Ben-to is a show in which people battle it out for the tastiest and the best bento boxes in numerous department stores around the city. Each part of the city is governed by a different gang and turf and the such with many people having unique nicknames based around their fighting styles and personality traits. I'd argue that one of the most interesting things about this show was precisely that - I found all of this to be incredibly fun and interesting in a stupid way. We learn that there are several customs and honours that each ben-to fighter must abide by and each character takes the art of beating the everlasting hell out of each so seriously it's comical in that sense. The insane rumours these fighters conjured up about special people, the insane nicknames given and the general stupidity of each turf war having their own insane laws and the such was a fun and dumb idea and this works very well for the first few episodes or so as we see our main character who learns the joy of beating the crap out of someone just for some cheaper ben-to.
But, while this idea does set-up a lot of possibilities into what is possible and how insane you can go with this idea, the anime suffers from two problems which I feel hold it back. The first being, as I've said, a lack of interesting characters to care for, all of which are annoying mind you, but the show's gimmick begins to wear off really quickly as they don't really do too much with this concept. Sure, there are new fighters that join which add some more history and depth about this strange fighting festival that takes place but as we travel along the show, the cool and over-the-top fights seem to take a back seat to boring character backstories which are equally generic as they're uninteresting. That's not to say that the anime doesn't have some cool looking fight scenes, it's just that many-a-time I found myself bored with the character interactions and a few times I felt kind of disappointed with a fight that had been building up for a while and had no payoff as we suddenly skip past it removing all of the dramatic tensions of the moment.
The anime suffers from the same problem I believe the currently airing Keijo does; the gimmick is so stupid at first that it's fun when you first start but the lack of interesting characters begins to drain on you the more you watch and by the end, the novelty has worn off entirely.
The biggest problem with this show is the comedy and the characters that go along with it. The main lead is kind of forgetful, as they typically are for these types of shows, and doesn't really do anything all too interesting. He develops a passion for ben-to fighting but doesn't feel like he changes throughout the story, aside from gaining some random strength despite no training and no experience in the art of fighting. Hana was a character simply defined for her love for BL, frequently writing stories involving our main character. She also has an insane lesbian stalker named Ume Shiraume who is the biggest bitch I've ever seen. She frequently beats down on the main character for no reason for the most mundane things. I expect the creators wished for me to laugh at this but all I kept wondering was why this guy kept receiving the horrible treatment that he does. He is hit, slapped and has hit clothes torn off numerous times which all felt completely unjustified as he had never done anything to warrant this treatment.
In fact, all of the characters treated him in this fashion and it just comes across as mean-spirited. As an audience, we enjoy seeing a character receive karma for something mean they've done and it feels satisfying as a result, but here, all it does is make me feel as if the characters are horrible people. There was one scene in which one of the characters threw out the guy's game console for no reason and upon attempting to rescue said console, ends up hurting himself and ends up in the hospital. Granted she does show some remorse, but not before putting him threw more agony for no reason.
The only other two characters worth mentioning is the annoying blond lead, mainly defined for her tits and the white-haired girl, only defined by her quietness. All of the characters in this show are all caricatures of anime stereotypes and none of them are unique enough to break away from this mould. When the show clearly wants us to root for one of these characters, I find it generally hard to do so as I found them all so uninteresting making the scenes in which the narrative stakes are high (as high as you can possibly get while fighting for products on Black Friday anyway) feel weak and kind of dull. As the anime ran on, this problem only got worse. To be fair, there is an attempt at character development and intrigue in regards to the Kyou sisters but it's kind of integrated half haphazardly into the plot without having too much time to fully develop.
The art style was generally appealing to the eyes and the character design as well as the colour design was pretty spot on. While in motion, the animation did suffer from some animation error and at times it could look kind of jarring but nothing to take me out of any scenes. The music was pretty forgetful as a whole with the exception of the opening theme which is catchy as hell. The main thing with Ben-to is that it feels as if it wants to be silly and the over-the-top but it never gets to that stage and instead feels kind of lukewarm which makes the anime feel kind of forgetful. Ben-to is not the worst series in the world but it does leave a lot to be desired which is unfortunate considering how fun the show could of been if the characters were more likeable and if it were more over-the-top.
