Cosplay Cafe in Vancouver

Something from Japan that I didn't think would happen here would be the [in]famous maid/cosplay cafe... I remember that there was a maid cafe in Toronto at one time, however that one doesn't exist anymore. So I assumed no one would dare to try it out again in Canada. How wrong I was.

Currently having their Grand Opening Special; Magnetic Cafe opened in the beginning of July.

From the date of the card on the flowers outside, Magnetic Cafe opened July 1st, but I've only managed to learned about this cafe two weeks ago through a Vancouver Sun news link from RadiantDreamer. I learned from the article that this cafe is modeled after the ones in Taiwan rather than the one in Japan, so you won't get the "okaeri nasai goshuujin-sama" treatment here. Which means it would be just the waitresses in cute costumes serving you. I suppose that's close enough.

This photo is from the Vancouver Sun article. There are a couple more photos of the waitresses on their website (also available in Chinese).

The waitress didn't mind me taking photos of the establishment, but won't let me take a photo of her. I respect that, since the ones in Japan won't let you do that either. It's hard to describe the outfit of the week when I came though. It's like a party gown with shorter skirt. It was somewhat like Ranka's dress up there, but only one colour and they wore sandals instead of boots.

A friend (who found out about this place a week after I did through Anime News Network) and I came in just before 7 PM and it was not busy at all. The Vancouver Sun article mentioned that it usually gets busier after 9 PM. The interior has a futuristic vibe to it. It's almost all white and had a sterile look, very Apple-y. It also reminds me of that blood donation centre that Danny posted about. Except they won't take your blood... Hopefully. ^^; When I walked in it was definitely not the maid cafe I was expecting. The atmosphere is geared toward the general public rather than the Akiba-going kind of crowd.

We had the window seats and everyone else that was in the cafe was also seated by the windows. So I was free to take photos of the middle tables with no people in it. The table was a bit high compared to the chairs though, so it almost felt like I was a kid again, haha. But no, it wasn't that high.

The bright, almost-neon-like, menu was quite cute, but the inside was quite plain. The menu lists pages and pages of items. They have great variety, which is good, but it lacks pictures and descriptions. I didn't see ALL the prices, but most of the items look quite affordable. One thing I noticed was the chocolate fondue on the last page for $9. I'll order that next time...

The large selection of drinks made it hard for me to decide so I asked the waitress for a recommendation. This one is the grapefruit green tea. Luckily for her I liked it :P

The takoyaki tasted good, but I felt disappointed that I only get six of them for $5. The takoyaki place I go to, which had a change of ownership, tasted a little better and cost a dollar less.

The main entree is Japanese curry pork chop omelette rice. I'm quite impressed with this dish. It tastes great! The curry was sweet, as I would expect of Japanese curry. The rice looked reddish, so it must've been fried. Perhaps along with the egg. Although the egg was very thin it still tasted great, especially with the curry. The pork was a typical fried pork chop, but no complains there either. My friend ordered pan fried pork chop with black pepper sauce on rice. I forgot to take a picture of that, but he said it was good as well. I wouldn't mind coming back to try out the other variety of dishes.

View from our table

Judging from the group of six guys that came after us, it seemed pretty obvious who the cafe is targeting. I'm not one to stare, so perhaps I won't come for that kind of eye candy, but I would be curious what kind of costumes they would have. The owner in the Vancouver Sun article promised other costumes in the work; nurse outfit, policewoman, race queens... I'm waiting for frog outfit and battle waitresses costumes to be added in the mix, ala Haruhi.

Other specials to try for the next visit?

All in all, it wasn't too bad, but it wasn't too great either. The food was great, the waitresses were nice and the price wasn't too bad. The atmosphere was lacking for what I was expecting, but can't exactly have it authentic here in Vancouver. I guess I'll try it out in Japan when I do go there.

Magnetic Cafe is located on the 2nd floor in Cosmo Plaza in Richmond at 8788 McKim Way. They open daily from 11:30 am to 2 am; very late! Do bring money since they only accept cash. Oh and they also have free Wi-Fi for your fancy smancy iPhones and other smartphones. My friend took advantage of it and it worked well.

SEE! I'm Not the Only One!

Yes... Yes!! Crawl to your knee pits overlord! The knee pits conquer all!

Ummm.... Sorry, I got caught up in the maelstrom that is Amagami SS episode 3. The episode that has the main character, Tachibana, kissing the current "target" girl, Morishima, in the back of the knee. Ok, they didn't say knee pits, but just the back of the knee or hiza no ura. Not the term I use, but at least I found a Japanese term now!


