Ben-To

Times are hard, and in these days of global economic crisis and recession more and more people have joined the hunt to find the best bargains. As with anything in life though, experience is what counts, and veterans in the ways of saving money will usually have the upper hand in the war of the aisles. While there are a few young hotshots who have a natural talent for finding a store's bargain products, the truth is that wherever there are discounted groceries, there will undoubtedly be kings and queens who rule over them.

Now it may sound as though that whole paragraph is nothing more ... than a flowery representation of Ben-Tou, Asuara's light novel series (and its anime and manga adaptations), about Satou You, a highschool student who unwittingly becomes embroiled in an all-out brawl between people wanting half-price ready meals, but that's actually incorrect. Surprisingly, it's more akin to the reality of discount shopping than most people think, but while there's generally a lot of shoving, actual combat is ... uncommon.

Ben-Tou has a relatively simple storyline that isn't encumbered with complex philosophical questions or existential uncertainties. The plot is straightforward, but very typically shounen in its repetitiveness and predictability, which may explain why there are attempts towards the end of the series to add a layer of depth to the narrative. Unfortunately it doesn't really work as the show spends too much time trying to be funny, justifying all out brawls in grocery stores (which never seem to attract the attention of the police), and servicing hormone crazed teenagers.

The sad thing is that Ben-Tou has potential as a concept, but when it comes to execution the author, and then everyone else, seem to have left their artistic sensibilities by the wayside. There are some genuinely good flashes of inspiration in the narrative that come about because of the fact that each territory is "ruled" by the strongest fighter (or "wolf"), in that area. Sadly these sparks of inspiration never really amount to anything, and the anime becomes little more than a parade of characters, brawls, inane comedy and pointless fanservice.

Given that this is supposed to be an action anime, one would assume that the emphasis would be on making the combat scenes look good, but unfortunately that isn't the case. The characters are decent enough, but the reliance on stereotypes can make some viewers think that the designers lacked imagination. In addition to that, the settings for many of the show's fight scenes are grocery stores, so it's remarkable that the post-battle shop floors remain unscathed. The animation quality is fairly reasonable, but it's not up to the standard that David Production are capable of (they made Tatakau Shisho: The Book of Bantorra), and the series can sometimes look like a rush job (which may explain the unusual postures and the odd jumps and glitches).

The opening sequence features the song "Live for Life: Ōkamitachi no Yoru" by Manami, an upbeat rock song set against a backdrop of character introductions, action and fanservice that make a surprisingly accurate presentation of the show's content. There's also an additional introduction for episode four that focuses on Shaga Ayame while "Treasure" by Kato Emiri plays out in the background. The melodic ballad used for the ending theme, "Egao no Housoku" by Ise Mariya, serves as a nice counterpoint to each episode, and the rather placid sequence fits well with the idea that it's a post-battle scene.

As for the rest of the music, although the series is well served in the variety of pieces on offer, the usage of particular tracks can seem a little repetitive.

Ben-Tou likes to wear its shounen heart on its sleeve, so the dialogue is filled with juvenile sentiment and lots of shouting. Like almost every other action/harem/comedy/fanservice anime out there, the script is a little too reliant on familiarity with the genre, but within that there are a few decent little deviations from the norm (mainly about fighting for discounted food). Unfortunately the acting is pretty much what one would expect from this type of show - lots of effort and not much actual skill, but maybe that's to be expected. The four leads have little experience with serious roles, which isn't an indictment of their abilities, but rather an observation about the anime industry's propensity for churning out mediocre titles that cater to the minority of fans.

Seriously, stop wasting talent. It's too hard to come by.

In true shounen fashion the characters are about as one-dimensional as they come, and there's very little in the way of refinement throughout the series. That said, the main focus of the story isn't to develop each person, but rather to put them in situations where the warrior mentality can be prominently displayed. Unfortunately it doesn't work out that way as Ben-Tou is a veritable who's who of stereotypes, and pretty much every trait and personality associated with genre are on display, especially the wishy-washy lead male - Satou You. The problem is that viewers may become too familiar with a character's behaviour outside of combat, so watching them fight can often raise several questions, the main one being why does someone who is supposedly capable keep getting slapped around by Shiraume Ume.

Like many harem lead males, Satou You seems to be a bit of a masochist.

As a concept, Ben-Tou has some merit, but somewhere along the way a decision was made to try and appeal to a specific fanbase, and that's what ultimately lets the show down. The addition of multiple love-interests, inane comedy, innuendo and fanservice seem tacky at best, and can often feel more like hasty additions to the plot. Although there is some entertainment value in the series, this is mainly due to the fact that audiences can watch this as though it was a half-decent action movie.

The truth is that Ben-Tou could have held up a mirror to the real-life tribulations of discount shopping, but sadly the show fails to realise its potential because it tries too hard to jump on the harem/comedy bandwagon, and this gets in the way of it being a true parody.

The end of this 12 episode anime has been aired, now we look forward to next' season's anime with similar twist than this, nuff said, so..............Hummmmmmmmm, If one is to look at this 12 episode anime the 1st thing that would come to mind is "BLACK FRIDAY," yes it's a day after memorial day in the US where a few overruns would be sold on a special discount and surly chaos follows when every last customer would duke out for it. In this anime's case, this is something where the author takes of something that happens in real life and make it really really ... elaborate. This 12 episode anime's genre which is action, comedy and martial arts did played up to it in fact everything in this anime is about those 3 said genres. So for the story I'll give it a "Fair" number 6, since there is no plot in it and everything is focus on a few pieces of discounted TV dinners- which by the way is called "Bento" in Japan but the entertaining part is when all hell breaks lose for a pack of rabid wolves out to get a cheap meal.

Art: Mediocre 5.

Don't ask, I always rate it like that.

