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This anime is in a lot of senses like a gun.
There are those who love them, those who see how pointless it is to make variations of crappy guns. (and the studio behind them is like a weapon manufacturer, no matter what use their product is put to they will continue spewing it as long as it turns some kind of profit)

you might say: But Bunch of wackos, this is an ONA what kind of profit could it turn.... and I say ohhh you magnificently naive reader. This anime is a 10 episodes long commercial for figures, dakimakura and gun sponsorships.

With a cool head ... let's dissect the little meat this gave us:

It has: Cute underage feminine figures, guns, and a hunky figure so the girls can feign some sort of humanity.

It lacks: A plot (the anime tries so hard to remind you that they are guns and as such they can no grow (old or up). They won't die. They have no other motivation to do their things than "we're guns pew pew"

The key part of anthropomorphizing something is making them more human, while retaining some of their inhuman characteristics, here the objective was backwards take girls and weaponize them make them immortal so its ok to show their clothes shredding.
And when people start realizing this is lame throw in some random baddies with unclear goals and no real motivation other than "I am a gun pew pew"

well there you go, and absolutely forgettable ecchi moe army otaku anime. if you are looking for pantsu there are plenty better options out there

A while back when a popular movie about a certain popular social media network was released one of the best critics it received was related to the scene where there is a code war... the comment was "the movie is so well direceted that a scene that is basically 2 guys in front of a pc feels exciting".

Well chihayafuru is so well tought that a whole series that is "basically" about people playing a memory game, is exciting, and comepeling (sorry ran out of adjetives there).

The premise is simple, but the characters make up for it, the art is clen and consistent and the ... sound does an amazing work at matching the atmosfere.

One anime that is best experienced one episode at a time, it thrives from the long exposure, as oposed to the more generic counterparts that you want to sit and get over with.

If you have not done so yet, pick it up.

Its hard to write a "review" from the first episode of a series. but I'll do my best

Ben-To takes an original spin in a very normal Japanesse custom. .

So you could say (by the broadest definition) Ben-To is inspired by reality. Of course Ben-To takes it to the next level by adding a competition component to this.

Ben-To seems to be equal parts Bukatsu and fighting/martial arts with splashes of harem thrown in for good measure (as extrapolated by the intro).

Now, the big question. Is it any good?
YES (IMHO)
...
The story: a student fighting for food will strike close to home for many... and even; will make sense...

The animation: while they cut lots of corners in the production and animation, , the fighting scenes are enjoyable. Facilitated by the obscuring of the scenes that made sense to the story.

The soundtrack is well done, fighting scenes get a quick vibrant rock sound, while school life gets soft, wind instruments. to further highlight the contrast for the characters. Also the fish sond is hilarious in the context.

The Chara- design is template. Having said this, there are small gems of character development that made me stick to the vey end.

Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi; Is the very definition of average.

_The story follows a tried and true path that was taken by dozens of animations before and probably hundreds of manga. If you are ever surprised at one of the "arcs" it must be because you just started watching anime.

_It is enjoyable, in the exact same measure a bowl of corn flakes (or other plain cereal) is enjoyable. It's a product you know; you don't think about corn flakes, It does not fill you, nor does it provide any long term sustenance. It continues to exist for the sake of going through the motions in ... your routine.

About the characters:

__At first the relationship of the siblings appears to open for oportunities to question the status quo, (Yes there is some hints to an incestous relationship between brothers.) But hoshizora quickly realizes this, and changes to a classic Harem anime. And so that no one feels challenged it comes complete with the mandatory beach, confession and shopping date scenes.

_One thing to commend: At least the main character is not totaly oblivious and dense (thank Dog for the small miracles), at least he understands how his actions affect the other charachters.

The sound:
__Both in musical score and sound effects is nothing to write home about. The BMG tries to match the rural, mountain effect, ends up being dull and lackluster.
The Seiyuu's selected for the show are mostly new voices (or at least voices with few known parts). Some have experience mainly as support characters.

_Insert songs are enjoyable, but not something you will find yourself downloading (much less buying) soon.

Overall:
This series might have been a big hit 10 years ago, now it barely blips. This series will be seen and quickly forgoten by everyone except those for whom this is their first harem.