Ben-To

Originally a light novel series written by Asaura and featuring illustrations created by Shibano Kaito, “ベン・トー” now gets the anime adaptation treatment.

Originally read the brief plot synopses before the fall season and got curious about this action comedy which sounded rather intriguing, its main theme being a daily brawl at the supermarket over half priced bento meals.

While it didn’t woo me as much as an action oriented show like “Fate/Zero” or comedies like “Working’!!”, the animation quality, characters and story in “Ben-To” are good enough to make me look forward to the next episode.

Will confess that after witnessing the fighting scenes in this first episode, am a bit unsure about the whole daily brawl at the supermarket theme, but it didn’t come over as too incredulous either and seems to mostly be a vehicle for comedy as well as to set up the Satou and Sen pairing.

Animation by studio David Production was solid, the character styling is easy on the eyes and a proper enough incarnation of the original artwork.

May ultimately only be able to decide if this series is really worth following after a few more episodes, this opening episode only introduced a few of the main characters as only Satou, Sen and Hana really had significant screen time. In fact, blonde Ayame and muffler wearing Asebi have yet to appear.

Am looking forward to seeing those other characters’ introduction though as Asebi is voiced by Taketatsu Ayana who not only voiced Azusa in “K-ON!” or Kirino “Ore No Imouto Ga Konna Ni Kawaii Wake Ga Nai ”, but also voices Fuu in this season’s “Tamayura ~hitotose~” series.
Busty blonde Ayame is voiced by Katou Emiri who previously did Kagami in “Lucky Star”, Hideyoshi & Yuuko in “Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu” and Kyuubey in “Puella Magi Madoka Magica”.

Yuuki Aoi who also does Suzu in this season’s “Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon” voices the bespectacled Hana, she also did roles like Victorique in “Gosick”, Madoka in “Puella Magi Madoka Magica” or Noel in “So-Ra-No-Wo-To”.

Student council president Ume is voiced by Kayano Ai, she previously voiced Isana in “Yumekui Merry” and Menma in “Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai”. Ise Mariya voices ice queen Sen, she also voiced characters like Usami in last season’s “Mayo Chiki!” and Riko in “Aria the Scarlet Ammo”.

Will check out the next few episodes as so far it looks like this show will provide an ample dose of weekly entertainment.