ben-to 1
Categories: episodic review
Tagged: ben-to
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An anime about half-off delicious thigh meat.
I’m serious. The only thought I had during the episode was “thigh meat… thigh meat… thigh meat…”… my gosh, author Asaura must love thigh meat as much as he (or she) loves bentos. There’s just a lot of thigh meat to the point I hoped a super deformed Senjougahara would appear at the bottom of the screen and go, “Nice, solid childbearing hips. so I think you’re sure to have healthy babies.”
Hips and thighs aside, the premise of this series is fairly simple: all-out warfare centered around half-priced bentos. I’m serious. That’s all Ben-to has… and it works. Kinda. The first episode basically had me incredulous that the premise of the show revolves around an impromptu tournament of death every night centered around cheap bentos, but it kinda works. There’s palatable tension whenever the bentos get discounted, there’s action during the fight scene– a lot more dynamic and vicious than anything Fate/Zero has done thus far– and plenty of thigh and hip fanservice. If you’re into that kind of thing.
(Then I realized Muteki Kanban Musume was about a broken ramen shop… so why can’t a broken supermarket work? The damagedness of the characters are just showing, and they’re plenty damaged– from the girl who treats half off bentos like conquests to the girl who marvels at the spectacle to the guy who can’t avoid getting beat up a la Arararararagi to, well, I hope more characters eventually come out and play the bento game. The supermarket is at least as interesting as Working!!)
(I know, I know, not a high bar, but still.)
(Get it? High. Popura. Hehehe.)
Wait, Soyjoys? I can understand marketing Pizza Hut or Doritos in anime, but Soyjoys? What part of the vegan foodbase intersects with the anime fanbase? Is it a big intersection? I would love to see the Ice Queen cuddle with a huge plush Soyjoy a la CC and her Cheese-kun at some point.
(Not much tops the Sunrise and Pizza Hut combo. That was just a perfect storm like Hasselhoff and Anderson on Baywatch.)
I am a bit worried about the prospects of Ben-to since David Productions is a fairly new animation house headed by Gonzo alums. Not exactly something I would consider a plus. The animation is fairly average for this season, and I really think they blew their animation budget on thighs. They did do a good job on fanservice without it becoming blatant pandering like Maken-Ki or Unfriendship Anime.
The premise of Ben-to is just stupid enough to possibly work. Wacky premise + broken characters + gratuitous fanservice = possible sleeper. Just don’t take it seriously.
6 Responses to “ben-to 1”
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The fun of Muteki Kanban Musume was in the overreactions everyone had to the most normal situations. Here? We’ll see.
Also, I’m surprised you didn’t blog Fate/Zero ep 2 yet.
I imagine Soyjoys have a long shelf-life, which would be useful for the reclusive anime fans out there.
ah the healthy thigh meat, i havent seen this much in a while. i came into it expecting to be distracted by the fights but i’ll see if there is anything more than fights or hips to this(doubt it though) we’ll see it how it goes after a few eps
Ume Shiraume. Slap-Happy Tsundere! 1rst ep MVP.
Random note, I find the fangirl with the glasses hilarious on some level. She’s myf avorite character, if only for probably being just outright nuts.
I think the whole point about Soyjoy is that no one WANT to eat it. That’s why it was given out for free.
That’s hardly a good angle for endorsement.