Sound: Good 7.

I like the female sieyus who did the voices of the main female casts, I like that the voice of Satou is the same sieyu who also voiced Aki from "Baka to test," co'z it really does play well as a moron for the said character, I like the opening theme, but I hate the closing.

Character: Good 7.

I like the way the characters are compared to that of a canine hierarchy, since that's what the author projects them otherwise they won't be called "Wolves."

So who are they:

Oshiroi Hana- In the opening she called "The Muscle Cop," but actually she a blogger with a steady stream of fans, by canine standards she's a wimpy fox, just like one she follows the pack ( in this case it is the members of the half price food lovers club) but stays in the shadows and takes advantage of the chaos to silently steal some of the prize (referring to the bento) , I kinda hate it when she makes no effort to resist Shiraume Ume's sexual advances, either she enjoys it or she can't.

Satou You- Somewhere in the mid part of the 12 episode anime he was given the moniker "Hentai," I hate it when his character is a dichotomy that's because he's willing to duke out with his cousin Ayame during bento brawls but is chicken to duke out with Ume . By canine reference he's a mongrel, in the 12th episode, it is establish that he has feelings for Sen. Then again, one might say that the comedy genre is him.

Yarizui Sen- one of the top wolves in the bento brawling business, who goes by the moniker "Ice Witch" which is taken from some popular sports drink, she the president of the Half Price Food Lovers Club and she only has 2 members, one is a mongrel (Satou) and another a wimpy fox (Hana). I kinda like that she contributes a lot to the Martial Art genre of this anime.

Chapatsu- I like the way her body is drawn and also being in a bento brawl as well, but I will never understand as to why the author of this anime only focuses on her body, but has forgotten to give this hot character a face.

Shaga Ayame- Well, I like it that she severs as a fine fanservice of in this anime, since the way she's drawn really makes her hot. l like it that her role is that of a former Gabrielle Ratchet gang, goes by the moniker "Beauty by the Lake," since this anime has a small harem element in it, she kinda fills the void of a sister with a brother complex with Satou, actually they're cousin who attend different schools. She one unusual bento brawler co'z she uses chopsticks as her weapon, which is kinda lame for a white wolf like her.

Sawagi Kyo sisters- both are members of the student council from Ayame's school, both came from a well off family, whom are into bento brawling for fun and it is nice that they are added since this anime won't be complete without a rich girl (or girls) who is bored and is looking for some action kind of thing.

Shiraume Ume- a student council president from Satou's school, who has hots for Hana and has rage for Satou, her beating up the poor muchacho (satou) more like adds to someone who is a unlikeable character in this anime.he also some one whom I wish that the Ice Witch would duke out with. By canine standards she can be considered a Guard Dog since she's very possessive of Hana and the muchacho happens to be her attack dummy. Like Ayame, she also provides some fanservice to this anime.

So, since it is the chiquitas who are the main focus of the action genre, such rating is deserving for them, actually the rating is for the chiquitas (female leads).


Enjoyment and overall: Fair 6.

The enjoyment of this anime is focus more on the action and martial arts genre than the comedy regardless of how predictable it is. There is no plot here and the story is too simple, for a 12 episode anime like this where everything revolves around scrambling for few pieces of discounted TV dinners may seems stupid, the elaborate fighting thing that goes with it is "Fair" enough to provide some entertainment..


The end

Time for my TV dinner were I got it for a 20% discount from the grocer.

It is no doubt in this era of globalization, everything was expensive not to mention food. When an item gets cut then there is the seizure of the goods, who is faster then he is getting is the impact of the globalization era.
Asaura ingenuity of the author of Ben-series To the theme of the impact of the current era of globalization and does not doubt that everything will be cheap and satisfying game and more great stuff again from Asaura is the theme of youth in the spotlight in this series because it nomads are independent teenager or a period in which they need saving ... and accurate details in order to survive.
Ben-To is the theme of the anime bento already struggle to get the discount. The struggle here is a fight between members of the bento with street fighting self defense for those who get a discount that is labeled "honor" gained the nickname of wolves while they are merely subordinate and earned the nickname of the discount food fight over the dog. So many conflicts in the anime and the development of the more interesting story.
Story: 6/10
In terms of story, this anime has the unique power of ideas and made good at exploring the discount, it is in today's all that certain discounts and cheaper it would be a bone of contention even though the rest of the stuff and that's the power of this anime but it's unfortunate that a plot was made impressed imposed proven easy and classic stories, seem boring because there is no social relationships between the characters and the look seemed only a matter of bento in their minds.

Art: 8/10
This is the advantage of this anime, Art presented seems so strong, especially in the bento proved to exist in each episode presented bento is always different and look so delicious when seen, as detailed in drawing food. Not only is it a picture of the character is also very strong in the anime where there is a lot of female characters and everything can be spelled "Kawai" Yarizui especially the main character who can make the audience fall in love.

Sound: 6/10
It is also a weakness of this anime, the soundtrack is presented not so inspiring and the lack of sound when there is a moment of action characters. However, if the observed soundtrack lyrics are presented to illustrate the story of this anime here the rest is.

Character: 6/10
Unfortunately the character of this anime, in which the main character in the plot to be Yarizui that figure fails Kudere played and impressed looks like a normal High School girl who likes to talk and look serious when describing the characters who figure Kudere quiet, mysterious and compelling. Not only are there other weakness is apparent lack of chemistry between the characters prove to all the characters seem to walk alone, look Yarizui that only focus on the bento discount regardless of the friends around him, too terobsesu Oshiroi by Satou to be a novel without knowing Satou Satou figures more closely and the appear to struggle alone get a discount bento without any cooperation among members of the club. But the pull of the character here is the development of each character and leads to a strong friendship.