So anyway what the heck is Amagami SS anyway? It's supposed to be an anime based on a love sim game. Not many series based on a love sim game have multiple arcs to cover all the girls, but currently that's what Amagami is doing. Kinda like the Kimi Kiss manga that Tokyopop is releasing here... But more on that later. Right now we focus on the knee pits! Or should I say "hiza no ura" now? What's better? Or maybe Popliteal Fossasism?

Anyway the part with the knee pits begins where it always begins; when the guy asks the girl to "crawl through there"...

The whole time I was watching this episode, I kept my eye out for knee pits. This is the first...

No, the knee pits aren't the ones that's surprisingly spacious...

Loli knee pits anyone? Oh and a dog too... Bestiality! Ok, not really, Tachibana goes and make some bullshit reason to kiss her behind the knee because supposedly dogs lick you there and wants to know why.

Sometimes I ask that myself, but it's just a really sexy body part, okay!? I don't need some BS reason like, "dogs lick you there, so I wanna know why". Just like those Apple Jacks commercial, "I eat what I like". Or something to that effect.

ALKGJKAFHGDJAFSOIGURIOWSJFIONGJSDLKFEWJIOFJOW!!!!11eleventyone!!!

Yes, I know the objective is the knee pits, but it kinda looks like he's about to sniff up her butt...

CHUU! I fainted.

And then commercial happened! Augh! It was long and excruciating pain waiting to see what happens next. It must've been more excruciating in Japan with the commercials in between.

And now back to our story...

Morishima: "You no good dog! Leave some for Lightning Sabre!"

So after that scene I just keep doing screenshots of knee pits...

SCREW YOUR "GORONYAN"! DON'T COVER UP MY KNEE PITS!

There were some other crap going on after the whole knee pit incident, but I don't care about them...

Okay, I lied, some of the stuff going on in this episode blew some of the fuse in my head... They had to be replaced with something wholesome... Like Seitokai Yakuindomo. A very, very wholesome show about a class president and her student council who likes to sexually abuse their only male member verbally.

Next up is the Kimi Kiss manga excerpt that I mentioned before. They're both created by Enterbrain and previously a game on the PC and PS2. The anime for Kimi Kiss still involves the girls, but they are coupled with different guys, but the manga stuck to the original concept of one guy and multiple female prospects. So far it's one volume per heroine. They are great reading and the art are stupendous! Go pick them up if you dig Kimi Kiss and Amagami.

So in Kimi Kiss the girl is the one that offered her knee... The front of the knee mind you, not behind it... Bah!

Yes, the same "puppy" reference popped up again here as well...

Although I love the art for the Kimi Kiss manga, they don't have reference to the knee pits... Why can't you be like your little sister, Amagami, and show us some knee pits love? Oh and for some reason Danbooru now has 'kneepits' tag... When I made my first post about kneepits, I was hoping to find some pictures that's been tagged with 'kneepits'. How sad I was when I found out they didn't have that tag. So whoever started to add those kneepits tag, I bow deeply to you!

AX (Suddenly Acquired) Loots

Here comes the loot, everybody knows that here comes the loot! Ok, that doesn't make sense, but anyways after an anime convention, you expect to see the loot post going up :P I kept all the fancy paper bags from J-List and MangaGamer. They're kinda like loot to me XD Honestly I didn't buy too much. I wanted to limit myself because I already spent quite a bit just trying to get to Los Angeles for AX.

So let's get to the loots one by one shall we? I got a lot of small items that may not be too visible in the main picture.

Here are the games I got. Squishy Tank for the DS from the Natsume booth. It looks deceptively simple. You just touch 3 or more blocks that are together and they blow up the squishy tanks. But it gets really hard when the time runs out real fast! BlazBlue is something I've been wanting to try but the price was still too expensive in Canada. So when I saw they were being sold for $20 each at the Aksys booth, I took my chance. I promised Yakuri that I'll give this to her when she gets a PS3, lol. And finally Cat Girl Alliance was something I've been eyeing ever since I heard there's a futanari in it XD The JAST USA panel somewhat convinced me to get it.

The reason why I put "suddenly acquired" in the title of this post is because Yakuri gave me lots of things! Maybe half of the loot here! This was the first one she bought for me on the spot. A nice combination of Macross Frontier and Lucky Star. Konata's too cute!

