One of the perks of a kid's lunchtime in Japan is that sometimes they are treated to character bento (called chara-ben for short). Chara-ben are bento boxes that feature creative and artistic arrangement of ingredients to recreate everything from animals to famous characters from popular works of fiction.

Japanese parent K (@K_teitoku) does this frequently for their kid, and recently made a chara ben that turns bento food into a lovely Pokémon meal.

It's a photo of their own meal that K shared that has been gaining a lot of sympathetic and moved attention online, however. While K's child gets to enjoy a flashy Pokémon bento, K showed what their own breakfast looks like after they've prepared an elaborate chara ben.

"This is my breakfast on the day I made a character bento."

As you can see, K's child has quite the detailed and spectacular Pokémon bento, that means K's breakfast consists of all the scraps from the portions of food they've cut and arranged to make the actual character bento. On their plate you can see the mix of hollowed out ingredients used in the bento such as roast ham, fried eggs, and seaweed. Although it's the same ingredients, it's a far less aesthetically pleasing meal.

Many parents who go through the same commented on Twitter saying "I know what you mean!" and leaving other sympathetic comments:

K doesn't seem to mind the meal, however, saying "When I think of my kid enjoying their character bento, it makes me smile."