Nanako Furuta
Title – JAPANEASY Character Bento: Cute and Notorious Japanese Recipes
Author – Tim Anderson: American-British chef and writer based in London. He is the winner of MasterChef in 2011 and has published five Japanese cookery books, also owns Japanese fusion restaurants in Brixton and Covent Garden.
Publisher – Hardie Grant Books: Australian independent book publisher with a non-fiction list spanning food and drink, lifestyle and popular culture.
Genre – cookery book
Overview – This book will show how to make character bento. Bento is take away lunch box, usually be prepped ahead and eaten later either cold or re-heated with no loss quality. It is not just a daily meal packed in a box, is sometimes art, filled with joy and pleasure. Character bento is bento which include the food arranged into an elaborate design to look like characters from manga, anime or games. Unfortunately, it takes longer time to make this meal than ordinary bento, but looks beautiful and appetising. Some people believe that food presentation would take up approximately 80% of its taste and it’s worth trying. It is difficult to make Mario bento like the upper picture for beginners, so this book will start with the easy one which anyone would be make.
price – £10.99
Size – 246mm x 189mm
Hardback
Pages – 150
Marketing
– primary market: parents who have small children, want to make their children happy when they open the lunch box and eat it or want their children to try to eat what they don’t like.
– secondary market: people who love anime or games and people who are interested in Japanese culture. They don’t need to cook it, it’s definitely interesting just to see the pictures of food.
Competitors
– Disney Bento: Fun Recipes for Bento Boxes by Masami Miyazaki (VIZ Media)
price – £14.99
Pages – 96
Strengths – specialised in Disney charasters
Weaknesses – need special tools like character shaped cutters to make bento
– Yummy Kawaii Bento: Preparing Adorable Meals for Adorable Kids by Li Ming Lee (Skyhorse Publishing)
Price – £24.99
Pages – 256
Strengths –
Weaknesses – poor cover design
– YUM-YUM BENTO BOX by Maki Ogawa (Quirk Books)
Price – £13.99
Pages – 144
Strengths –
Weaknesses – poor cover design
Profit and loss –
USPs
– Affordable price: compare to other bento cook books, it is much cheaper.
– Quite rare book in the UK: there are some bento books are sold in the UK, but character bento books are few.
– Written by successful chef: he has studied Japanese food history at Occidental College in LA and lived Kitakyushu, Japan where Tonkotsu Ramen originated, for two years. He owns Japaneses restaurants in London and that are rated 3.9/5 on Google.
– attractive cover design: Tim Anderson’s books are great in design. It’s not only about the cover pages, but also the graphics inside are aesthetic and beautifully structured. Many readers might want to return to his book again and again.
– Written with humour: his writing makes readers feel like he is being in the kitchen and joking around.