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Jan 13 2012 02:07 PM
It was a pretty good show. To actually have main characters who aren't invincible was nice. The setting with fighting for food and even having morals to boot was maybe the strongest factor of this show. If it was set in some other scenario it probably would have been pretty average.
The only big problem i have with this series was the lack of use of all the characters (as mentioned by Killer_Ossi). I would have liked to see Ume in a fight. Every time she was shown it was obvious she was dangerous. Why not use her in one of the main battles? The same could be said of other characters. If introduced why do we only get a fight limited with the ice witch and helpers?
Still it was a good show: for me a 7 out of 10.

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Jan 13 2012 11:56 AM
Ben-To is what seemed like a completely cheesy series about fighting over half-priced bentos ends up effectively being a shounen action show. The catch is we don't even get to see Sen redeem herself at the end of the day after losing to the Sawagi twins and instead see Yoh come in to "save the day." Story wise, it's very basic: fight for your life over daily half-priced bentos. Presentation wise though, the initial synopsis of the story made it seem like it was going to be a much darker series to the extent I was thinking along the lines of Mirai Nikki. Sadly, it didn't turn out that way and we end up getting some light heart comedy instead. Furthermore, the show lacks a direction which effectively makes all episodes or arcs one shots.

Animation wise is okay from David Production. I've seen better in Book of Bantorra two years ago (2009) as well as Level E this time last year. Ben-To is filled with animation quality that is up and down. The fight scenes are clearly the highlight with solid fluid animation (except for Oruthros's attacks). However, the background always felt washed out and blurred details. Art and character designs are good but don't match the animation quality of this show making it a bit odd on the eyes.

Music is not particularly interesting for me. None of the OP/ED or backgrounds were particularly memorable. Seiyuu wise was okay. Emiri Katou as Ayame, Hiro Shimono as Yoh, Mariya Ise as Sen, and of course, the dynamic duo of Yukari Tamura and Yui Horie as the Sawagi twins. Nothing got better than the Sawagi twins. Ai Kayano as Ume was also an interesting twist. Would have enjoyed it more if she was involved in the bento fights but I guess she's a bit too upper class

Enjoyment? I didn't really enjoy episode after episode since as I said before, the episodes and arcs felt like one-shots. It didn't provide me much motivation (if any) to actually watch the next episode.

Overall, the premise is a bit more interesting than I thought but as I said earlier, it's a shounen action show at the end of the day. It's unique in its own way but lacks anything particularly striking to make this interesting. The show should have just gone with Ume as the main character and made it into a yuri show

Preliminary Score: 6/10
Final Score: 6/10

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Jan 9 2012 12:13 PM
I was actually thoroughly dissapointed with the turn this series took. Around the time he got his name, the series turned from an over-the-top enjoyable comedy to a full-blown harem/ecchi show with tiny traces of plot, kinda like the diff between baka test s1 and s2. The hints were there, but I tried to ignore them and they unfortunately became the reality. That said, I still had some fun watching this one so I can't knock it too hard for what could have been. 7/10 from me.

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Dec 27 2011 04:31 PM
I agree with both of your comments Kid-Wolf and Killer_Ossi

This was really a unique series that i would have never thought it would be this good.

I was waiting each week to see what happens. I wish we would have gotten a little more of Ume ( for some reason I was really into her)

The othros story was good as well like killer_Ossi said for a wolfe to be treated like the club of hercules did them would be heartbreaking.

But the best thing about the show was Sato he wasn't the dope male lead character.

Great Show Would love another season but only if they can do it like this one

9/10

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Dec 27 2011 11:16 AM
I have to agree with you on that Ossi-san. I mean this series was kind of your odd series that was kind of different at first. After a while into it, the whole series turn out to be a fun ride that had a very good ammount of fanservice if you ask me.

In any case for Sato to beat down the Club of Hircules like that pretty much shows that being a wolf you have to fight the strongest ones out there or else you're nothing more then a wild dog.

In any case I'm sure they could do another season of this if they felt like it, but I'm content with how it ended either way.

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Dec 25 2011 11:17 AM
This show defenitely was the biggest positive surprise this season. To think that a show with such a story could turn out so great is just unbelievable.
The last ep was just great and gave showed just what it means to be a wolf.

For someone who loves to fight and get a reward for it it really must hurt to get the reward for doing nothing so its no surprise that Double-Kyou were devastated by it. But in the end they got the fight they wanted and even lost without going against the Ice Witch.

Overall it was, except for a few eps in the middle, a great show with great comedy, nice action, interesting characters and a surprisingly good plot. On the downside is that a lot of characters feel completely unneeded since they had no purpose, like Ume, that BL-girl, that unlucky girl and the wizard. Especially the wizard was a character I hoped would come back. But who knows, maybe we get a second season. I would like it.
A 9/10 from me.

Oh and by the way I didnt like it that we never saw Brunettes face, even though I knew we wouldnt -.-

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Dec 13 2011 05:30 PM
Finally it got interesting again and for the first time we see the Ice Witch defeated. Sure in my eyes it wasnt really a defeat since those twins had weapons, but still even with that its a huge surprise.
I didnt think the twins were that strong since until now they were more of a comedy duo than anything else.

Im looking forward to the rematch. And maybe we even get a trainings ep, would be interesting.

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Dec 6 2011 03:31 PM

I agree I would love to see her in the Ben-To fights. I bet she would be Merciless

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Dec 5 2011 09:51 AM
So pretty much it confirms that ume-san is a yuri girl that wants to keep Oshiroi all to herself. Even though I'm not sure as to how she is able to deny the fact that she really is wrighting a BL involving sato as the main boy of all things. In any case even if Sato was accurate to describing things to Ume-san it's prety much a pointless thing. Also, to make matters worse it seems that guy really enjoys seeing him get mauled in every which way by Ume-san.

Also, it looks like this was pretty much doing more of a backstory on Oshiroi-san and Ume-san's relationship. If anything it seems the lil' yaoi fangril here pretty much had it bad for this epsidoe.
I mean her laptop breaks, and what's worse her best freind trying to go yuri over her in a very forceful manner.

If anything I would like to see Ume-san get invovled in the bento fights since she does look like a total brute that wouldn't let anything stand in her way no matter what it is.

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Dec 4 2011 03:30 PM
If Ume were to get involved in the bento fights, and she gets in the way of Saito and his bento, I bet Saito would take his revenge. What I really want to see, though, is Asebi getting involved.

I also feel like the last few episodes were slower. Not that I still didn't enjoy them though. Hopefully, they were just setting up for... something. I hope.