to varying degrees. Once you hit the later volumes, the web of characters and their relationships among the world powers is so large that it's almost a guarantee that someone you recognize will have a role to play in later events.

--

As stated earlier - each volume is relatively self contained and follows a consistent format of three parts. Part One often builds the framework for the system Kamachi Kazuma has created for the volume, how it either works within or against the system of Objects and 'clean wars' that underpins the series, and often resolves a local event. Part Two continues to build the framework and the pieces of the system, and involves an event either directly or indirectly related to the event in Part One. Part Three is where the system is completed, and our heroes must find a way to dismantle or work within the system to solve the final crises. Each part tends to involve a battle with or against an Object in some form.

Regarding art, there isn't much to discuss. Quality of illustrations is on the level you would expect from any Light Novel commercially produced today. Each volume often has a couple illustrations of our duo, and any other prominent characters involved. Additionally, each Object that appears gets a specification sheet with a general outline of its form. I would prefer a direct representation of the Object (some volumes have one as a background for the contents and cover page), however the in text descriptions are enough for you to form a mental image with the schematics.

--

All in all, Heavy Object is just a bit of fun. Whilst it isn't categorized as a comedy, the comedic attitudes and antics of our heroic pair are what make this series. It has its sci-fi, mecha, and military, and action elements of course, and these facets are the basis of the series. However, if you come in expecting something serious or overly heartfelt, this is the wrong place. This is all about watching two idiots combat giant 50m+ spherical, 200,000 ton+ machines of war with only some plastic explosives, a rifle and a rocket launcher, and ingenuity, whilst listening to them complain about it the whole time.

This will be the first review for this series as well as my first review, so i'll just go straight to the review.

(Beware ! The review below contains some light spoilers)



>Story

Heavy Object takes place in a world where the UN(United Nations) has collapsed. And as the result, the world is thrown into the chaos of war. Since the downfall of UN, the concept of independent countries is no longer existed and instead, there are 4 different major world powers with different ideologies and of course, holding several territories that used to be a country. And because of this, they're at war with each other due to natural resources,territories, conflicting ideas, and so on.

So what makes these world powers so feared ? The possessions of Objects.

Objects are giant war machines that brought the concept of clean war, where the casualties of human soldiers are nigh to zero in a war. Their roles are no longer to risk their lives on the battlefield, but to maintain and protect these Objects so these things could do their job.

I found the story is rather interesting because it doesn't only show flashy oversized mecha fights but it also showed some intrigues behind the creation of Objects and several political matters that are one way or another involving the Objects. The only thing that i disliked is the lack of significant development on it. The volumes i read so far pretty much has 'enemy of the week' format.



>Characters

- We have two boys as 'primary' main protagonists, Quenser and Heivia. And they're pretty much the main reason i read this LN.

Quenser is a battlefield student whose main objective is to become an Object designer and he joined the 37th Batallion to study Objects. He has a stong sense of justice but not naive enough to believe that he could save everybody in need.

Heivia is a noble who joined the same battalion with Quenser because of some family issues. Unlike Quenser, he often prioritized his well-being over everybody else but still care enough for his comrades.

Both are coward yet brave when the situation needs them to be, and both have perverted tendencies towards their commander. With Quenser's knowledge about Objects and Heivia's analytical ability about enemy tactics, both will carve their own name as the first humans that crazy enough to face an Object and destroyed it, without using one.

- Milinda, or being commonly referred as 'princess', is the pilot of the Object for the batallion where Quenser and Heivia are belonged to. She's an emotionless girl who has a thing for Quenser after being saved by him in a certain incident. I can't say much about her due to her lack of important roles aside from being an Object pilot.

- Froleytia is the commander of the 37th Battalion. She has an abnormal obsession of Japanese culture and always being troubled by some chaos caused by Quenser and Heivia.

Aside from Quenser and Heivia, there are nigh to zero development for the others, which is pretty much a letdown for me.

Actually there's one more protagonist but it'll be a huge spoiler



>Art

The lack of detailed illustrations about Objects really disappoint me. Overall the illustrations are good although it's nothing groundbreaking.



>Enjoyment

Despite all the drawbacks i have mentioned, i greatly enjoyed this series. Quenser and Heivia antics are really fun to watch, as well as their efforts to save the day. I can feel the suspense whenever they're engaging an Object and also the twists that involved.
I also like how the author showed the conflicts between these world powers, and how he described the terror brought by the Objects. Although there are some fanservices here and there, it didn't really affect the main story and purely just for the sake of entertainment.

The synopsis is bullshit, grimdark my ass, MAL need to pay more attetion to the false information they are handing out. This is more closer to a cheesy 80s action film, than whatever MAL is telling you.

Story - 8
Written by Kamachi.exe, the best LN writing program ever, famous for writing Toaru, but his other series are also very good. Heavy Object focus on, blah blah blah UN, blah blah blah politics, blah blah blah clean war...

Look it is about two soldiers taking down giant robots with nothing other than explosives, guns and the help of another giant robot (this does't happen often).

It is not deep, no amazing plot, it promises you awesome people on people and people on robot action and give you exactly that. Basically it is what happens when Hollywood produces an action LN instead of action movie. Full of ridiculous overpowered robots who have always have some weakness in their design or pilot, versus our heroes, two regular soldiers who is armed with nothing but their guns, brains, explosives and whatever help they could scrap up.

It is dumb and it is incredibly funny.

Character - 8
Quenser and Helvia are two soldiers who lucked out one time in destroying an object (a super killing machine) while it is in maintenance. Because of this they were awarded with fame, medals and the chance to do it again (boom) and again (boom,boom) and AGAIN! In fact they survived and destroyed so many objects they were nicknamed the dragon slayers, and their (very hot) superior had been using the two as a special trump card when ever they don't want to fight straight on. Wacky hijinks ensues as the two take on giant killing machines with their brain.watch as the two fight with all they have so that Helvia may one day go home and take over the family business as royalty and Quensar may one day go out with the hot Milinda, both as likely to happen as Touma getting married or Kyousuke proposing to his hot YANDERE summoning.

Overall - 8
If you like man fighting against giant robots with a bit of tactic, you would love it. If you like wacky hijinks, you would also love it.