Anime Cafes in Japan

While in Japan, I had the opportunity to experience an anime cafe. My love for Japan started off with anime and manga, so it only seemed natural that I'd want to visit an anime cafe. I always saw them in other articles and pictures and just knew I had to go for myself. Anime cafes are typical cafes but they feature some sort of anime, mostly popular anime. The food, drinks and venue will correspond with the anime theme. These cafes usually have cafe type foods, so don't expect any Japanese food at these places. The big hype about anime cafes is the fact that it celebrates anime.


A popular venue that switches themes frequently is Tower Records cafe. There are locations in Tokyo and Osaka. Tower Records is a store that sells albums and singles from anime, J-pop, K-pop and more. Attached to the store is a small cafe that you can sit down and enjoy yourself.

I went to the Dragon Ball cafe at the Tower Records cafe in Osaka. I was a bit disappointed but I have no regrets going. As you walk up to get seated the only decorations are pictures from the anime up on the wall. They added a nice touch by projecting all the opening and closing songs onto the wall for people to watch. Once seated, they'll hand you a menu (English menus are available at Tower Record cafes). My husband and I were not impressed by the menu because the food looked average. It was normal food with pictures of characters from the anime poking out at the end of a tooth pick. The only things on the food part of the menu that seemed like they tried were the desserts. We decided to indulge ourselves with their drinks. I got a dragon ball themed melon soda and the husband got a latte.

As awesome as these drinks were I was not happy about spending spending 800 yen on a small glass of melon soda when I could get a full sized bottle at a corner store for cheaper. The overpriced food and drinks are my only gripe with these anime cafes. You are literally paying for the name, for average food. Oh yeah, and then of course after you're done eating you can check out the items they have on sale. I didn't get a picture of that but they had T-shirts, cds, bags, cups, and keychains. And because Tower Records cafes are always changing themes constantly, we had the chance to check out their merchandise from from previous and next themes such as Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and Snoopy.

It was worth going to check out. And it definitely didn't shy us away from other themed cafes which I'll talk about in other blog post. But until then, thanks again for reading my blog. I hope this helps you on what to expect from an anime cafe in Japan. Definitely go to one, but make sure it's an anime you really like so it'll be more impressive to you.

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