Back to reviewing after a lengthy break, this time it's food fight anime Ben-to.

You Sato just started high school and on a normal day at the local convenience store, he gets beat up trying to grab Bento boxes, this is a wolves battle for half price Bento boxes and Sen Yarizui the Ice Witch as she's known is the master of these battles and drafts Sato into the half price food lovers club alongside Hana Oshiroi, a creepy novel writer, as to why? Well students are poor and fighting for cheap yet good quality food is the best way, especially if you're a half decent enough fighter to be able to accomplish it and the other customers don't seem to mind that much.
Now this is Japanese anime at it's finest, take a silly idea and run with it and that's exactly what Ben-to sets out to do but in doing so it seems to abandon it's own rules very quickly as the story is too scatterbrained to work properly, not backed up well by it's unsubtle attempts at fanservice or it's attempt at establishing good side characters.
For instance, the main core cast are fantastic, especially Shaga but the rest of the cast are split up into their own different problems including those who don't get enough screentime, those who get too much screentime and those who really don't belong in the story such as the psycho lesbian Shiraume or the what the hell villain at the end Heracles. These characters really spoil the show especially Shiraume whose random smack downs are uncalled for.
I think it's a shame that the balance of characters is so scattered that it makes following the story really tough, the anime's saving grace is Shaga and of course the high octane battle scenes which are some of the finest you'll see, anyone who can make shopping baskets and chopsticks into deadly weapons knows what their doing, and the Sega cameos are welcome to see. Dub is pretty good with many characters being spot on.
Final Verdict: I wouldn't watch this anime if your looking for story but I'd certainly watch it for action and Ben-to has plenty of it.