Hey, y’all? Remember Pokémon? Of course you do, you’re lying if you say that you don’t remember that anime, because you have all seen at least snippets of it. Well, my best snappy one-sentence summary of Unbreakable Machine Doll is that it’s Pokémon aimed at the teenage male demographic. Yes, we’ve got those proxy battle and creatures with fun designs, but we’ve also got a developing harem and a fanservice doll. Literally.
I’ve never seen such an ideal character for my ‘fanservice doll’ metaphor to be applied to. I mean, she strips at the drop of a hat, is obnoxious to the lead male, hits on him incessantly, and goes on at length about how she loves him and wants to sleep with him, and she’s also a ‘doll’. I mean, it was like this character was designed to be as annoying to me as possible.
The only way I could forgive this character if this anime truly elaborated on what ‘dolls’ in this universe are and showed that she was programmed to be this way, and she had no choice in the matter (or even no free will whatsoever). That at least would be kind of an interesting plot point. I mean, of course the Japanese would design their kickass robots to look and act like horny teenage girls. However, this is aimed at a different demographic than one that would appreciate that. So, in other words, every moment she occupies the screen is full of annoying.
The male main character is very likely going to be quite bland, but he actually shows sparks of a personality, which surprised me. He even acts annoyed by the obnoxious doll (but he probably won’t for much longer).
He even has a motivation: vengeance! I’m not saying that this makes the anime good, but it means his personality is more along the lines of ‘shounen protagonist’ than that of ‘boring harem lead’.
However, he’s still ridiculously overpowered (second-to-last place in written tests, but randomly capable of beating several skilled opponents at once when he just entered the school).
Again, they could actually handwave this, saying that the only reason he won that battle is because his doll is an expensive, top-of-the-line model that requires no ability to use and he’s actually useless, but the anime seems to be trying to convince me that he’s actually really skilled, for some reason. So, more wasted potential there.
He also is cocky and confident, and makes the tsundere Brit (no, not that one) blush. Blah, blah, blah, I’m pretty sure you’ve all heard it before. So, let me tell y’all something shocking: I enjoyed this anime.
It is by no means good at all, but there’s a definite amount of entertainment this delivers. I mean, seeing all of the creatures with fun designs (my favorite was the robot snowman, by the way) duking it out was quite fun, even with the horrible CG (of which there is plenty).
There’s also a certain degree of goofy over-the-topness to everything (ESPECIALLY when the main character dramatically leaped out of the window to attack someone- in slow motion). Also, there are some ideas in here that could have been quite good, but are probably going to be misused. And the premise is basically promising more battles and more creatures.
And this dragon. I like this dragon.
So, in summary, this anime isn’t good, and I’d only recommend it if you want to watch something totally brainless or you’re having a bad day and want some dumb fun. Otherwise, really do keep away, as the eponymous unbreakable machine-doll is one of the most blatant and annoying characters I’ve seen in a while (and we’re supposed to like her, that’s the real joke). If I ever get around watching the next episode, I’ll try to write a post to let y’all know if it gets worse or if the magical reverse expectations fairy shows up. Really, if I had to make a comparison to this, I’d have to say that this is sort of like Problem Children Are From Another World, Aren’t They?, so if that amused you, this probably will too.
Tsun tsun dere tsun dere tsun tsun~
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