Jidou Hanbaiki ni Umarekawatta Ore wa Meikyuu wa Samayou or Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon is yet another example of a show that falls into the never-ending spiral of unoriginality and bland writing that is isekai.
The story isn’t very exciting, really. It’s once more your typical “x died and now x is reincarnated into another world” story. It only ever adds one twist which is that the main character gets reincarnated as a vending machine and can dispense your average vending machine items. These items prove to be useful to people around him. The people find a way to communicate with the vending machine… and then the story goes on like a typical isekai. (And somewhat like Akame ga Kill?? Take that with a grain of salt, though.) For the sake of spoilers up to the third episode and to save me from writing the rest of the mundane shiz, I won’t elaborate further, but I’ll assume you know what I mean.
The animation handling is just okay. No major flaws to it, but we’ve seen much better. It doesn’t stand out but serves well for the show. Honestly, a higher budget would’ve been a waste, so a mediocre budget is better than anything else. It just fits with the anime, you know?
The comedy is the weakest point of the show. It just isn’t funny no matter what. I can see some seven-year-old getting a chuckle out of this and that’s it. Now this might be due to my preference of gag humor over normal comedy, but a normal comedy would at least have me grinning once or twice. Not this, though. My face stayed rock solid and unmoving. Actually, it’s like they didn’t even try to make it funny. The demographic I assume would be young teens, but honestly, in this day and age, I can’t see anyone like that cracking even a smile at this show.
Now, as for the music, the background music isn’t too special. it’s just… isekai music. I know, I’ve put music used in an isekai into a subgenre of itself. It’s reminiscent of every isekai soundtrack ever. If I recall correctly, there’s one trancey-techno track that breaks through the rest of the stale soundtrack, but that’s all. Now on to the better side. The OP is pretty good. It’s a pretty funky track and sets the mood well. It’s good to know that it isn’t just another generic J-pop opening and that the director actually thought about using something unique, but sadly, the ED takes “unique” the wrong way. The ED feels like it was ripped straight out of a children’s or slice of life anime, and overall doesn’t work. A very strange choice for an ED.
I wouldn’t recommend this anime if you’re looking for something to watch this season. The comedy appeals to no-one; it’s unfunny and you’ll probably only manage a weak smile. The animation handling is the best bit of this show, but sadly even that only reaches a “fair” rating. And finally, the music was a bag of strange and bland. If you plan on watching this show, just consider that it’ll probably be another uninteresting isekai to you.
Aren’t the anime community and audiences in Japan tired of these isekai shows already? The anime industry is basically repeating itself over and over again with shows like this. It’s as if isekai is becoming a trademark that defines anime just as shounen has done, except most shounen aren’t repetitive or lackluster in ideas. If isekai shows were kept to a minimum and the writers didn’t rush to come up with ideas, maybe they’d be more enjoyable than now.
Thank you for reading my review.
(this hunk of mindless text is so borung that i'm on the verge of deleting the review. i've deleted enough of my old reviews already, though, so this snorefest is off the hook for now. for some reason some preliminary reviews pop up on already-aired shows, so right now i'm at the mercy of MAL's new shitty review system. if you're reading this, the fuck are you doing and go read my BETTER reviews (or worse, if you for whatever reason prefer to put yourself to sleep by torturing yourself over being entertained)
Now I TRULY thank you for reading my review, as well as this note I added at 5 AM out of pure insomnia-driven boredom.
