English Dub Review: Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon “Vanity, Pride, and Vending Machine”

Overview

Boxxo is already well known throughout the village for the items he’s sold to date, and now he begins to find new ways to assist various residents with their problems…

Our Take

In the aftermath of Boxxo’s rescue, Hulemy reveals to Boxxo that Lammis hates losing people since she and Hulemy’s parents were killed in a monster attack. Suori tells Hulemy there will be a gathering of merchant families and their magic item engineers. A girl from a rival family named Kanashi will be there and Suori is desperate, so she asks Hulemy to pretend to be her engineer and Boxxo her latest magic item. Kanashi’s engineer presents a Golem/Automaton-like creature that obeys orders. Hulemy is outraged as it was made with a human soul, which is considered illegal in this world’s universe…

When the automaton goes berserk, Hulemy helps give the creature the peace it deserves. As such, Kanashi is disqualified. Later, the village restaurant owners panic when a popular restaurant called Chains opens a branch in the village, which will put them out of business, so they ask Boxxo for help. Lammis and Hulemy discover Chains’ food is low quality, so Boxxo provides several novel items which the chefs reverse engineer so they can make them themselves. Chains go out of business in only one month. Kerioyl asks Boxxo and Lammis to join a campaign. Despite Boxxo’s mistrust, he decides to accompany Lammis as she wishes to keep improving her abilities…

Overall, I find it amusing that Hulemy and Boxxo are teaming up with Suori to confront her archrival Kanashi. The assortment of “magic items” did seem rather comical, except for Kanashi’s eerie human automaton, which raised ethical concerns. Even in another world, local restaurants can’t escape the evil of chain restaurants coming in and putting them out of business. I like how they touched on the economic aspect of having a vending machine from another world. You’d have access to so much knowledge, and in this situation, it was put to good use allowing them to keep the local shop open. That’s the type of thing that sells this series to me the most. And with the title of the next episode, I’m curious what direction this could take next!