Megami no Café Terrace

After his grandmother Sachiko passes away, Hayato Kasukabe returns from Tokyo and inherits her cafe—Familia Café Terrace. He aims to demolish the cafe and convert it into a parking lot, only to discover that his grandmother had taken in five girls prior to her death.

The girls—Ouka Makuzawa, Akane Hououji, Riho Tsukishima, Shiragiku Ono, and Ami Tsuruga—evidently shared a deep bond with Sachiko, and they naturally refuse to give up the place they call home. They convince Hayato to change his mind, albeit reluctantly. Through this encounter, Hayato eventually remembers his past with his grandmother as well as his love for the cafe.

Now resolved to carry on his grandmother's legacy, Hayato enlists the girls to act as the "goddesses" that will ensure the preservation of this precious abode.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Hououji, Akane Main

Seto, Asami Japanese

Makuzawa, Ouka Main

Aoki, Ruriko Japanese

Tsukishima, Riho Main

Yamane, Aya Japanese

Ono, Shiragiku Main

Waki, Azumi Japanese

Tsuruga, Ami Main

Suzushiro, Sayumi Japanese

Kasukabe, Hayato Main

Mizunaka, Masaaki Japanese

Confectionery Seller Supporting

Takeuchi, Emiko Japanese

Makuzawa, Kikka Supporting

Uesaka, Sumire Japanese

Kasukabe, Sachiko Supporting

Ikura, Kazue Japanese

Fishmonger Supporting

Kimura, Hayato Japanese

Aoi, Hiroyuki Producer

Akita, Tadayuki Producer

Udagawa, Sumio Producer

Katou, Masazumi Producer

Reviews

Jun 23, 2023

nashyyyyyyy

Recommended

It’s not great. It’s trashy. But it is still enjoyable. Here we have a shameless quintessential quintuplets knockoff. But wait, it’s not entirely the same. Amidst the heavy fanservice and reused tropes lies a decent watch. It’s more wholesome than you may think. The comedy is pretty cringey but it isn’t horrible. The series progresses by progressively revealing the backgrounds of each character, and they are well-fleshed out. The romance is pretty weak and consists of the MC’s few moments with each girl, except for blue hair because she is an idiot. The drama is the same as the comedy, but I thought it was ... better, sometimes it was cringe, as was everything with this show, but it also felt real sometimes and served as character development. I also want to add that the main character is good, nothing like your typical harem moron. He has a spine, doesn’t take bullshit, and isn’t abnormally horny. He is serious but also has a kind and compassionate side that makes the show work. While not as developed as the manga, as the series progresses, you can genuinely feel an intricate bond between the characters as the makeshift “family” that they speak of.

Plot [8/10]: I know what you are thinking, but hear me out. The premise of this guy getting his grandmother's cafe off the ground is pretty interesting. While each episode might have some side-plot(s), the overarching idea is that they get the cafe up and running and eventually successful and profitable. It’s also a romance but as a comedy/slice of life, the episodes were interesting and there is a general direction in which it is heading, which is far more than a LOT of romance anime these days. As for the side events, they were also interesting as well.

Characters [7/10]: The main character is definitely a refresher as I said earlier. We have too many total simps or gigachads. This guy is a mix of both, he isn’t like Kazuya from kanokari where he just lusts over the girls but he does not treat them like his slaves either. He is strict and stern for the sake of business but he is also willing to learn from the girls and is kind to them. While it does eventually fall into the tropes of all the girls becoming attracted to the MC towards the end of the season the girls aren’t bad either. I’ll go through each of them now. Akane (Short-hair): She starts off as very mysterious and stuck-up/arrogant, but later her character does a 180 after more is revealed about her in her backstory which makes for her cute, submissive side. Ouka (Red-hair): Nino Nakano ripoff, she's the classic tsundere, she hates the main character and is just kinda there with not a lot of screen time, will have to read the manga or wait for another season before she starts to develop. Ami (Blue-hair): Very annoying character but also funny, this girl isn’t a love interest at all, she's literally around as a living joke for the sake of comedy. Falls into the trope of hitting the MC in early episodes but eventually falls out of it. Riho (Orange-hair): Another tsundere type, but not as bad, who has issues with overworking and is kind of clingy to the MC because he is kind to her. Her backstory is great IMO. Shiragiku (Green-hair): Big-boob uwu voice girl. She’s the kind one of them and has a good relationship with the MC, her backstory is at the very end of the series. Her character juxtaposes nicely with the rest of them as her personality is a lot more laid-back. Very likable and the best girl for me although her character isn’t the most complex, used as shameless fanservice sometimes.

Art/Animation [9/10]: This color palette is SO good. It is just a feast for the eyes to watch the art. Seo Kouji, the mangaka has great art designs, and the color scheme they added is bright and lovely. Everything from character designs, comedy effects, and backgrounds, all have a bright and lovely color that is just nice to look at. The animation is also very fluid and lively to couple with it. The art alone is a pretty decent reason to watch the show in my eyes.

