Crazy about the world of character bento!
The number of people in Japan who are crazy for character bento is on the rise! We asked Gurea-san, a charismatic figure in the world of character bento who appears in magazines and on TV, about the reasons why people get into “kyaraben” and we also check out some of the amazing bento. Plus, we introduce some of the stores where you can buy kyaraben goods!
* “Kyaraben” is a registered trademark of Bandai.
hy do people get hooked on character bento?
We asked a charismatic figure in the kyaraben world.
Colorful, healthy and tasty-looking, Japan’s originally-styled bento are receiving attention from around the world! In this feature we will introduce the latest bento evolution: “kyaraben”, or character bento. Kyaraben are boxed lunches emblazoned with images of anime characters, SFX heroes, cute animals and so on, and more and more children can now be seen taking character bento to their kindergartens and schools! Let’s begin by checking out some actual examples.
This “Ultraman Mebius” bento won a Grand Prix contest for Bandai kyaraben! The Mebius character in the middle of the lunchbox was made using fish paste called kamaboko.
Bandai kyaraben website
Bandai KyaraBen.jp
Popular “Tamagotchi” game and anime characters can be seen here in onigiri (rice ball) form!
[Related goods: Purchase goods to add color to your kyaraben, including “Ultra” series and “Tamagotchi” lunchboxes, picks, baran, etc.]
Premium Bandai
2012 is the year of the dragon in Japan, and even this has been given a cute bento makeover. The onigiri (rice ball) is covered with green nori (seaweed) to give the character a 3D look.
These brilliantly fresh-looking goldfish are achieved by using thin slices of prosciuto ham!
What do you think of these bento? Delicate and lifelike as they are, they almost look too good to eat! Producer Gurea-san is something of a kyaraben personality, appearing in magazines and on TV to introduce recipes and having won many prizes and Grand Prix for her many character bento. We asked Gurea-san how to make kyaraben.
“We have three sons, and the youngest hardly eats a thing - but he’s always happy to eat when his bento has an image of his favorite character.”
Many people make character bento because they want their children to eat and be happy. Love of parents is behind the boom in popularity of kyaraben. In fact, Gurea-san went to the length of giving her youngest son a character bento every day while he was at kindergarten - fours days a week for three years! Continuing like that without a break gave her eldest son, who at the time was at the rebellious age of an elementary school student, a clear example of the notion that “persevering through something difficult makes one stronger”. What mothers do for their children! Although surely it was difficult to constantly find new themes for these kyaraben?
“I had no problem in that regard, because my youngest son kept on making all kinds of different requests. Our conversation at dinnertime and bath time was often about the next day’s bento, so kyaraben were central to our communication.”
The character from Japan’s continuously popular “Baby Star Ramen” snack appears in the form of lightly fried egg and nori, giving an extra dimension to this fried soba lunch!
This kyaraben features a witch associated with Halloween. Character bento taking seasonal events as their themes are provide a different type of enjoyment than famous characters do.
The kyaraben being produced in Gurea-san’s household were progressively improving in quality thanks to this parent-child cooperation. “Children have such a strong bond with their favorite characters that I was always being picked up on even minor faults,” Gurea-san laughs. Compared with normal bento, how long do kyaraben take to produce?
“It takes me about 30 minutes even to make a normal bento because I’m not a good cook, but kyaraben take me around two hours. The really difficult thing is waking up early in the morning! [Laughs]”
For some reason, people are crazy about kyaraben even though they are so difficult. We asked Gurea-san what she thought was the main reason for the popularity of character bento...
Beginners are recommended to start with kyaraben that are easy to put together, such as distorted animals, etc.
“I think the main reason is because they make children happy. But it does also become enjoyable to make kyaraben. I love thinking about trivial things like this [laughs]. Also, the environment around contests and blogs, etc., where mothers can show many people what they’ve gone to such great lengths to make, is probably linked to mums’ willingness to put in the effort. There are lots of tools that make kyaraben production that bit easier, which means it’s surprisingly simple to make kyaraben - I think that’s another reason for their popularity.”
Surprisingly simple?! We asked what type of characters would be easy for first-timers to produce.
“It might be difficult to go straight into making anime characters, but animals easy. I recommend animals that can be made using simple shapes together, such as circles and squares. It’s easy to make eyes and noses look right.”
Let’s briefly introduce the panda as seen in the top-right image. This uses fried pasta to embroider with black soy beans. The pasta acts as pins.
Cut the white ingredient (pounded fish cake is used here) into a round shape, and make a face and a body. Stick the black soy bean and pasta parts in as ears.
Nori is used for the black parts such as the eyes, mouth and torso. The panda’s pink cheeks are achieved using slices of fish sausage, and the bamboo leaves are made by cutting out green pea snacks.
yaraben goods on sale in tourist destination Odaiba!
The lunch goods sales area at “DAISO Aqua City Odaiba Store” stocks many goods that are handy for making kyaraben.
Gurea-san visits so-called 100-yen shops to buy goods that make it easy to produce kyaraben. For this report, we visited “DAISO Aqua City Odaiba Store”, which stocks a wide range of kyaraben goods and is easy for visitors to Japan to get to.
DAISO’s Yusuke Sakata explains: “Originally there was a genre called ‘lunch goods’, but in recent years the term ‘kyaraben’ has become famous around the world and the range of products available has become much wider.”
Which goods have been selling well recently?
“Goods for producing defined forms such as rabbits and cars used to be popular, but recently there’s been a shift to products that can be applied when making various characters, such as cutters to make round parts, dried food sprinkles to make rice colorful, and so on.”
More and more people want the freedom to choose their favorite characters. At any rate, all of these handy goods are priced at just 105 yen ( tax included)! If you visit Odaiba, why not stop in at DAISO and buy some of these goods for your own kyaraben debut or to give as souvenirs to people who like cooking?
These cutters are useful for making character parts. They can drill circular holes and cut cross-sections into triangles.
Gurea-san loves these “decorative sprinkles”, which are used to add color to rice.
These are some other products that are selling well. On the left are goods to turn boiled eggs into heart and star shapes, and on the right are tools for molding rice into heart and star shapes without getting your hands sticky.
Gurea-san values small scissors and tweezers. These are not lunch-related goods, but rather are sold in beauty and nail-care departments.
DAISO Aqua City Odaiba Store
4th floor, Aqua City Odaiba, Daiba 1-7-1, Minato-ku, Tokyo Tel. 03-3599-7061 Opening hours: 11:00-21:00
http://www.daiso-sangyo.co.jp/
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