They say the past is a different country, with an outdated military and huge oil reserves (okay, only Randall Munroe says that last part) but usually that’s not to be taken literally.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.
Our main character in this one, Hosomichi Kudou, is a little out of place. He clearly knows some about banned media and operates on the fringe, but he’s mostly a dude just trying to survive, initially working as a host (basically a paid date for ladies who come to the club he works at) and wanting little to do with any sort of adventure. None the less, he ends up in Shark One, a robot that seems to be powered by nerdy enthusiasm, and because the authorities aren’t going to be kind to him if he just surrenders, he ends up using his acting talent to pretend to be into the mecha BS and fight back.
There’s a moment during this sequence that should encapsulate everything that the show is trying to do: the commander of the resistance calls Hosomichi and launches into this big Kamina-style speech to inspire him to pilot the robot to success, and Hosomichi just hangs up on the ‘weirdo’. That’s funny, and plays with genre expectations and the fact that the rebels are kind of loons. Sadly, that’s not really what the show goes with.
Instead, the show goes for the harem route. A small harem with relatively full development, but it’s the same general “Each arc is focused on a new girl to pretend to keep the show fresh” sort of deal.
The girls in question have the role of “Battery Girl” – they power the Garanndoll robot with their passion, in the case of this show for the nerdy stuff, but to bring out the full potential of the mech, they need a pilot as well, and that role falls to Hosomichi, of course. So, it’s like Darling in the Franxx except maybe about one percent as suggestive, if that. The enemy mechas are supposedly powered by the patriotism of their pilots, which isn’t quite as awesome as the peaks of geeking out, but is way more reliable.
The first Battery Girl is Rin Akagi, the mecha/hero anime geek. Imagine Akiho Senomiya, but with maybe half the charm. Aki is so darn charming that half is still pretty good, but Rin is certainly the lesser character. Rin is the most germane to the show and has a good arc getting to know our lead, as we see that they share some past trauma but have reacted to it very differently, with Hosomichi having “put away childish things” even if it hurt while Rin indulges her dreams, leading her to live a happier but less practical life.
Since Hosomichi owes a lot of money to his friend(/organ harvesting loan shark) Anju Munakata and pilots get a lot of pay, he ends up semi-drafted into the resistance to pilot with Rin again. It takes them some effort of coming to understand each other, and Rin even hits a low point where she goes out alone as a diversion and Hosomichi, finally knowing how to reach her, has to don his best megaman cosplay and run out onto the battlefield to meet up and kick ass.
The villains, meanwhile, are pretty clearly the “equal and opposite” quirky miniboss squad. Their leader is Captain Akatsuki, a young and oddly idealistic general, and the first miniboss to be fought in the encounters with Rin as the battery is Hayate, his ninja girl with an obvious crush on her master.
And this, in my mind, is part of what really twists the show. The pitch and even much of the first episode seems to be going for impractical passion pitted against tyrannical repression. The enemy mechas are… a little whimsical, but still more clearly intended to be threatening, and the endless barrage of propaganda, police presence, and mention of censorship and arrests theoretically do work to convince you that this is an oppressed populace.
The problem is that, instead of drawing a contrast between the villains and the heroes, they make the villains more just the same people from different circumstances. The teams even have the same structure, with a male lead and a trio of girls who represent different archetypes in a theme – Anime, Idol, and Gaming for the heroes (the flavors of otaku) and Ninja, Samurai and Onmyoji for the villains (Japanese period roles). Which, in something with the nuance and intelligence of Planet With, could work. But here, it makes the situation all the more muddy. Hayate is just as weird as Rin, getting easily distracted fantasizing in a way that allows the leads to reconcile on the battlefield. I never thought I’d miss Kill-em-all Daryl and… whatever the real name of the character I just thought of as Lieutenant Surge was, the pointless petty tyrants from Guilty Crown, but I honestly think they’d be stronger antagonists that would let our heroes shine a little brighter. When the entire platform of the bad guys is “no fun allowed”, they probably shouldn’t be a fun and quirky bunch.
Anyway, after the big dramatic battle, Rin needs to recharge, which leads to the second Battery Girl being called in. That would be Yuki Aoba, the idol, who decides that Hosomichi should be her “manager” and turns out to be more of a mean girl when off stage. Not actually mean like Aki from Selector but noticeably more demanding and conniving than her utterly saccharine stage persona.
And, annoyingly, the Yuki arc is more or less a complete retread of the Rin arc. Once again, the characters have trouble connecting at first and have to be saved, then need to come to understand each other via Hosomichi reaching out at a critical moment, leading to a dramatic change on the battlefield to turn the tables and defeat the miniboss (this time the sadist lady Musashi)
I’ll give the third arc that it’s not a carbon copy of the second: it’s shorter. Misa Kuroki, aka WerdCat (or WerdNya) has been mentioned before as the hacker of the resistance, but is now actually seen as Battery Girl #3, the shut-in loli gamer. She takes over the rec room after being discovered hiding in a cardboard box, kicking the other girls out, which results in Hosomichi having to reach through her issues to convince her to open up to real life (via first beating her at a video game and then going to retrieve an item for her), which is mostly done when a crisis forces her to leave in order to save everybody (mostly Hosomichi) and fight the loli of the enemy team. There are some pretty creative sets, in the tunnels beneath Akihabara that contain an ever-shifting labyrinth of the shops that were once on the surface, but it really is just a compact version of the formula, omitting the failure to start up the robot and just having the girl demand two (somewhat shorter) rounds of bonding.