Enjoyment: 6/10
I enjoyed this anime is less so because there are so many factors "Impossible" from the anime where the previously weak Satou suddenly seem so strong and can beat all his enemies, wounds that do not make sense when there is so badly needed at least one week of healing and the worse they think of themselves is an animal who only think of only lust.

Overall: 6
Since I focus on the story, then the value that I think is pretty good for a short anime series and I think there should be no sequel of this anime

The premise for this show. That being said, it was pretty enjoyable. There’s something kind of really hilarious watching high schoolers Street Fighter-it-out for half priced, convenient store bento boxes. (Ew…)

From an technical standpoint it looks kind of generic. I like that the characters are all recognizable, but the animation is only okay. You can tell that most of the effort was put into the battle scenes, and even then there are short cuts. But they were good short cuts, clever effects and angles and timing made the fights appear dynamic and exciting to watch. The music was also all over the place—I remember hearing ... something resembling African tribal music as well as Italian opera—but in it’s strange goofy way, it also fit the sort of survival of the fittest, overly dramatic approach these high schoolers take to getting their discount meals.

Character-wise, our main character, Yo Sato, is that stock male character you see in harem anime—pretty average looking, sort of a weenie, not too unique or memorable; the kind where all the girls have unreasonable crushes on him for no apparent reason. Heck, even his brawler name is ‘Pervert’. He deviates from the stereotype a little bit--he gets some character development and the girl he likes also likes him back for legitimate reason.

The other members of the harem are all bento brawlers. ‘The Ice Witch’, Sen Yarizuri, is one of the strongest fighters around, very stern and detached, mostly because she doesn’t know much else aside from her survival of the fittest wolf mentality. Yo’s cousin, Ayame Shaga, is known as the ‘Beauty by the Lake’—there’s not really much to her (but she does use chopsticks in battle :D). The last is Hana Oshiroi who nicknames herself ‘The Muscle Cop.’ She was by far the most enjoyable character in the series; easily excitable and into writing yaoi erotic fiction who wins her bento by sneaking in and taking it while everybody else is brawling. There are other trope-y charcters, including the little moe girl who’s pure evil and the domineering lesbian student body president...

The show is unabashedly fanservicey. Not really my thing, but I understand why it’s there. It never really got in the way of anything in the show, so I was fine with it.

What I did like was the Darwinian theory that sort of plays in and how it does allow for some character development in our lead. He rises from dog to wolf and comes to understand that it’s not just about half priced meals, but it’s about honor and dignity and all that.

I supposed if I could sum up to someone what anime is in a 12 episode anime series, this would be the one I would recommend. It’s got the typical stereotypes, fighting, naked girls, but it was legitimately entertaining and funny and did put it’s spin on it with it’s unique premise.

Don't get me wrong -- I wasn't going into Ben-To expecting a masterpiece. But based on other reviews I was expecting it to be a comedy. I mean, it is, to some extent. The premise is entirely absurd, and the show is very self-aware, so there is something comedic to the whole thing in that sense. But I thought there would be actual ha-ha-ha, laugh-out-loud funny gags in it; there weren't.

Well, OK, to be fair, there is *ONE* scene in episode 8 -- BOKU NO SATURN!!!!!! -- that actually made me chuckle, but by and large I spent the entire series waiting for the show ... to get funny and it never did. None of the characters lean quite far enough into their tropes for it to be parody, so everything mostly falls flat.

There are some not-bad fight scenes (episode 10 comes to mind) and some bento descriptions that did make my mouth water, but really nothing to take note of. I'm not even sure I would classify it as mindless entertainment at this point. I didn't really hate it and I wasn't really super bored, so I'm not gonna say it was bad, but I think there's plenty of other anime I would rank above Ben-To as far as mindless entertainment or stupid comedy goes. I recommend skipping it unless you're really into the character design.

While the concept of the show was something iv'e never heard before, i found the whole thing to be rather mediocre.
The story was typical of a shonen, nothing that special. It's the setting that really makes this show stand out. The ludicrousness of people beating each other up for half-priced lunches was quite enjoyable. I especially liked how the characters took it so seriously. Unfortunantly, the characters were nothing special. They were all basic archetypes. I felt they might've been trying to make fun of the common anime archetypes but i fail to see where they ... put any satire in.
The art style was nothing special but i enjoyed the animation quite a bit. It was nicely colored and very fluid. The fights were beautifully animated and easy to follow! Very nice on the eyes! The music i found a bit lacking. When it wasn't the standard J-pop it was this weird auto-tuned stuff that really did not appeal to me. However, it did a good job at setting the mood and i can forgive a lot for that.
There were a few things in this show that rubbed me the wrong way. The fact that the only lesbian character is portrayed as a cold, heartless molester defiantly is no good. There are scenes where characters are clearly being touched in ways that they do not like and these scenes are framed in a funny or sexy manner. This is not okay and it really just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
However, despite its flaws the show can be quite enjoyable in parts. If you're into silly shonens with boobies bouncing all over the place, i'd say give it a watch.

I’m not really sure what attracted me Ben-to. I think I noticed an advert on my Facebook from Manga UK. The premise sounded pretty ridiculous but for some reason I was interested to see how it would turn out.
Ben-to is basically a group of high school students battle for half priced Ben-to. Driven by hunger and the desire to acquire the best Ben-to of the day they fight out every night in the supermarket. That's about as deep as it gets in terms of story. In fairness Ben-to never tries to be anything more that all out crazy action.

We are introduced to the main ... character Sato Yo a boy who loves Sega and lives on a tight budget. This forces him to go to the supermarket one night where he spots a man putting half price stickers on Ben-to. As soon as he tries to get one all hell breaks loose and he is knock out by a girl known as the Ice Witch. She is the president of the Half Priced Food club and eventually he decides to join.
From this point on he becomes a ‘Wolf’ and competes with other wolves for half priced food. We are introduced to other character such as the ‘Beauty by the lake’ and even gets his own nickname ‘The Freak’ (due to several unfortunate incidents).

