Shelf Life

Devil's Advocate

The show revolves around the pre-made bento boxes that are sold in convenience stores and supermarkets all over Japan. A lot of places put them on sale at the end of the day, which I suppose occasionally results in a bit of jostling, as people try to get the good ones at half price. Ben-To takes that moment of competition and cranks up the intensity by a factor of one hundred. The show invents an underground fighting culture where people beat the snot out of one another in a free-for-all rush to grab the bento boxes once they go on sale. It's like a self-contained, nightly version of the Black Friday sales rush, only slightly more organized.

You might be tempted to ask why the stores put up with a bunch of high school and college students holding nightly brawls. Perhaps you're wondering why no one's ever called the cops, or why anyone would risk serious injury to save five bucks on a microwavable dinner in the first place. These are all excellent questions, and Ben-To has absolutely no interest in answering any of them. The show apparently assumes that if you're not on board from the beginning, there's no point trying to convince you that it all somehow makes sense.

It's a lazy bit of world-building, yes, but it's worth giving Ben-To the wiggle room that it asks for. Once you get past the premise, this is a very entertaining series. The fight scenes are presented without the expository dialogue and shark-jumping special attacks that plague so many action shows. We don't need to know how powerful any of the characters are because it's obvious from the visual and audible weight that their punches carry. Without all that chatter about power levels to slow things down, each brawl unfolds at a frantic pace that keeps the action immersive and compelling.

When it isn't bashing people over the head with shopping baskets, Ben-To can also be a very funny series. The humor isn't particularly inventive or high-minded, but it's delivered very well. The writing is sharp, the comedic timing is on the mark, and actors were clearly allowed to have fun with their lines. The fanservice walks a very fine line, but generally stops short of becoming a distraction from the rest of the show. Ben-To isn't exactly a brooding cerebral thriller, so it can incorporate a few stupid boob jokes without running off the rails.

For all the jokes it makes, Ben-To generally plays it straight when it comes to the story. The characters take their brawls seriously, and most of the major plot arcs revolve around keeping the fights fair for everyone involved. The villains are generally people who game the system and break the unwritten rules that everyone adheres to. The heroes aren't out to get revenge on some evil mastermind or topple a grand conspiracy, they're just in it for the food and the opportunity to punch people square in the face. Keeping the narrative simple lets the show spend more time developing its likably eccentric cast while keeping the fight scenes free of all but the most necessary emotional baggage. There are some strong performances in both the original and the dub, and both do a good job of capturing the tone of the series.

At the end of the day, Ben-To succeeds because it knows exactly what it wants to be. Rather than trying to shoehorn a big story into twelve episodes, it focuses on keeping the audience entertained. You'll wince in sympathy when a main character takes a hit, cheer when a baddie gets taken down, and laugh an awful lot in between. Funimation's Blu-ray release hit a few delays during the production process, but they've done a nice job with the final product. In the spirit of the show, however, you should probably find a way to pick it up at half price.
- Paul[TOP]