Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon

Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon (自動販売機に生まれ変わった俺は迷宮を彷徨う, Jidōhanbaiki ni Umarekawatta Ore wa Meikyū ni Samayō) is a Japanese light novel series written by Hirukuma and illustrated by Itsuwa Kato. The series was originally published in 2016 as a web novel by the author on the user-generated novel publishing website Shōsetsuka ni Narō. Later on the same year, it was acquired and then published by Kadokawa Shoten. A manga adaptation by Kunieda began serialization ASCII Media Works's shōnen manga magazine Dengeki Daioh in August 2021. Both the light novel and manga have been licensed in English by Yen Press. An anime television series adaptation by Studio Gokumi and AXsiZ will premiere in July 2023.

The light novels follow its titular protagonist who, after being crushed to death by a vending machine, is reincarnated as a sentient vending machine in a fantasy dungeon world. Shortly after, he meets and befriends Lammis, a young female hunter, who names him "Boxxo" and starts carrying him around on her back, and the two start their adventures in the dungeon together. Reborn as a Vending Machine has received positive reception from reviewers, with particular praise being directed at the novels' unique take on the isekai genre.

Synopsis
The then-unnamed protagonist, a Japanese vending machine otaku, is crushed to death by a falling vending machine. He then finds himself reincarnated in a fantasy world dungeon as a sentient vending machine. He can see and hear but is immobile, with his speech being limited to stock Japanese vending machine phrases, such as "Welcome" or "Too bad". As a vending machine, he discovers he can dispense any item he has bought in his previous life, and can convert such sales to points thus sustaining his existence. He is also able to use excess coins to add additional features to his vending machine body, and is able to choose which items he stocks or the prices of the items. He is also able to use some magical abilities, including a defensive force field.

Stuck in the middle of the wilderness, he encounters Lammis, a young, busty hunter girl. Lammis has a skill known as the Blessing of Might which makes her ridiculously strong, but is still a novice at managing her own strength. The two quickly become friends after he dispenses some food items to the hungry Lammis. Calling him "Boxxo" (the protagonist's real name is never revealed), she starts carrying him around on her back, which allows Boxxo to move, with his weight allowing her to more easily control her strength. The light novels chronicles their adventures as they start exploring the world's dungeon, and the characters they meet on the way.

Background
In the afterword of the first volume, Hirukuma describes his envisioning and road to publishing Reborn as a Vending Machine. He at first helped out with his father's independent business, though, after the death of his father from a high fall, he closed down the business and began pursuing his ambition as a writer. He described his father's death as giving him acrophobia, and recalled thinking "I don't know when I'm going to die like my father did. One question went through my mind: Have I done everything I've wanted to in life?" On a site titled Let's Become Novelists, a site for submitting novels, he submitted several works of fiction including another isekai piece and a battle-themed novel set in the near future, but was initially unsuccessful.

He described Reborn as a Vending Machine as his final effort after four years of unsuccessfully getting his novels published. Hirukuma wrote that "[it was] one that was fantastical and original, and one that I wanted to write [...] This wasn't a novel where I adjusted for the readers' needs, or had to think long and hard about constructing a plot. Instead, I pursued my own style for it, and it garnered the most popularity of all my work".

Light novel
Originally Hirukuma published the series online as a web novel on the user-generated novel publishing website Shōsetsuka ni Narō in March 2016, until Kadokawa Shoten acquired the series to publish it as a light novel.

The first volume was published by Kadokawa Shoten on August 1, 2016. Yen Press announced during the Anime Expo 2017 that they had licensed the series for an English release.

Manga
A manga adaptation illustrated by Kunieda began serialization in ASCII Media Works's shōnen manga magazine Dengeki Daioh on August 27, 2021. The manga is also licensed by Yen Press as a digital simul publication

Character
The heroine of this work. A hunter girl with the blessing of monstrous strength. She is the first person to use Boxxo. With the blessing of her monstrous strength, she is much stronger than she appears, and can easily carry Boxxo, which weighs more than 400 kilograms. She switches between standard Japanese and Kansai dialects in his conversations. She met Boxxo when s was wandering in the labyrinth after his fellow hunters abandoned her as a decoy and food was lost. She secures food by buying Boxxo's goods and returns safely to the village with Boxxo.

He is able to purchase goods without making any mistakes when he sees Boxxo at the vending machine for the first time, and she is able to communicate with Boxxo, who can only speak a certain language, with little misunderstanding, showing his good comprehension skills.

