Jidou Hanbaiki ni Umarekawatta Ore wa Meikyuu wo Samayou 2nd Season

At this point, isekai genre feels less like storytelling and more like a fever dream brainstorm session where editors just nod and say: “Sure, why not. People will watch anything.” And here we are. A vending machine. Yes, really. Not a warrior, not a mage, not even a slime or a skeleton. A vending machine. Somewhere out there, Kafka is rolling in his grave muttering: “Even I wouldn’t go this far.” Let’s be clear: this isn’t world-building. This isn’t character development. This is the anime equivalent of pressing the “randomize” button on an isekai generator and praying it sticks. The protagonist has the personality of… well, a vending machine. His greatest strength? Dispensing soda. His greatest weakness? Stairs. And somehow, people around him act like he’s the second coming of Ainz Ooal Gown. It’d be funny if it were just a one-off parody, a 3-minute gag anime that winks at the absurdity of the genre. But no. It’s a full-length series. With multiple seasons. Which means someone, somewhere, thought: “Yes. This. This is the future of anime.” It’s the logical endpoint of an overexploited genre. We went from Mushoku Tensei (deep world-building, raw character growth), to Re:Zero (psychological despair), to Slime and Overlord (strategic kingdom-building)… and now we’re here. Watching a Coke machine moan in monotone about dungeons. Do I laugh? Sure, in the same way you laugh when a toddler smears paint on the wall and calls it art. It’s entertaining, but not because it’s good. It’s because it’s so absurd you can’t believe it exists. This isn’t an isekai. This is performance art about the death of creativity, If you ever wondered what happens when you milk a genre until it’s dry, well… congratulations. You’re looking at it. Or in vending machine terms: Out of Stock. And if this somehow crawls its way to Season 3? Then maybe humanity truly deserves to be replaced by vending machines.

Short take: A clever twist on isekai that started as parody and, in S2, edges into “actually good.” If you go in expecting silly popcorn fantasy, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how much thought goes into its constraints and world tour. What worked: - Constraints: The points/electricity economy delivers hard with highly limited choice of transformations/usage this season. Watching a literal vending machine min-max cost/utility stays fun. - Growth without cheap crutches: Problem-solving leans on vending ingenuity, not cheap upgrades. I expected him to be able to cast magic and such as this point, and I'm glad they didn't go that route. - Scope upgrade: We finally get off the starter floors. Cross-floor travel and an outside-the-dungeon story bits give the world a more "full" feeling where season 1 felt a bit constrained. - Party dynamics (no spoilers): Plot-lines with the Menagerie of Fools was quite good. The soft harem around, yes, a vending machine, remains knowingly absurd and genuinely amusing. What didn’t: - Still not deep: Even with the broader canvas, this isn’t going to scratch a “mystery drama” itch. Motivations are straightforward; themes are comfortable rather than probing. But, you likely didn't expect this going into it? - Bit slower pacing than season 1 (not too problematic though). Vibe check (for fellow trash-popcorn fans): You sign up to see how far an inanimate protagonist can go under hard constraints. Season 2 delivers that promise better than S1 while also upping the stakes. The show is fun, and shows off a handful of imaginative environments and historical vending machines. It’s not perfect, but it outperforms the premise you’d expect. Rating: Subjective 9/10 (expectations set to "silly isekai," pleasantly exceeded). Objectively ~7/10 (still light, not very deep, but a clear step up). TL;DR: Come for the gimmick, stay for the min-maxing and cool world. If your bar is "fun/unique isekai," Season 2 hits.