The story is wafer thin and usually revolved around turf wars in certain areas of the city east & west. The main character is your typical male anime lead, who seems to spend most of his time getting slapped silly by the class president or playing SEGA when he’s not fighting for Ben-to.

Despite the one dimensional characters most episodes manage to hold you attention to some fantastic fight scenes. These are made even more exciting by a great soundtrack which really give extra energy to fight. The animation is great and flows well during fight scenes. The characters are fairly standard and are a bill on the plain side. There is a bit of fan service but it usually involves the class president sexually harassing other girls. I don’t mind fan service as a whole but it just feels like they have added it for the sake of it.

I found Ben-to quite entertaining but at the same time it’s quite a shallow experience. There is little in the way of character development and at times it’s hard to believe the lengths people will go to get half priced food. Ben-to is difficult to rate much higher that a six, but don’t be too put off. If you disengage your brain it’s perfectly enjoyable.

Lion Tamers, why do I keep getting recommendations from friends, only to be disappointed?

We deal today with something that I think should be re-done, and done right this time.

I mean to review "Ben-To".

While I enjoy writing good reviews, and I really detest writing scathing reviews; I keep having to wade though the end products of a bunch of degenerates and downright stupid writers and authors of the noble craft of Anime.

As of 9:00pm today, I have finished the twelfth episode of something that had every right to have been made into an Anime that could have pressed every one of my 'watchability buttons'. And failed ... miserably. 4.7 hours of wasted effort. After about the 5th episode I began to feel the sting of being cheated. I thereafter became increasingly certain, until the final curtain of this miserable piece of non-art, and finally surrendered into outright rage.

I'm not even going to waste my time rating the parts of the Anime, that most people expect, because Ben-To and its' authors don't respect the public well enough to even do a decent job of their own product. School life done as a failure of everything civilized. Romance done completely wrong. Hatreds with sincere outcomes, failed. They couldn't even succeed at a decent form of hentai. Even that too, was botched.

I'll only say this; the sound was adequate, the music at least was not J-PoP (something some of you know I despise), the artwork tolerable, and the story which had promise could have been okay. But the production team blew it, by going for what they thought would attract a younger demographic, which is foolish. It's the parents that have the money, and most of them will not tolerate their children watching this kind of silly, uneducated, and pointless tripe.

Now that I've done my best to show the stuff I was not enraged by, I can discuss Ben-To with the outright rage that this 'product' deserves.
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The entire purpose of Ben-To was to encourage young teenagers to think that causing a riot within a grocery store for discount boxed-lunch, is tantamount to honorable samurai or Jedi conduct. Which it isn't.

Let's look angrily at the facts;

1). The school these kids go to, and several others, supplies breakfast, but nothing else; as part of their dormitory functions. Students who have meager money therefore find the search for cheap rations a near necessity. Which leads many to get involved in a poker-game known as 'Wolf'ing; which means becoming a brawler in the context of multiple person bare-knuckle riots. This brings about the multiple injuries of several of the main characters, and many minor characters.

That of course leaves the losers weaker than they started because they don't get enough to eat. Survival of the fittest, within the context of civilized high-school life. Does anybody really like this picture?

But in the end, reality never reaches the consciousness of the authors, or the viewer. Hidden in all the Bushido (intentional rhyme with a mangled word that I never use in public), is the plain fact, that the only reason fresh food is discounted, is because it's fresh food. If the store doesn't do so, or waits until it is too late; the food will spoil and be thrown away as a health hazard. 'God of Discounts'? Really? Is that as good as the authors could do?

School is supposed to be a place of quiet reflection, studious endeavor, and relaxed striving for academic excellence. One then makes their own challenges. Having to add the severe injuries of the previous night to this list of condensed milk makes Jimmy and Jane dull people; in class and outside of class. Not to mentioned the obvious bruises on the face, body and appendages.

These points, lead us to a recognition of the voyeurism of a prize fight, in the wrong setting.

2). Considerations of threats.
What does the viewer think is going to happen to the combatants when they get thrown or punched into a isle shelf, or a marketing display, or worse destroy a cooler full of high-priced meats; and of course, splatter it all over the store? Sweetness and light, from the store owner? Of course, we never see any outcome at all.

What will happen, because of these riots, when the police show up? '... it's okay, we'll see you people tomorrow night? ...'. The police never show up.

Making friends with fellow combatants, has a lot of personal problems for our hapless heros, doesn't it? Wanna bet some of the competing girls will feel like dating the guys that just broke every bone in their face? We never see the consequences of these brawls, because everything is sweetness and light. Besides, Samurai Nobility is at the heart of knocking the duck excrement out of your best friends, right? How could anybody hold that against anybody else?

A female Student Body President (Shiraume Ume) that takes a severe dislike to our male hero (You Sato), because he has a way of talking her girlfriend (Hana Oshiroi) out of lesbian fun, to the extent of her getting hot and bothered by pictures of men, and writing about them; ends in our hero getting the crud kicked out of him by our President. Repeatedly.

Mainly because nobody will touch her, oh I dunno, how about a good swift kick behind the knees and then proceeding to break every bone in her face seems only reasonable. After all, she leaves him in severe bruises and beatings, repeatedly, for no earned reason.

This is what passes for the rare recurring humor in the show. There are some minor bits, involving Ayame Shaga and her attempts at seduction of You Sato, and the running gags involving the irrepressible Asebi Inoue, who always has a cold, and always has this ability to laugh about the spilt milk involving a permanent bad-luck spree.


