Bento Baggins

Bento Baggins, otherwise known as Ben, is our resident literature and philosophy bro. When not reading manga or watching anime, Ben is one half of the popular podcast Words About Books.

You can find Bento Baggins on Twitter @BenboSwaggins.

Popular posts from this blog

Dense Female Lead Syndrome (DFLS)

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Dense Female Lead Syndrome, or DFLS, is a recently described disorder that is becoming more prevalent in shoujo and josei manhwa. The following brief will give you an overview of the disorder and it's two primary types. [Pictured: One of the most severe cases of DFLS we've ever seen] [Source: My BFF is a Tyrant in Training] DFLS Type I symptoms include a Female Lead being unable to see the signs of infatuation from the Male Lead or even secondary Male Leads. This can range from not picking up on subtle but obvious clues too, in the worst cases, outright rejecting the notion that a Male Lead just confessed their feelings. DFLS Type I usually won't be diagnosed until an appropriate amount of interaction has been reached with the Male Lead, as simply missing hints here and there is generally not serious enough to warrant a diagnosis. DFLS Type II symptoms tend to be broader in definition than just the Female Lead's romantic interests, and will generally include a Female Le
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Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Manga Spoiler Review

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First and foremost, as the title suggests, there will be spoilers for the entirety of the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba series. This is a review about the manga, not the anime adaptation. The manga has been finished for almost 2-years at this point, but I know there are people who may stumble upon this only having watched the anime which is ongoing. If you’re interested in whether or not I liked it without getting into spoilers. The short version of this review is that I’d give it a 3.5 out of 5, but expect the anime to be a 4.5 out of 5. I like the story, but there were some missed opportunities to make me love the story. The author seemed uninterested in several key plot threads which leads to an underwhelming conclusion that lacks the impressive visuals that ufotable has brought to the animation. If you scroll past this image then you enter into spoiler territory. The Shonen Manga Grading Curve The mission of Words About Books is to read a lot and to read widely for the purpose of
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New Manga - Ruri Dragon (ルリドラゴン)

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Another week, another new series in Shonen Jump. Yesterday (6/12/2022) saw the release of the first chapter of Ruri Dragon by Masaoki Shindou.  The plot is fairly simple. A girl named Ruri wakes up one morning to find out that she has grown dragon horns. The tone of the manga is immediately set when both Ruri and her mother treat this as an unexpected inconvenience and not a horrific disfigurement. It's not that such things are common place in the world of the manga, they most certainly are not. It's just that if you wake up one day with dragon horns, well, what are you gonna do about it? Life goes on.  Ruri's mother reveals in an equally matter-of-fact tone that Ruri's father, who has never been present in her life, is actually a Ryu (龍 I'm guessing was the kanji used), a dragon. Specifically, he is a Japanese dragon. It's not really explained in the chapter, but there are a lot of differences between dragon myths in Europe and Asia. For the time being let'
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