The guy in the pink shirt is telling a story. The entryway walls are painted bright white with polka dots, and stuffed Mickey and Minnie Mouse dolls are perched on top of ledges that are lit pink and blue. A whiteboard plastered with Polaroids spotlights the dozen or so maids who work here so a customer can choose which maid to have his picture taken with.
The clientele as well as the workers are mostly otaku—Japanese geeks who are obsessed with manga comics , anime animated TV shows and films , and video games. In the past few years, these restaurants have come to dominate the main thoroughfare in Akihabara known to locals as Akiba , a neighborhood that used to be more famous for selling electronics.
Visitors can shed their armor, forget about how socially awkward they are in real life, and revel in the plasticity of it all. Venues such as home were created as places where geeks could feel, well, at home.
Young men and women have been dressing up in manga and anime-inspired costumes in Tokyo and elsewhere for more than 30 years. They are regulars at comic and game conventions. Outside the convention hall, fans lined up around the block to be customers. In , a PC superstore in Nagoya decided to replicate what Broccoli had done, but on a more permanent basis.
The head honchos got word that my guide Hina Nakashima, at that time a college student who was producing promo videos at the store, was a cosplayer and someone who understood the significance of fantasy and role play in otaku culture. They tapped her for help. The owners added such features as games and photo ops with maids. Girls from all over the country flocked to maid auditions, and male fans lined up on the streets to see their favorite idols.
