Fan focused cafés are really a thing in Japan. I’ve talked about the Gundam Café before and there are many more. Some cafés are really busy and require reservations, but many are first come, first serve. If you are walking around Akihabara, these cafés are a great place to take a break.

One of my favorite figure and model companies, Good Smile – the makers of Nenderoids, partnered with Animate, a chain of anime good shops to create a really cute café. The café was hidden on an upper floor of the animate building in Akihabara. The Husband happened to notice the sign as we were about to leave. We were tired and needed a rest, so went up to check it out.

These themed cafes are really good for immersing yourself in a theme but be warned, sometimes the food and drink are more about than the theme than the flavor. The Good Smile X Animate was an exception. The good and drink were cute and yummy.

At the time of our visit, the café was promoting the XSEED game Fate/Extella Link.  I enjoyed many of the Fate stories (Fate: Stay/Night is my fave) and so was familiar enough with the characters on display.

The Menu

I wish I’d taken a better picture of the menu interior, but this will have to do.

Our waiter spoke English, which was nice. The ordering was fairly simple, though. You received a piece of paper with the menu and matched up the kanji, like for like, to order. It was a little easier for us, since both Lee and I are used to doing it for general purposes. Our sweet waiter pointed to the items on the menu to make sure we’d selected the correct items on the sheet. We had dessert and drinks – a little ice cream and tart combo shown on the right, second from the top.

You can barely see Husband’s soda at the top right of the above picture. I had a lovely coffee.

The Decor

The décor was fairly simple; a set of wall hangings that depicted the Fate characters in costume, along with a stage featuring the main sword from the game, and a few monitors showing video of the game play.

The souvenirs

Most of the themed cafés give you something to take home with you and the Good Smile X Animate Café was no exception. We received several coasters to take home with us. They were really more on par with trading cards than coasters but fun none the less.