Bento

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Do you want to see this series translated?

Yes
896
99%
Not Really (Please give a reason)
5
1%
No (Please give a reason)
4
0%
 
Total votes: 905

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Sharramon
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Bento

Post by Sharramon »

Okay the title is Bento. Yes, and it's not a cooking thing.

Long thing short a bunch of high school students fight each other in supermarkets for half price bentos.... Yeah I know crazy right?

But I have to say that this is one awesome light novel.

I suck at these things ^^;; but I'll give it a shot.

What starts off as just another high school story winds up into a story where the main character fights for bento and something more.

In this light novel bento plays a very important part in the story. It signifies something more than food. It's something that you get after hanging your life on the line and fighting with others who are doing the same. Another important idea in the story is that anybody who fights fights with honour and pride....

Okay I'm screwing more and more with every word I say.... The problem is this isn't one of those things that you can easily explain with words... sort of like Gurren Lagann really(although not so...manly?).

While everything I said seems to make this story some dark and serious thing it's actually more comedy than anything and it's very entertaining. It also contains some bits that'll leave your mouth watering and looking for something to eat (trust me, I had to go to the kitchen to look for some food while reading this thing...)

Well, I know what I've said till now really doesn't say anything but it seems it'll be fun right? Like c'mon it's about high school students fighting it out for food! XD


Since I'm already TLing something I'd like it if a translator took some interest in this. Trust me. You won't regret it.
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Vaelis
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Re: Bento

Post by Vaelis »

Another thread about Bento in "Manga & Novel": viewtopic.php?f=32&t=2760
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Re: Bento

Post by Sharramon »

Thought I searched for it. Thanks for that I'll just get rid of this one then.

Seems like I can't.....sorry everyone ^^;; my bad....
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Darklor
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Re: Bento

Post by Darklor »

Thats not a problem - here is the petition, there is the review ;)

And now with Poll
Last edited by Darklor on Thu Jul 22, 2010 1:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: added Poll
Please don't mind my bad english since I'm german.

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Ruquion
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Re: Bento

Post by Ruquion »

Throwing in a review for Ben-To since it seems like nobody knows anything about it.
Patrik wrote:Full title: Ben-to – Saba no Misoni 290 yen
Author: Asaura
Illustrator: Shibano Kaito
Label: Super Dash Bunko
Year of publication: 2008
Pages: 291

Let’s be frank, my friends. I read the first chapter of Ben-to, and I didn’t like it. The setting is completely bizarre; the “hero” is an asshole; supporting characters are weird; and the story gets repetitive. But did I give up? No, for I am one of mankind’s great readers. I struggled on, never letting go of Hope. If you persevere, God will reward your efforts.

The perpetrator behind this title calls himself Asaura, and previously wrote two novels called Kiiroi Hana no Aka and Vanilla – A sweet partner, which I have no clue about. His illustrating partner for Ben-to is Shibano Kaito, who seems to dabble with doujin production in addition to handling character design for the Nintendo DS game series Luminous Arc. Again, I am ignorant of any of these things, but since the game has music by Mitsuda Yasunori, I suppose I’m on the losing side. For this title, the colour work is very nicely done, while the monochrome illustrations appearing within the text are unusually rough.

Here’s the deal: this series is all about people who fight (punching-kicking-biting) to be one of the last standing, in order to claim a half-priced box lunch at the local supermarket. I mean it, that’s really the setting for Ben-to (which is a bit of a pun on bento, the true depth of which still eludes me).

The main character is Satou You, a young man who’s just moved away from his parental home to attend high school, and now he’s ensconced in a student dorm. The problem for our hero is that he’s only given a meagre 30 000 yen (~$300) per month to cover expenses, which can get tricky if you want to buy that favourite manga and keep supporting the creator. Normally this wouldn’t be too difficult, but Satou’s dorm only serves breakfast, so he has to buy lunch and dinner with his own money, because how could you expect boys to cook for themselves? Satou’s solution to this economic dilemma is to seek out a supermarket in the evening, when the clerk starts tagging box lunches with half-price stickers. Ah, the savings to be made! thinks Satou, and reaches out to grab some food.

Alas, Satou’s attempt ends with unconsciousness, and while sharing a paltry rice ball with a girl who saw what happened, he’s informed that the moment the half-priced stickers went on, the box lunch corner was transformed into a battlefield, with several unknowing participants like Satou getting blown away to the other side of the store. Coincidentally, this girl is a first year student at Karasuda High School just like Satou, and her name is Oshiroi Hana. A combination of hunger and curiosity brings Satou back into the supermarket the next evening, where he again meets Oshiroi, and the two eventually form a strange partnership. Once more Satou is hit by someone and passes out, and this process is repeated over and over, as Satou can’t quite figure out what is going on in this peculiar store. They often run into a beautiful, mysterious fighter nicknamed “the Frozen Witch”, who is rumoured to dominate the area.

