Karen's Anime Blog

When we last left our intrepid vending machine hero and his friends, they had just gotten bamboozled by the Demon Lord, who purposely baited them into sending their best warriors to fight him while his minions terrorized the villages. The group hurries back, but it’s too late; Clearview Lake Stratum’s main town has been all but destroyed. Fortunately for us, pretty much every named character survived and is hanging out at the Adventurer’s Guild headquarters. Fighters from the returning group run off to aid the hunters that are protecting the survivors; Lammis wants to go, but Director Bear orders her to aid Boxxo in handing out food and drinks to the haggard surviving villagers.

This begins a huge pattern in this episode of Boxxo dispensing a huge amount of products, presumably for free. See, this worries me, because I’m always worried about Boxxo’s total points. If he runs out of points (which is basically the same as running out of money), he’ll deactivate, which is death for a vending machine. He can’t afford to just give everything away like this! Be a little more selfish, Boxxo. I know the anime is unlikely to have Boxxo run out of points, but I still don’t like it when he’s running low.

Look, survivors of the deadly giant lizard attack. Selfish freeloaders, all of ’em.

The hunters are making short work of the monsters, but there’s just too many of them. Shirley appears, and I’m trying to remember who she is; I think she’s the woman who requested that Boxxo start selling condoms in Season One. Now, she’s dressed like a dominatrix for some reason. I don’t hate it. (EDIT: Apparently she was the lady who was involved in the currency exchange, since there was a coin shortage. Just like real life, once finance is somehow involved, my brain bluescreens.)

Shirley: “Hey Boxxo, you got some more of my special products?“

Lammis: “Stop flirting with my boyfriend, please.”

Lammis finally joins the fight, picks up one of the lizard monsters by the tail and uses it as a bludgeoning weapon. It’s pretty hilarious to see.

Lammis is pushing herself really hard, and it’s clear she’s flashing back to the time her and Hulemy’s village was destroyed, when she couldn’t fight back. Boxxo is worried that she’s going to push herself too far, so he reveals a secret trick he’s been working on: talking by using chopped up syllables from his stock phrases. He says Lammis’ name (or something close to it) and she freaks out and faints soon after. Normally I’m not keen on the delicate girl fainting trope, but c’mon, Lammis just used a whole dinosaur like a pair of freakin’ nunchaku, I think she’s earned it.

Boxxo breaks out one of his old moves: putting mints in cola bottles and using them as bombs. Now he can assemble the bombs with his telekinesis, so he’s moved pretty far beyond being a vending machine at this point. It’s cool, but I think I liked the series better when he couldn’t fight back directly– it was more interesting that way.

Night falls. The hunters are still on guard, when they hear the sounds of something approaching. It’s the Band of Gluttons, the adorable Beastkin hunters that Boxxo befriended last season.

“Good to see you! You guys want the good news or the bad– actually, never mind, it’s just bad news.”

The little beasties report that there are no more survivors (ouch), tons of monsters are massing near the hole in the village wall, and they could see very large monsters off in the distance. Everyone nearly gives into despair, but Mishuel gives an inspiring pep talk that keeps everyone focused on the task at hand. Did Mishuel just gain +50 points in oratory in this episode? His whole schtick is that his social skills are terrible. I guess he’ll need a new schtick.

Against Lammis’ advice, Boxxo goes crazy and shifts to his giant ice vending machine form. He sprays the whole area with ice, betting that the cold-blooded frog and lizard fiends won’t be able to handle the temperature. He even makes giant projectiles with ice and starts pelting the baddies, when he suddenly realizes he’s going through points like crazy and he really needs to stop. Well, better late than never for him to notice. He does share that Director Bear gave him a bunch of gold coins as advance payment for the Demon Lord mission– see? I told you Director Bear was the best.

Lammis is PISSED that Boxxo went and engaged the enemy without her, and the two of them have their first lover’s quarrel. Aww. I hope they get together somehow and have adorable little gumball machine babies…wow, that’s disturbing. Anyway, the whole hunter team gets together and strategizes how they’re going to close up the wall while fending off the seemingly never-ending horde of monsters. The situation looks bleak, but then salvation comes from an unlikely source:

“Miss me, bitches?”

Suori’s back! I had totally forgot she existed. She’s got that smirk on her face, so you know she’s got a plan that will somehow be both tremendously useful and somehow self-aggrandizing. She’s filthy rich, so she could just pump Boxxo full of enough money that he can use all his “weapons” against the foes, but I’m hoping she’s got something more creative than that.

And we’re done! Not the biggest cliffhanger ever, but I am seriously curious what Suori has up her frilly little sleeve.