This series opens episode one with a soundtrack that's straight-up an homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey (though calling it an "homage" might be underselling how closely it resembles the original). Plenty of people on social media were stunned, and while I have no idea why that particular track was used there or how it came to be used at all, this work is absolutely packed with homages to other anime and films. So it seems reasonable to assume it was part of that pattern, a bit of staging meant to make the milestone first episode feel grand. The series itself is often said to share a vibe with "Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill," and being a popular work with many fans, you'll also occasionally see anime fans who say it's not really to their taste. So rather than being for the type who fixate on those things, I think this work is for the type who say, "as long as it's fun, anything goes! Anime is something to enjoy with your shoulders relaxed!" In fact, I found myself watching it idly, and then on to the next, and the next, until I'd ended up watching all the way to the latest episode.
A rich variety of fantastical soundtrack cues!
The protagonist, Kenichi, is 38. The original manga started serialization in 2017 and the anime began in 2025, so there's an eight-year gap, but the soundtrack often plays tracks with the feel of the good old RPG BGM that was absolutely everywhere during the Super Famicom and early PlayStation eras, music that the generation roughly from today's late-thirties to late-forties got hooked on. The instruments used are, of course, the ones found in Celtic music, indispensable to a fantasy setting. The Irish piccolo tone in the main theme sounds like something that could play in a Tales series game, and the opening of the track "Before You Know It" and the riff in the track "Item Box" somehow evoke peak-era Square works (the former calls to mind FF5 and Chrono Trigger, the latter Seiken Densetsu / Mana series).
And this work uses a remarkably rich amount of soundtrack, to the point where you can hardly find a stretch without music. Every piece is closely tailored to its scene: a taut, strained sound in tense moments, valiant music in battle scenes, and for everyday scenes, a sense of excitement packed with the spirit of "let's live cheerfully even in an unfamiliar world!" It's never grating and is so easy on the ears. This, too, elevates the quality of Reborn as a Vending Machine as a work you can "enjoy with your shoulders relaxed."
Criticism comes with the territory for popular works, and you'll sometimes see people on social media griping about the animation falling apart or the line delivery and so on. But the right way to watch this work, or rather, the truth that anime isn't really something to watch while nitpicking such fine details, that you watch because it's purely fun and you're curious about what happens next, so you tune in again next week too, is an obvious thing that anime fans nonetheless tend to forget. I think this is a fine work that reminds us of it.
And since it was the in-show music that made me feel that way, I was reminded once again of just how powerful a soundtrack can be.
Quoted from the official site https://arafo-tsuhan.com/