A smattering of reviews and a (current) rating of ~6.5 kind of says it all. Season 1 was fairly novel, due to its absurdity, with the MC being reincarnated as a Vending Machine. Season 1 had the focus being on Boxxo becoming a member of the Clear Water Stratum's community, while becoming a reliable friend to Lammis. He eventually gained multiple friends, including Hulemy, who was one of, if not the only person, to figure out that he was indeed a human soul trapped inside the Vending Machine. Season 2 continues where Season 1 left-off, focussing on the hidden secrets of the "Menagerie of Fools", and building up the cliché Demon Lord threat, while the gang traverses the different Stratums of the dungeon they're in. We get newcomers like Hevee and Kikoyu, voiced by the greats of Yoshitsugu Matsuoka and Rie Takahashi, who add quite a lot to this season, while we also continue to get some good moments between Boxxo and Lammis, Mishuel, Hulemy and many others. Unfortunately, whereas Season 1 had novelty on its side, this Season doesn't. It follows a very generic plot-thread of Demon Lord, bad guys, and basically the same kind of story that a majority of other fantasy/isekai shows follow. Here, it's also quite shallow. A lot of the bad guys just get plopped into the story with no real depth, and spout things like "haha, I'm a bandit and I've done evil things~"... But, it's just, well, read from a script. They're added filler/road-blocks to progress the plot forward. It also doesn't help that the animation and art quality are still as bland as they are in this Season of the show. Every time Mishuel does his special sword attack thing, you'll very quickly notice, that it's the exact same animation frames played over and over again. As he uses this attack quite frequently, it becomes almost too noticeable to ignore, and just makes the show feel lazy overall. What holds this show up, or rather, what is supposed to hold this show up, are the interactions between the different characters. Although the introduction of Hevee and Kikoyu were much appreciated and were standouts this season, everything else is just a repeat of Season 1. Yes, as I said, there are some good moments between Boxxo and the mainstays of Lammis, Hulemy, Mishuel, etc, but they don't really progress anyone forward in terms of character development. Lammis gets a bit more development with Boxxo, with her feelings toward him growing, but it's not really anything standout. Overall, it's more of what we got in Season 1. It's definitely not the worst isekai/fantasy show, but it's definitely not one of the greats or anything you should immediately check-out. 6/10 - "Fine" suits this show quite well honestly; Mixed Feelings is also an obvious label to give.

This anime is fun and easy to watch. It doesn't overstay its welcome. The majority of characters may be one-dimensional and the backgrounds may be simple, but I think the emotion gets across to the viewer just fine. And it's a show that generally respects the value of human life, with the exception of a few bandits, which I personally appreciate. Boxxo's charity for the dungeon's civilians is something you rarely see even from the most well-meaning anime protagonists. I think that's a wonderful virtue and one that's hard to incorporate into narratives; this show's gimmick lends itself well to "charity". If you want to watch people eat food and act happy because it's delicious, this anime has that simple pleasure. One thing that's particular to me is that I adore Hulemy's character. Her design reminds me of Marisa Kirisame from Touhou Project, so any scene where she acts girly or vulnerable makes me feel excited. I like her outfit and her voice a lot. Episode 10 has fan service for Hulemy enjoyers. The negatives are probably all to do with the general quality of the show - strictly speaking it's more deserving of a 6. As I said before, a lot of this is surface-level simple. Most fights are just a few still images that pan across the screen for a second. So this isn't the place to look for impressive action. I also believe the English dub is way way too embarrassing to listen to. I watched this with subs instead.

As I told myself when I watched season 1.. I never thought I would like an anime titled "Reincarnated as a Vending Machine", but here we are! First of, love that Bradio is singing their songs! Second, it's a fun continuation of season 1. I won't say it's better (because I love the growth and build up in the first), but it managed to keep the wholesome fun momentum going. I miss captain and the twins but I love Hevee's backstory. I almost forgot the thing about Sui (snow fairies) looking younger than their age. All in all, almost all the lovable characters are still there. Still the same fun, comedy and creative fights.

This season, unfortunately, ended up disappointing. The reason is only one: the pacing is too slow so there's almost no plot development. This season felt like watching a bunch of fillers, one episode after another. The only 2 redeeming achievements on this season were that Boxxo's communication skills improved, and him and his group found out a huge secret regarding the leader of the Menagerie of Fools. But that's it for this season, the rest is filler. About what we can objetively evaluate: on the good side, the animation kept the same quality as season 1, and we had new characters introduced with a proper background scene to give them some depth. On the bad side, the pacing of the anime is very slow, and it's like the main characters decided to stop the main quest to solve the side quests instead, so we end up with quite a few episodes that we can skip without missing out on anything. In fact, I would dare say that out of the 12 episodes, we only have 4 that are plot related, and the rest can be skipped directly to season 3. This is the reason for my review being "not recommended"; if 8 episodes could be discarded, then the season is a flop. For example, I don't need a whole episode about a beauty pageant. TLDR: I wish there was a recap episode of this season so people could watch it instead of having to suffer through 12 slow paced episodes full of unnecessary scenes.

