One of these days, they’ll have made an anime about everything. Are we approaching that point? The entire concept of Ben-To seems to imply we are, but even if that’s true, there is a chance that even the most ludicrous story can be appealing, fun, and even awesome.
To appreciate Ben-To means accepting a serious break in reality: that grocery store clerks and owners would ever permit brawls in their aisles over anything, much less half-priced bento boxes. Somehow, in this otherwise-normal-ish Earth reality, that’s precisely what happens. There are legalized brawls over half-priced bento that the clerks put out in the evening. There is even a precise set of rules that everyone has to follow in order to prevent total anarchy. And woe to the unaware sucker who walks in on the middle of this.
Said unaware sucker is You Sato. The opening scene of this series has him taking an epic punch to the face and then getting beaten up until he’s not sure he’s alive anymore. Afterwards, he gradually becomes aware of the strange “bento box fight club” sub-culture of this part of urban Japan. He soon becomes the apprentice of Sen Yarizui, otherwise known as the “Frozen Witch” (the English dub calls her the “Ice Witch”, perhaps to avoid Frozen comparisons), who is something of an expert at surviving but triumphing in these impromptu battles. If You wants some scrumptious bento, he better get with the game and learn how to fight, or he’ll be stuck blowing all of his money on food or drinking cup ramen for his entire time at school.
It is impossible to take Ben-To seriously. Thankfully, the series never expects us to. The show is inherently aware of how ridiculous it is and revels in it, especially when it comes to You. I have yet to see a character get as intimately involved with an incinerator as You does in one particular episode, but the results are borderline side-splitting. There are moments in the preview sequences where the characters, even the mostly-sane Sen, break the fourth-wall to address the audience. Over time, the series does become more focused on establishing some sort of plot, with one arc centered around “The Monarch” and the second around the Orthros twin girls. Even so, the series never attempts to take itself too seriously while creating its character development and growth, and is all the better for it.
The cast of characters are colorful (and, perhaps unsurprisingly, predominantly female). The most memorable of these characters by her sheer force of extroverted, shameless will, is You’s half-Italian cousin, Ayame Shaga, who has no problems exploiting the “kissing cousins” trope for her own personal gain and amusement. There is also a rare female variant of the typical anime covert pervert in You’s fellow bento brawl rookie, Hana Oshiroi, who quickly begins writing dirty fan fiction about a thinly veiled version of You. The four of them form a weird sort of alliance as they progress through the series, encountering other characters who participate in the brawls, and eventually engaging both “the Monarch” and the Orthros twins.
However, the fighting scenes are the true centerpiece of the series. While not every fight is animated fluidly (and there is an increasing use of stills as the series continues onward), Ben-To has a gift for presentation thanks to director Shin Itagaki. Nothing flashy is necessary to achieve the presentation the anime is going for, and this is especially surprising considering how everyone tends to use their fists instead of a weapon. The bold camera angles and rapid-fire cuts give a sense of urgency and flow that a lot of Shonen Jump anime wish they had for their own fights, whether the budget is there or not. As someone who has watched a lot of action anime, there is something uniquely satisfying about the way Ben-To portrays a fist pummeling somebody’s face that I just can’t explain. It’s just done really well.
There is an increasing amount of fanservice in the series over time, usually involving the blonde and busty Ayame Shaga and the Orthros twins (the latter showing off impossibly attractive nurse’s outfits in an episode). There is no question that the female character designs are designed in a way to grab a male viewer’s attention, but the designs (by Katsuzo Hirata, based off of original Kaito Shibano illustrations) are not reminiscent of the common “sticks with breasts” criticism. Ayame and Sen in particular, despite being well-endowed, definitely have the athletic figures necessary to convincingly kick ass. As for males, You also spends a significant amount of time undressed due to various shenanigans (throwing female viewers a bone), and the majority of the supporting male actors tend to be strong but somewhat bishonen types.
