I don’t know if I’ll commit to covering this show but the fact that I’m continuing into Episode 2 means that I’m considering it. I guess I’m just morbidly curious to see if the vending machine gimmick can sustain itself.
In this episode, Lammis is approached by the director of the Hunters Association, a talking bear named…Director Bear (Atsuhi Miyauchi). That name is not at all lazy. Director Bear tells Lammis that the Hunters Association is assembling some adventurers to hunt down some frog fiends, the kind that we saw last episode. Since Boxxo is a vending machine and catering is nonexistent in this world, Director Bear wants to hire Lammis and Boxxo to provide food for the hunting party. After checking with Boxxo if it’s okay, Lammis accepts the offer.
During this adventure, Lammis and Boxxo meets their bodyguards, a group of adventurers named the Menagerie of Fools. The group is led by its captain Kerioyl (Kazuya Nakai) and his second-in-command Firumina (Ai Kayano). Other members in the group are an archer girl named Shui (Miyu Tomita), whom Lammis quickly befriends, and twin brothers Aka (Daiki Yamashita) and Shiro (Junya Enoki). Boxxo becomes wary of Captain Kerioyl as the guy develops a strong interest in him, growing curious as to how such a thing can exist and what it is capable of. After the first fight scene, the captain convinces Lammis to let them join the frontlines. His reasoning is so that the group can get a bigger slice of the pie but it would not surprise me if he’s secretly using this opportunity to learn more about Boxxo. While he does seem sketchy, the captain isn’t entirely antagonistic. He doesn’t stoop as low as steal or dissect Boxxo (though someone else does) and he does let Lammis have the final say on joining the frontlines.
For the final fight, Lammis and company are confronted by a frog fiend king. I wonder if there’s an evolution somewhere in between the grunt and the king because the latter is way larger and more ferocious looking than the former. During the fight, Lammis gets stuck escorting the wounded out of the fight, prompting Boxxo to come up with possibly the dumbest solution ever. Without explicitly saying the names to avoid copyright, Boxxo provides the group with some bottles of coke and packets of mentos. That’s right, he has them fire some soda geysers at the frog king and the plan actually works. It’s stupid but this is an anime where a guy gets isekai’d and becomes a vending machine so I suppose this fits. I will admit that it is funny how no one knows of these items, let alone their interaction with one another, so they only figure it out completely by coincidence.
Here’s something that I don’t get. We see in this episode that Boxxo can get some fancy abilities from himself. At one point, he purchases omnidirectional vision so that he can see beyond his normal field of view. During the frog king fight, he purchases a new form for himself so that he can supply everyone with Mentos. Boxxo clearly has a lot of fancy upgrades for him to get and yet, there isn’t an upgrade that lets him speak more phrases besides the one he has “pre-installed”? I honestly thought he was going to do so during the frog king fight so that he can better communicate to Lammis how to make a soda geyser but it’s not mentioned if additional sound files is an option for him. The lack of communication does work in creating tension for the fight scene. It would also be funny if getting more dialogue is the only thing that’s off the table for Boxxo. That said, it is a little weird.
OP: “Fanfare” by BRADIO
ED: “Itsumo no Soup” by Peel the Apple
Watch Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon on Crunchyroll
Read my Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon reviews.
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