But waiting in the wings of this play, but never really allowed on stage, is the obvious romantic interest of Sen Yarizui for You Sato. Why not? The show is already botched, why not jump in with both feet and finish at least one thing in the huge list of unfinished disasters? But no, the producers wasted their time, and mine.

Look folks, I wanted to like this show, but was just plain disenchanted by the constant non-retaliatory strikes against people nobody hated, or ever would. Why not? Some of the characters actually did deserve to get their mutton chopped. Cosmic Justice is sometimes the right thing to do. Several people should have had their stuffing punched into oblivion, and we never got to see that happen. It was all just good fun right?

The following earned and needed severe beatings: Shiraume Ume, the Sawagi Sisters. The following should have earned bare-bottom spanking with a two-by-four: Ayame Shaga. The following should have gotten personal relationship training, nobody should have to put up with repeated forcible lesbian rape (after Shiraume Ume got put in the hospital): Hana Oshiroi.

Virtually every one of our school student body's of several schools (involved in the nightly riots), and both sides of town; should be arrested, and be charged as an adult, convicted of serious rioting, and jailed for long prison sentences. That would have stood as reality. But this a very bad form of fantasy.

So I finish a lousy review of a lousy show, that if this had never seen the light of day, would never have forced me to write such a lousy review. There is nothing here to grab onto and like.

There is no heart, no soul, no joy, no laughter, no honor, no comedy, no tragedy, no sense of anything of importance lost, nothing of importance ever gained; and most of all no sense of real theatre.

Satoshi Adachi, is the Executive Producer of this masterpiece of macabre garbage, and therefore needs a severe horse-whipping.

I give this nonsense a weak 5.

I really enjoyed this anime and I would have scored it higher but for one thing. The writers made a gargantuan mistake towards the end which rendered everything that went before it completely pointless.

I'm sure everyone knows by now that this anime is about a group of students who choose to do battle over half-priced packed lunches in the supermarkets. It's a novel idea and an interesting one. It certainly caught my interest and I was thoroughly enjoying it, right up until that woeful bit of writing at the end.

Early on, the writers went to great lengths to make it clear that ... there's two types of people who fight for ben-to. Some fight in groups, or packs, and are known as dogs. Others fight alone and are known as wolves. It's made abundantly clear to the viewer that being a wolf is what matters. Wolves fight with honour and are the true legends of these battles. Dogs, we're led to believe are lesser mortals. An excellent point and they explained it well. Then it all went south.

Towards the end, without giving too much away, a pair of siblings turn up and join in the battles. They fight as a team and use baskets as weapons. In keeping with what the writers had informed us, this therefore should make them dogs as they fight as a team. Dishonourable dogs at that, because they use weapons which is cheating. Alas, no. The last few episodes are very much about the fact that these cheating siblings must be accepted as they're the best wolf; and any wolf should always welcome the challenge of beating the best. Now, hang on! Of course they're the best, there's two of them and they use weapons. They're dogs. The writers seemed to miss this however. They were written in purely as wolves even though they fail to fit the show's own definition of what a wolf is. They do however, match the shows description of what dogs are. To make matters even more bewildering, at one point the siblings decided to dub two of the males wolves "two dogs", an attempt at a nickname. Not once did it occur to the writers that in that situation at least of one them would have said, "That's rich coming from you."

I watched the last few episodes in the hope that it wasn't a mistake and something might be revealed to let us know why these two obvious dogs were being heralded as the ultimate wolf but it didn't happen. The writers had simply set up guildelines for us to understand then ignored them and wrote something that didn't fit. That bewildering oversight pretty much ruined it for me. I was very much enjoying it until then. I'd still recommend people watch it but I'd advise them to pretend the siblings are actually one person and overlook their use of baskets as weapons. If you can do that, you'll enjoy this show immensely.

If you're hungry for a quick, no-frills meal of ecchi-based action, look no further than this 12-course filler. In the world of ben-to, inflation has apparently gone so high that normal students can no longer afford meals (bento boxes). However, craving the delectable combination that each succulent box contains, the students lurk nightly in grocery chains awaiting each store's half-price god. However, as supply is much shorter than the demand at that rate, a fair means must be used to ensure that everyone have a shot at the boxes. Thus, the honorable system used by "wolves" (fighting) is employed by bookworms, jocks, and vixens to ... all brawl (in the store) for the chance to walk away with a tasty victory.

This series seems to mix in some ingredients from other shows. The main protagonist is nicknamed "hentai" as he often ends up naked or becomes otherwise illogically undressed in a similar fashion to Keita in Inukami, and the series throws in an over-sized portion of random jargon and terminology (as well as nicknames for everyone) similar in scale to that used in Hidan no Aria.

The almost mockingly ironic premise is hilariously implausible; pretty much just an excuse for lots of fighting and occasional ecchi. But if that's all you need to satisfy your hunger, then this fairly light series that goes nowhere might just be the right combo meal for you.

Animation:
The overall animation is fairly average for your run of the mill show, but some of the backgrounds are indeed eye candy. For instance, I was quite impressed by the level of detail in the supermarkets (all the products on the shelves...). The color palette is ever so slightly under saturated though hardly noticeable. Character styling isn't anything particularly special though I question whether some of the outfits are really what they ought to be wearing during fighting... I did find it quite hilarious that they had actual Virtua Fighter 2 sequences in the show as I wasted quite a bit of my youth in that game.

