A bento box is a compact Japanese food container designed to hold a variety of neatly prepared and delicious meals. Much like a lunchbox, bento boxes can present a fun and appealing way to eat a meal. Deb Aoki's Bento Box mostly follows the semi-autobiographical life of Deb herself, a Hawaiian born and raised "thirty something" year old gal, now residing in "mainland" America. The comic strip deals with Hawaiian culture, her travelogues, femininity, romance, family, buying habits, the workplace, age, weddings, random thoughts, observations, etc... A few of the strips' dialogue even include Hawaiian Pidgin, a local slang developed in the early 1900's from a mesh of English, Hawaiian, Portuguese, Cantonese, Japanese, Filipino, Spanish, etc.. Fortunately, Deb goes through the trouble of asterisk explaining some of the more obscure cultural aspects.
One of the things I like most about Deb's Bento Box is the way she refers to her Hawaiian culture with a humorous introspection to life in mainland America. It's also refreshing to find an Asian American comic strip that isn't preoccupied or angry with race and it's political issues. I would suspect this quality to be a result of being raised in a state where 41.6% of the people are of Asian descent as opposed to 3.6% in the entire USA. Neither is it cynical nor crass. Deb just focuses on enjoying the "ordinary" things in her life, from her own cultural perspective in a friendly and humorous way.
The humor Deb portrays in her comic strips is very well done. One might anticipate that some of the cultural jokes about Hawaii would alienate non-Hawaiian readers, but I never found that to be the case. I found her writing to be perfectly understandable, funny, and lighthearted. I enjoyed it alot.
Grade: A
Art:
First off, even though I know it would make the book more expensive, I'm a little disappointed that it's in black and white especially after seeing how gorgeously colored they are in the Honolulu Advertiser. Thankfully, the strips still translate well in black and white dot tone.
I would describe Deb's style to be warm and gentle. Her linework's a little loose. They aren't always super clean and sometimes the background's a little sketchy but Deb's art and anime influenced expressions are very appealing. She has good composition skills, characters blend well with their backgrounds. Most of the characters are placed in full figure shots to medium shots; nothing fancy but it doesn't need to be.
Sometimes, you can notice variations from panel to panel of the same thing, but Deb stays consistently good throughout. She draws a good gesture. The lettering is neat and hand written. Her words and images get along pleasantly, matching very well with the content of her work.
Grade: A-
Overall:
After getting a taste from Deb Aoki's Bento Box, I can only conclude that it was onolicious! Much like a real bento box can be, it was a real treat.