She has no weapons and fights with his bare hands. Before she met Boxxo, she was not a good hunter because his attacks did not hit her because she had too much strength and swung too big. By carrying Boxxo on his back, she was able to display his true fighting ability. She is also useful for carrying rubble and other objects because she can use his monstrous strength to the fullest. However, when she is praised, she gets carried away and becomes careless about his surroundings.

In the beginning, she carried Boxxo on his back, but later she bought a backpack and carried Boxxo on his back. She used to have a hometown separate from the village where she now lives, but it was destroyed by demons and she and his parents were bereaved. She is ashamed of herself because she was too afraid to do anything despite the blessing of his monstrous power at that time, which led her to fight as a hunter. The only people who know about this situation are Hulemy, who is in the same situation, and Boxxo, who learned about it through Hulemy's story.

Abilities
She has the blessing of "Might (monstrous strength)," and has such extraordinary physical strength that she can crush rocks with her bare hands and easily carry a several hundred-kilogram Boxxo on his back by himself. By carrying Boxxo on his back, she is able to stabilize her center of gravity and wield his violence to the fullest.


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TV Anime
In August 2022, it was announced that the series would be receiving an anime adaptation. It was later confirmed to be a television series produced by Slow Curve, animated by Studio Gokumi and AXsiZ and directed by Noriaki Akitaya, with Masayuki Takahashi serving as assistant director, Tatsuya Takahashi overseeing series scripts, Takahiro Sakai adapting Yūki Hagure's designs for animation, and Yuta Uraki and Keita Takahashi composing the music. The series aired from July 5 to September 20, 2023, on Tokyo MX and other networks. The opening theme song is "Fanfare" (ファンファーレ) by BRADIO, while the ending theme song is "Itsumo no Soup" (いつものスープ, "The Usual Soup") by Peel the Apple.

Crunchyroll licensed the series outside of Asia. After the final episode of the first season, a second season was announced, although the release date has not yet been revealed.
 * Staff:
 * Original Author - Hirukuma
 * Director - Noriaki Akitaya
 * Series composition - Tatsuya Takahashi
 * Character Draft - Yuuki Hagure
 * Character design - Takahiro Sakai
 * Monster Design - Ryo Akizuki
 * Deputy Director - Masayuki Takahashi
 * Chief animation director - Naoki Yamauchi, Nanako Tatsu, Yoshiaki Tsubata, Masaru Koseki
 * Sub Character Design - Shigeyuki Koresawa, Tomu
 * Vending Machine Design - Michiru Kodaka, Kado Tokita
 * Color design - Yoko Suzuki
 * Art director - Eiji Iwase
 * Art Setting - Tsukasa Ohira
 * Director of Photography - Masashi Uoyama
 * Editing - Kentaro Tsubone
 * Acoustic director - Yuki Gofumi
 * Music - Yuta Uraki, Keita Takahashi
 * Music Production - Nippon Television Music
 * Music Producer - Kazunari Sengoku, Hiroki Utsumi
 * Produce - Slow Curve
 * Chief Producer - Toshio Nakatani, Dai Horikoshi, Kenji Ebato
 * Producer - Nao Oji, Yudai Miyagi, Soso, Kazuya Kuwabar, Hajime Maruyama, Shingo Akita, Ryutaro Sakae, Tomoya Uehara, Hiroto Yonemori
 * Animation Producer - Tetsuya Tomioka
 * Animation production - Studio Gokumi, AXsiZ
 * Production - "I was reborn as a vending machine and I wander through the labyrinth" Production Committee (NTV, NetEase Games, YTE, BS Japan, NTV Wands, VAP, NTV Music)

Reception
Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon has received positive reception. Theron Martin of Anime News Network reviewed the first volume positively, praising its unique take on the Isekai genre, Hirukuma's writing style, and the relationship between Boxxo and Lammis, which he found to be impressive and not having to "resort to hackneyed gimmicks". Summarizing that "this novel's bizarre concept is what will catch people's attention, but the writing is good enough to keep it", some criticism was directed at the light novel's fanservice, which Martin found to be forced, and the RPG elements typical of Isekai series. Similarly, Robert Frazer of UK Anime Network found Reborn as a Vending Machine to be "a blast of fresh air to flush out the stale Isekai genre", as "it’s fun and different to defeat the villain with Diet Coke and Mentos instead of just firing a Saiyan blast at a higher power level".

Rebecca Silverman and Lynzee Loveridge, in Anime News Network's Spring 2018 Light Novel Guide, also praised the setting but found the writing to "read like fan-fiction-level quality". They ultimately found the volume to "still [be] an engaging read", and compared it to So I'm a Spider, So What? and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime. Loveridge further included the protagonist's "Death By Vending Machine" on her list of the "7 Strangest Isekai Deaths".

Trivia
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