They say the past is a different country, with an outdated military and huge oil reserves (okay, only Randall Munroe says that last part) but usually that’s not to be taken literally. In the case of Rumble Garanndoll, someone took that idea a little bit literally. The general concept is that the show takes place in a world where Modern Japan was invaded by a parallel universe Japan that still follows the no-nonsense militaristic culture that was dominant during the Showa era (particularly before the end of World War II, for obvious reasons). The invaders, armed with future tech weaponry such as mechas, quickly turned into occupiers and aimed to force modern Japan to follow their principles. This involved, among other things, persecuting art and culture that didn’t fit with their vision, particularly Otaku media.
This leads to our show, where a resistance group made up of weird nerds engages in a rebellion plot that’s almost as much of a pastiche of genre conventions as they think it ought to be.
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