All of this is backed by one of the most fitting scores I have heard in modern anime. Taku Iwasaki must have been on crazy pills when he composed this score, as the battle scenes (and much of the comedy) are generally backed by a jazz/60’s-era rock sound that’s played on speed. Pounding drum rolls, rapid-fire guitar solos, and cheerfully hyper trumpets, joined with random vocal gibberish, perfectly captures the wild, frenetic nature of the action scenes. Calmer scenes are backed by piano and alto saxophones, continuing the jazzy feel with a wonderful sense of melody. All in all, it just plain works. It may not be the most sincere score in the history of anime, but it is undoubtedly one of the most fun.
The opening, “LIVE for LIFE ~Ookamitachi no Yoru~”, by Aimi, also perfectly captures the mood of the anime, right down to the lyrics which are about fighting for the right to eat. Its upbeat rock sound adds the necessary amount of energy to kick off every episode in style. It is temporarily replaced in episode four by “Treasure!”, which is Ayame Shaga’s image song, with the visuals altered to suit the Ayame-centric nature of the song. The ending, “Egao no Hōsoku” by Mariya Ise, is much less distinguished from a visual and audio standpoint, unless you are into highly detailed depictions of Japanese cuisine, as well as a few sympathetic portrayals of Sen.
Ben-To had a long period of limbo between its original release in fall 2011 and its US release in early 2015. There is no indicator as to why. Maybe Sega, a primary sponsor of the anime, had something to do with it, as the many Sonic The Hedgehog posters and screenshots of Virtua Fighter games (as well as classic Sega consoles) probably needed to be cleared. But for whatever reason, it was over two years before FUNimation unexpectedly announced the license in 2014, and the planned fall 2014 release was pushed back after it was discovered that the wrong materials had been sent by the production committee, requiring re-encoding and likely at least a small amount of re-recording audio.
The dub doesn’t show much signs of any trouble behind the production. The scripts are written by Monica Rial channeling Jamie Marchi, perhaps a bit too much — Hana exclaiming “Mommy happy!” in response to You’s undress was definitely not in the original script!. The actors are directed by Joel McDonald, a veteran with silly anime like this who knows exactly how to bring out the best comedic timing in his actors, though that is likely helped by Rial’s scripting. Morgan Garrett is perhaps the standout actress, with her pitch-perfect portrayal of Ayame, but Austin Tindle is a notable surprise as You. Initially typecast as quieter types, Tindle has been increasingly cast as more manic characters, and his excellent renditions of You’s hot-blooded tirades and comedic freakouts show he is a more versatile actor than his debut performance in Guilty Crown made it seem. An almost-as-significant surprise is Tia Ballard (who frequently plays hyper, pre-pubescent girls), as the soft-spoken, obsessive, sociopathic upperclassman Ume. All in all, the dub, while it probably plays fast and loose a bit too much, is a delight to watch.
The Japanese performances are also entertaining, with Ayana Taketatsu’s endearingly adorable take on the obliviously unlucky Asebi Inoue probably being my favorite performance out of the Japanese cast. There is a lot of reliance on language and visual puns that just plain don’t translate into English, however, so unless you are well-versed in Japanese culture you will likely be more entertained by the English version which mostly omits or rewrites these.
From a visual standpoint, the Blu-rays don’t look that much better than the DVDs, hinting at an upscaled video presentation, but the 5.1 dub soundtrack is exceptionally well mixed and the Blu-rays are worth viewing for that alone. The extras are a requisite pair of episode commentaries (for 3 and 7), that tend to be off-topic and don’t discuss much about the episodes or the performances themselves. Similarly, there is also an attempt to re-enact a bento brawl in live-action with many of FUNimation’s staff and dub actors, which goes off about as well as you’d expect. Trailers for other action comedies and clean openers and closer finish off the extras portion of the set.
Overall, Ben-To satisfies the need for a quality action-comedy quite well, but much like most takeout food, isn’t particularly original or innovative. Did it need to be made? Probably not, but the execution is good enough that I don’t really care. I recommend Ben-To for anyone looking for a short, fun ride that doesn’t require a lot of commitment. Much like a good “fast casual” place.
The post Review: “Ben-To” Complete Series – A Fulfilling Full-Course Meal appeared first on ToonZone News.