That really hit the spot a few times a week...the karaage bento with a can of milk tea. Yes, if my doctor saw this, he'd be tsk-tsk'ing so hard that he'd knock out his own teeth, but I have no regrets except for the fact that I've not had regular access to the Japanese fried chicken and rice combination for nearly a decade now. By far, this is my favourite bento although I am also partial to the hamburger covered in demi-glace sauce, although for that one, heating is necessary. Karaage is great hot or cold.
The first rule of Half-Priced Food Lovers Club is don't talk about Half-Priced Food Lovers Club.
The second rule of Half-Priced Food Lovers Club is DON'T TALK ABOUT HALF-PRICED FOOD LOVERS CLUB!
Yup, returning from Japan in late 2011 and therefore from regular bento, it was ironic that one of my first anime that was presented to me by my anime buddy (who I still have regular contact with via phone) was "BEN-TO"（ベン・トー）. And indeed, as those opening rules state, the show shared a lot with David Fincher's "Fight Club". The whole premise is that competing clubs of bento-crazed and economically-minded folks of all ages went hardcore on each other for the remaining discounted boxed lunches in various supermarkets at closing time. One teenage boy named Yō Satō who could be the bento equivalent of Ed Norton's character in "Fight Club" gets sucked into the gastronomic brawls and encounters a whole plethora of weird, wacky and food-crazed fighters.
It was a nice introduction getting back into anime after several years of not watching the stuff at all since I simply had no time to catch the post-midnight fare in my job during much of those 17 years in Japan. On first seeing the battles royale in the food marts, I had to go "Yep, that's anime for you!". Combining the concepts of a secret fight club and a key part of Japanese gastronomic culture was frankly nutty genius by the author of the original light novel, Asaura（アサウラ）.
Plus, going over the cast list of "BEN-TO" that was released in October 2011, I realized that the list is filled with seiyuu who have been the current A-class for some years. Hiro Shimono（下野紘）, who is now famous as the caterwauling Zenitsu in "Kimetsu no Yaiba"（鬼滅の刃）, played Yō Satō, and he was starring with Mariya Ise（伊瀬茉莉也）, Aoi Yūki（悠木碧）, Ai Kayano（茅野愛衣）, Mamoru Miyano（宮野真守）and Ayana Taketatsu（竹達彩奈）among other known seiyuu.
Of course, there was the opening theme by singer/seiyuu Aimi Terakawa（寺川愛美）, "Live for Life: Ōkami-tachi no Yoru" (Night of the Wolves) whose rock arrangement pretty much spells out what each episode is to bring: a lot of speed and punches and kicks. The headbanging here, though, probably means noggins smacking shopping cart handlebars and aisle section rails. Written by Ryuji Matsumura（松村龍二）and composed by Yuugo Sasakura（佐々倉有吾）, Aimi's 2nd single from November 2011 peaked at No. 30 on Oricon, and though it won't enter my Top 10 favourite anison, I do like how the song finishes with the final bang-bang-bang by the instruments. According to the J-Wiki description, the series director had wanted an anime song that could be easily sung at karaoke by the masses. "Live for Life" was also included in her one and only album "Love" from November 2013 which ranked in at No. 77.
Early in my stint in the Tokyo area, many was the time when I would rush into my neighbourhood supermarket to grab one of the final bento. My experience was thankfully far less violent than depicted in "BEN-TO" with folks quietly and quickly looking for whatever was remaining (fact: no karaage😞) and "Hotaru no Hikari" (蛍の光）playing on the speakers.
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