Hayato struggles to get along with Ouka before the Familia Café Terrace reopens to customers.
Episode 3 — “Opening”
The Bathos Melodrama Meter!
As I had predicted, Goddess Café Terrace would not have as many bathos moments after it had set up the main character’s sympathetic origin story. The newer bathos scenes will come as character development between Hayato when the individual girls start falling in love with him. We saw hints already from Akane as she enjoyed his compliments. Will she be the first one to fall to his… uh… hmm. Charm is the wrong word. Let’s call it earnestness. That is expected from what we learned in this episode: Grandma was a big blabbermouth!
The goddesses of the café terrace already know Hayato’s personality from their conversations with Grandma. This is unfair! The new owner of the café needs to do the demanding work of learning the quirks of five girls when they already have insider knowledge. In the second episode of Goddess Café Terrace, we saw how Akane appreciated Hayato’s conflicted face when he had to reluctantly apologize.
This week, we learned that the poor kid doesn’t know how to lie. That will cause him many problems because the art of diplomacy, and customer service, is lying to someone’s face truthfully. Yeah, that doesn’t make sense to me either. The upside for Hayato’s female roommates is when he dishes out praise, it’s his unedited opinion. It’s no wonder Akane blushed when Hayato called her “cute” or when he approved Ouka’s waitress uniform design. His annoyed reluctance to offer encouragement led him to unleash a string of backhanded compliments at Ouka. Thankfully, she had grown used to ignoring his mewling, so Ouka only perked up at the positive review of her work. Thanks to Grandma, Hayato has no secrets left to keep from the goddesses under his roof.
As for plot development bathos melodrama, Goddess Café Terrace gave us two eye-rolling moments and a head fake. The first came when Ouka informed Hayato how much his grandma had told the girls about him. That realization led to the red herring moment that Ami was wiser than he gave her credit. But the truth was, Hayato didn’t know his roommates as well as they knew him. He needs to change that to get along with them better. The second bathos moment came when the rude banker who held Grandma’s loans visited the café on opening day. Hayato recalled Grandma telling him that each customer of the Familia Café Terrace would be a family member. Well. You can swat your uncle for being a jerk, right? Or sue him for sexual harassment. So long as the melodrama stays family business.
Protecting the Nest Points.
Riho continues to rack up the Nest Protector points in Goddess Café Terrace. She convinced Hayato to stop fighting with Ouka over mixing his “weird fluids” into her laundry. If he didn’t fix his relationship with his coworker, their arguments would spill out in front of customers in the café. They don’t need to hear about the perverted secret sauce in the coffee!
Shiragiku earned points when she asked Hayato if he had diversified his portfolio. Too bad Ami destroyed his conduits for his stock trading apps. Still, Shiragiku’s home economics instincts showed clear promise as a future housewife. Ami banked negative points and needs to dig out of her current hole. Kicking and punching delinquents at the town’s summer festival might do it!
Grandma’s Little Girl Points.
Ouka scored the most points as Grandma’s Little Girl. Her reminiscence of Grandma’s conversation made Hayato realize that he got along so well with five strangers this quickly because of how much Grandma talked about him. All the bickering and fighting in the Goddess Café Terrace episode made them resemble siblings or childhood friends.
Ami almost scored points here when she gave Hayato a hint that he already had sisters because they knew him already. Then Ami took credit for smoothing arguments by acting as a “calming influence,” transferring those points into the Baka column.
In the last moments of the episode, Shiragiku dropped a bombshell statement that might convert into Grandma’s Little Girl points. She claimed to have known Hayato fifteen years ago! Is she a genuine childhood friend? We’ll have to watch for answers on that.
Baka Charm Points.
Ami scored all the points for Goddess Café Terrace. She lacked self-awareness about the stress she caused Hayato, claimed credit for defusing fights, and broke his phone and laptop. Ami doesn’t even understand her own sexiness! She offered Hayato a free fondling of her breasts to make him feel better after he lost his electronic gadgets and financial assets. Such a calming influence!
Shiragiku scored a few points of Baka Charm with the running joke that she can’t remember her erotic behavior after sipping anything alcoholic. Ouka also scored a point for how she ruined the salad with a bottle of wine instead of vinegar. Will Ami’s photo evidence be enough to end her confusion? Will Ouka improve her cooking skills beyond Hayato’s favorite rice pilaf dish?
Drunk Girl Points.
Shiragiku gained all the points with her neck-nibbling maneuvers. And only from a tablespoon of wine!
Cool Charm Points.
Ami tried getting points in this column by claiming credit for happy family life, but that backfired spectacularly. Akane continues to run away with the prize in Goddess Café Terrace. She’s used to taking compliments for her attractive looks, but it’s charming when she reacts to Hayato’s earnest praise. Akane also received remarks on how much she looked like a high society lady in her waitress uniform. I sense foreshadowing in character development.
Heh.
Familial strife! Ouka doesn’t want Hayato’s cooties in her laundry! Riho reminds Hayato that their fighting might spill over into business hours. Customers should not hear about Hayato’s “weird fluids.” Akane suggests that Hayato give Ouka compliments to get along. Oho. Blushing Akane is cute too! Ugh. Hayato can’t stop dishing out backhanded compliments in Goddess Café Terrace. Shoe to the face! Har. Shiragiku still doesn’t know how she acts when she drinks alcohol. Everyone else does, though!
Uh oh. Some wine got on the salad, so I expect nocturnal maneuvers hunting for man scent. Ah. Confirmation that Ouka is a fashion student. She designed the waitress uniforms for the Familia Café Terrace. She’ll take praise for her work, but she doesn’t trust anything else Hayato says. Stay away from his cooties! Here we go. Drunk Shiragiku wants to slurp up all those smelly cooties! Shutter chance! Pervert evidence!
Look! Goddess Café Terrace foreshadows! Hayato left his laptop and phone on his table after he shooed Ami away. Aha! Hayato’s stock trading pastime explains the day range graphics in the opening credits. And how he intends to pay his part-time employees. Something changed. Ami is no longer the giggling genki girl she was a few minutes ago.
Was she a sensitive and perceptive soul all along? Nope! And she was only quiet because she didn’t want Hayato to find out how she had broken his stuff! Usually, one’s stupidity can be expensive, but Ami’s Baka Charm has hit someone else in the wallet. Ami overestimates the worth of copping a feel on her chest. Noogie time!
Finally, the grand reopening of Familia Café Terrace. Hayato can make coffee now! The locals have come back. Ugh. Hayato’s first challenge: keeping his temper around the rude businessman who had loaned money to his grandma. Crisis averted! But the goddesses of the café are a vengeful lot. They provoked the jerk to sexually harass a woman, in public, in front of witnesses! Busy day. Hayato had a successful relaunch and his first customer ejection.
Next time, Shiragiku gets drunk, and Ami kicks delinquents at a cherry blossom festival.
Goddess Café Terrace (Megami no Café Terrace, The Café Terrace and its Goddesses) streams on Crunchyroll.
How much is a fresh squeeze of oppai worth to you? Thankfully, J-List offers goods at a much more affordable price than a stock portfolio collapse. Check out our Oppai Toys here! I like the muscular tan Oppai Board Cover from artist Sela 23.
Are you enjoying Goddess Café Terrace so far? What about this episode? Let us know in the comments below or online on Facebook, Twitter, or Discord.
