On paper, there’s nothing terribly distinctive about it The café terrace and its goddesses (henceforth CTG) that units it aside from the bajillions of others ecchi harem anime. It could be set in a restaurant, nevertheless it’s nonetheless one man and a number of other ladies giving boobs. In some ways CTG may be very contrived. And I like that.
CTG does extra than simply embrace the tropes of its style: it attracts them in and tells them how a lot he loves them, after which has a beautiful candlelit dinner with them, the place they will focus on their shiny and delightful future collectively. It reveals how a lot it loves them through the use of them. And over. And over. And over. Actually, it makes use of them so usually (and in lots of circumstances absurdly), which you can’t assist however discover them and snort. Even now, I am undecided how ironic this collection was in its repeated use of all these lame clichés. Deliberately or not, it is aggressively corny and hilarious. Or a minimum of, I believe aggressively corny is hilarious. That is the place the collection might lose viewers. Should you’re not amused by a brutal onslaught of ecchi harem clichés, ironic, intentional or not, might emphasize this facet CTG boring for you. And I say “this facet” not simply because there’s a whole lot of nice, intentional comedy in it CTG too, but additionally as a result of it’d shock you to listen to that, regardless of the obvious love of clichés, CTG additionally violates the conventions of ecchi harems in numerous methods.
In a style that so usually depends upon the query, “Will they or will not they?” CTG makes no secret of the truth that they’ll – all of them will. As a substitute, this anime revolves across the extra brave and thrilling query: “In what ridiculous means will they try this?” This anime is not afraid to be explosive and excessive at each alternative. I hope you come away from this evaluate wanting to look at the collection if you have not already, so I wish to reveal as little as potential for you. With out going into particulars, I will simply say that the outcomes can vary from garden-variety slapstick to what, in a extra critical anime, can be an ironclad foundation for an enormous medical malpractice lawsuit.
Moreover, the principle character, Hayato, must be studied in a laboratory. As a substitute of a compact, common Joe in highschool, he is a enterprise proprietor and technically a Tokyo U pupil (he is suspended his courses whereas he tries to get Familia up and operating). Furthermore, he’s absolutely conscious that he’s surrounded by a bunch of scorching ladies who want him. Not solely as a result of he has functioning mind cells, but additionally as a result of the women are by no means shy about letting him know. The primary episode of the second season includes a scene the place the women get on the identical web page and say that all of them love Hayato. And refreshingly, as a result of all of them think about themselves a household, they’re all okay with that! Are they doing their greatest to place themselves first within the race for Hayato’s coronary heart? Definitely. However there isn’t a malice between them. Even the jealousy is restricted and infrequently performed for laughs. However in fact, none of this issues to Hayato, as he isn’t considering actively pursuing romance whereas making an attempt to get Familia off the bottom.
Talking of which, the women are simply among the best features of it CTG. Every of them feels distinctive, and never simply because they every examine the bins for sure character archetypes. Numerous care and a focus is taken to make sure that they every have their very own private story. Season 1 spends a whole lot of time laying the groundwork for some nice ends in Season 2, giving us nice moments and a robust forged of endearing, candy ladies.
On the subject of tales, since it is a evaluate for Season 2 particularly, it is value mentioning the season’s new overarching story: the close by rival cafe known as, hilariously sufficient, Household. Nicely, I say “overarching,” however for essentially the most half, this storyline ends inside a couple of episodes. Might they’ve milked a couple of extra episodes for rival bar haircuts? In all probability. However on the identical time, that point largely advances the storylines of the person ladies. So whereas I believe extra gold might have presumably been mined via Household, I am additionally not precisely upset that we did not get extra if it will have come on the expense of these different character arcs. That stated, the lasting impact of this arc is that we get some enjoyable new characters out of it: the Household ladies. None of them are as attention-grabbing because the Familia ladies, and we have not seen any try to make them really feel dimensional, however they definitely present some enjoyable moments.
In case my level nonetheless hasn’t gotten throughout, I will say it clearly: I believe CTG is a large sleeper hit. Humorous, each ironic and unironic, it has by some means discovered a technique to be a wonderfully balanced mixture of unoriginality and freshness. And whereas CTG Season 2 is probably not fairly within the operating for my anime of the yr proper now (though it’s my choose for the perfect anime of the Summer time 2024 season), it is simply my present frontrunner for the perfect neglected and underwatched 2024 anime.