With that being done, though, the show does have about a third of its running time left to do actual plot movement. This begins with Akatsuki being called to task by his superiors, trying to find a peaceful way to win hearts and minds, and getting embarrassed by the rebels during his attempt. After that, his own boss (who seems to control Akatsuki to the same degree Munakata controls Hosomichi, with the same evil-ish smile) suggests that Akatsuki go undercover and try to learn more about the rebels. This results in Hayate befriending Rin (who keeps her from blundering into the seedier side of Akihabara) and Akatsuki sharing a conversation over ramen with Hosomichi… until Munakata, drunk and even more of a jerk than usual, comes in, roughs up the ramen chef, and throws the Resistance’s name around while doing so, convincing Akatsuki that they’re as shallow and cruel as Munakata himself is.
This leads to an ultimatum being issued, and the resistance hitting its low point, with few still believing they can fight back as the army prepares to destroy both their base and the repository of confiscated culture, which would forever obliterate the chances of the things that people loved coming back.
In this, we also get Hosomichi’s background, how his dad was a producer who had a hand in everything the girls liked, but how he was also a terrible father who abandoned his wife and son for his work, even to the point where Hosomichi’s mother grew ill and died without him ever coming home. He did try to cover her medical bills at least, but ultimately left Hosomichi alone and saddled with his crippling debt instead.
At this miserable low, Munakata approaches Hosomichi with a new money-making scheme, and Hosomichi is depressed enough to go with it: stealing the robot and delivering it to the army for reward money. Even so, Hosomichi can’t quite shake the time he’s spent with the girls and their passionate energy, particularly when it comes to Rin.
Back at the rebel base, the mascot costume who was the ever-silent “leader” is revealed to contain a shiny loli, which revitalizes the rank and file. The girls, meanwhile, send Hosomichi a message (via hacking the public broadcast when he doesn’t answer his phone) which after a surprisingly long hang time brings him back. Even Munakata manages to not be a scumbag for a moment and, after Hosomichi commits to running back to see them not get slaughtered, comes in to help him break through. Finally, the girls (in a new three-stage battery so they can hot swap) link up with Hosomichi, and the finale begins. Unfortunately, this may be a bit of a bad thing as we’ve had it mentioned that too much passion (or the wrong kind) could lead to disaster, and that seems to be possible.
That trouble is averted with backstory from the parent figures of the resistance, and the team fights off the bad guy team with more flow and showy effects than usual, including a pretty cool final battle against Akatsuki. However, even though Akatsuki intends to call off the attack in respect of being beaten, he’s betrayed by his higher-ups (implied to mostly be the one with the Munakata smile), who decide to drop the bomb/convention center on the city anyway. The hero robot takes yet another new form, catches it, and lowers it safely into Akihabara, saving the day.
Thus, and with huge seeds planted for some manner of sequel (including talking about saving the invaders’ home from what seems to be a world of endless war and misery and some stinger ‘reveals’ like the shiny loli not actually being the top of the resistance), the show ends.
It wasn’t great… but I can’t really say it was the worst either. The big problem with this show is how much it goes on repeat. I may have complained about the villains not being villainous enough, but it’s clear that they’re not exactly meant to be. Even if I think that’s not quite right for what the show is going for since it means there’s little contrast, I do appreciate what was being attempted. I don’t appreciate how samey the setup arcs are. In something like Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle or Infinite Stratos, shows that have the “Every arc focus on a new girl” structure down, the arcs have different pace and flow in order to make the heroine of the arc stand out. Here? More or less carbon copies. Hell, even Hundred technically did the structure a little better. Its material was way worse, but at least it was varied.
And that does drag the show down significantly. The characters are fun, the performances are good, the art is appealing, the action is surprisingly decent… but the plot is a kind of lame act one of something that’s clearly supposed to be bigger and more impressive. I would almost understand if it were based on something, because at this point it’s a kind of tradition to have anime based on manga or light novel series end with that “bigger things are on the horizon” note after adapting something. Even very good shows like Dorohedoro can do that. But Rumble Garanndoll is an original anime. Please, people, focus on not messing up the first bit before you assume you’re going to get a second.
It’s frustrating. There’s a big part of me that wants to like this show, but every time I try, something gets in the way. The main character being a hollow cynic could be mined for a lot of comedy and in theory could make him a very different lead… but they don’t really go much of anywhere with it, so ultimately he doesn’t stand out. The idea of the “Idealists” and resistance being weird nerds is great, but they don’t stand out when everything in the setting is as weird and colorful as they are. The girls are fun and get the time they need to be actual characters, but they have to go through the same exact arc to get there and it makes me angry.
In the end, I’m going to come down a little hard on this one and give Rumble Garanndoll a C-. Were there parts of it I enjoyed? Yeah, there were. Did I come away at least entertained most of the time? I guess. But its constructive faults are such that I can’t recommend it unironically. If you ever want something that’s enjoyable in its badness, Rumble Garanndoll can be that show, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a bad show. Take it or leave it as you will, but in my opinion you’re better off leaving it, at least unless it actually gets that teased continuation to build on the world and ideas of the show in a stronger way.