Sound/Voice Acting [7/10]: It’s nothing too special in this department. The voice actors did a good job, they were enthusiastic and passionate. Bashful in the romantic moments, energetic in the comedic ones, and angry/sad/crying in the sad ones. It’s a bunch of rookies around Seto Asami (Mai Sakurajima, Raphtalia, Nobara Kugisaki) and Sayumi Suzushiro (Kei Shirogane, Nijika Ijichi). They got the job done and more. The soundtrack is average honestly, the animation for the opening and ending is cool though. I like the music for the opening.

Give it a chance, it’s not a pure, one on one romance like tonikawa or horimiya, or a love triangle drama like Oregairu, but it’s not isekai harem trash full of lust, despite the fanservice. It is annoying how much it resembles the quintessential quintuplets but the story feels genuine, the plot is interesting, and the characters are good. On the characters, you just need to give them some time, they get better I promise. Their hostility at first makes sense, after all, they are about to get kicked out of their homes after “grandma” their caretaker, dies. The pacing is also good, as it reaches about 45 or so chapters after 12 episodes. As a manga reader, I didn’t expect such a good adaptation. Don’t let the rating fool you, this is a good series and surpasses expectations in many departments I promise.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jun 23, 2023

KANLen09

Mixed Feelings

Well-written

Girls in sports, girls in a love polygon, girls in music, and now, girls serving in a cafe — that's what following this mangaka by the name of Seo Kouji gets you for a start, and that goes like his usual stint of rom-com garbage stank.

The harem rom-com (kinda shit) connoisseur of a mangaka, the maestro Seo Kouji is back with yet another "grand" piece of his manga-to-anime works, nothing really is stopping this guy with anime adaptations back-to-back that started with 2005's Suzuka, then on the way to 2013's Kimi no Iru Machi a.k.a A Town Where You Live (which I thought was quite ... good at first look, though beware rewatching it out of mediocrity), and 2017's Fuuka (which was the first Seo Kouji show I've gotten to after reading the manga because of that spoiled stopping point). Case in point, his most recent manga, Megami no Café Terrace a.k.a The Café Terrace and Its Goddesses, which, once you pass the initial point of know-how, is just the same harem rom-com that Seo Kouji is known for.

Set in Miura, Hanagawa, this is the tale of a boy and his cherished grandmother, along with a once-prolific cafe that's now struggling to make ends meet. This is the story of Hayato Kusakube, whose parents passed away in an accident when he was very young, and was succeeded by his only family left: his grandmother Sachiko, helming the part on a cafe known as the Cafe Terrace Familia. This is where Hayato was raised until her eventual passing some years later, after he left to Tokyo for his further studies as a result from an argument that both son and grandmother had a falling out on the succession of the cafe. Until then, the cafe was since "abandoned" to the hopes of any government official that would want something else to take its place through demolition, but the prodigal son, coming home after his stint studying in Tokyo U a.k.a Tokyo University, the 18-year-old comes back with an once unwilling fight to tear down the place since it holds little to no memories for him. But in a twist of surprise, he now finds 5 girls staying at the linked common house, who were brought in after Hayato's falling out and trained by Sachiko in her own loving and caring guidance, only to fight in his place because they were the total opposite towards Hayato, that Familia is where dreams are made, and with the unwilling hope, Hayato presses on for Familia to be preserved, alongside the girls that would become his co-workers in the process.

Out of all the protagonists that I have seen and read for all Seo Kouji works, Hayato initially comes off as being a rash character for all the wrong reasons, as compared to, say, Fuuka's Yuu Haruna. But when you come to understand him further, he too had to make "life-or-death"  choices that would not only affect him, but also the effort that his late grandmother put forth into fighting alone for Familia's preservation against the wishes of some crude landlords who thought that an out-of-fashion cafe had no right to hold as long as it did, with that argument spurring on for years without his know-how. It can take quite a while to get on Hayato's good side, and as much as he looks like a demeanour of sorts, he's actually a good young adult at heart, who, apart from his Joker-like "Why so serious?" attitude that stinks, makes calculated decisions that eventually earn the praises of the 5 girls working alongside him, and like mangaka Negi Haruba's Gotoubun no Hanayome a.k.a Quintessential Quintuplets, sees the end that Hayato will get attached to one of the 5 girls at the end of the run.

