The first season of Chainsaw Man may have finished airing in December, but the hype is still alive and well in Japan. The first themed café has opened in Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya on February 2nd, hosted by BOX cafe&space in the first two and kawara CAFE&KITCHEN for the third. The café is open for two months, reservation only, and serves a variety of themed food and drinks based on the anime, along with exclusive merchandise.
Many anime in Japan do not get a lot of merchandise or themed collaborations until the season after it airs - after all, you never know when something might flop, and it's risky to invest money in a title until you know how it's going to do. Chainsaw Man found nothing but success, though, and 2023 is likely going to be full of collaborations and events to celebrate! The Chainsaw Man café is one of the first, and we were quick to grab reservations for the Tokyo location as soon as they opened last week. Reservations went fast, especially for opening week, and were nearly sold out the first morning that they opened. Chainsaw Man is extremely popular, and how fast the reservations went for the café clearly shows that. The 80-minute reservation did cost ¥660 ($5 USD) per person to make, but got us a free plastic poster and our guaranteed spot. Plus every drink order came with a free, random coaster of one of the main characters.
Food and Drinks
There were not a huge number of choices at the Chainsaw Man Cafe, but there were enough to keep us satisfied. There were four main dishes, four desserts, and five drinks, all themed after the anime in some way. Each person was required to order at least one thing, and we all went with desserts and drinks. We ordered the Chainsaw Man chocolate cake, which came with an edible Denji in chainsaw form decoration, and plenty of berry sauce for a bloody effect. We also got the Devil Mont Blanc, which featured elements of several of the devils from the anime, along with Aki's famous "Easy Revenge" cigarette. And finally, we had the Pochita Pudding, which was shaped just like Pochita and full of fruit and cake - it was almost too cute to eat!
For drinks, we ordered Denji, Power, and Pochita's drinks. Denji's was a very sweet tea filled with as many fruits as possible and had a golden teaspoon with a Pochita charm. Power's was orange soda with vanilla ice cream and two dried chili peppers that looked like her horns. And finally, Pochita's was tea served in a Pochita mug, and you could choose between four flavors of fruit jam to mix inside! All three came with coasters, and were really delicious.
While we did not order any of the savory items ourselves, they also had omelet rice that looked like Pochita, including his chainsaw cord tail, extremely red "bloody" pasta for Power, a corn beef sandwich with Aki's hand gesture for summoning the fox devil on the plate, and toast with Quiché that looked like Makima's unique eyes. If we go back again, we will definitely try something else!
Exclusive Goods
As we mentioned above, every drink came with a free coaster, so it was fun to collect them and see which characters we got, and trade for our favorites. Additionally, though, there were a lot of exclusive goods for sale that were themed specifically after the café. There were key chains and acrylic standee characters wearing the café's uniform. Most of the goods featured Denji, Aki, Makima, and Power as the main choices.
Extremely special to the café were two Pochita items - the first was a golden teaspoon with a Pochita charm dangling from the end. The second was a Pochita mug, featuring the little devil himself beside a jar of spilled jam, and the name of the café on the bottom. It also had the café's questionable but fun tagline of "Have an ordinary, dreamy time with a choice of bread jam." We are entirely certain that Denji is the one who wrote that.
A Bloody Good Time
The Chainsaw Man Cafe was a lot of fun. The interior was decorated just enough with the characters to clearly be themed without being tacky. There was a spot away from everything else with standees of Denji, Power, Aki, and Makima to take photos with, and the characters were also on the walls around the café. There were also several TVs around the café that cycled through the opening song and many ending songs from the anime, and considering how many songs Chainsaw Man has, it never felt like they were overplayed.
Everything ran very smoothly as well. You placed your order before even sitting down, though could not order again, so you had to decide on everything upfront. You were also given a ticket when you entered for when it was your turn to buy goods, and needed to buy everything at the same time. While this could be annoying if you didn't come with a plan, it kept the areas from being over-crowded, and helped the café stick to its strict 80-minute time limit for guests.
Overall the Chainsaw Man Cafe was well run, and had decent prices and a good quality of food, especially for a concept café. The presentation of all the dishes was exceptionally nice, and there was enough variety for everyone to find something without being overwhelmed by choices. The same went for the goods. Everything went very smoothly, too, so we could just focus on having a (bloody) good time.
The Chainsaw Man Cafe will be open in Tokyo and Osaka until April 2, and Nagoya until March 12.
Official Website: Chainsaw Man Cafe