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

Overview

Misa goes out and tries to save Kudo Hosomichi, who is currently stuck underground. Meanwhile, Arahabaki tries its best to stall for time against Yakumo’s giant Garann, Banki. With both battery girls out of commission, Misa stands up to the challenge…

Our Take

I’m kinda split on this episode. Misa design-wise is really cute, but her backstory was both tragic yet compelling, with the delusional mentality that Misa grew up with, formed the basis of her personality. Also, Tanaka and Balzac also doing did a great job to stalling time. Being left alone and somehow away from your father, must be hard. But, it really showed us how resilient she was even if she came across as a bit of an extreme version of a shut-in. But arguably, if she didn’t become a shut-in the chain of events of her finding Hosomichi, would never have taken place.

From the silhouette of Misa’s Garandoll in the Opening, I thought it was going to be a game console, but glad they’re keeping things consistent with the not-so-subtle animal theme these mech-designs seem to have. This even leaves us with the hope that Misa’s dad is still alive and is just captured by the other Japan. She clearly loves him, while Kudo is hinted to have mixed feelings towards his father which may or may not factor into later storylines.

Overall, I kinda liked this gamer arc a bit more than the idol arc. It had a decent balance of comedy and drama. And it was even nice to see Kudo bonding with the kid on a platonic level as opposed to the cliche forced romance bullshit you often see in these shows. I guess he’s the closest thing to a big brother-like figure to her now. With 4 episodes left, How can the proceedings tie up all the loose ends? I guess we’re going to find out…