Spam From Japan

Today, I headed to Akihabara to check out the recently opened Gundam Cafe. While walking round the streets near Denki-Gai, I noticed a huge Gundam head and big television screens showing SD Gundam. Since I like flashing lights, I crossed the road for a closer look.

It turned out to be a promo event for SD Gundam Capsule Fighter Online. The strange thing was, that once people had taken photos of the giant head (from the 1/1 scale Odaiba Gundam) and the women dressed as pilots, they wandered off again. I, however, joined the queue to see what would happen.

A couple of minutes later, I got to try out the new online game (for PC). I’m not used to these things, so it took a while to understand the controls and I would never claim to have mastered them. In fact, if it wasn’t for the tutorial letting me win, I’d never have got through it all. It was mildly entertaining and I felt that playing the game well required genuine skill rather than the button-mashing I’ve seen in some games.

Afterwards, I had to fill in a questionnaire. It confused me for a while since it was a list of statements about the game and the available battle modes and asked me to circle ‘yes’ or ‘no’. At the end, there was a little ‘hint’ that said the event staff didn’t like to hear the word ‘no’. Having read that, I circled ‘yes’ for every statement with impunity. On the back were more detailed questions about how many hours I spend gaming and things like that. So mostly they’re just creating awareness amongst people they feel are already their target market, I guess.

I handed in my clipboard and was ushered into tent where more machines were set up and I could play against other people. This was more fun than the tutorial, but more frustrating too. I kept dying and having to respawn repeatedly. Nice graphics, fun to play, but I need to be better at the controls first.

By then, it was time for the seiyuu talkshow. The guests were Abe Atsushi and Okamoto Nobuhiko, who play Male [Gundam] Operator A and Male [Gundam] Operator B. One is supposed to be cool and energetic, the other mysterious and sexy. At one point, the female MC asked the five or so women in the front row (and the only girls in the vicinity) which one was their type. One woman put her hand up for both, but otherwise, none of them said a word. Maybe they were shy, or maybe they just wanted to pilot their own Gundam like the guys in the room and hadn’t given any thought to their ‘type’.

They played some sound samples from the game and it was amusing seeing Okamoto react to his character’s giggle at the end of his welcome speech. They were then asked to read the same speech out live. I always love seeing seiyuu at work like this and it’s clear Okamoto is very good at controlling his breathing to do voices like the one he uses for the game. The first time, both seiyuu took it seriously, but when they had to do their death speeches, they hammed it up. Lots of fun.

They both went on to play each other in the actual game, which shut down twice in the middle of play. Abe was pretty quiet most of the time, with Okamoto speaking more-or-less like a pilot. There were cheers whenever he pulled off a combo move. They were both really good at the game, so I guess they either practiced or it’s fairly simple if you do enough online gaming.

Afterwards, I resumed my attempt to find the Gundam Cafe (Official Site, Map). The oversimplified map on the official site told me it was around the large area in front of the station. Very useful for Akiba types, I imagine, but not much use to me.

When I finally found it, the store front was a far cry from the almost-empty pavement I’d seen on the internet. There were swarms of people, some choosing to queue and some choosing to take a photo and leave.

A quick look told me that customers fell broadly into two categories — male-female couples and solo male otaku. I was alone and had just come from an SD Gundam online game seiyuu event, so feel free to draw your own conclusions.

I asked the guy holding the “This Is The End Of The Queue” sign about the length of the wait time. He told me it would be about two hours, but reminded me it was open until 11pm. I thanked him and left. In two hours I could go all the way to Sendai and drink at Gundam Shot Bar Zion again.