There is substantial blood at times, coupled with a magical, computer-game like recovery speed (considering that wolves fight nightly). There is substantial action though for the most part it's just a lot of punching with the occasional "shroud of darkness" where a special attack is so potent that the drawer apparently couldn't keep up. The battle scenes are nothing spectacular and are comparable with a lot of other harem-ish fighting series such as the fairly recent Majikoi. To be honest, most of the time it's just the protagonist getting beaten to a pulp or otherwise being abused by other characters. As for ecchi, clothes here aren't made from seaweed sheets so it's limited to intentional breast->face attacks and a lot of bouncy bits. The series focuses more on indirect ecchi such as a special bento box in the shape of two omlette rice portions with a bit of the stem and top of two red peppers to top it off. The only one really getting any "exposure" is the main character, reminds me way too much of Inukami.

Sound:
The OP is a typical, fitting rock-based song though the melody doesn't really whet my appetite. The ED is a more mellow melody that fits well with a food coma. The BGM varies from a Amazon theme for Shiraume to electric guitars for fighting wolves. It fits fine though some of the supermarket theme songs are quite hilarious as they try to brainwash unsuspecting shoppers.

VAs were fair overall with some having heartier roles than others. No one was a super standout in this series as there are way too many characters in general.

Story:
For a series with a harem's worth of girls and a supposed focus on action, they really could have done a lot better here. I felt like I was promised a grand meal and ended up with one of those diet 100-calorie chip packets.

The story follows our hopelessly hungry protagonist as he gets introduced as a "wolf" and joins his "parent", sempai Yarizui, as they "hunt" for their prey. It's divided into two meals/arcs, the first one about a dude from the other side of town trying to satisfy his ego and the second one about twins who have to come to grips with their past. Each of the two arcs feel more like plateaus with the intensity of eating plain konnyaku as there's so little back story that you really can't help but not care about what's going on. Perhaps it also is related to the illogical nature of the premise as I just couldn't take much of anything seriously (strength through hunger, right...).

Think of the plot as just a means to bring about additional battles and pointless beatings of the protagonist. I don't think they even bothered to give the series any form of conclusion either.

Character:
This is like an angry fruit salad. You have a sadistic yuri, a macho-loving writer, a masochistic dude that secretly worships the protagonist, busty European relatives, and a bunch of emotionally-stunted girls to name a few. Not only are there way too many ingredients in ben-to, but many of these are random side character dishes. There are at least a dozen characters introduced with a seemingly-important title that you can practically remove from the story with no impact whatsoever. Unfortunately, the series spends a lot of time on these supporting characters that actually don't support much at all, so much so that it detracts from learning about the important primary characters.

Or maybe the supporting characters are just there to give some flavoring to the main entree as all the primary characters here are completely static save the main character. And his only development is somehow gaining Saiyan powers and miraculously growing from a wimp to a person who can beat other "legendary" wolves within a matter of months (including many trips to the hospital- which obviously would have dented his insufficient funding even further).

This means that if you're looking for any relationships (other than virtual in the mind of Oshiroi) you ought to look elsewhere as they get further in even Majikoi than they do here.

Value:
To use a fitting metaphor, don't expect a full-service Sashimi dinner out of this one; it's only a bentou. While there is enough going on to keep you from falling asleep, it's not going to wow you into a second serving. Overall a fairly plain series, you can find better in this genre elsewhere. The primary value (or negative value) in this series is that it will make you fat/forever hungry as the characters talk incessantly about food. The secondary value in the series is the ridiculousness of the scenario. I'd pass this ben-to for a quicker cup noodle thank you very much.

So much potential wasted.

Ben-To has a very strong opening. The first three episodes did a great job world building, setting the tone, developing likeable characters, and delivering on high-octane corner-market warfare. And those 3 episodes are arguably the only ones worth watching.

I suppose up to episode six, the show at least performs tolerably, but past that, the production falls apart.

The simplest way to explain: In the second half of the show, about 5 out of the 6 fights that occur aren't shown. Yup. They just don't show them. Including the finale fight that the last few episodes build up to ... (I guess they show about a quarter of the final fight, but not the part that matters).

For the most part it's just: "Lets do this! Yeah!"
Insert freeze frame of people charging, fade to black, show aftermath.

This is what most of the fights amount to in the second half, except for one.


Aside from that, the fanservice is completely over the top, and not even in a fun way. Believe me, I'm not one to complain about fanservice. Some people hate it, I think it's just fine. But in this show, it's so gratuitous and poorly done that it actually was uncomfortable. I just wanted to watch people fight in grocery stores. I don't want to see one of the characters forcibly give another a bath for 3 minutes straight of screen time.

Honestly if I was going off of the first three episodes only, I'd give this show a 9/10. It was funny, exciting, well animated, and well written.

After that, I imagine the production lead was like: "Yo... what are you guys doing? This is actually good. You're supposed to be shooting for a 5/10 rating with this show. No more fight scenes. Stop focusing on the interesting characters. Jam the screen full of tits. Where are the filler episodes? I got a fever, and the only prescription, is more filler!"

Overall: 5/10

Watch the first three episodes, then drop it. That's my recommendation.

Single season anime based on light novels are a dime a dozen, enough of them having come out in the past five years to oversaturate the market with mediocrity. That said, I’ve found that around eighty or ninety percent of these anime are given the same score by me. Every time I give this sort of anime a solid six out of ten. And I know I’ve just spoiled the entire review in the first paragraph now, but I feel that it’s worth discussing how light novels influence anime and anime produced about light novels are so boringly adequate. Light novels themselves are typically badly ... written scripts for anime, thrown together in book form with the occasional illustration. That isn’t the case with many (Spice and Wolf and Haruhi Suzumiya are among the very few light novels I can recommend) but the ones that get turned into anime are very often that way. The Devil is a Part Timer, Aria the Scarlet Ammo, Ben-To, Haiyore! Nyaruko-San. And let me iterate that all of these have good ideas behind them. The devil works at McDonalds, a high school for detectives, people battling for half-priced bento boxes, Lovecraftian horrors come to Earth as cute girls. But each and every one of these is executed poorly beyond that good idea. Most of them contain a very boring main male lead who we as an audience are supposed to put ourselves in the shoes of. Which is how these anime and light novels succeed: they’re fantasy simulators. If you make the lead character the most boring, characterless person possible, the male viewer or reader can stick himself in the role.

