English Dub Season Review: Rumble Garanndoll Season One

Taking place in fictional dystopian Japan, a rift to another dimension suddenly opens in the skies above, revealing an opposite universe of Japan where it’s still militarized. Conquered by these alternate-world invaders, Japan has become a shadow of what it once was. Manga, anime, idols, and more are censored by these new parallel overlords…or so it seems. In the less-than-legal stores of Akihabara, A Jaded male escort for women named Kudo Hosomichi joins a group of female freedom fighters made up of pilots and otakus to set things right or die trying…

On the technical side, this 12-episode original anime project was produced by Lerche and directed by Masaomi Andō (Astra: Lost in Space), and written by Makoto Uezu (“Akame ga Kill!” and “My Bride is a Mermaid”). Original character designs are provided by Akio Watanabe (The World God Only Knows), while Keiko Kurosawa adapts the designs for animation. With Larx Entertainment producing the 3DCG animated parts when needed, with Daisuke Katō serving as the CG director. With Mia Regina performed the opening theme song “Fever Dreamer”, while Aina Suzuki performed the ending theme song “Reverse-Rebirth”.

Garanndoll at its core is not just some generic mech anime/comedy, but rather it’s effectively a parody, particularly within the Mecha genre. The entire premise of the show can get wacky at times, but given the censorship/cancel culture we live in, it might not be far from reality as it’s literally about an organization, called the “True Army” seizing power and using mechs and WWII-esque propaganda to suppress otaku culture (Games, Anime, Idols, etc.) which these bastards perceive as the predominant problem plaguing Japanese society. Meanwhile, our “freedom fighters” are members of a rebel group, called Arahabaki, trying to fight back and reclaim what was lost before the True Army took control. Considering the absurdity of its plot of fascist assholes suppressing otaku culture, it shouldn’t shock anybody that the focal point of our story is what’s left of Otaku central, aka Akihabara, Japan.

The characters within the plot are all uniquely generic yet super fun in their own ways except for one, but we’ll get to him… They all play out stupid/common tropes, yet they are unique and add nothing but enjoyment to the series! For example, all three main villains (Outside of Akatsuki) are often depicted as cliches for female characters: the princess, the ninja, and the stern military general. And then we have our “heroes” which are Kudo Hosomichi who much like Shinji Ikari from the Evangelion franchise, is emotionally scarred by his shitty relationship with his deadbeat father and is both obligated or contrived to operate the damn robot while he struggles to find a personality, Rin The first woman Kudo encounters who’s a Mecha weeb is mostly motivated to recover a boxset of her favorite discontinued anime, Yuki a Singing Idol who just wants to continue her singing career and Misa – a shut-in who loves to play videogames and misses her father. Not only that, but the leaders of Arahabaki, the rebel group which our heroes support, are just as “dumb” Balzac a guy who feels like an exaggerated parody of Kamina from Gurren Lagann, Mimi a tech-head who is legitimately just a cosplayer, and Tanaka-san a mysterious individual in a full-body mascot outfit with endless resources and some mystic aura whose identity isn’t fully fleshed out until the last two episodes and finally Kudo’s insufferable piece of shit of a friend/Debt collector named Anjū Munakata who follows him throughout the progression, only to be forced into this contraption when he least expects it…

Overall, Rumble Garanndoll is ridiculous, but at times, it’s an entertaining kind of ridiculous that brings levity and manic energy where it’s needed. I think the story would’ve been more interesting if it had been about the initial invasion rather than another story about freedom fighters in a dystopian future setting. It has unique ideas and concepts, but it doesn’t always use them to their full potential. If they only focused on Hosomichi, Rin, and Balzac it would’ve had the potential to be something with actual depth. But it remains to be seen if Season 2 becomes a thing since there’s no clear answer or outcome of what direction the plot would take next as the finale left me feeling a sense of looming uncertainty.