Heavy Object

Episode 20

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new frontrunner in the heated battle for silliest character name in Heavy Object. Allow me to present Prizewell City Slicker, the pilot of Indigo Plasma and traitor to the Legitimate Kingdom military. Yes, that's his actual name, meaning that some cruel person in the Slicker family decided that their child deserved to have “City” as his middle name. Is it any wonder this poor guy grew up to be a power-hungry nobleman with a penchant for treating his soldiers as expendable and killing innocent civilians without a second thought? Move over, Sladder Honeysuckle, there's a new ridiculous villain in town.

With Indigo Plasma and its support unit officially blacklisted by the Legitimate Kingdom, the Baby Magnum team is sent to eliminate the rogue Object before it can threaten the residents of Victoria Island. Milinda works with a pair of friendly Objects to intercept Indigo Plasma, while Qwenthur and Havia are sent to help defeat the enemy's ground troops. The three-on-one battle appears to be going well until Qwenthur realizes that Prizewell's soldiers are spreading a volatile gas that can be ignited by Indigo Plasma's main weapons. A massive explosion buys enough time for the baddies to play their trump card: six additional Objects, hiding underwater just offshore. With their allies swiftly knocked out of the fight, the Baby Magnum team find themselves with their backs against the wall yet again.

Even by Heavy Object's standards, things go downhill in a hurry here. Prizewell City Slicker may not have a name that anyone can be expected to take seriously, but he certainly brought a lot of firepower to this snowy island. That rapid slide from advantage to disadvantage builds up a generous amount of dramatic tension, and Heavy Object drives home the feeling of despair as Indigo Plasma's reinforcements roll ashore and start advancing in formation. That moment is intense enough to briefly sell the idea that the main characters might not be able to win this battle. After twenty episodes of last-second victories, that's no easy feat.

In the process of going from “we've got this” to “we're doomed,” this episode offers a nice mix of action to keep things exciting. The running battle between Indigo Plasma, Baby Magnum, and Snow Quake benefits from the show's polished approach to big explosive clashes between Objects. It's easy to get wrapped up in the moment as the three machines circle one another and open up with their big guns. The much smaller battle between the two infantry units may not fit as neatly into Heavy Object's wheelhouse, but it's also presented quite nicely. There's a clear sense of urgency as Qwenthur scrambles to call out targets for Havia, and the enemy soldiers' protective gear hints at some kind of trap without giving too much away. Both the big fight and the small one are a little light on the unusual tactics that distinguish Heavy Object from other mecha shows, but sometimes it's all right to just rush in and blow things up.

While the pacing is good, the story itself isn't anything to write home about. It adheres closely to the usual structure: there's a bad guy doing bad things with an Object, and the main characters have to find a way to beat him. The problem here is not so much an obvious bad decision as a lack of substance. We're told that Prizewell is a major scumbag, but I feel like I only want the protagonists to win the battle so Qwenthur and Havia can go back to building snowmen. This story would benefit from a more tangible sense of what's at stake besides the characters' lives. There's potential for this storyline to develop into something more substantial next week (and I'll be surprised if the show doesn't do anything with the fact that Granny's family supposedly lives on this island), but at the moment there's not much to latch onto.

For the moment, this new plot arc is a little less brainy and a little more intense than some of its predecessors. That makes it more appealing as a general-purpose piece of entertainment, but it also takes away some of Heavy Object's dorky charm. I'm sure the superfluous technical lectures and one-in-a-million strategies will return in due course, so I'm content to sit back and enjoy the action scenes for now.

Rating: B

Heavy Object is currently streaming on Funimation.

Paul Jensen is a freelance writer and editor. You can follow more of his anime-related ramblings on Twitter.