English Dub Review: RUMBLE GARANNDOLL “I Want to Believe in You (Somehow)!”

Overview

Our main lead Kudo Hosomichi is taken to the base in Arahabaki after the events in Kabukicho. To pay off his debts, he’s forced to become a Shark One pilot. For him, it’s just another job and another paycheck. However, pleasing Rin can be harder than he expects…


Our Take

Much to his mixed emotions of horror and annoyance, Kudo can’t believe his sights that Japan (at least Akihabara) is decimated and reduced to being an underground city, where battery mech girls like Rin that are fueled by passion & positive energy are adored by weird hardcore Otakus who had their culture being ripped by the Neo-colonialist Showa Era “True Army” regime which is the equivalent of Nazi’s burning books. It’s a sorry sight for those protecting what they have left. But Kudo finds all that to be annoying to some degree, yet he really has no choice in the matter, and no way out of this contraption but to help them in the Akihabara revival, since he’s heavily in debt. While it was slightly easy in the previous episode for Kudo to figure out how the Mech suit works when he used his charm as a host to motivate Rin. This time around, he fails trying the same trick twice after being pressured by his Debt collector Munakata who I don’t think can be trusted…

On the subject of Rin, I find it counter-productive and fucking stupid for her to just not fight at all because of how Indifferent Kudo actually is. Sure, she can see through his bullshit, but she clearly picked the worst time to throw in the towel when their Otaku sanctuary is under attack because last time I checked, Enemy forces aren’t going to just pause or show mercy because you have an internal conflict with your own two-person team.

Overall, I can at least give this anime props for trying to be a fun time. Its energy can even be infectious at times and help with the delivery of some jokes. We also learn that there are potentially other battery girls in the Intro besides Rin who are carefully foreshadowed. The lead characters have more dimension to them, but my praise ends there. Kudo struggles with his cynicism, debt, and having a job compared to your average modern anime blank slate of a person. And his contrived dynamic with Rin places a lot of burdens to carry the entire show while also finding ways to not be repetitive or tiring, yet I’m a bit worried that these things won’t be carried beyond the first couple of episodes before shifting focus to the other hinted battery girls. Let’s see if it’s up to the task…