Heavy Object (ヘヴィーオブジェクト) is a Japanese light novel series written by Kazuma Kamachi and illustrated by Ryō Nagi.ASCII Media Works published the series in twenty volumes from 2009 to 2021 under their Dengeki Bunko label.It has received three manga adaptations.A 24-episode anime television series adaptation produced by J.C.Staff (with 3DCG provided by Sanzigen) aired from October 2015 to March 2016.
Plot
In the future, the development of massive war machines with spherical main bodies called Objects, due to their firepower and, most important of all, their integrity, have rendered all manner of conventional warfare, and even tactical nuclear weapons seemingly obsolete. As a result of this military upheaval, all of the nations of the world have fractured into four coalitions which constantly wage war on each other; the "Legitimacy Kingdom", focused on tradition; the "Capitalist Corporation" (in the anime the "Capitalist Enterprise"), which values profit; the "Information Alliance" (in the anime the "Intelligence Union"), focused on knowledge; and the "Faith Organization", which values religion above everything else. With the perception that Objects can only be destroyed by other Objects, modern-day warfare has been virtually reduced to duels between Objects, resulting in shorter, cleaner, and safer wars. However, two regular soldiers from the Legitimate Kingdom, Qwenthur Barbotage and Havia Winchell, change all of this when, convinced by Qwenthur, they use their smarts and their ingenuity to successfully destroy the "Water Strider" Object of the Faith Organization all by themselves.
Having now proven Objects created by man can also be destroyed by man and not just by other Objects, Qwenthur and Havia are thrown into a new world of harrowing adventures and dangerous suicide missions, with Qwenthur also befriending the Legitimate Kingdom's Elite Milinda Brantini, pilot of the Object "Baby Magnum", having saved her during the events of which resulted in the destruction of the Object of the Faith Organization.
Characters
Main characters
Qwenthur Barbotage (Kuwensā Bābotāju)
Qwenthur is a young military cadet studying to be a Heavy Object engineer due to his fascination with Objects. His kindness and chivalry is only second to his quick wit. He is Havia's best friend and partner in their missions and usually acts as the brains of the duo. He is also close friends with Milinda after saving her from capture by the Faith Organization.
Havia Winchell (Heivia Wincheru)
Havia is a member of the powerful Winchell family, and joins the military in the hopes of gaining enough fame and renown to earn his inheritance as the head of the Winchell family. He is Qwenthur's best friend and partner in their missions and typically handles all of the fighting. It is later revealed that he wishes to take control of the Winchell family in order to end its feud with the rival Vanderbilt family, so that he can marry his fiance who is part of the Vanderbilts.
Milinda Brantini (Mirinda Burantīni)
Milinda, often nicknamed "The Princess", is the pilot of the Legitimate Kingdom's Heavy Object "Baby Magnum", a first generation Object. After being saved by Qwenthur and Havia, Milinda quickly befriends the two soldiers and happily provides whatever support she can to their missions within Baby Magnum. She also develops a crush on Qwenthur following him rescuing her, and often communicates with him via texts. Her jealous outbursts whenever Qwenthur is involved have led most other characters to learn this fact, though Qwenthur himself remains oblivious, believing her to be out of his league as an Elite.
Frolaytia Capistrano (Furōreitia Kapisutorāno)
Frolaytia is Qwenthur and Havia's strict and heartless commanding officer. She's often happy to throw the pair into extremely dangerous missions and is quick to punish them for any disobedience. However, she secretly does care for Qwenthur and Havia and does whatever she can to make sure they complete their missions and survive. Her reason for joining the military is because she wants to avoid an arranged marriage with a long list of suitors who want to use her to produce a male heir offspring. Qwenthur's actions help end the pressure of her 3rd suitor, Halreed Copacabana, who had just become 1st on the list.
Legitimacy Kingdom
Ayami Cherryblossom (Ayami Cherīburossamu)
The chief mechanic overseeing Milinda and Baby Magnum. Qwenthur was apprenticed under her before his act of heroism, and it is through her that he meets Milinda.
A lead councilman in the Legitimacy Kingdom. He believes that the current state of conflict in the world is the ideal situation for the world, and is willing to sacrifice his own troops to keep it that way.
A journalist who believes that Objects have caused lesser soldiers to become unrecognized. He stages a solo sniping job on the Oceanic Kingdom to turn the tide against them, only to instigate another war between them, causing him to regret his actions.
Lendy is the Lieutenant Colonel of the Information Alliance. She takes an interest in Qwenthur later on in the series after Qwethur's confrontation with Oh ho ho.
Oh ho ho is the code name given by the Legitimate Kingdom for the pop idol and pilot of the Information Alliance's Heavy Object "Rush", a second generation Object. Originally assigned to a joint operation in Oceania with the Kingdom's Object Baby Magnum, Oh ho ho prevented Milinda from providing backup to Qwenthur and Havia's mission under the orders of the joint task force commander Councillor Flide. They would cross paths again in Alaska in a battle between Rush and Baby Magnum, where Qwenthur confronts the pilot in her cockpit and finds out her true appearance is child-like due to genetic enhancements. After this confrontation she seems to have developed a crush on Qwethur. She even wanted him as her personal object maintainer.
Leader of the team; She will do anything for money. Qwethur convinces her and her team to help them in the Victoria Island battle by paying with the diamonds he found in the mine from his last mission.
Monica is a starlet and battlefield reporter for the CS Military Channel. She is the spoiled daughter of a wealthy noble family, before they lost everything and accepted refuge from Qwenthur's father to hideout in his storehouse. Her position as reporter was set up by Qwenthur himself.
