Megami no Cafe Terrace

[neflight86]

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"* Based on a romantic comedy manga by Seo Kouji.

When Hayato's grandmother passed, he planned to sell her rundown café on the shore—not realizing that it was also home to five young women who call themselves her family?! Their desperation to keep the café open convinces Hayato to give it a shot...but even their best intentions might not be enough to make it work! And can he even work with these five unruly women? No matter what, he's got his work cut out for him!

Source: Kodansha"

Genre(s): Romance/Harem, Comedy, Drama, Ecchi

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1-2

Megami no Terrace has a few small things in its favor that add up big time to make a pretty decent ecchi harem.

Firstly, by aging the characters all up by a simple two years above the average distribution, they are all clearly adults and unchained by the dreaded high school setting; halleluiah! Aside from that, the character tropes and dynamics really don't change much- meaning harems being set in high school are redundant, which I've grumbled about for years. Do the thing with adults: the story is the same either way!

Number two, while there is a clear power imbalance of Hayato having the final say on the fate of the cafe, the girls aren't feeble, doting maidens who's love and life center on this newly introduced male. The palpable distain and ill-will from the first (invariably poor) encounter carries on and navigating their relationships together enriches the story so much more than they had to. Don't get me wrong- this ain't no Shakespeare, but I appreciate that the universe doesn't feel like it was made for our self-insert character and that makes the doki doki hit harder.

Sparse animation, but some attractive character designs make for an overall pleasing look as well, and yes, there is the obligatory fanservice.

If you are looking for a recommendation, well... it ain't isekai?

[Ryllharu]

I cannot believe this guy keeps getting adapations.

I have heard the characters described as, "three of the girls blend into one big Narusegawa bitchball," which both proves how painfully dated the writing is but is also very funny.

[neflight86]

I cannot believe this guy keeps getting adapations.

You had me thinking this was the "Love Hina" guy. Looking at his works, none of them are exceptionally bad, and this is plenty good for me so far. Looks like I'm alone on this one...

[David75]

I might have a different opinion later but for now it is boring, ugly and uninspiring to me

[neflight86]

3-11

Still plenty good enough for what this is. I miss a good old fashioned harem, and this is that. There was even a saguka breakdown scene in episode 9 that went hard and worked pretty well. This is a simple transaction of a show that seems in short order lately (harem + fanservice), so I'm glad to continue watching the lightly sprinkled drama and comedy.

One thing that sticks out is that all of the girls have roughly the same exact body- height, bust, and all. This is for reasons unknown highlighted in the (great) OP. Only their hair and faces vary. I wonder if that is an artifact of the cheap adaptation?

[neflight86]

12

Second season confirmed for next year

They did the thing like the quintuplets where they showed he married one of 'em in the flash forward. Going by his daughter's hair color and academic struggles... its not much of a stretch to guess who won... Good taste, my boy.

[neflight86]

13-15

It's baaaaack, and dumb as ever!

At face value, this is really paint-by-numbers harem rom-com, but it just feels like a better constructed show, for some reason I can't quite put my finger on.

Feelings in the open, all the girls are openly in the race except tsundere who simply doesn't admit she's in the running. I forgot that Hayato is a couple years younger than the girls. My next smiling eyeroll is how the story will clumsily fold the new opposition branch of Familia into the harem when they invariably start to go under and are abandoned by Pekoms/Oji-san.

Of course Ono's problem was a purely mental one; that allows MC to solve it via talk no jutsu (they're on a tight budget, after all). I also remember liking the competitive attitude of the girls after their initial scouting. It gives them just a bit more depth than they need for the story to work.

[neflight86]

16

Well, that escalated and wrapped up in a jiffy. Closed/betrayed, move in montage, rescue plan and status quo reinstated in twenty minutes. It somehow didn't feel rushed, which I suppose is a credit to the direction as a whole. The move in couldn't last anyway as there simply isn't enough screen time for 10 girls.

[neflight86]

17-20

So, Ami finally got her arc. Not enough harem girls are genuinely... mentally slow like she is. It stirs the masculine desire to protect, I guess?

I'm glad the show could raise its own eyebrow long enough to admit Hayato's drill sergeant shock treatment curing her grandmother is nothing short of a miracle even in-show. That was dangerously close to being too dumb, but then we get some truly contrived boob squeezing off screen while the rest of the girls take turns seducing him through a wall and staring at his junk's sleeping face. One catty birthday date and we're all caught up!

Still watching, but more so out of comfort than a riveting story; just some decent harem.

[neflight86]

21-24

When I am watching this, the only justification can think of is... creativity, as strange as that sounds. While this most closely reminds me of crass Sit-Com style story telling, each episode has at least a few twists on the playful shenanigans that catch me off guard, and plenty of phallic jokes as of late.

Surprisingly, only 3 of the 5 girls are openly in contention with MC, togh they all get some moments.

The leaning into more 'serious' story arcs this season has paid off pretty well so far in escalating the relationship dynamics while leaving room for further progression as we invariably move toward the true 'final' girl pick.