Speaking of which, let's be introduced to the Cafe Terrace Familia's Goddesses:
- The pink-haired 19-year-old Ouka Makuzawa, initially prepped for the dream of wanting to enter the fashion industry, but lacks the funds needed, so she layovers at Familia for part-time work. Easily the tsundere character of the girls, Ouka is unceremoniously crowned the leader because she is at the forefront of helping Sachiko retain Familia, as much as she feels pressured to deliver. Ouka has a twin sister in the form of Kikka, who is more grounded in terms of the well-established Mazukawa family and aligned with their high-aloft ideals, which is something that Ouka doesn't want to be, resulting in her parting ways and her wanting to do fashion. Anything that the girls need help in, the "Mad Dog" Ouka is at their beck and call.
- The blue-haired 17-year-old Ami Tsuruga, a college student and someone who's the physical character of the girls, is a karate at heart. But otherwise, she is the literate joker of the group, wearing all sorts of masks for hilarity among the girls.
- The orange-haired 20-year-old Riho Tsukishima, akin to Ami only in the studying aspect. The social media brain of the group, she comes from a family that belittles those who don't work hard, as seen in Hayato's grandmother toiling her way through Familia until the time of her passing. And her family is more of the same, coming off generations of people who work hard to the bone, to the sacrifice of their own health, which unfortunately, led to the falling out between parents, especially since she was a child actress at one point in her life.
- The black-haired 20-year-old Shiragiku Ono, who earns the childhood friend medal since she and Hayato grew up together. But this girl isn't all sweets and roses, for drunkenness sets off her lewd acts, and there's that for a girl seemingly uncontrollable in her antics.
- Last but not least, the blonde-haired 19-year-old Akane Hououji. She's the music and coffee connoisseur of the group, given her passion for music and leading her own band as both a vocalist and guitarist (similar to Fuuka). But for her, like Ouka, coming from a rich family has its pros and cons, and it's mostly a con for Akane, as she feels that her passion grows much more out of her than following the rudimentary rules of the family, causing her to have a fallout with her own family. Being always behind the scenes, she only acts prudently in situations, and is the first to pounce on Hayato when it comes to the signature love interest (which Hayato is busier restoring Familia than this love shtick).

Overall, there's not much of a difference between this and similar works like it (of which Gotoubun no Hanayome is the closest), because while mangaka Negi Haruba pioneered this trend with the manga's first release in 2017, soon came mangaka Hiroyuki's Kanomo mo Kanojo a.k.a Girlfriend, Girlfriend in 2020, Seo Kouji copied this idea and made it his very own in 2021. That's how you can tell that Megami no Cafe Terrace and said show have elements that are similar to each other, though unique in their own ways.

And one way these shows are similar is through the studio, Tezuka Productions. All 3 manga-turned-anime productions were solely handled by the studio in Winter 2019 (only Season 1), Summer 2021, and this season respectively, and as far as I can tell, Gotoubun no Hanayome signalled the start of the trend for Tezuka Productions to pick up a harem rom-com series every 2 years (if based off the gap) to adapt at the most decent level. It feels like I'm watching the same show, just with different elements, chocked full of the studio's light paint jobs and decent animation that is now a copy-paste trend, thanks to in-house director Satoshi Kuwahara. It's not bad per se, but you would think that for a harem rom-com series that doesn't explicitly need the best talent, the sole focus would be adapting works to decency, and pray tell if this director is going to be lazy and adapt more works in this same style.

The music fares somewhat better, though not by much. However, I'll give props to the OP song by Neriame, which is actually solely made for the anime in all of its intentions. One way to look at it is by comparing the song's opener with the actual song's YouTube MV that was released thereafter, and you can see the similarity. It's a good song, I'll give it that, as well as Miki Satou's ED. No complaints here.

When all is said and done, I could advise you to just watch some other harem rom-com show that'll fare better (a la Gotoubun no Hanayome). But while Megami no Cafe Terrace isn't bad in layman's terms, it's just that Seo Kouji really lucked out by creating a work that, with an unoriginal idea, is just exceedingly mediocre at best until we get to the later moments of the manga. That's just me, but honestly, if you've seen one, you've seen them all.

Mediocrely decent is what I can tell you about this show.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Feb 14, 2024

TrainerOfLegend

Not Recommended

You don’t need to watch this and I would honestly recommend you don’t. If you’ve seen any harem show at all, you’ve seen this; hell, you’ll be able to predict beat-by-beat where it goes. The only “edge” I would give this show is its adult cast. Everything else about it is bland.

This is Seo Kouji, the mangaka, at his worst. His first hit, Suzuka, touched on relevant topics that few mangaka dare touch on—I appreciated it. His next hit, A Town Where You Live, was a slogging melodrama that nonetheless hit the right notes at the right time to keep audiences engaged. His third hit, ... Fuuka, was… controversial but ultimately brave.

In contrast, this work is so by-the-numbers that I can only assume he wanted to produce a hit big enough that he could retire. Five women work at the café that our MC inherited. They all have a vested interest in seeing the café succeed and the women, like bowling pins, fall over as he helps them solve their longstanding childhood traumas that inevitably involve a terrible parent.

Theres romance but don’t expect it to move very far in twelve episodes. There’s “comedy” but it’s really just that each character has the same joke repeated for infinity (did anyone ever laugh?).

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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