Cafeterium Chaldeas, organized by the initiatives of project head Ray Summers that took place on the 23rd of September, at Amo Yamie Crib, Anonas Branch is a Fate/Grand Order pop-up cafe where all of the event features and theme has a great influence from the fate franchise. It started with Dianne Garcia’s idea of having just a Fate Cafe themed shoot which eventually became a Fate-themed cosplay Cafe. Together with Ray as the Project Head, Arzen took the lead as the Publicity Head to attract more masters— and servants.
In simplest words, it’s an all around fate cafe organized by fans for the fans themselves, quite an exquisite event for a Sunday with its great attention to theme, hard work, passion, and ultimately, they lived up to the patron’s expectations.
From Cosplayers dressed as your favorite servants, acting their respective part with finesse and accuracy, Artists who have participated in these functions with their creative fan-arts of the series, up to the staffs and partners who are making this event functional in general sense, it is quite a success, something that is really evident from the whole day that we covered this event.
To further express my thoughts and opinions, here are the key points:
Consistency on their respective theme
As the event has come into in effect, the first impression that really attracts me are their theme and for them to being consistent. This is quite evident from their social media approaches that shows us what the event will be. From how they take on pre-orders, up to the general information drive about the cafe itself. This simple elements has a key factor that defines their overall purpose showing that this is not something of a random fan-made event but rather a unique interpretation of the respective franchise to their own and it did its job quite properly from their social media presence alone.
We all know that it’s a servants-maid-and-butler kind of cafe with respective commands and gimmicks (not to mention them being in theme) that you usually expect on these kinds of pop-up functions and key perks for their tier-level experience— basically freebies and additional perks that lived up to its fan experience; It’s quite nice.
Aside from the food itself (well it’s good so no complaints), everything else is in theme. It feels like you’re in Chaldeas having a good time, and hopefully good servant rolls heck even their price tags are in quartz. Not to mention, some of their gimmicks in the first session reminds me of Carnival Phantasm, and it rocks.
Straightforward and Simple approach
For me, this is a great example that being straightforward produces outstanding results. As me and my colleagues covered it and our Editor-in-Chief is an actual server on the cafe, we have this common conclusion that this event is really straightforward.
The experience produced for its patrons are simple, give them the best servant and Fate/Grand Order experience there is and everyone has achieved that. The vibe feels simple, the staff and its organizers run it well with overall success, exceeding my expectations for a simple event organized by fans. The place that they have fits the theme well, and all the masters are really into the experience. They basically hit their target market well and I hope they can do this more often and enhance their established theme and approach to the general fanbase experience. It doesn’t have to be complex in order to have a unique event, this is one of my examples that truly lives on to this principle.
The feature is everyone!
Some events features a lot of things, specifically like a general theme or a demographic on our community like IDOL events features the idols, COSPLAY events highlights cosplayers (regardless of the theme), and so on. Even though that this event has started from a cosplay side of the community, it has managed to do one crucial thing and to feature every side of the community perfectly.
A multidimensional approach is something that is important, a coexistence between different types of people within the fanbase community that is really rare and sometimes problematic in our community today. Cosplayers, Artist, Media, and Regular fans come together, having a good time.
The theme is basically servants in a cafe setting but truly, it’s basically for everyone, new and old, to the Fate franchise co-existing gracefully in an event setting, having an equal opportunity to experience each of it from the usual servant as your servers, to artists who has their wares (Da vinci’s shop is real) that you can buy your respective servants there, and to fellow fans and staff who’s lagging behind on their in-game events. It’s impossible to say that a certain features in the event ruins the other features and experience or whatnot, it’s something that a narrow minded idiot would only expect.
Positive Feedback During and After the Event
With all that I have said in mind, I have observed the positive feedback during and after the events.
Masters in general had a great time on their service for the entire duration of their respective batches. Our media really felt involved in the entire thing and left a very positive memory, and the people behind had a blast despite of the tireless days and nights making this work.
A success of an event doesn’t rely on the positive feedback on its customers alone, but from everyone who had taken part of the experience as well. The hype for all of those involved gave them hope that these kinds of events will bring smile, unity, and love to the community. My peers even talked about it positively for days; participants behind it also shared their joyful memories, and patrons who are demanding a part two of this installment. It’s not rocket science to prove that this event is a success. Everybody had a great time, I MEAN EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM 😀
Conclusion
With everything else laid out on this piece, I have to say that this is a great example of a community event that had left lasting memories for everyone. It’s only a simple concept that has done well in the aftermath of Cafe Chaldeas.
The summarized version of what I can say to these experiences were: It’s like a fan made Fate/Grand Order seasonal events. Everyone felt that they are part of the experience and they had a great time, just like how the game works, to be honest. It’s only for a specific target market but they have managed to get everyone within their markets hooked on the experience.
I personally hope that they can turn this event into a catalyst that brings a multidimensional experience to the local anime community like how the Fate Singularities affects the entire game experience.
Written by Shiraishi Hideki
Photos by Shiraishi Hideki and Zachary
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