Ben-To / First Impressions

「サバの味噌煮弁当 674kcal」 (Saba no Misoni Bentō 674kcal)
“Mackerel Boiled in Miso Bento 674kcal”
♦ ♦ ♦

Satou is coerced into the half-price bento club by a mixture of threat and breasts. So like.. threasts? Gets a mission to go try and get his first bento, gets his ass handed to him repeatedly. Oshiroi goes MIA due to lesbian kidnapper Ume, but Satou luckily gets some help from The WizardTM. Due to some very strange motivational speeches, Satou manages to grab his first bento. Grabs the honorary one. “Must be talent,” she says. “My ass,” Kiiragi says.

♦ ♦ ♦


Old Master likes peas.

This… certainly follows the “typical” route of a dude getting wrapped up in an eccentric girl’s life, but under the circumstances of fighting for bentos, all the clichés seem to pale tremendously in comparison. I’m too busy having my mouth open the entire time than to complain that Satou has no personality at all as a character, is completely uninteresting, and keeps wandering his vision to breasts. Maybe that’s like a thing that they’re doing, like each episode focusing on a different area of the female body. I didn’t mention it, but the last one did thighs. Who’s got bets on what the focus is on next time? Eyes? Ass? Ankles? The pacing’s really nice though, speeding through what could have been dragged out to be several episodes, and combo’d with the frenetic fights sprinkled between scenes, it’s hard to stay bored.

Well, it’s hard to stay bored in any of the scenes really, because they’re all completely ridiculous. Lesbian kidnappers? The WizardTM? Boars? Cubs needing to be Wolves? Pride? Animal metaphors in my anime? MC can’t win, stronger dude gives wolf metaphor motivational speech, Satou suddenly knows kung-fu. It’s sort of like Kamina’s speeches, but farther off the deep end. I feel like they kind of were supposed to have that feel of being preposterous yet incredibly inspiring, but kind of failed at invoking any such emotion other than my scrunched face mouthing “what the ****?” It seems that whatever group Satou is in, they are the wolves. Everyone else are just… pigs. Oh, the three little pigs, and the whole wolf eating th- How cute.


Wizard does Double Team! It’s super effective!!

Miyano Mamoru as The WizardTM is awesome, a major plus being that he seems to be an ally. I’m thinking he might be Satou’s future trainer. There’s still two more girls to be introduced too, as well as the primary antagonist, which will probably use up another few episodes. I’m hoping the blonde girl isn’t the annoying foreigner blabbermouth type. Currently leaning on no, based on her expressions in the opening. I’m still trying to figure out what the hell is UP with the Ume chick.

I found this episode to be a little less interesting than the last, mostly because there wasn’t enough of my white-haired goddess. But seriously, it’s probably more due to whatever makes Ben-To refreshing not showing up as gallantly as the first showing. There’s vague appearances of what I wanted to see given Patrik’s reviews, such as the passionate talks about honor, so here’s to that and everything else surfacing completely by the next few weeks.

♦ ♦ ♦

And yeah, I was bored of the old format, so I conjured up something new.

Preview

59 Comments

  2. Wolves and pigs aside, what if Ume joined the fight? Seems like she’ll be able to win every fight and starve everyone to death. That’ll be the end the whole show there.

    My jaws did drop when Ume came out of nowhere and kidnapped Oshiroi in broadlight… I feared another yuri rape might occur much like Mawaru Penguidrum. This is some crazy coincidence, two yuri rapes in a week?

    Allnighter
    Reply

  4. Looks to be a hit for the season. It seems that the Wizard’s words were simply focused on people who give up easily due to cowardice, lack of ability to handle stress and such. You actually sometimes do see people like that Pig with teeth aka Boar woman. The most satisfying part of the episode was to see her lose. I think the Arashi represents those who are weak but use numbers to win aka some type of bullies.

    Zaku Fan
    Reply

  5. Curiously, @Kiiragi which format takes longer to set up? I don’t know anything about templates in blogs but I see *effort* with this one.

    Back-on-topic. This ep felt like it really pushed the limits on powering up an MC. Wasn’t it the other day he got his ass handed to him? And now suddenly he’s one of the ‘crew’.

    I keep hearing Kiba from Wolf’s Rain whenever Mamoru talks.

    Hrmmm
    Reply

  6. Love this one I don’t care about other anime lover

    I don;’t get they;re thinking

    Sometimes they always said…. god this kind of setup again, jeez is there something new here

    Then if there’s a new or weird story they’re always saying…what the hell did I watch it’s a crap blah blah…..

    ricz
    Reply

  8. Damn, you always crack me up with your posts, Kiiragi
    It’s such a rare treat that we get to see a character voiced by Shimono Hiro look this cool… and seriously, what the hell is that Ume chick up to?
    I’m diggin the new format. Looks like a mini filmstrip and definitely works for comedies ;D

    Seishun Otoko
    Reply

  9. Why is the show with the dumbest premise ever, get to be one of the most entertaining this season?

    Its like its all executed perfectly, on how the mix the silly and the serious. Just this episode was loaded with so much cliche on fighting anime, but then you realize they are fighting for FOOD. They even seem to toss in a cliche “mentor” guy type with the Wizard. Then after all the fighting they actually start teaching us respect for the elderly and proper table manners. Its all WTF, but its WTF done right.

