English Dub Review: Rumble Garanndoll “(Come out!) The Best Way to Live as a Shut-In!”

Overview

Kudo meets the new battery girl, Misa Kuroki. She is a hacker, a gamer, and a cardboard box shut-in under the name “Werd-Cat/Werd-Nyan”. Misa panics and locks herself in the recharging room. The members of Arahabaki must win a game against Misa in order to regain access…

Our Take

First off, that debt collector Munakata feels just so unnecessary and fucking unpleasant to watch. I don’t get it. Kudo is now a wanted fugitive in the underground resistance, why would this asshole care about a debt at all? He’s alone without any bodyguards or underlings, he doesn’t have any power to enforce those debts on him whatsoever. We don’t know the story behind all of Kudo’s debts, so it could be that he had to change identities, which would explain why he tolerates him as much as he does, either because Kudo really owes him his life or he has it as leverage.

Kudo himself is becoming more mysterious as well. The videogame scenes looked fun. And despite the game they were playing aesthetically giving off Neo Geo Pocket-Color vibes, I’m pretty sure the various players were using Street Fighter techniques to try and win. Leaving them open to a surprise Mortal Kombat finisher from our hero, which had great animation. We also explore an underground marketplace/dungeon of sorts within the Rebel base of Akibahara which was interesting to see.

This episode ended on quite a suspenseful note. Kudo is in a real bind now, leaving the audience to wonder how he’ll escape as it couldn’t have happened at a worse time too. At least he’s making progress with this new girl. Though I remain curious to know more about her backstory. Everyone was having fun playing the game, and it seems that Misa is starting to become friends with Kudo even though these two have a lot to evolve which I hope happens in later episodes…