The leader of the Mass Driver Foundation, a terrorist group collecting and selling Object weapons in order to use them as an alternative against Objects, inspired by Qwenthur and Havia's actions. He aligns himself with the Intelligence Union, but is captured by Qwenthur and Havia.
The series was written by Kazuma Kamachi and illustrated by Nagi.[5] The first light novel volume was published on October 10, 2009, by ASCII Media Works under their Dengeki Bunko imprint.The series ended in its 20th volume, which was released on October 8, 2021.[6]
Volume list
Volume list
Manga
A manga adaptation with art by Shinsuke Inue was serialized in ASCII Media Works's seinen manga magazines Dengeki Black Maoh and Dengeki Maoh from December 17, 2009, to February 26, 2011.[5] A single of the manga was released on May 27, 2011.[27] A second manga adaptation, with art by Sakae Saitō, titled Heavy Object S, was also serialized in Dengeki Maoh from December 27, 2011, to June 27, 2013.[5] Three volumes of the manga were released between August 27, 2012, and July 27, 2013.[28][29] A third manga adaptation, titled Heavy Object A, also by Saitō, was serialized in Dengeki Maoh from February 27, 2015, to October 27, 2016.[30] It also received three volumes, released between January 27, 2016, and December 10, 2016.[31][32]
Anime
An anime television series adaptation was announced at the Dengeki Bunko Fall Festival event on October 5, 2014.[5] The series was animated by J.C.Staff with 3D computer graphics by Sanzigen.It was directed by Takashi Watanabe, with Hiroyuki Yoshino writing the scripts, designing the characters, and Maiko Iuchi and Keiji Inai composing the music.[33][34] The series aired on Tokyo MX, MBS, TV Aichi, BS11, and AT-X from October 2, 2015, to March 25, 2016, and was 24 episodes long.[35]
Video games
Several characters from the series appeared in the sequel to Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax, a fighting game by Sega featuring various characters from works published under the Dengeki Bunko imprint.Specifically, Qwenthur is a playable character, assisted by Milinda and Havia, and Frolaytia is a support character.[45]
Reception
Richard Eisenbeis of Kotaku wrote: "While the characters are static (though enjoyable) and the fanservice heavy, as a thought experiment about the future of war and its impact on our world, Heavy Object certainly excites the imagination."[46] Paul Jensen of Anime News Network reviewed the home video releases in 2017: He felt the first half's delivery of technological information, "fairly underwhelming" drama and "blatant and clumsy" fanservice will put off general audiences, but praised the "buddy cop" banter between Qwenthur and Havia while against some "detailed backgrounds and big explosions" in the battles.[47] While still suffering from heavy "geeky mechanical details" in the dialogue and less than stellar storylines to grab a wider audience, Jensen praised the second half for its inclusion of new supporting characters to help the "overworked main cast" and some "new narrative twists" that breathe new life into the series' formula while being visually consistent in the battlefields.[48]
Havia's betrothed who is from a rival family. Although Havia seems to act cold towards her, he truly does care for her as he fears for her life during "The Battle for Supremacy in Antarctica". Also although their families are against their betrothal Havia plans to end the feud once he takes over the Winchell family.
Halreed is the pilot of the Legitimate Kingdom's Heavy Object "Bright Hopper", a second generation Object. Assigned to defeat the Mass Driver Conglomerate's Heavy Object, Halreed was injured after the Bright Hopper was destroyed by the MDC's railgun. A high ranking noble, Halreed was one of the top suitors to be in an arranged marriage with the Kingdom's commanding officer Frolaytia and produce a male heir offspring out of it. But he canceled those plans after Qwenthur fooled him into thinking that Frolaytia was in an illicit relationship with one of her soldiers.
Staccato is a jet fighter pilot who goes under the codename "Burning Alpha". He assists Qwenthur in freeing the Kingdom's Object Baby Magnum from debris during a mission in the abandoned Amazon City.
Charlotte Zoom (Sharurotto Zūmu)
An oversight officer who is interested in Qwenthur. She joins Qwenthur's team during a mission in Kamchatka that involved infiltrating a radar facility where her and Qwenthur are almost killed.
Myonri is a soldier assigned to Havia's team during a mission in Kamchatka that involved infiltrating a radar facility. She survives the failed attempt at sabotaging the Faith Organization's Heavy Object "Wing Balancer" and makes it back to base with Havia, Qwethur, and Charlotte.
Westy is a soldier assigned to Havia's team during a mission in Kamchatka that involved infiltrating a radar facility. She's killed along with Cookman during a failed attempt at sabotaging the Faith Organization's Heavy Object "Wing Balancer".
Charles (チャールズ)
Charles is the shy and barely speaking military tech expert assigned to Qwenthur's team during a mission in Kamchatka that involved hacking surveillance UAVs belonging to the Faith Organization. He was killed by Nutley who betrayed the group.
Cookman is a soldier assigned to Havia's team during a mission in Kamchatka that involved infiltrating a radar facility. He's killed along with Westy during a failed attempt at sabotaging the Faith Organization's Heavy Object "Wing Balancer".
Leader of the team; She will do anything for money. Qwethur convinces her and her team to help them in the Victoria Island battle by paying with the diamonds he found in the mine from his last mission.
In an episode of Anime News Network's podcast ANNCast, Funimation announced they licensed the series.[39]Anime Limited, in partnership with Funimation, released the series in the United Kingdom.[40] However, in 2019 the series became one of many series to be listed as "sold out" by UK retailers and unavailable from the Anime Limited website.[41]Madman Entertainment licensed the series in Australia and streamed it on their streaming service, AnimeLab.[42]Muse Communication licensed the series in Southeast Asia.[43] They streamed it on their YouTube channel until September 30, 2020.[44]
