Fanimaid Cafe @ FanimeCon 2007

This article is dedicated to Fanime's newest attraction that has taken place on Saturday and Sunday of the convention. For the safety and by request of all interviewees, names have been removed. We have researched heavily about Maid Cafes being a new trend in the Japanese culture that originated in the world famous Akihabara District of Tokyo sometime in the year 2000. Several cafes are known as Cosplay Cafes, Maid Cafes, or Butler Cafes. These cafes have a more humble atmosphere where a customer is treated as a master or mistress. In other words coming home from work and being greeted by your own servant. Ever since their existence, these cafes have been spreading around the world slowly making their way to other countries, such as Singapore, Canada, Taiwan, and many more. It will only be a matter of time before we see these cafes in the United States but for the time being, you might be able to see these cafes at anime conventions. It is our understanding that SakuraCon happens to be another convention in the US to have its own Maid Cafe and we look forward to visiting their convention in the future and also present you with their Maid Cafe report. As for now we now present you with our first special report edition on Fanime's newest attraction. The Fanimaid Cafe!

Our report comes from our newest reporter who has just joined our website team and has brought us notes about their feelings on the Maid Cafe. As we stated in our introduction no names will be revealed in this report for safety reasons and by request of the interviewees. The Maid Cafe here at Fanime had a very nice atmosphere with wonderful service by the maids who were on duty during the entire day. Another added feature to this cafe was the opportunity to have customers have their picture taken with the maids at a special photo booth at the end of the cafe gives customers not only the generous opportunity to have their picture taken with their server. We were greeted humbly by the Maids and were taken to our seating area. We placed our order and waited for our food. We came into the Maid Cafe expecting to see the same influence and treatment our research on Maid Cafes in Japan has to offer but were only asked "is everything alright here?" or "is there anything I can do for you?" Maid Cafes in Japan would usually make their customers feel relaxed, pamper their customers, an example would be having a conversation with them. It seems like being in the cafe felt more like being at a local diner of any type with just a little bit of a pricey menu.

With a line stretching around the Marriott area of the convention center with guests waiting to be admitted into the Maid Cafe, are these guests in for the treatment they will be receiving as the Japanese culture? We had a chance to talk with a former Maid Cafe owner who currently resides in the U.S. who recently backed out of the cafe for their own personal reasons informed us that this Maid Cafe "wasn't creating the same atmosphere that a typical Maid Cafe in Japan would normally create for its customers." Does this say that this isn't the actual Maid Cafe you would normally expect to visit in Japan? Not necessarily because upon researching more, we've come across interesting articles about each cafe being unique in its own form. Would this cafe be what we expect to see once they begin opening for business on U.S. shores? Possibly but remember, it's safe to say that all Maid Cafes can be unique in their own form but remember, it's better to stay with where the influence comes from and re-create that atmosphere to give fans the best treatment they will receive. We would like to thank to staff at the Fanimaid Cafe for giving us the opportunity to go behind the scenes and during business hours for this opportunity to write this special report. We now present the Fanimaid Cafe with our own restaurant score card for this year's Maid Cafe.

Item being Graded	Grade
Influence	B-
Service	A
Food	B+
Location	C+
Costumes	A
Final Grade	B+