The new issue of Asian pop-culture mag Giant Robot got me hooked on Makiko Ogawa’s bento art, or “charaben” (character bento), which is charming, adorable, and entirely Cute Overload-worthy. “Basically,” she tells Giant Robot, “I just make bento that my children would want.”
She began making charaben a few years ago, when her son started kindergarten. “He cried and cried,” she says. “I hoped that my bento would make him happy.”
Her children are a bit older now (7 and 8), but Ogawa still sends them off with cute bento and shares her favorite creations on her (adorable!) Flickr page. Don’t miss Ogawa’s pirate bento, inspired by a recent viewing of Pirates of the Caribbean, or her walruses, elephants, and tiny quail-egg polar bear.
Source: Giant Robot
Image courtesy of Makiko Ogawa.