Bento brawls! Sato Yo is a fairly ordinary apprentice, loves SEGA games and looks calmly at the leisurely life until he hits the grocery store. Sato just wants to buy himself a ban for dinner at a special price at half price. And when he tries to take a box of ban-tho, he suddenly loses consciousness, and when he comes to himself finds that everything has already been sold. Our Sato does not stew, comes the next day again to the store and notices that the ban is a real war game, and the players are “wolves”. To get a ban for half the price, you need to win a fight, snatching a box of cherished food from the counter. Fighting for food, Sato notices a girl in the fight. As it turns out, Sen Yarizui is studying at his school and is a hardened “wolf” nicknamed the Ice Maiden! As a result, the school organized Half-Pricer Club, which will include Sato, Sen and a strange girl Hana Oshiro. These guys are going to go shopping every night, taking part in war games and winning a ban-to. What's a ban something? This Japanese term refers to one serving of packaged food. Traditional banto includes rice, meat or fish and pickled or sliced fresh vegetables.
At first glance, Ben-To may seem like a little-known work. Maybe that's how it is. However, few people know what is filmed based on the famous Ranobe. Ranobe is among the top and enjoys the same success in Japan as “Toaru Majutsu no Index”, “Oreimo”, “Durarara!!”, “Kami-sama no Memo-cho” and other high-profile ranobes that have already been filmed. Now the turn has come and Ben-To. Agree, this says a lot. Ask me, who's the director? The director of the anime is very experienced Itagaki Shin - he has already worked as the main director and released titles "Black Cat", "Devil May Cry" and "Basquash!". David Production Studio also inspires confidence: it was founded in 2009 and there are no failed titles behind it. Given all this, it is a bit sad that the piece is underrated by the general public. However, there is a feeling that it was not made for a wide audience.
At first I thought it was just another ethie harem, and in the end Ben-To is much more interesting than it seems, and there is no ethie and harem here. There are good girls and not a lot of fan service, but the title's tag is not! This is essentially a comedy fighting game with good characters who have their own motivation and, more importantly, this motivation is understandable to the viewer. A distinctive feature of the series is its, at first glance, frivolous, but at the same time bright and at the same time a little sad life atmosphere. Why fight for food? - There are many answers. Someone does not have enough money, someone is in a rhythm and can not come off, and someone goes to the store to see friends or write a book. But in fact, there is no greater motivation for a person than to fight for food, so this series has a great idea and iron morale.
The main attraction is the drama in the sequence of fighting and the understanding of what is behind each fight. Here the whole system is built: its own rules; for example, you can not start until the seller does not hide behind the door, and who grabs the box with the ban and the winner can go with the prey calmly and feast. The battle scenes are intense – the characters are not boring and dynamic. Especially amused episode with the pool: even in such a seemingly relaxed environment, the characters are ready to turn everything upside down for a box with a ban-to. The authors even provided ratings: each ban has a sticker, the better the ban, the more valuable his sticker, and the best fighters get the nicknames Monarch, Vizard, Ice and Sea Maiden, etc. If you think that such fights look absurd in the premises of the mall, then you can object to this. There is a well-known fact that there is always a struggle for a discounted product to a large extent; the authors of Ben-To simply take this into account and make the concept of “struggle” not a figurative meaning, but a literal one. The potential of such an idea is huge, its implementation is a little lame. At the same time, Ben-To remains a very attractive work, primarily due to the idea.
Someone in the work can see the stamps. For example, the main character in us resembles something OYASH, as well as his girlfriend with worried thoughts, well, plus a rather clumsy tsundera. But it's a deceptive appearance. Is that where you saw an ordinary Japanese schoolboy go to the store to fight for food? Where do you see the tsundera harassing her friend? In the traditional understanding of the JASH is a character who is indecisive, blushes at the sight of girls and clumsily anywhere. Sato to a greater extent, being originally OYASH, behaves in such a way that with each series becomes the antipode in relation to this image. In other words, we have a parody in relation to stamps - combining seemingly incompatible things, and it is curious to observe such a course of things.
“Ben-To” is a very cute creation with a funny idea looks easy and relaxed, causing genuine interest. In this world, absurdity in relation to logic and parody jokes in relation to the prevailing anime stereotypes. But this is not annoying, but on the contrary, gives a brand charm to the work. After all, Ben-To is good for its atmosphere, despite the fact that there is no ingenious plot, and as a result there is an absurdity. Despite the fact that there are ordinary at first glance characters and contradictory opening, this work is interesting to watch!