From the "Why Didn't We See This Coming?" department.
March 2006 will see this opening of the first Butler Cafe in Japan. Name: Swallowtail. Location: Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district, in that increasingly well-known hideaway for female otaku known as Otome Road. URL: http://butlers-cafe.jp.
The establishment, which will be decorated in high old European style, will aim to transport female customers to a world where they are rich beyond belief, or a princess in a royal dynasty. But this is just the starting point for where the fantasy goes next. The butler serving your table is a stoic old family servant. Both of you have the hots for each other; just barely contained under the surface. But to go anywhere with those feelings would lead to disaster.
Here then is another hydra head of moe to consider: the heartburn of hidden painful love. And instead of it being directed towards the picture of youth (i.e. bishonen), as per usual, the romantic ideal is now a much older man; intelligent and loyal.
The idea originated from an OL who got drunk with her company boss, confessing to him that she was a female otaku, or kishoji (“rotten woman’). Her butler cafe idea was thrown out as a joke, but the boss liked the ring of it. He asked her to write up a proposal. With that, he was able to get K-Books, one of the kingpins of the female otaku racket, to invest.
Currently, K-Books is running a series of Help Wanted ads and holding auditions for butlers-to-be. Since good help is hard to find, drama schools are being combed for raw material. Target age range for staff tops out at 60 years old.
Get ready now for some old dude in a tux to hand you some tissue next time you leave the station and lots of anime about people drinking tea.
There is unrequited love, and there is love returned only in the imagination, and there is also love for sale. But love unrequited only in the imagination for sale breaks new ground. In the West we have theme bars and theme parks. But that is only at the level of carnival; the Japanese go a step further, into theater. Summer stock, perhaps, but still, a customized one-act play around you. If those gigantic DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION machines can be hauled to anime cons, I see no reason why these services can't be offered in a portable booth.
Posted by: Carl Horn | January 23, 2006 at 01:28 PM
Ya know...I could so TOTALLY nail working at that cafe...if my Japanese was something more than below kindergarten level (in other words...mime butler MOE!)..I'm big and cuddly with wise eyes and gray hair..I've turned into Mr. French! AHHHHHGG!
But yeah, there's a real level of sadness to the very concept.
Posted by: Steve Harrison | January 24, 2006 at 02:23 PM
Carl would slay in a place like this, obviously...
Posted by: Patrick3 | January 24, 2006 at 02:25 PM
I knew this appearance would pay off some day. Still, I would need to obtain a three-piece suit. I've been afraid of them ever since, at 15, I saw Leonard Dawson screaming in his patriarchal rage.
You may be interested to learn I never grasped the pun in the title "Pennyroyal Tea" until this last summer at the Expo, when an entertainment lawyer friend of mine was telling a client at lunch, "You don't want to settle for a penny royalty." With a loud click, I chirped out "Ah, so it was a combination abortion/music industry reference!" "Well, of course, you stupid fuck" was the reply.
Posted by: Carl Horn | January 25, 2006 at 01:42 PM
In this blog entry Carl is set up as a prophet: http://tinyurl.com/8okgn
I went to an off-Broadway "musical" in December that was set up to look like a jazz club, using tables and candles instead of rows of chairs. Out of the 30-odd people in the audience, I was the only one fawned over by the lead singer and his band (and come to think of it, the pianist looked like Patrick and the sound effects guy looked like Carl) for the two hours, and it only cost me $35. I nearly went back the next night, so this butler-thing could work...
Posted by: Jaime | January 26, 2006 at 02:10 PM
Yikes!
I've uncovered another parallel-universe 'maid cafe' similar to your Butler Cafe.
I found a "princess restaurant" has been open in Ginza for sometime...
"PRINCESS HEART" --- A JAPANESE 'MAID CAFE' FOR WOMEN
Over on the Nikkei Business (in Japanese only) is a new Japanese trend: “princess restaurants." ...customers sit on "throne chairs" and are treated to the famous speech of Snow White "Mirror, mirror on the wall who's the fairest of them all " in the "princess room." ...more... http://doiop.com/princess-heart
Posted by: taro | January 27, 2006 at 05:09 AM
I am visiting japan in sept 2007 and I am really interested in going to BL cafe's and other cafes but i was wondering how do they accept foreigners?
Posted by: Demyx | July 07, 2007 at 04:43 PM