Here are some more achingly cute and amazing kyaraben (character bentos) to enjoy, from yet another contest. This time it was one sponsored by Bandai, makers of various video games and the infamous Tamagotchi. The bento contest had three divisions, and the results were just announced yesterday. This is the winning bento in the Tamagotchi division.

Yes I know, I said "OMG!!!!!!!!" when I saw that too.

You can check out the creator's own blog (in Japanese of course), where she has many more closeups of her amazing creation in this entry. Her blog has lots of how-to entries and closeup photos of various bento goods, so it's definitely worth checking out if you are a fan of the cute bento style. (Her profile says she makes kyaraben for her 2 year old and 4 year old kids.)

The contest had two other divisions, both for anime series I'm not familiar with. The winner of the dinosaur-themed division (for a series called Kodai Ouja Kyouryuu Kingu), is very cool though:

Most kyaraben tend to be sweetly cute, but I can imagine even a jaded 8 year old boy liking this one. Check out the creator's blog. She says she makes her kyaraben for her 5 year old kindergarten age boy, and she has a 2 year old daughter too. She also has many entries about the more 'adult' bentos she makes for her husband.

One interesting thing I've noticed that kyaraben bloggers have said is that they only have to make bentos for their kindergarten age children once or twice a week, for designated bento days. (A few only have to make a bento once a month.) So, in case you are thinking that these Japanese mothers are creating such amazing bentos every day...that's definitely not the case.

See the other contest winners here (click the photos at the bottom to get to each division page).

Press that button to show your support

When you visit Japanese kyaraben blogs, you may see a button at the bottom of each entry that looks like the one here. That's a voting button for a bento blog ranking system, so if you like the blogger's creation, be sure to click that button and show your admiration! If you see similar buttons next to that one, they are for other ranking systems, so click those too. (I think such theme-based blog ranking voting systems are not a bad idea. I rather wish they existed in English-blogging land too. They are a great way to discover like-themed blogs.)