Reborn as a Vending Machine, Now I wander the Dungeon

 Waaaait, what????

Okay, so this must be the isekai with the most weird concept I read / watched so far, so ofcourse I am curious and going to tackle this series!

 

So one day you wake up next to a lake, finding out you are a vending machine.  Besieged at first by frogmen, you discover your powers and that you need coins to survive...  Okay, that is an odd start for an anime!  He is found by Lammis, and learns he is in a dungeon, called a Stratus.  She discovers his skills and how she can communicate with him, as he can only use pre-programmed sentences, taking him along to her hometown where he quickly becomes a hit and manages to upgrade himself along the way. Lammis names him Boxxo, and together they are set for adventuring. 

One day, they are hired by the Hunters Association to cull a frog fiend uprising, together with a band of adventurers called the Menagerie of Fools.  But when they find themselves under attack by a king frog fiend, they manage to hold it off with the well known internet trick of cola and mentos.  After the fight, they return to the Hunter's Association to help in the rebuilding of the attack's damages.

One day he gets abducted by ruffians who bring him before another captive.  This girl, a genius with magical artifacts, is Helemy, Lammis missing friend.  She figures out Boxxo and how he speaks and functions in no time, and he saves her when the Hunters Association comes to rescue them.  Boxxo joins Hulemy to a convention of magical engineers, assisting her in stopping a golem on the loose, before helping the local food traders out from a Chains Restaurant, and as such helping out the villagers one step at a time.

He joins, together with Hulemy and Lammis, the Menagerie of Fools for a hunting trip when they are besieged by a king level Crocodile Fiend.  Boxxo manages to destroy it by creating an explosion inside the beast after it had swallowed him.  But a stratum split appears, making him fall into darkness.  But he ends up in the Labyrinth below the Stratum, meeting a band of bearcat like adventurers.  They are allies of the Menagerie, and soon his friends come to his aid.

In the Labyrinth a large flamey skeleton lord wanders, and in order to get the coin from him, like Boxxo obtained from the crocodile fiend, they set a plan in motion to defeat it.  Apparently these coins can grant wishes, even returning Boxxo to a human form.  He creates a plan to overcome the beast, selling the coin to the leader of the Menagerie as he already has one, but doubts if he would want to return to being human.  They visit the stratum's Hunters Guild, where they meet a warrior named Mishuel.  He joins them on a simple mission, being an introvert scared to talk to people, as they learn he is actually wanted for reasons unknown.  Back in Clearwater, a food contest is being held, with the bearcats, also known as the Band of Gluttons, join in.  But it is Shui, the young archer from the Menagerie, that wins the contest and the use of Boxxo for one day.  She uses this to return to the stratus she grew up in as an orphan, giving the children there big smiles on their faces.

 

They travel to the Dead Lament Stratum next to confront the Stratum Lord there, which scares the hell out of Lammis.  Boxxo befriends a corpse fiend kid which returns every night in the village, but once they are outside it had followed them, and unknowingly is banished by the members of the Menagerie while trying to insert a coin into Boxxo (this is a seriously tearjerking moment, be warned!).  They face the Stratum Lord, overcoming it thanks to Lammis, but the Netherlord appears nearly killing Hulemy and Shui.

 

 

The band returns to Clearwater, where Lammis brings Boxxo to the lake they first met, and thanking him for saving her so many times in the past months...

 

So this was good fun, and it has been renewed in the meantime for a second season, so looking forward to that.  Sure, the vending machine is an OP main character, but heck, the whole idea behind the series is fine for some good laughs.

 

And that very sad zombie kid moment...