“A harem anime with 5 sisters in the same house trying to hit on a male main character, I've seen this before....” -Me
Ah, harem anime, they come in all sorts and forms, there is a niche userbase like thems very much, if you are one of them, then The Café Terrace and It's Goddesses are great in achieving that. I wouldn't think that this anime revolutionise the genre, but nonetheless it execute it pretty well in a nice story that was very enjoyable to watch with some very good ecchi. Perfect, isn't it ?
So what's up with this quoted backstory, is it real ? Yeah there's a few things to mention to make it clear, the 5 girls aren't actually sisters, it's just 5 women who all got their reason to not live with their parents that preferred to live with the grandma in a nice family, so they aren't relatives. What this creates is a nice start to a harem anime with the MC being the grand children of the now deceased grandma, who inherited the house and the shop of her grandma, a nice and chill family Cafe restaurant. What follows is a hilarious story where our chad Hayato becomes a boss of a cafe with 5 girls in maid outfits that also happens to live with him in the same house, what an epic flatsharing. It's all a pillar for goofy-ah moments and character development, this newly formed family needs to adapt to each others and live in this tight space, they might not enjoy it as much in the beginning, but they get to appreciate the moment, and perhaps a few romantic feelings starts to develop. What I especially liked about the story of Café Terrace is how interesting the backstory of all 5 waifus gets progressively shown which is always a pleasure to see and like throughout the 12 episodes and makes you more engaged in the anime and the girls themselves.
Now, the funny part, the presentation of all 6 main characters, you could of course say that they're just a generic trope being put onto a girl, but I would think that they aren't that bad, they're all quite funny at least. First, we have Riho, a solid girl who's very passionate and dedicated to her task. Then, there is Akane, a very apathetic woman who doesn't talk much, but is in reality quite deep with people she knows best. After that, there is Ouka, your usual red haired Tsundere (I would be funny if I don't explain further, isn't it ?). To continue, there's Shiragiku (my beloved), a nice girl who's always trying her best, tries to keep everyone happy and smily, but might actually have a serious problem with alcohol (those who knows knows). Finally, there's Ami, FUCKING AMI, and don't be scared, it's not in a bad way, she's just very unique, she's not even interested in the harem or living with a boy, she just does random shit and those shitty things works, she's outrageous and very out of place in an anime like this, very good stuff that will always bring you the unexpected. This concludes our charac..... DID YOU FORGET THE MAN AMONGST THE MEN, HAYATO THE CHAD ? Our mc isn't even trying to have sex with all of the girls, he's crude, he doesn't really have emotion, always have the same :| face and isn't very delicate with women, let's say. But what I especially find interesting about him is how he talks, he is quite profound in what he says, he's not a hero that's here to help the waifus with their problems, he uses words to make the girls realise things, and encourages them to find a solution by themself. And this quite mature attitude might be what makes the girls falls in love with him after a while, he might also do funny things by accident without realising what he's doing is wrong, this show wouldn't be the same if he wasn't there.
Was this harem concept executed well in terms of production ? There's a positive, the anime is made by Tezuka Production, who kinda did Quintessential Quintuplets season 1, yeah it was pretty ugly but this one isn't at least, but that's still good experience for a type of harem with 5 girls, wouldn't it ? I feel like the visuals have nothing bad to say against them, they're quite good and sleek, and the girls have good attributes, the quality of the animation was constant on an alright level. They can draw boobs and ass quite well for an ecchi show, which is a great point for anyone who likes or at least don't mind it. I also wanna mention how catchy the opening is, I really love it but it also seems like I am the minority regarding that.
At the end, it can be understood that if you don't like harem because it's unrealistic, I can affirm the fact that this anime is definitively not a realistic piece of content, but who cares, we still get good stuff for those who likes it. So, if you enjoy watching harem anime and maybe if you aren't mad about some generic stuffs because you're a veteran who watched a few dozen of similar storie, this is definitely a must watch, and as I mentionned throughout the review, there's great ecchi, that's convincing. What's even better is that we're gonna get more of Café Terrace, the story and ass will continue soon in the season 2, you aren't gonna run out of content yet if it's as good as season 1 at least, I'll be there for it !