The problems being, beyond that, these anime have no savory components. The initial idea is typically very inventive or funny, but the execution is flawed beyond that. Aside from the main lead comes a cast of varied females, the more the merrier (and the more varied, the more male viewers). The plot plods along, introducing new arcs every few episodes to keep the viewer engaged. But, by four or five episodes in, the series has lost the initial pleasure and its’ existence becomes merely arbitrary.

Thus, Ben-To. How can a guy write nine novels (so far) around the concept of battles taking place in Japanese supermarkets for the half priced bento boxes sold before close? Especially when an anime that covers two of the novels overstays its’ welcome? The first episode and the initial revelation that this is an anime about mosh-pit style brawls over half priced lunch boxes is absolutely hilarious and clever. But then it keeps going, introducing gangs and federations that band together to fight for the bento, then twins who are so powerful no one can beat them. That’s the extent of the plot. This weak plot is padded with the prerequisite pool episode that further exemplifies the generic quality. It’s almost like these anime are factory made, though with a small difference in the mold to fit the plot or characters better.This generecism is further compounded with the tsundere, the kuudere, the yaoi-obsessed sex fiend, the lesbian, the incestuous twins, and the dorky klutz characters who round out a cast cut and pasted from many other series of the same quality.

That said, Ben-To can be enjoyable. It’s definitely occasionally funny and the fight scenes are well animated and better than anime with four times Ben-To’s budget. At the same time, the animation is still pretty cheap and generic, managing to make the girls cute as hell but not make anything else stand-out. And while the animation plays to the girls’ benefit, it’d help if the script and character development made these cute girls memorable. Rather than build up any of the characters, it decides to instead subject us to pointless lesbianism, a lot of worthless episodes and fights, and pretty much two arcs that could be resolved in one episode but are instead spread out like a pea sized glob of butter over toast.

It’s the kind of anime I can easily dismiss if I wanted to. It’s an easy target to abuse. But at the same time, it’s really not that bad. In the grand scheme of things, it manages to be entertaining without being very good. It’s funny, it’s cute a lot of times, and it’s a decent way to pass a few hours. Would I suggest it? No. Would I suggest buying the recently released Blu-Ray? No. For certain people, they’ll find a lot of enjoyment in it. But I don’t see a lot of merits within. An anime can’t survive exclusively on cute characters and one good idea. As much as I love cuteness and girls in short skirts and long socks, there has to be substance beyond thighs and boobs. And that substance can come from a well-executed plot, character development, or even good comedy or world building. But Ben-To is exceptionally shallow and average in all four of those areas. It’s a good average, but good average isn’t really a compliment.

I don’t have much to say about Ben-To because it doesn’t give me much reason to say anything. And typically an anime like that can be dismissed as average. If you can’t complain about how bad it is or rave about how good it is, then it’s merely there. And that’s Ben-To in a nutshell, it’s just there.

I really liked this anime but I didn't continue after the 3rd ep... If you are ok with some slight incest vibes (hints at cousin on cousin) then you'll prolly love this. There is comedy and plot. No giant loopholes in the anime that I noticed (and for me gaping loopholes in the story ruin the anime). It's like the description says: it's just people fighting over bento boxes.

Have a good day. Get out there and be a weeb :)

P.S. anime creators pls stop putting incesty things in anime. It's not funny it just creeps me out and turns me off of the anime.

Ben-To Review
OVERALL: 6/10
PLOT: 7/10
The concept of the story is unique, honestly. However, I don't see any development in it as every episode seems to be repetitive. It is just like one boss after another. One floor after another. If you get what I mean. Well yeah, I admit that the action scenes are good and if you're the type who only want to watch an anime who fight again and again. Then you can try this. I rated it above 5 or 6 since I'm amazed on how the plot of this is unimaginable. Like for the sole purpose of getting that something, they become ... brave and fight. Maybe the message of it was if you do want something, you should fight for it.
CHARACTER: 5/10
The main character has no impact at all for me. Or it is just to cliche? The protagonists role are too common. It made me bored to watch the anime because of the character which I often see in most of the anime who have the same genre. Aside from the traits, the looks is also common. Black Hair, a masochist one, a pervert one and the like. I DON'T HATE IT. I just don't like it.
SOUND: 8/10
I don't really know how to rate sounds. But I like the opening song and the emotional song on the last episode of the series. I'm planning to download it later. The song is also exclusively for the anime, as the message of it focuses on the plot or the anime itself. The voices of the character, in my opinion, is good. I think they successfully express the emotion of the role they're trying to voice out.
ENJOYMENT: 6/10
Boringness and enjoyment is quite the same level when I watched this series. I enjoyed the fighting. And at the same time, I want to fast forward it when the fighting ends. I get the idea that even if I fast forward it, there's no significant message or scene I'd skip. But FYI, I don't skip it at all. I watched it completely.
ENDING: 6/10
This is where I burst "What?".
The ending of an action anime should be the final fight. That's for me. However, they skip the fighting and proceeded with the friendship thing. I expected something more exciting than the previous fighting episodes. I want more of the psycho face of that girl. But yeah, that's nowhere to be seen.

Ben-to is a silly action packed fighting anime with more than enough fan-service to please you and the dog.

The story happens to be as deep as bowl of ramen, but that's okay you have your high school drama and gang wars what more do you need. The characters and there silly antics will help keep you watching for all 12 episodes and wanting more. The art is nice and the music fits the anime really well. I watched the anime in Japanese and I have seen a few episodes in English, DON'T WATCH THE DUB IT'S CANCER.

