D SALYERS, CHRISTOPHER
When I was little, I would trot off to elementary school with my plastic lunchbox Shirt Tales, MoonDreamers, Super Mario Bros. 2, or ALF, depending on the year filled with the typical sandwich, some kind of leftover, and maybe a cookie. Sometimes, my mom would surprise me with a note tucked inside wishing me a great day or telling me she loved me.
In no way do I want to trivialize my moms sweet displays of affection quite the opposite but theres a trend among Japanese mothers (and some fathers one featured in the book) which goes far beyond that. Charaben are bento boxes inspired by, as the name suggests, characters from popular culture. Ive featured charaben bento boxes here on Fandomestic before, so if youve been following along you know how amazing they can be, but perhaps, like me, you didnt realize they constituted their own subset of the bento box art form.
