Cosplay Restaurant/Cafe, is it too weird for America?

Akiba (Akihabara, 秋葉原), Tokyo -- The mother planet of everything Otaku is the birth place of Cosplay themed restaurants.  This trend started around 1999 as a uniform genre Doujin gathering.  Eventually, restaurants and cafes that feature maids, butlers, and even Gundams started to appear in Akiba and other areas of Tokyo.

The topic of Maid Cafes has been talked about by various sources.  If you would like to find out more about it, I suggest reading this article on Wikipedia.  If you would like to know which Maid Cafe you want to visit while in Japan, read this article from CNN.  If you are stuck in a country outside of Japan, and would like to see what Maid Cafe is actually like, I suggest YouTube as a good source for videos.

Now, back to my topic for the day : are cosplay restaurants/cafes too weird for America?  The answer at this point is probably "No" for a convention or some places in California, and "Yes" for the rest of the country.  Even at a more otaku-friendly environment, such as an anime convention, the views on Maid Cafe are not always positive.  This could be caused by many reasons, but one reason definitely relates to the objectification of women.  It doesn't take a genius to realize the sexual implications behind maid cafes.  In a society where people fight furiously to end the sexual objectification of women, the concept of Maid Cafe can be anything but welcome.

literally objectified...lol

If you have been reading this blog then you would know that we attended Katsucon 18 this year.  One of the con events at Katsu is a all volunteer Maid/Butler Cafe.  The particular Maid Cafe was featured in an article on Washington Post (HERE).  I thought the article was pretty well written, and definitely reflects some of the American sentiments toward Maid Cafe.

Obviously, in order to successfully operate a Cosplay themed restaurant in the US, one has to do some intense market study and make changes to how the place can be operated.  For example, Maids/waitress address their customers as Masters in Japan.  In the US, that is probably something to be abandoned in order to avoid protests (this cafe opened in California has done so).

The question that still remains in my mind is, how is a maid cafe any different from Hooters?  They both objectify women and provide food related services.  Additionally, maid cafe might even be cleaner and more kids friendly.  Anyhow, I'm going to stop here and let you formulate your own views about having cosplay themed cafes in America.  Would you go to one if it was opened near you?

Comment below if you have views that you would like to share!

A Snippet of Japan ( K-On, Cosplay Roms & Butler Cafe)

When I was in in Japan for the Animax Musix Concert 2011 last November, I visited a couple of Anime Paradise and picked up quite a bit of Brochures. It’s not much but storing pictures of them privately in my HDD seemed pointless so I decided to share the random Anime stuffs I saw in Japan. Hope you guys enjoy it!

Click on the images to view the full size!

K-on plushies in a UFO catcher at Ikebukuro.

 

When I went over in November, K-On was everywhere! From big pillar Posters to collaborating with the Konbini (Convenience Shop) Franchise , Lawson. This was all to promote the launch of the Movie which opened in theatres 3rd Dec 2011.

The promotional brochure and stamp booklet I got at A-Cos, Ikebukuro.

The Stamp Booklet is a really cute activity for fans to play with. Basically you go to the selected place, pick up a copy of the booklet and venture to other participating outlets with a stamp machine for you to stamp on.

This picture is taken in a Lawson in Ikebukuro. Notice the Stamp device on the top right hand corner? Yea, you place your booklet (or should I call it a card ?) and stamp into one of the allocated circle/space.

Some of the Cosplay/ Butler brochures I picked up at A-Cos.

Yukio from Ao no Exorcist!

Royal Servant, a Cosplay Butler Cafe in Ikebukuro area (I think). And yes, Kaname works there too.

A random arcade/ UFO Catcher shop in Ikebukuro

Idol M@ster’s really big over in Japan too. They even paired up with Toyota to promote the launch of it’s new game. Doesn’t being an Animanga fan seems like so much fun for in Japan >w<?

Brochures from the Evangelion shop. I think it’s about the launch of a Evangelion Karaoke room. Anyone care to translate >w<? I talked more about the Evangelion Flagship store over at miccostumes . Pop over to see more photos of the merchandise!

Evangelion merchandise I got! Will be giving the file away soon so look out for it ^_^

Namecards I got from the Puella magi Madoka Magica Cafe ( Goodsmile Cafe). Pop over to this entry to see more of the Goodsmile cafe.

With this I end my very random ‘Snippets of Japan’ entry. Hope you guys had as much fun looking at these little snippets of Japan as I had taking photos of them! Leave me a comment to tell me to stop these entries if you don’t like it =(!

Good Smile Cafe (Madoka Puella Magica)

Website: http://www.gstjcafe.jp/

It was my main agenda to make my Animax Musix trip to Japan an Otaku adventure. The plan was to visit as much themed cafes and Otaku hideout as we could. But truth be told, I didn't know there was a Madoka Cafe until the night before, a Japanese fellow Otaku whom we met through mutual friends enlightened me xD

According to him, that place is always flooded. So I guess we were lucky to enter at a really empty slot and didn't need any queuing xD

The Madoka Cafe was actually the Good Smile Cafe but dressed up to the Maho Shoujo theme. At the moment, it is also sharing a menu with Type-Moon.

The Good Smile / Madoka cafe is located at the AKIBA Culture Zone building. It took us so much trouble to find it because the map we got from said Japanese friend ( Thanks Masa!) was too brief! And to make matters worse, we mistook the JR station for our Tokyo Subway Station LOL. Apparently, AKIBA Culture Zone is like the newest landmark but hell would some aliens ( Foreigners) know that =_= ;;

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The nearest JR station is Akihabara. Further down, there is also the Tokyo Subway, Hibiya Line (akihabara). Other than the cafe, other levels of the AKIBA Culture Zone building also caters to Otakus by supplying a wide array of merchandises. According to Kotaku.com, the building itself is a one stop shopping paradise for Otakus. Carrying products ranging from Figurines, books, T-shirts to even clothes for fashionable Otakus.

I said ‘according’ because yours truly barely had time to shop around the building. But from the little I see, I can tell Kotaku.com was not lying ( XD)

The Goodsmile cafe is on the 5th floor.

The menu features a fair amount of variety. Ranging from full meals to desserts and cocktail. Surprisingly, no cover charge is applied!!!!!!!!!!!

And of course, the food is dressed to theme xD check out the Kyubi curry rice xD

We didn't feel hungry and certainly didn't have the time to linger so we only ordered drinks.

I ordered the Sayaka drink while Zephyus ordered the Blue Jelly. Complimentary with each order, is a Madoka paper coaster which the waitress very sensibly, hands you instead of putting under your drink xD

We also observed them giving full meal ordering customers, Kyubeh paper mat xD Such a nice touch eh?

The entire cafe is filled with Good Smile nendroids and figmas. There is also related Madoka merchandise, sketches and wall decorations. Photo flood!

		Good Smile Cafe VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

		Good Smile Cafe (Madoka Puella Magica) VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

All in all, this is definitely a comfortable Otaku chilling place that not only allows photography but is affordable too! And of course, it is a must go to place for any Madoka Fans at Akihabara.

P/s: Yes, it was very embarrassing to snap so many photographs there even thought Photography is allowed T_T