Light novel series Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon makes the jump to anime.
In some ways, the setup for upcoming anime TV series Jidouhanbaiki ni Umarekawatta Ore wa Meikyu ni Samayou is pretty formulaic. The main character is a young man living in Japan who dies in traffic accident, but is reborn in an alternate fantasy world with powers no one else has, which he puts to use while questing with a newly formed band of friends.
Pretty standard stuff, right? Except the main character looks like this.
If you’re thinking, “Ummm…that’s a vending machine…” you’re 100-percent right. Jidouhanbaiki ni Umarekawatta Ore wa Meikyu ni Samayou is also known by its English title, Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon, and its protagonist, Hakkon (in Japanese)/Boxxo (in English), is a sentient vending machine with the power to dispense canned drinks, instant ramen, breads, and potato chips, essentially the most popular items you’d find in vending machines in real-life Japan.
▼ Preview for Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon
Something that Hakkon can’t do, though, is move. Thankfully, that problem gets quickly resolved when he meets Lammis, a plucky monster hunter with superhuman strength. Lammis quickly takes a shining to our metallic hero and the tasty food and drink he dispenses, and so she straps him to her back and together they set out for adventure.
As you might guess from its lengthy title that lays all its cards on the table, Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon started out as a light novel series, with the first from mononymic author Hirukuma published in 2016. An ongoing manga adaptation started in the summer of 2021, and now the franchise will be making the third step of the contemporary hop-step-jump path to anime.
Along with being unable to move, Hakkon can’t speak either, except for pre-programmed vending machine voice clips (hardcore vending machine fans will recognize that his coloring more or less matches those of real-world Japanese drink maker Dydo, whose machines do talk). His status as quasi-silent protagonist doesn’t stop Lammis from chattering away at him, though, and while the preview video doesn’t establish whether or not she’s aware that the vending machine she’s carrying around has a human soul inside of it, she does wistfully muse “It’d be nice if we could talk together someday.”
Hakkon will be voiced by Jun Fukuyama and Lammis by Kaede Hondo. Fukuyama isn’t a complete stranger to strange roles, having played the part of a Blackboard Eraser in Mamotte Shugogetten, but even he had to remark on how unusual this new one is, saying “I thought I’d already experienced, more or less, all there is [in voice roles], but it turns out that was arrogant of me.”
Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon is scheduled to premiere on Tokyo MX and BS Nitele this July.
Source: Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon official website, YouTube/アニメ「自動販売機に生まれ変わった俺は迷宮を彷徨う」公式
Top image: Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon official website
Insert images: YouTube/アニメ「自動販売機に生まれ変わった俺は迷宮を彷徨う」公式, Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon official website
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