Vending Machine Isekai, the 2nd Expedition — Once the charm, but twice the blandness. Every once in a while, there are works that, for some reason or another, intrigue us into wondering and discovering how far-fetched ideas can mysteriously combine to have such an effect that, love it or hate it, it works like a charm. And nowhere is this more prevalent than in novelist Hirukuma's Jidou Hanbaiki a.k.a. Vending Machine Isekai, whose season premiere showing last summer was one of the most out-of-the-box ideas I've seen in Isekai reincarnation stories in quite a while, bred out of the author's life experience and a genuine story that has the potential to work 1001 ways ingeniously, which I gave it high praise for. Alas, with Season 2's return this summer, and with much of the same novelty as Season 1, I've sadly got to admit that it's a one-trick pony in the sea of lots of bad-to-average-written reincarnation stories that wears out its welcome slowly as it ages into your stereotypical Isekai setting, and that nothing truly stands out other than its tongue-in-cheek moniker that at least warrants a watch. With Season 2 continuing where its prior season left off, much of the animosity and partnership between the titular versatile vending machine Boxxo and his partners of Lammis and company, and the various stratums have become quite the space for entertainment, as well as drama, getting to know the vast world and other characters yet to be seen in Season 1. Most certainly, everything works just as one would expect: quest after quest, rest after rest with some casual fun from within, and the hidden caveat of drama that we would get with the menagerie of fools that hide quite the secret waiting to be revealed. And in the same way, so do Boxxo, Lammis, and company, just doing what they know best, but this has a downside, showcasing that familiar company begets everything else that made it a unique watch in the first place. Pretty much the only thing that excites the fans (even myself) this season is seeing Boxxo expand his versatility, though that comes with the caveat of having to be given coins through his coin slot for nourishing spent energy to do so. And even then, that's only a figure of speech, not withholding to people who already saw the show as such and dismiss it outright, that the series truly has both made and monopolized itself into a corner. Like I've already said, a novelty, this show is one, but its reach to expand gets old rather quickly. Even with a change in directorship, I'd doubt that Takashi Yamamoto would be up to the job of taking over the reins from Noriaki Takaya, but given his "expertise" in directing kids-centric works, he seems to fit the bill rather well, because Season 2 is just pretty much somehow focused on a similar rhetoric that "it's all fun and games until shit happens to hit the fan." Even then, Studio Gokumi and AXsiZ's collab continues to do much of the heavy lifting production-wise, when it's pretty much the same exact animation prowess compared to the prequel. The OST has gotten noticeably worse this time, with BRADIO's 2nd OP of the series, though the beats have significantly dropped in all aspects. Not even Aina Aiba's ED is enough to save the series as a whole; it's utterly forgettable. Man, what an exercise in disappointment for me to say that Jidou Hanbaiki could've been the dream of Hirukuma to further write a compelling story within his now 4-volume-long Vending Machine vibe. But it just ends up being nothing more than belonging to the class of generic Isekai slop that leaves a bad taste in one's mouth. There's a reason for this quote: "Keep your expectations low," and I might've learned this the hard way with this anime and its series, which just had a unique formula, but with that same formula wearing out its quirkiness in an ironically bad way. And please anime gods, please let the Lucky 7 hit Season 3 better than the sequel here.

After really enjoying the first season, this sequel turned out to be quite disappointing. The pacing is slow, and it often feels like the story isn’t moving anywhere meaningful. The overall plot comes off shallow compared to the previous season, and the character moments don’t shine as much this time around. While the cast is still likable, the development feels weaker. On the technical side, the animation quality remains about the same as before – consistent but not impressive. The soundtrack is solid, with a fun opening that stands out as one of the season’s highlights. In the end, this season didn’t live up to my expectations, but I still hope the next one can recapture the charm and energy of season one. Fans of the first season may want to check it out, but newcomers should probably start with season one and see if the series is their style before continuing.

The novelty of the first season gets lost, you know what to expect, you know the dynamics. It´s below the first season but after all, it´s not a bad season. The bond between the two main characters gets stronger, the new team members are certainly funny and even the new adventures are a bit weak, there's no time to be bored, you go from level to level, to another new machine and the most important: the new ability to "talk". If you liked the first season, this really worth it. But if you dislike even the concept, why are you watching this entry? There are some animes in which the second season is really awful that makes you want to forget it, (I'm talking to you Oshi no ko) but this one keeps some the charm. Let's wait together for the third season.

What in the ADHD fever dream was this? I liked the first season which was very effective at controlling the vending machines power progression. The world felt like it had limits which created tension and then resulting satisfaction when our heroes succeeded. This season, incredibly, has none of that. There are no challenges. Everything feels like it's resolved in minutes. And then there's the billion characters and storylines. For some reason, the number of characters didn't feel as overwhelming in the first season but in this one, I found myself struggling to remember who was who. It made it so that I didn't really care when bad things happened to them. I had to force myself to finish this season. I probably won't watch the next one.