In this episode, Boxxo gets kidnapped by a band of thieves, including this one guy from Episode 2 who tried to pickpocket Boxxo for money. It’s kind of dumb of Boxxo to get tricked into letting the guys carry him, especially since he recognizes one of them, but I guess it’s to be excused in order for this plot to work. At the thieves’ hideout, Boxxo meets Hulemy (Shiki Aoki), Lammis’s childhood friend and a magical item engineer who the thieves kidnapped to study Boxxo and extract his money. I neglected to mention this but Lammis has been meaning to introduce Boxxo to Hulemy since Epsiode 1. The only reason she hasn’t is because she needs money for a teleportation circle needed to get to Hulemy’s home. It’s a pretty crazy coincidence for these two characters to run into each other. The circumstances could be better though this is a more exciting first encounter than Lammis simply taking Boxxo over to Hulemy.
I like Hulemy. She’s got a feisty attitude, often talking back to her captors and going against their agenda despite her situation. While Hulemy doesn’t reveal anything new about Boxxo, this episode does highlight her intelligence. With some notes and her own intuition, she quickly figures out how Boxxo communicates and functions. Before even meeting Boxxo, Hulemy already theorized the possibility of inanimate objects having human souls and correctly deduces that Boxxo is living proof of that theory. About the only thing Hulemy doesn’t figure out is the fact that Boxxo’s soul came from another world because that’s just preposterous (though give her some time, she might come to that conclusion).
Right off the bat, Hulemy and Boxxo hit it off. Even with the thieves threatening to kill her, Hulemy has no intention to take Boxxo’s money. She’s purely interested in Boxxo from a researcher’s perspective (and maybe a romantic one, judging from a certain scene in the third act). Likewise, Boxxo helps Hulemy’s captivity feel more tolerable. He provides Hulemy with some food (since Hulemy worries the food the thieves give her could be drugged) and some cleaning items to help her maintain her hygiene. The most notable moment is when some thieves sneak in to do…whatever gross stuff they were planning to do with Hulemy and Boxxo convinces them to leave by giving them pornographic magazines. The implications in this scene is a bit much but I must admit that Boxxo’s countermeasure is pretty funny.
At first, I expected Hulemy and Boxxo to plot a whacky escape plan. I have to hand to this show for being realistic about their situation. Hulemy can’t fight and for all his fancy abilities, Boxxo is still a vending machine. Their best plan is to wait for help. To be fair, this episode needs to bring Lammis and the others back into the picture and there’s no better way to do that than have them raid the hideout. Not going to lie, it is adorable how Lammis bursts into tears and gives Boxxo a bear bug when the two reunite. I also find it funny that her superstrength is currently the only thing that can damage Boxxo after upgrading his durability up the wazoo earlier in the episode.
How interesting that Kerioyl has Menagerie of Fools participate in the operation, for free no less. The guy clearly wants to be on Boxxo’s good side and eventually recruit him to his team. Apparently, Kerioyl thinks Boxxo will make his team’s wish come true though what exactly that wish is remains to be seen. Right now, I’m convinced he just wants the cool stuff Boxxo sells. I will say that including Kerioyl in this episode and contrasting him from the thieves is smart. Whatever goal the captain has and however selfish he might be, he at least didn’t stoop as low as steal Boxxo from Lammis.
To this episode’s credit, Boxxo and Hulemy aren’t just sitting around during the big raid. At some point, one of the thieves’ explosives go off, forcing Boxxo to erect a barrier to protect Hulemy. The pair manages to obtain the thieves’ loot from the rubble, allowing Hulemy to keep Boxxo’s barrier up and take revenge on the thieves. Because they’re trapped under the rubble however, Hulemy starts to run out of air, leading to Boxxoto assume the form of an oxygen vending machine (look it up). That’s an interesting dilemma to Boxxo’s barrier ability. He’s a vending machine and he normally protects people out in the open so air wouldn’t normally be an issue. I have to hand it to the writing in offering a situation where the barrier isn’t the perfect form of defense. I’ll admit that the oxygen machine is Boxxo pulling something out of his non-existent ass though I appreciate that this show is drawing off of the vast array of vending machines found in Japan.
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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