Fanime 2009: The Fanimaid Cafe Experience

Based on the Akihabara style maid cafes in Japan where women in maid uniforms serve as waitresses and hostesses to their patron masters, the San Jose anime convention Fanime held its own version of a maid cafe--appropriately dubbed the Fanimaid Cafe. When attendees were not attending panels or spending money on their favorite anime merchandise, they could pop into the cafe to order some refreshments while a uniformed maid attends to them.

I admit that I am not a maid fan. I prefer to take care of my own situations instead of letting a stranger take care of them. My bedroom may look like a tornado blew through it and the kitchen may technically be a moldy science experiment now, but I will stick forks through my wrists before calling a maid to clean it. So when Fanime opened their maid cafe a while back, I wrote it off as a fad. But like "Naruto" and Internet memes, the popularity of the Fanimaid Cafe spread like wildfire. Given my duties as a convention journalist, I finally decided to dive into the maid cafe in hopes of a story while I avoided listening to people groan as some passerby in a "Nartuto" headband yelled, "You just lost the game!"

Allow me to review what a typical maid cafe experience entails based on observation, personal experience, and cold hard speculation. The patron enters the cafe receives a traditional honorable Japanese greeting that I cannot spell from the currently available maids. After taking in the sight of pristine ruffled white aprons and other features of the French maid uniforms, the assigned maid seats the patron--now referred to as master--at a table, introduces herself, takes the order, and delivers the order. It feels just like the average waitress/patron interaction at a restaurant with a slight Hooters experience if the assigned maid is busty and her maid uniform accentuates said bust. The maid cafe then differentiates itself from usual restaurants when the maid sits at the master's table to engage in conversation, table games, and other unique requests that the master may have. The maid's interactions add a personal touch to the maid cafe visit as she caters to the master's social needs or presents herself as an aesthetic beauty. An optional photograph with the maids ends the maid cafe experience after the master feels sufficiently pampered.

To avoid the long line of people waiting for service at the Fanimaid Cafe, I booked an appointment. I knew a few friends who worked as maids there and considered reserving one of them as my maid, but concluded this would taint my maid cafe experience since we would simply talk as the friends that we were. When I arrived at my scheduled time, the luck of the draw assigned me a pretty Asian maid who wore glasses named Nami. Whether Nami was her real name or her maid persona was moot since I could not remember it during my time at the cafe anyway. I ordered about $10 of food, which consisted of two mini fruit tarts and a Diet Coke. I probably could have ordered more "authentic" maid cafe refreshments or possibly tea, but during my visit I only needed a little sweetness and caffeine. Nami served my order with the efficiency of a maid and I could beckon her for table interactions, but then I hit my primary hurdle of maid cafes.

I felt like a cat who just received the keys to a Ferrari. Just as a cat has no idea how to drive a Ferarri, I had no idea what to do with a maid like Nami. When at a normal restaurant, the last thing I want is my waitress to join me at the booth to talk about her shift. I sought information from her fellow maids and they were helpful in suggesting games and activities that the maids could do. Perhaps listing available table games on the printed menu would help clueless patrons like myself avoid challenging our maids to a game of chess only to realize that the Fanimaid Cafe lacks a chessboard.

Nami returned to my table by the time two of my friends responded to my open invite at the Fanimaid Cafe. In lieu of games, I went with light conversation with Nami. Treating this chat as small talk instead of a date, I simply talked about the stresses of covering Fanime. Nami's soft voice and nurturing demeanor towards her master helped relieve the stress as I finally had a neutral third party to talk to about the stressful situations. Then Nami brought out the pens and paper so we could draw together--something that she mentioned as one of her skills. After comparing her competent drawing to my flipper-handed doodles and paying the bill, I took my commemorative photo with the maids to end the Fanimaid Cafe experience.

I was raised to take what I needed with my own two hands, so the concept of having an obedient maid using her hands for my needs while addressing me as master or sir is culture shock for me. Usually when women address me as sir, they follow it up with, "You are making a scene." While the Fanimaid Cafe did not fully convert me into a maid fan, I will admit that I had a good time there after adjusting to the scene. It was a relaxing bubble away from the rabble of the convention. The food is expensive but having a maid joining you is part of the price. If the Fanimaid Cafe continues to succeed at Fanime, I wonder what other spin-off cafes may pop up to cater to certain fan interests like Ninja Tea Service, Pirate Taverns, and Mecha Refueling Stations. I guarantee you will find me at the front of the line for Sundae Schoolgirls.

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Taking place during the Memorial Day holiday of May 22nd-25th in 2009, Fanime provided four days and three nights of anime themed antics and convention memories. As the largest anime (Japanese animation) convention in the Bay Area, Fanime featured several Guests of Honor, panels, musical acts, gaming tournaments, and music videos while entertaining attendees with a Black & White Ball, Maid Cafe, Stage Zero shows and the highlighted Cosplay Spectacular. Since Fanime was my first anime convention in 2001, I continue to return to this convention for a guaranteed good time.