And this one is also from Yaku-chan! I was ecstatic to see this! I never did get the glass or any Saber Lily related item except for my shirt, so this was awesome! I was worried it might break when I put it in my luggage, but thankfully I had lots of spare thick layers for this one ^_^

If you guessed that this is from Yaku-chan, then you're right! She got this free when she bought Higurashi & Umineko games from MangaGamer and gave it to me because... Well, I guess she's a fujoshi who's into yaoi and not yuri XD

I'm gonna owe Yakuri-chan big time ^^;;; This one is also from her. Probably the biggest thing I had in my luggage. I was carrying this around the time of the L.A. CGM Night and everyone asked what I got and I showed this to them and told them it was a gift. Everyone was amazed! Thank you Yakuri-chaaaan <3

Ok and these ones I got myself, lol. ToraDora Volume 1 premium box was something I was hoping to get at the convention rather than ordering online from NIS America. Good thing they had it all ready for me to pick up. In addition I was able to order ToraDora Volume 2 as well with free shipping to Canada! I was very glad I told them about my situation and wanting the series desperately. The other two is Gundam Unicorn Blu-Ray which is actually for my friend and the Gurren Lagann movie which I got so that perhaps Katsuyuki Konishi might sign it, but I gave up the chance so that someone else who`s dying for his autograph can have it ;)

By buying over $50 at NIS America booth, I was able to get this Laharl Prinny plushie for free! AND since I also pre-ordered volume 2 of ToraDora they let me get more free items, like the Prinny stylus and an artbook.

The aforementioned artbook is on the right. It sorta looks like a spiritual sequel to Rhapsody since it involves puppets... If they release it then I might get it. The Hakone map to the left is a free map that was handed out at the PopJapan Travel booth. I had to get it since it`s Rei :P

Here are the music CDs I got. The top two are from buying the BlazBlue game. The bottom two I got real cheap from MangaGamer booth on the last day. I only wanted the one on the right...

The one on the left is a compilation of games that I saw on Wolfheinrich's site, so I got it anyway since it's 2 for  $20. The one on the right is a ... Hardcore Ryoukujo Remix... Umm... how do I explain? It's something like this...

I had seen it a long time ago on AkibaBlog and my curiosity got the best of me. I didn't think I'd get to own it ^^; So here's my chance. I haven't listened to it yet though...

This figure set was something I scoffed at before I saw Bakemonogatari... Just another Puchi Nendo set, but after seeing the show and seeing some of the Puchi Nendo in action, I want one!! Especially Hitagi! Good thing Yakuri brought me to Anime Jungle's store where I researched that they have it, so they must have it at the convention as well. No tax either! Woot!

Lastly, Yaku-chan also gave me this... No, not the phone silly. I did get a new phone before leaving for L.A. though. Mostly because my old phone has a loose battery, so it shuts off by itself at times. Not a good thing to have when you're meeting a lot of people in a foreign land... Yaku gave me the dangling Rosa Chinensis and Lillian Academy logo from Maria-sama ga Miteru. She sure knows what I like ^^ I don't know if I want to keep them attached to my phone though... I don't want to lose them...

The next few things aren't loots, really, but just the autographed items. I thought I might as well put them together. This is the Macross Vocal collection signed by both Megumi Nakajima and May'n! It's one of my favourite albums and now it's signed! Freaking awesome!

This is the inner panel to the same album. I was hoping that Yoko Kanno would be signing to and I'd get her to sign on this one. It would've been freaking awesome! It never happened though... Maybe if Alto Saotome's voice actor comes, I'll get him to sign this :P

Yah! I also got Yuu Asakawa to sign my Nendoroid Luka box! I asked her if she can say something on the box, so she drew a word bubble saying "thank you" on it ^_^

And this is the last thing I got signed. Mirai Dakimakura signed by Danny. I was going to ask him to sign on the chest area just to prevent me from defiling his daughter XD But he just signed on the corner, heh. Now mind you, I don't see Danny as a celebrity, but as a friend... Who just happened to be popular ^^; I was going to come up to him and bring this dakimakura on me and ask him to "sign my chest!" Alas the opportunity didn't arise, lol.

So unfortunately because of the time constraint and my own stupidity, I didn't get these signed... Yui Horie's line was just too long and not enough time to get her autograph. I would've been able to get MELL's autograph on the last day, especially on my favourite CD single, except that I already packed my stuff in my luggage and not thinking the line would be short enough... I feel real sad not getting my Virgin's High signed T-T

Ok, well I don't want to end it at a sour note, so here are some more loots! These two shirts are actually for my brother and his girlfriend. I wasn't too interested in any of the AX shirt designs, except for the sold out ones. I could've special ordered it, but at $5 shipping... No thanks.

I really am a shirt collector. I have no idea how many J-List shirts I have now... But this one I had to get since it's To Aru Kagaku no Railgun's Misaka Mikoto!!

Here's the back side. Both says "Warning: Electric Shock". Awesome!

So yes, I had a lot of suddenly acquired loots but I spent quite a bit as well, especially getting both ToraDora volumes. It was all worth it though. Now I'm planning to reciprocate Yakuri's generosity :P