Animate Idolish7 Cafe アニメイトアイドリッシュセベンカフェWelcome to the wonderful world of Anime Themed Cafe’s! A new series starting with Idolish7. The Primise Anime themed cafes and restaurants have been around for years. And Animate has the formula for the top Anime themed cafes that cater to Otome fans. Otome in terms of anime fans are women who like anime and video games that are targeted at women. for instance, dating sim games, idol games (anime) and sports anime. These fans can find goods specific to them in Ikebukuro which is home to many Otome fans. Animate has montly themed cafes catered around the characters that Otome fans like. What separates Animate Cafe's from the pop up cafe's that spring up all over Japan is that Animate Cafe is a permanant installment. They have several locations and entrance is done by reservation only. Pop-up collaboration cafes usually allow both reservations and walk-ins if they have tables availible. Each cafe is decorated with pictures and large cut outs of the the characters to fully imerse you into the world. You will feel like you have walked into a wonderland of your favourite anime. The entire café is decorated with pictures and full size cut outs of the characters to fully immerse you into the world of that title be it an anime or a video game. You will feel like you have walked into a wonderland of your favourite anime. The Food and Dessert What makes anime themed cafe's special are the food and drink that they create to represent the characters. Each character will have a food, dessert and drink item. So you can get something for each character you like or only buy items for the character you like. The food is usually over the top with decorations and character pictures or items. Animate uses the character's traits, favorutie colours and unique markers to make the food. From my experience, Animate has the best looking and tasting cafe menu. One critism with themed cafes is that the food looks amazing but usuesally does not taste as good as it looks. Animate does not fall into that category. I have had the privilege of going to nurmorous Animate Cafe's and I have never had a complaint about thier food. On the contrary, if it were possible I would have second servings of their food. My only critism about Animate Cafe is how popular it is and how difficult it is to get a reservation. Your best bet if you are interested is going on a weekday for the weekends are almost impossible to book. But come prepared to spend because the food items are not cheap. They range from 500 to 700 yen for drinks. And 700-1200 yen for food and dessert. The portions are big so you can be full from food and drink alone without having dessert. of if you are only in the mood for dessert, you are not obligated to order a full meal.
The Goods Besides the picturesque food, the biggest draw for fans to come to these cafes are the limited goods. These items will only be sold at that cafe and are not authorised to be sold anywhere else. (You can buy them used but the prices will be marked up according to rarity.) They are designed to be special and one of kind. Some of the goods are sold randomly in special packaging so you canno see through them. This encourages guest to buy mutiple of the same item in the hopes of getting the characters they like. If they do not succeed or they have limited funds, the guest are also encouraged to trade their goods with the other guest in attendance. This is a major draw for fans because it a safe and fast environment to trade. (the alternative is done online and at anime events). Goods at Animate Cafes are reasonably priced to balance out how pricy the food is. The Coasters and Service Goods Apart from the collaboration goods, guests are also presented with limited edition coasters. They are given out randomly and will feature a different character, pair or trio. Coasters are only given out with your drink purchase so this encourages guests to buy many drinks. Some people like to collect the entire set of coasters and will attend these cafes on multiple occasions in order to do so. But if you are interested in just one character, you can also trade with other guest. Your food and dessert items will come with a different service good. This could be a post card, a bromide (Printed photograph,) or a book mark traditionally. During a café I went to last year, guests were given Japanese good luck charms (Seals), the sort you are given at a Japanese shrine. It coincided with a Japanese Shrine theme from the video game. The atmosphere at these cafes are very friendly and welcoming. There are rules however. You are only allowed to shop and take pictures of the food and decorations at designated times. If there are cosplayers present, you must ask permission to take their photos. You only have 90 minutes to order, eat and shop. You cannot split your order if you are dining with friends or a significant other. So if you have an animate point card, you may have to decide who will get points for the cost of the meal. Only the shopping goods can be separated by person. The good side about the food order being put together is that sometimes you are given additional coasters depending on how much you spent overall at your table. For instance, my friend and I have a combined order of 8,000 yen, so we got 4 additional coasters (2,000 per coaster.) This was a special treat and is not done often. So do take advantage of it if it is available. All in all, I would rank Animate Café as the top anime themed café I have been to. Great atmosphere, lots of delicious looking and tasting food as well as affordable and cute Goods. If you are interested in attending one, I will leave the link for Animate Café at the bottom. I have included photos from my most recent visit. Enjoy
1 Comment
|