One night, this grandmaster seems to have had enough of seeing them get smashed into a pulp, and she tries to persuade Oshiroi and Satou to stop interfering. When Satou refuses, she gives them a brief smile and tells them to visit room #502 in the school club building. With Satou’s entrance into the Half-Pricer Society, the story finally gets moving. Guided by the club president Yarizui Sen (pictured on the cover), Satou and Oshiroi learn the rules of half-priced box lunch battle. They face hazards like Storms, old ladies with trolleys, and come across the mythical Wizard, a former club president whose battle prowess is legendary. Gradually – finally – the setting begins to make sense, and the reader’s patience is rewarded.

Having started as a blob of repetitious incomprehensibility, Ben-to now opened my eyes to the fact that deep within was hidden an actual message, something meaningful to ponder. Like the reader, Satou’s character begins from the outside, looking in at a phenomenon he cannot possibly understand as anything but absurd. But as he joins in, and we with him, the unspoken laws that rule this world are revealed, and from chaos a genuinely intriguing order is built. Remarkably, what once seemed so bizarre now became reasonable to me. Moreover, the fighting is written in a very vivid and exciting manner, so it’s easy to feel like you take part in the action, once Satou stops being a punching bag and hits back instead.

Another strong point of this title is the humour, which is quite dark and may not fit everyone. As if to explain to us just how much of a Itsuki Satou can be, there’s a short sequence relating how he moved his best friend’s clock back an hour in a feeble attempt to feel like he has some control over cruel, uncaring Time, which resulted in his friend coming an hour late for next morning’s final exams and as a consequence he failed to get into his preferred high school, which Satou doesn’t seem to feel the least guilty about. To counter this, the extremely abusive female classmate Shiraume Ume appears, who doesn’t like Satou messing with “her” Oshiroi, and to discourage it she frequently slaps the utter crap out of him (see illustration), all the while rigging the upcoming school president election in her favour. In addition to this control freak, poor Oshiroi has some additional quirks: she loves writing homoerotic fiction, and her reason for approaching the half-priced box lunch battles was to gather material for her stories, in which Satou happens to become a prominent character.

The joy of good food plays quite a big part in Ben-to, and every time the main character puts something in his mouth, a lengthy description of the taste follows. The veracity of the author’s claims that these meals are extraordinarily delicious is a bit doubtful, but it does add an amusing edge to the writing, and grows into an important plot point later on, as Satou struggles to understand why the same type of food can taste so differently depending on how it was acquired.

“Do you think of half-priced box lunches as nothing but old left-over food that didn’t sell?” asks Yarizui.
“Not anymore,” is the answer I can give after finishing the first volume of this very original series. More than just being an action comedy, Ben-to explores the urge in humanity to find a meaning beyond peaceful existence, and tries to find the sense of achievement that comes from hunting and farming your own food, a process that’s been lost in modern society. To do so within the confines of a supermarket is, I think, very impressive. Despite the slow start, I was in love with this book when I finished the last page, and rushed off to buy the latest volume. Only 3 parts are out so far, but hopefully there’s more to come. With a concept this weird, I suppose it’s unlikely that it will get animated, but then I remember Akikan, so who knows. I just pray the action would get a proper animation budget.
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ShadowZeroHeart
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Re: Bento

Post by ShadowZeroHeart »

LOLz, nice review, much better than the one i did in the other thread.

Yes, it covers most of the grounds for the first volume, and much of its settings. Storyline, idea, plot, things that are hard to really portray in a few words are all clearly written in it. I totally agree with this review, this novel is just that good!
God!!
You need not forgive me.
For those I love,
The violence brought about by sinful men
Shall now be used once more.
If you were created to save this world,
If there is a single shred of hope left for the future of mankind,
I am very sorry, but, please begone!
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Kokoru Asami
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Re: Bento

Post by Kokoru Asami »

I've been looking at some new stuff to read because I'm a fast reader and and I'm running out of LN to read, this seems like a very interesting novel, willing to give it a shot based on the great recommendations given.
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Re: Bento

Post by ShadowZeroHeart »

abc2000 wrote:I've been looking at some new stuff to read because I'm a fast reader and and I'm running out of LN to read, this seems like a very interesting novel, willing to give it a shot based on the great recommendations given.
Its a very interesting novel in my opinion. Reason being that there is nothing fancy like special abilities, espers, aliens and what have u. The best descriptions lies in the flavors when he finally tastes his food. And you can see their bonds and unspoken rules, people helping and betraying each other just moments after they joined forces, and all these done from both sides, without any words.

