An interesting article appeared in TODAY Online. Titled ‘Master want a cuppa?‘ , it leaves the impression of a maid asking the master if he/she wants a cup of tea/coffee/drink.
Yes, anime cosplaying fans, it has finally reached the shores of Singapore. A ‘maid’ cafe is to open her next month!
‘Master want a cuppa?’ <Link>
The questions regarding this cafe/restaurant would be the service , the cosplaying girls and the customers’ dresscode.
What one would like to see would be pretty, cute maids, greeting their master (customer) with perky voices, servicing to most of their needs. This would mean that the cosplaying girls have to be almost “model/idol-like”, with service being the top priority and able to withstand the ‘otaku-ness’ of the customer(s).
^ Model/Idol-like?
However, it also brings the point of service. How would the service be like? Would it be like any other restaurant? Just that in this one, girls would be cosplaying as different anime characters. Or would it take a different approach instead?
The cafe will expand its services to include catering and a “Date with a Maid” feature, where patrons will have a maid dedicated to their service for the evening. This element is expected to be popular with those who want to treat their friends to a different experience, say, for their birthdays.
The ‘Date with a Maid’ feature ,which seems to have originated from cabaret, seems promising. I believe customer(s) would have to pay a higher fee for such a feature.
Customer(s) would be the main audience in such a business. However, what about the customer’s dresscode? Would bermudas, T-shirt and slippers be allowed? Or do you have to dress up in a suit and tie? How about standard T-shirts and jeans? Here are some questions to ponder.
According to Ms Laurent, the cafe will introduce the Japanese quality of service here, as the “maids” are required to be proficient in English, Chinese and Japanese as well as be sociable. Rather than the run-of-the-mill café culture, Cosafe will also deliver a different experience, promised Ms Laurant.
How proficient do you need to be in the 3 languages stated? Would knowing simple phrases cut-out? Or are you required to be able to converse with the customer in lets say Japanese?
One thing’s for sure… Too many questions, so few answered.
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What I want to know is if the Maids will be actual Japanese! Not just locals who speak Japanese. XD (I read the article this morning)
I would say: good luck finding a trilingual-able, idol-looking meido waitress in Singapore. (It’s one thing to cater a demand, it’s another to generate a good supply i.e. abovementioned waitresses.)
On that note, it’d be interesting to monitor the patrons of the cafe. (Singapore’s audience is WAY different from Japanese’s. For one, Singaporeans are as perverted as Japanese, but more extreme.)
No wonder the N. Koreans were into kidnapping Japanese for a while.
@TP: Yes. This is very true. They should hire the local Japanese girls :)
@~Lost: Haha. Can’t really bet on that
I do wonder how this idea would work out. If it works out well, that would be great. Hope it’s not one of those ‘false’ advertising
The criteria:
1) Model-looking (i.e. hot/cute)
2) Japanese speaking (otherwise perkiness will totally fail. Imagine that in a singapore accent. Well, that’s my dinner on the keyboard now.)
3) Tolerant of otaku
Criteria 1 and 3 fail for your country. You wouldn’t be able to find more than 5 girls who are good looking and would fit a maid costume, and that job would be seen as degrading. For this concept to work, yes you definitely need to import Japanese girls. For some reason, since this is opened by two students, I have a feeling that is not going to happen.
[...] For some reason, I can’t seem to access to article featuring this, so what ever I know is based on this and this site’s take on the upcoming Meido Cafe set to open next month in Far East Plaza. [...]
Question is Windbell, will you go once its open?
@Adun: Yes I would. I believe there’s a experience to be made in everything (except for the bad ones).
[...] Well, I’ll leave the feasabilities of such a venture to the other anibloggers (Yes, they use delicious Shion as pics, but tsubaki used a moe loli meido, so he’s forgiven, even though he deserves to have his Poland invaded by cute penguin plushies :V) but, seriously, with the cosplay community playing out like the Senate in America, can they actually pull it off without the cosplay community slandering them?(And believe me, they will. It’s the same community who tried to copyright cosplay :V) I mean, ‘Date a Maid’ service? Aren’t you trying a LITTLE too hard to get repeat customers? [...]
the picture is yuko ogura right?
anyways i dont think many ppl will fit the criteria of a anime meido…
Now another question is… Are there any good-looking, japanese fluent, tolerant of otaku girl that can play the piano if it is brough in, or will it just be there collecting dust?
[...] Cosplay cafe to open in local mall [...]
i will expect some old ladies will go protesting
but, it will be nice to have (the cafe) in local area
i’m going down for their opening today.
cool!