Overall it's your everyday run of the mill ... harem/fighting anime 6/10

Before I write this review I would just like to state that this is my opinion and if you might agree or disagree with all of it or most of it.

Review:
Ben-To is a Japaneses lunch which in our case the main plot device in our show. I will say i enjoyed Ben-To a hell of a lot more than i should of but that still doesn't make that good. The plot doesn't really make sense but it's still better than that bland anime that people are still making carbon copies of. I think the main reason I enjoyed Ben-To so much was it's character progression. ... In this anime you start off with the MC not able to fight what so ever but eventually making a "NAME" for himself let that name be good or bad. The faults is that it has so many cliches in it I kinda lost interest in a couple of episodes. The problem is it's uniqueness didn't need as many cliches as it had made me get bored at times. The cliches in this anime vary from cliche boob girls to cliche douche bags but are caring on the inside all the way to loli that is very clumsy. See what I mean these are the token anime characters. All in all I still enjoyed the anime it was a lot of fun especially with the changing conflict. I personally suggest this anime if you have down time but it's not a drop everything and watch this kinda anime.

Waring this review may contain spoilers.

First impressions, so we got harem show where people fight for half price bento's and there is some heram shit going down sounds fun enough.
Side note a bento is a Japanese lunch box in case you didn't know that.


Story, 6/10

So bento is about the main character who goes to a shop to get himself some half price bento. But then gets his ass kicked by a girl when he try's to get one.
After that he soon learns that one doesn't just simply get himself a half price bento one must earn it though honorable combat and blood shed. ... This contest of strength and willpower is known as the bento brawl where the wolfs get to fed and the dogs go home hungry.

So to sunrise bento it pretty much about these group of people who beat the living shit out of each other for what is essentially half price food, and I thinking to myself man this is really stupid this will never work and to my amazement I find that this actually works.
Now I am not saying that this best story ever made because it's extremely simplistic in both ideas and presentation. but I think what makes it work is that it takes the battle shounen mentality and compressed it into one of the most mundane of tasks which is shopping.

This show also includes some harem/school life elements as well
And your properly thinking that it's going to be one of those things where the main character a bata male and has all these badass girls protecting him well if you thought that then your wrong because it more like they kick his ass and then he kicks there ass and they become apart of his harem so it's like a reverse Kung fu harem and the school life parts are self explanatory.

One thing I think is quite fun about this show is that
For one the characters seem to take this whole bento brawl thing very seriously. For example you got characters having monologues about honor and way of the warrior type of shit.

But a negative I got to say about it is that it really doesn't have any type of logic to it and that kind thing kind of bothered me a bit. So pretty much turn off your brain while watching this show.




Characters, 6/10

The main character can be pretty much be sum up as the normal high school student who is a bit of a pervert and likes old school games and is a bit bata male at first.
but after a while he starts becoming a bit of a badass in his own way

The side characters are pretty much two dimensional at the most.

But they are quite the interesting bunch of ....... no interesting isn't really the word I would use probably I should use the word zany so the are a zany bunch of characters.

They all have some personally even though it's really basic.




Art, 7/10

The animation was very well done it isn't at that God level of animation quality but it looks very nice.
It also has very bright colors that is uses.

It also has some very well done fight animation as well.

It has a very genneric art style that you seen it once you seen it all.

The characters designs are also generic as well.


Sound, 6/10

It has an ok op that fits the tone nicely.

It's ost to me is pretty generic. nothing really stands out about the ost.



Enjoyment, 7/10

So this show some what blowed me away of how fun this show was.

I like that it's got people fighting over stupid shit.


I also liked the really cool steet fighting.

I also found the characters to be fun as well.


Overall, 6/10

So overall if your looking a dumb fun anime then you will find bento to be one kick ass of a show. But if your the kind of person who like his shows a bit more serious and have logic behind then this show won't really be your cup of tea.

Well, I didn't expect much from this anime. It was occasionally funny but not enough humor to make me laugh a lot. The story is surely different from what I thought it would turn out to be be like but I didn't drop it because the action scenes were really nice.

To a certain extent this anime made me feel like being a part of the brawl they partake in procuring half priced bento. I'm sure not everyone can make enough money to buy good enough food at the regular selling price so this anime kept me interested enough to finish watching it.

Well if there's one ... thing this anime did to me is make me feel like I want to learn to prepare bento meals for myself and my friend. So I'm going to go ahead and do that. Overall, the anime was fine. I wouldn't watch it again, though.

Fighting bloody battles over bento boxes in the supermarket... yes! that's what this anime is about!! Honestly, when I see anime like this one, I think the manga/anime authors are running out of ideas here for their creation.

Ben-To has no story to begin with. Almost every episode is all about people (teen or adult) fighting over bento boxes at half the original price offered at various supermarkets. That's Ben-To in a nutshell.

I would have rated it lower overall, but the bloody fistfights were at least enjoyable. So I decided to score it 5/10.

If you have nothing else to do, you can watch it as a ... time pass. Otherwise, I don't recommend this anime if you're looking for something with a story.

This was recommended in a MAL article featuring "Top 15 Best Cooking Anime of All Time", I beg to disagree. That was totally misleading. Did the writer even watch this? There is nothing about cooking. This show should be on the Fans Service list instead.

80% Fan Service (Boobs, Thighs, Yuri, Sex talk), 15% Senseless Beating, 5% Bento. The MC being treated to carrot & stick (and vice versa) isn't even funny these days anymore.

It had an interesting premise about fighting for bento unfortunately its just a sorry excuse to try to make something unique. After the first few episodes, it become apparent it was ... pointless to watch anymore. Fan service is tolerable if the story and character development is good like 'Shokugeki'. This is just pure fan service in the guise of food anime.