Interesting interactions, funny ideas, nice personalities portrayed. I only have one complaint about this series... WHY ARE THERE STILL ONLY 2 VOLUMES IN CHINESE SO FAR!!! I WANT MORE!!
God!!
You need not forgive me.
For those I love,
The violence brought about by sinful men
Shall now be used once more.
If you were created to save this world,
If there is a single shred of hope left for the future of mankind,
I am very sorry, but, please begone!
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Re: Bento

Post by Kokoru Asami »

Really? That sucks, did the series end already? and how many novels are out so far?
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Re: Bento

Post by ShadowZeroHeart »

abc2000 wrote:Really? That sucks, did the series end already? and how many novels are out so far?
Nope, cant recall exactly, but i think the Japanese one is still ongoing, chinese translations are going slowly, since i am waiting for the official ones
God!!
You need not forgive me.
For those I love,
The violence brought about by sinful men
Shall now be used once more.
If you were created to save this world,
If there is a single shred of hope left for the future of mankind,
I am very sorry, but, please begone!
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Ruquion
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Re: Bento

Post by Ruquion »

ShadowZeroHeart wrote:Interesting interactions, funny ideas, nice personalities portrayed. I only have one complaint about this series... WHY ARE THERE STILL ONLY 2 VOLUMES IN CHINESE SO FAR!!! I WANT MORE!!
The 3rd volume is out, in case you didn't know.
Came out the day before you made that post.
http://www.ching-win.com.tw/?sinfo=detail&b_unit=3673

Its already available at lightnovel.cn, but I have always enjoyed reading the hard copy more.
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Re: Bento

Post by ShadowZeroHeart »

Ruquion wrote:
ShadowZeroHeart wrote:Interesting interactions, funny ideas, nice personalities portrayed. I only have one complaint about this series... WHY ARE THERE STILL ONLY 2 VOLUMES IN CHINESE SO FAR!!! I WANT MORE!!
The 3rd volume is out, in case you didn't know.
Came out the day before you made that post.
http://www.ching-win.com.tw/?sinfo=detail&b_unit=3673

Its already available at lightnovel.cn, but I have always enjoyed reading the hard copy more.
Just gotten my paws on the third vol not too long ago, and I ate it. Delicious... And i LOVE his title! LOLz!
God!!
You need not forgive me.
For those I love,
The violence brought about by sinful men
Shall now be used once more.
If you were created to save this world,
If there is a single shred of hope left for the future of mankind,
I am very sorry, but, please begone!
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Darklor
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Re: Bento

Post by Darklor »

ShadowZeroHeart wrote:
Just gotten my paws on the third vol not too long ago, and I ate it. Delicious... And i LOVE his title! LOLz!
So what is the title that it is so "delicous"?
Please don't mind my bad english since I'm german.

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ShadowZeroHeart
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Re: Bento

Post by ShadowZeroHeart »

Darklor wrote:
ShadowZeroHeart wrote:
Just gotten my paws on the third vol not too long ago, and I ate it. Delicious... And i LOVE his title! LOLz!
So what is the title that it is so "delicous"?
Spoiler! :
His senior(beautiful) visits him after he gets sick(cursed by "God of Death", a girl that does not go by the rules, but is not dubbed, dog, or pig, nor wolf, yet known as "God of Death", for she brings forth death itself... UNKNOWINGLY) in his MALES DORM!! And cooks him a meal... The cold from the God of Death then is spread to his senior as well... Thus making her unfit for the battles. During this period, the revival of a pair of twins, nicknamed Orthos(twin headed dog), once humiliated and exiled, comes back to challenge, and beats the senior, so much so she cant fight back(due to illness as well).

Feeling guilty, thinking that hes a burden to his senior, he challenges Orthos with his enemy's lackey from the previous battle. Their teamwork and undying spirit caused Orthos to try to call them "The two dogs". The protagonist tries his best to stick to this new title, for his nickname current is......

And due to a series of unfortunate events, the protagonist flew out from the fifth storey, caught a cold, got his pants split at his buttocks area for over 7 hours in school without realising it, thus is being ridiculated even further by his fellow companion in her novel "The muscle detective" (A BL story of muscular detective being XXX and XXX in many ways more than one... with the main character based off from the protagonist... and he found out about it...)
As for his current title:
Spoiler! :
PERVERT!! Named by that lackey i mentioned in the previous spoiler description... Reason being that he ran semi-naked in his cousin's school, and due to the series of unfortunate events, he probably will have a hard time shaking that title off... unless he gets "The two dogs" or some better title... So he tries hard to change his title...

P.S. you should see how shocked he was when he got so anxious to find out that he got a title, and then how he was so shocked to hear it... And how he tries to hide it... but to no avail haha!
God!!
You need not forgive me.
For those I love,
The violence brought about by sinful men
Shall now be used once more.
If you were created to save this world,
If there is a single shred of hope left for the future of mankind,
I am very sorry, but, please begone!
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Sharramon
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Re: Bento

Post by Sharramon »

Also just in case people want to know I think there's around five or so books out by what I can gather.

Also there's five in Korea right now and we're never all that far behind(Although the SAO series are being pushed back and now we're two books behind T.T).
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