I finally had some time this weekend, and on a whim, I managed to get a seat for the 20:30 timeslot for Voltage Inc’s 100-Koi [100恋] (known as Love 365 among the overseas fans) The Chara Cafe collaboration, and I must say, Japanese women really love public servants.
I’ve had the misfortune of my smartphone finally conking out on the very day I was set to go to the cafe; thankfully, I managed to purchase a phone on the same day (thank you for existing, Akihabara), and with the time I chose being the very last cafe session for the day, I had time to setup my phone as best as I could before heading back to Ikebukuro.
[Disclaimer: some of my photos will probably turn out awful but as I did not have enough time to play around with it, I’ve done what I could for the meantime]
The cafe collab was done at Ikebukuro’s Otomate building; I’ve been there thrice last year for the Ouji-sama no Propose/Be My Princess collab cafe (I’ll get around to post that soon!) so I knew where to go.
You’d notice the Otomate building immediately when you get there, with the words
♪オトメイト advertised on top:
By 20:30, the staff let us in, and my date for tonight happened to be Celebrity Darling’s Shindo Haru.
Admittedly, I’ve never played this game, but I think I should start doing so.
By coincidence, the first drink I ordered happened to be a drink that’s centered around him, which is lemon tea.
Each drink you order will give you bonus coasters (random), while food orders come with free bromides (random)
[I traded my Eisuke for a Yosuke]
… while each collab food/drink you order, you will receive the “cafe staff’s” business card.
If you’re wondering who Tsugaru Takaomi is, apparently, he’s a character from Her Love In The Force (恋人は公安刑事); his route got released last year in 100-Koi, but I hope we can get his route soon on Love 365!
If there’s one thing that stood out for me with The Chara Cafe, it’s that their food and drinks are actually edible. I’ve been to so many collab cafes from way back, and it’s been mediocre at best. A certain collab cafe is particularly notorious for repeating their dishes for every collab cafe they have, as they just redesign it for the next one. However, this cafe makes their dishes and drinks unique (as of now, at least) that you don’t feel like you’re wasting money, as cafe food and drinks are priced rather expensively.
Food & Drinks:
I ordered the following:
It wasn’t that good; I love sparkling drinks but I couldn’t taste the sparkling part at all.
The apple’s decent though; most likely this drink came to be because of Tsugaru apples.
I didn’t want to eat anything heavy at night so I went with this dish; decent enough for me chomp down on as I was saving my stomach for dessert.
For my efforts in ordering the dish, I got a Sagara Yosuke bromide!
Ordering Shinonome Ayumu’s concept dish, Fluffy Pancakes with Whipped Cream and Berry Sauce paired with Peach Juice gives you a random A4-sized lunch mat.
The pancakes were good, albeit too sweet for me while the peach drink was perfect.
My last order for this cafe session was Kozaki Taki’s Brandy Tea, which is essentially red tea with brandy essense. It even comes with a cookie with Sydney’s print on it.
The full menu for this collab cafe can be found here.
Photos of the menu:
Cafe Atmosphere:
One thing I noticed was that the cafe wasn’t fully occupied; the solo seats were fully occupied but there was hardly anyone who was seated in the 2-person and 4-person seats.
Not a good thing for most of the fangirls as, more often than not, they go solo for cafes.
On the other hand, as there were some girls who left early, I managed to get nice photos of the cafe.
Because of the current situation (that virus spreading around parts of the world), which has hit Japan pretty hard, for the first time since I’ve joined Voltage events, they’ve announced that there are no plans to restock the cafe goods that got sold out.
There is, however, a chance that the sold out items will be available for preorders at the post-event online selling.
Verdict:
One thing’s for sure, I think I need to play more 100-Koi/Love 365 games!
There were so many characters who I did not recognize, and that’s kind of sad as I have a monthly access pass that I should take advantage of. I guess it’s really a matter of how much time I need to spend on the games.
I will be visiting the cafe again on March 17th; on that same day, the cafe will be handing out bromides of Tachibana Shunichiro in celebration of his birthday. Definitely will post my experience on my second visit, as I will be with a friend who has never ever played a since Voltage Inc game, and it would be interesting to hear her thoughts about this whole experience!
Till then!
Wanderlust 