    Also I personally like Satou, when he talks with girls he always ends up staring at the legs or chest even when he gets beaten up. The man has his priorities right.

    fragb85
    Reply

  10. i like that ume check :/ the hime cut does it for me…. i had no intention of watching this at all XD but turn out this show is possibly funniest for me this season… maybe Boku Ha Tomodachi Ga Sukunai… dunno

    n0216332
    Reply

    1. Agreed, most the time an anime won’t par up with top animes, but there’s no point in whining that it’s not a top anime. Just accept the fact and start watching it for fun, not to compare and whine about it.

      Pride
      Reply

  13. Five reasons I like this show this season over Maken-Ki and Symphony.
    1. It’s not even closer to the old fighting tempo anime I watched before.
    2. The main protagonist is actually weak but was motivated by words so talent emerge when it comes.
    3. I’m disappointed with yuri cliffhangers but Ben-To proves to me its better than certain Penguidrum in terms of Yuri-nap where I find it even funny.
    4. The SandM fat guy who admires the main protagonist while beaten in a pulp of my beloved loli voiced seiyuu in a lesbian form.
    5. Respect at the same time abuse your perception is what makes this anime A+.

    Why CubeXCursedxCurious didn’t make it in Random Curiosity this season is very puzzling to me. Makes me remember the days Omni ignored gem anime in the past.

    pedobearmatt
    Reply

    1. C3 has turned out to be the dark fantasy/comedy that I described it as, and I thought about covering it after the second and third episode, but I really don’t want to overload myself with shows this season. I do plan to post Snapshots about it at some point though.

      Divine
      Reply

  14. remembering Kampfer, Ume looks like Shizuko, act like Shizuko, oh well

    good thing that Yo Satou got a reward from Sen, for being a wolf with pride, but ended up beaten by Sen again….let the FOOD WARS continues…

    cutemi2
    Reply

  22. I get the impression that the MC was never that weak. Just somewhat timid, inexperienced and was never motivated to fight. However, to be honest, I only watch this show for the eye candy and the fight scenes. I kind of just ignore everything else in this one. At least I’m pretty confident that this won’t be a brain wrecking type of anime, which is what I want to avoid after too many seasons of those.

    x
    Reply

  23. It’s always fun to see Shiraume with “The Main Character” – look at the melons, and get a slap in the face *must “lol” but it will get old soon*.
    The Main Character has Akihisa’s will.

    and NICE format there.

    FlamingYu
    Reply

  25. “It’s sort of like Kamina’s speeches, but farther off the deep end. I feel like they kind of were supposed to have that feel of being preposterous yet incredibly inspiring…”

    Lolz. Totally agreed. He reminded me of a crazy cult leader, for whatever reason. I guess that’s what charisma does for you- there’ll always be people who will be inspired by you and follow you no matter how far off in the deep end you are. What a disturbing notion… XP

    Zen
    Reply

    2. I laughed pretty hard when I realized that was coming out of his cell phone. Man, I do not miss the days of 56 kbit/s, and the fact that not many others seem to get it makes me feel so old. Guess it’s time to start yelling at kids for their crazy rock n roll music.

      Bass.EXE
      Reply

  31. The new format is indeed refreshing =03.

    Anyway, the biggest thing coming into this series that had me worried was that there would be some long training crap, like any typical marital arts anime where the protagonist doesn’t know how to fight(Kenichi is a good example), but not here. Satou gets no training. Without knowing a thing about fighting, he goes right into the thick of things and kicked ass, even in episode 1(though he would eventually lose in that ep). I was GREATLY impressed that he had the balls to stick it out under impossible odds. He absolutely deserved that bento, even though he had help. You may have found it silly and ridiculous, but I found it very refreshing.

    I also like it how Satou was easily able to punch that brunette girl, when other, useless annoying harem protagonists would discriminate, just cause she’s a girl.

    frubam
    Reply

  34. Considering that Satou’s father appears to work in the military as shown in episode 1 and is said to almost have been blown up one time, Satou having some fighting ability actually makes sense. It’s only his lack of motivation + surprise at the entire ordeal that caught him off guard.

    RG
    Reply

  36. this show reminds me the reason why I don’t like yuri action.
    Ume looks really good and really reminded me of Shizuku, but it seems that this show had just wasting a good chara on useless yuri action.

    uzume93
    Reply

  37. It’s actually quite amazing that until Kiragi pointed out, I didn’t even realize that the MC has absolutely no characterization in either episode. There’s just so much WTF stuff I didn’t even care to notice.

    baubo
    Reply

  38. I say this was a bit interesting if only because MC wasn’t getting owned by everyone but the yuri bs with Shiraume I can do without, makes me prefer the bs Nonoha and Ringo bring to their shows. Shiraume is my most hated female character this seaaon.

    jingoi
    Reply

  39. Sad thing is there are big ugly fat pig like that in real life, I use to work in a supermarket and I seen my share. What is more sad is they don’t have to be like that, there are some ppl that have big bones but have a very friendly happy attitude. Is these ugly fat pig that give fat ppl a bad image, I wish they done more bad stuff to that fat pig in this episode like totally throw her out of the store, or tempt her with a sugar donut but sold out as soon as she try to grab the last one.

    AniXX
    Reply

    1. I’m imagining you leading a crusade against the fat people that give bad images and oppress others by stealing discounted food. Then I lol’d. I think you could live in Ben-To’s universe.

      Kiiragi
      Reply

  40. Wacky show deserves wacky post, you go Kiiragi! The show has been interesting so far, a fresh attempt at breaking out of the mold, doesn’t seem to be as effective but people are enjoying it.

    T.K.
    Reply

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