Yum Boxes

For the majority of us, lunch is a time to run out of work and grab a cheap bite, or to throw some leftovers in the microwave.

But there are a select few for which lunch is an opportunity for creative ingenuity: the bento box makers. What was once a strictly Japanese activity for homemakers to entertain their children and indulge their artistic flair has become an international hobby. Heading the pack is Anna The Red and her Bento Factory, where she posts pictures of incredible food tableaus. Video game characters blast their way across fields of rice, sliced ginger and cabbage, and Hayao Miyazaki characters prance about in the form of softboiled eggs, radishes, rolls of nori and delicately cut veggies. Below are the Big Daddy and Little Sister characters from the game “BioShock,” and characters from Nintendo’s SuperSmash Bros.

There are also the Star Wars themed bento boxes made by Vingt Deux which made my jaw drop (but not salivate as much as the others did—what on Tatooine is that Jawa made out of?) I’ll take these over a microwaved burrito any day of the week.