After a vending machine otaku ironically meets his end due to a vending machine, he is thrilled to find out he has reincarnated in a fantasy land as a vending machine. Unfortunately, he was placed in the middle of the country with no one else around.
After discovering he earns points through selling goods that he can use to change stock, get new abilities, and that are used as his power source, he watches them tick down as he waits for customers.
Luckily, he is discovered by a young woman who enjoys his goods, discovers his sentience and limited communication skills, and takes him to a nearby town. Given the name Boxxo, he helps out various adventurers by – like a true vending machine – offering just what they need.
I both appreciate how weird this isekai is in its premise and how hard someone worked to make it viable. In a sea of sameness, its actually quite fun. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Reborn as a Vending Machine, Now I Wander the Dungeon, head on down below.
Anime Like Reborn as a Vending Machine, Now I Wander the Dungeon
For Fans of I Was Reincarnated As Not A Human
Reincarnated as a Sword
After his death, a man is reincarnated into a new world. However, his body is not that of a human, but rather he is a legendary sword that, after leveling up his skills, becomes stuck firmly in the middle of a dangerous forest.
Begging for a wielder to come to him, he watches a slave caravan attacked by a two-headed bear. A young catgirl named Fran flees and happens across him with the pair teaming up to slay the bear and break her enslavement.
When you run out of cool, unique ways to reincarnate people in another world, you move onto cool and unique objects to reincarnated people into in another world.
Both Reborn as a Vending Machine and Reincarnated as a Sword follow humans who are reincarnated in another world as an object. These objects able to grow their abilities, and often do so with the help of a cute girl who becomes their loving companion.
However, Reincarnated as a Sword isn’t quite as restrictive with its main character. Unlike Boxxo, Shisou can technically move on his own and communicate.
So I’m a Spider, So What
On one normal day in high school, the lives of many students ended unexpectedly. Some were reincarnated as nobles or strong heroes. Others were reincarnated as wondrous fantasy creatures.
Unfortunately for one girl, she was reincarnated as a lowly cave spider.
No stranger to hardship given her difficult school life, she vows to not give up, and through an RPG system, grows stronger each day.
Both Reborn as a Vending Machine and So I’m a Spider, So What feature main characters that were humans, but are reincarnated as something else. While a spider is not quite the same thing as a vending machine, both main characters are left widely unable to communicate with other humans in the world they live in.
The biggest similarity between Reborn as a Vending Machine and So I’m a Spider, So What is that both series really focus on the main characters trying to grow their abilities. So I’m a Spider, So What is a little in depth with that as she gains abilities through exposure and battle whereas Boxxo gets them from accumulating points through sales.
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
After a run in with a robber, the 37-year-old Satoru is suddenly killed. He is reincarnated into a fantasy land, but not as a man. In fact, he is no longer even human!
He is reincarnated as a lowly slime.
After wandering, he comes across a dragon who he befriends and who gives him the new name of Rimuru. Absorbing this dragon into his slime body, promising to eventually break the seal that has bound him, gives Rimuru great magical ability.
He then continues to inadvertently befriend beleaguered fantasy creatures in the forest who are constantly threatened by humanity. Eventually, he decides to found a nation uniting these creatures in order to help them protect themselves.
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime started the new trend of humans reincarnated as non-humans in another world, and look where we are now – somewhere ridiculous.
Both Reborn as a Vending Machine and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime feature humans that are reincarnated as non-humans in another world. However, while Boxxo still integrates easily with human society, Rimuru instead finds community among the beast people.
While they share the initial hook, Reborn as a Vending Machine and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime are wildly different isekai experiences. Reborn as a Vending Machine is very slice of life-oriented while That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is a more traditional action and adventured-focused isekai.
For Fans of Giving People What They Need
By The Grace of The Gods
After leading a miserable life, Ryouma Takebayashi passes away at age 39.
Three deities, taking pity on him, reincarnate him into a fantasy world with an aptitude for magic, telling him to enjoy life and that they will always watch out for him.
With his newfound existence, he spends it studying slimes, amassing a slime army, and learning some magic, but he misses humanity. Being persuaded to join a group of travelers, Ryouma’s new world opens up for him.
Perhaps the biggest thing that Reborn as a Vending Machine and By The Grace of the Gods have in common is they are meant to be just fun isekai experiences and don’t try to do anything grand.
What these series offer is a fun and pleasant new life where the main characters find fulfillment in their passions, but also build their community. While By The Grace of The Gods doesn’t look like it at first, it also becomes quite business-oriented for a bit as the main character starts a laundry service to improve people’s lives.
Like Boxxo enhances and changes goods based on what people need, Ryouma creates and uses slimes in order to help people around town.
Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement
After accidentally falling off a cliff, Mitsuha wakes up in a fantasy land.
Upon saving a girl from a wolf attack, she discovers that she didn’t die in her previous life, but rather accidentally ripped away a piece of a God’s power that lets her transport herself between that world and modern Japan.
With this magnificent power, she decides to take items from modern Japan to sell in the fantasy world. She has calculated that making 80,000 gold in the fantasy land will be enough to retire if she were to get trapped in either world forever.
Now begins her money-making schemes!
Like Reborn as a Vending Machine features a vending machine offering and changing goods based on what people around him need, Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement features a girl transporting goods from Japan to sell in another world and changing what she brings in order to fill what people need at the time.
Both series have a similar element of simple folk just being wowed by Japanese goods. However, it should be noted that while Boxxo is just trying to make people happy, Mitsuha is fully in it for the money.
Parallel World Pharmacy
After dedicating himself to creating medicines as a pharmacist, Kani Yakutani works himself to death at the age of 31.
He awakens in the form of a ten-year-old boy that has been struck by lightning. He discovers that he is the son of a prestigious family as well the host to the guardian deity of medicine. This allows him to immediately diagnose illnesses in others.
While this is a miraculous ability, he discovers the state of medicine in this world is primitive and takes up his previous profession from his past life as a pharmacist once again.
Both Reborn as a Vending Machine and Parallel World Pharmacy are about isekai protagonists helping a world through the unique skills they can offer. However, while Reborn as a Vending Machine is silly and wholesome, Parallel World Pharmacy treats its plot rather seriously.
Unlike Reborn as a Vending Machine, where Boxxo is just selling various goods, Parallel World Pharmacy is about a pharmacist reincarnated with a miraculous gift that lets him diagnose people with just a look. As such, he combines that ability with his knowledge from his previous life to wildly improve the field of medicine in a world where medical knowledge is far below the advancement of our modern world.
For Fans of Food Isekai
Campfire Cooking in Another World
Alongside three other heroes, Mukouda Tsuyoshi was transported to a fantasy world to save a kingdom.
However, it becomes very apparent that he was summoned as a mistake when the only skill he has is to be able to open an interface to purchase food items from modern Japan.
Kicked out into the world, Tsuyoshi sets out into the world and his ability to make delicious dishes soon pays off. He attracted the attention of legendary wolf Fenrir who enjoyed the meal so much that he forms a pact with him to be his familiar.
Now employed as a merchant and adventurer, he travels and cooks to earn a living.
Both Reborn as a Vending Machine and Campfire Cooking in Another World are about pleasant and often food-focused adventures. Both series follow main characters that aren’t fighters, but have companions that protect them dutifully in return for tasty treats.
Unlike Reborn as a Vending Machine which is just hyping up vending machine products, Campfire Cooking in Another World is hyping up Japanese ingredients and dishes. It is actually quite detailed when it comes to the act of cooking.
Farming Life In Another World
After dying of an illness, Machio Hiraku is given the opportunity to reincarnate into another world.
The god grants him a healthy body and his wish to live peacefully. Machio also asks if he can have a talent for agriculture in hopes that he can live a more fulfilling life.
The god grants him all this as well as the ability to summon a farming tool that can turn into any agricultural tool he needs, including one that makes any seeds he can think of.
Machio is sent in the middle of a forest full of dangerous creatures. Without any civilization in sight, he makes his own small farm that slowly accumulates residents that wander the woods.
Both Reborn as a Vending Machine and Farming Life in Another World are pleasant isekai anime about main characters that find happiness and fulfillment in their new lives. Furthermore, they are both about those main characters doing that by either helping or building their community.
That said, while they are innately different in that Boxxo is just being a vending machine and Machio is a farmer, Farming Life in Another World is unashamedly a harem. The village is almost exclusively female, but it isn’t lewd about it.
Sweet Reincarnation
Without realizing his dream of making the world’s best pastry, a promising pastry chef suddenly dies. However, he is reincarnated into a new world as the young noble, Pastry Mille Morteln.
Although he is the eldest son of an impoverished country lord, he is determined to still follow his dreams of being a pastry chef even in his new life. Now, he balances fulfilling expectations as an aristocrat while also gathering all the ingredients he needs to make wonderful confections as he builds his dream kingdom of sweets.
Reborn as a Vending Machine is to vending machine products what Sweet Reincarnation is to pastries. Both series are isekai anime about the main characters offering up wondrous treats from our world, and people in their new world being delighted by them.
While both series actually share a similar silliness about them, Sweet Reincarnation does actually have the main character being a good leader for his people.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Reborn as a Vending Machine, Now I Wander the Dungeon? Let fans know in the comments section below.
