This episode begins with a brief flashback/dream sequence depicting Lammis and Hulemy’s childhood. Back in the present and the real world, we see that Lammis is still clinging onto Boxxo after the latter got kidnapped last episode. While Lammis is asleep, Hulemy confides in Boxxo that both her and Lammis’s parents were killed in a monster attack on their home village. A bit dark but this does explain why Lammis works as a hunter and her clinginess to Boxxo.
After the OP, Suori tells Hulemy and Boxxo about a gathering for merchants and magic item engineers. Suori’s rival, Kanashi (Misaki Watada), will be present at the meeting so Suori wants Hulemy to pretend as her engineer and Boxxo as her magic item. I’m pretty sure this falls under cheating though to be fair, I doubt anyone could really call Suori out on her ruse. Regardless, Hulemy and Boxxo are good sports and agree to help the little girl.
The funny thing about the gathering is that most of the items the engineers shown barely count as magical. Like, one of them is literally a stick that can use different weapon hands. That’s it. At first, you think Boxxo and Hulemy are a shoo-in though Kanashi briefly gives them a run for their money when her engineer presents an automaton. Having theorized that it’s currently impossible to give an item its own soul, Hulemy concludes that the automaton must have a human soul put inside of it, which is a dangerous and illegal act. I’m not sure what lie Hulemy came up with to explain Boxxo, who has a human soul, but she doesn’t have to worry about it as the automaton quickly goes berserk, prompting her and Suori’s bodyguards to disable it.
Because of the illegality and danger, Kanashi gets disqualified from the competition. For Suori, that’s a win so she doesn’t bother presenting Boxxo. Funnily enough, if there are any other losers here, I say it’s Hulemy and Boxxo. Hulemy saves the day but as soon as people recognize her, they bring up her embarrassing early days an engineer. Meanwhile, everyone pretty much forgets about Boxxo because go figure, a robot is a more memorable sight than a vending machine.
For the second half of the episode, we see Munami and various other restaurant owners teaming up when a popular restaurant called Chains opens a branch in the village, potentially putting them all out of business. Since Boxxo sells modern-day food, the team sees him as their ticket to victory so Munami promises to cut Lammis’ rent in half to get the vending machine’s cooperation. The “battle” here goes about as you’d expect. Boxxo provides the small businesses with novel foods that they reverse engineer. Chains’ food is noted to be average so without modern-day finesses, they simply can’t compete and they close their branch within one month. Boxxo thinks winning was too easy and is convinced Chains will return. It’s possible but honestly, what did Boxxo think would happen?
There’s some solid jokes in this segment. The fact that the chain restaurant is literally called Chains and they actually used chains for their buildings can be perceived as lazy but to be fair, this is a show where the talking bear is just named Bear. Me personally, I find it funny. Given the setting, a chain restaurant is probably a novel concept so within that context, the pun works. Also funny is the amount of irony here. Like, we should be rooting for Munami’s team and yet, they’re actually presented as the “bad guys”, with a giant roundtable and ominously dim lighting. It’s like the staff knows these people are a shoo-in so they might as well do the ironic thing and make them look evil for destroying the poor conglomerate. Another bit of irony is that Munami and the others win through Boxxo’s items, which are technically brand items. They technically give Chains a taste of their own medicine. Really though, I think the funniest moment is Munami asking Boxxo for pointers on the food she cooked. You’d think by now, she’d know that a vending machine can’t eat food. That’s so dumb but I do find it dumb enough to be funny.
At the end of the episode, Kerioyl asks Boxxo and Lammis to join Menagerie of Fools for a campaign. While Boxxo is still at odds with the captain, he does feel that he owes him since it was Menagerie of Fools who helped with the rescue operation. More importantly, Boxxo recognizes that the campaign is a huge opportunity for Lammis so for her sake, Boxxo agrees to the request.
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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