I think the Harem genre has become almost like McDonald's. It is the most repetitive junk food that we have the audacity to call sustenance. And with Anime, the Harem genre has devolved into something just as poorly executed for the sake of making money. Sex sells the same way McDonald's fries do. With "Megami no Cafe Terrace" or "The Cafe Terrace and its Goddesses", the viewer is served another copy and paste, fast food, Harem genre featuring thin plots supported by big breasts and your choice of hair colors and hackneyed personalties.
The plot involves a college student named Hayato who inherits a cafe from his grandmother who raised him after the tragic death of his parents. Little does he know, that five young women live and work there, too. And after a shocking first encounter involving collisions with these ladies in various states of undress and slapstick, the six find themselves in an awkward living and business arrangement. Hayato is a very bland character, but he is strong in business acumen and overall decency as a human being. If this were a visual novel, he'd be perfect for the player to insert themselves. And despite his hours of studying, running the business, and trying to manage the five very different personalties under his roof, he still has the build of a UFC lightweight. I guess unrealistic body standards should be universal.
The five ladies have good enough designs to tell them apart, even though they're all similar in that they're rather voluptuous and light-skinned. To give you a short roll-call, we have:
-Ouka, fuchsia-haired semi-tsundere.
-Riho, dirty blonde-haired, tough on the outside, hiding a soft, vulnerable inside.
-Ami, indigo-haired, martial arts fanatic, goofball, comic relief.
-Shiragiku, the green-haired, gentle, who gets turned into a nympho by the slightest presence of alcohol.
And last, but not least,
-Akane, fair-haired, exudes a calm confidence and courage.
Each are a feast for the eyes, with enough personality to tell them apart, but even as their backstories are opened up, I still feel mild lip service was being paid to them as human beings. What's made more difficult is that the Akane is quickly positioned as the proverbial "best girl" in the group, sharing many intimate moments with Hayato that don't circle around acres of flesh or that now common cliche that "arguing is chemistry" that ruins so many romantic comedies. This is not to say that Akane is the only one positioned to take a romantic interest in Hayato, as by the end of the season, many others do. But, this feels more like, as I mentioned, a plot for a game and not an anime or even the manga it was adapted from. It's not as if I have much say in whom he ends up with, but it is strongly implied he will end up with one of them, without naming who.
That might be because we have a second season ahead of us, that I'm not entirely sure I care to watch. It's not that I don't want to see what lies in store for the Harem, especially now that introductions are out of the way, it's just that Tezuka Productions doesn't seem to care much about them, either. The animation suffers from more than a few continuity errors, and just has a lot dialogue sequences that feature a panning shot across one of the girl's chests or backsides. Hello, animators, their eyes are up there! I guess I shouldn't have expected anything more than ecchi mediocrity from a plot like this. And while it's not terrible, it's far from anything good.
5/10. Take it or leave it.
