Episode 21 — “Mother and Daughter”
Goddess Café Terrace Bathos Meter
We have a break from fanservice this week in Goddess Café Terrace. Sadness, I know. However, the show needs to plunk in as many overly emotional plot points concerning the five grandmothers who worked in the first Familia Café Terrace before the anime season ends. How will it do that? Recycling narrative devices.
The episode belongs to Riho and her famous acting grandmother. Thus, its first reused bathos method comes from Riho playing the villain to force a beneficial outcome. Riho previously employed this tactic to save Ririka’s streaming career while still crushing Fuwa’s Family Café Restaurant. Here, Riho’s ham acting maneuvered her parents to come back together and cure her mother’s cancer. That’s some acting!
That glib treatment of severe disease was the second bathos device Goddess Café Terrace employed. Somehow, terminal cancer has a medical treatment that provides a happy ending for the Tsukishima family. We saw earlier how Ami’s grandmother escaped her cognitive decline through Hayato’s time-traveling dream magic and “surgery.” No big deal!
Thespian Cures Cancer, Reverses Divorce
The Goddess Café Terrace episode had one more bathos moment that glossed over the serious issues surrounding divorce and sole parental custody in Japan. Riho readily accepted the ridiculous divorce condition that her father couldn’t see her until she turned twenty years old. Goddess Café Terrace used its tired chime and white screen effect for this moment.
According to Mr. Tsukishima’s explanation, Riho’s father left because he disagreed with how Riho’s mother managed their daughter’s acting career. It wasn’t because he stopped loving his wife and daughter and then abandoned them. Okay! Let’s reunite the family and cure cancer through overwrought soap opera acting! Thanks, Kouji Seo. I needed the laughs.
Protecting the Goddess Café Terrace Nest Points
Ami convinced Riho to visit her ill mother. That’s keeping the emotional health of the Familia Café Terrace in good spirits. But Ami scored negative points for piledriving a customer who turned out to be Riho’s father.
Grandma’s Little Girl Points
Riho’s acting as an evil stepmother matched her grandmother’s style.
Baka Charm Points in Goddess Café Terrace
Ami and Ouka scored the most points for mistaking Riho’s father for a trench coat-wearing flasher.
Riho scored points for immediately agreeing to do a bit part in a TV show because Hayato might like her more. Ririka knows how to push her senpai’s buttons.
Drunk Girl Points
No alcohol or sexy situations presented themselves in this Goddess Café Terrace episode. But I can speculate on Riho and Ami’s fetishes now. Ami will definitely wear masks and roleplay for Hayato. And Riho will get off on domination-loss as she gains “experience” from Hayato.
Cool Charm Points
No one charmed Hayato with her calm, sardonic smirking in this episode. Maybe next time!
Goddess Café Terrace Makes Me Go Heh.
Can Riho revive her dead acting career? Ririka believes in her! Oops. Riho’s acting role in a TV show is a dead body with a dead acting career! She was perfect for the role. No career revivals this time.
Meanwhile, Goddess Café Terrace puts another man in black wearing a trench coat in the café. Have middle-aged men in dark suits become a favored customer base for the café? Hououji shenanigans again? No. Ami knows who this man is. A pervert flasher! He gets the Spinning Piledriver! Oh. It was Riho’s father who had waited to see her at the café.
Broken Dreams Lead to Broken Home for Goddess Café Terrace
Mr. Tsukishima provides a backstory of how the family visited the Familia Café Terrace in happier days. Riho’s mother had emotional problems over giving up an acting career to care for a genius child actor. Weird divorce conditions kept Riho’s father from visiting her. Then he saw her on the news and went to her mother to ask what happened to Riho. And a drunk lady got terminal cancer after Riho moved in with Sachiko at the Familia Café Terrace. Do you feel the tugging on those strings around your heart? Me neither! Riho doesn’t need to see a dying hag. But Gorilla Ami offers advice about regrets that Hayato gave her. Yes, Goddess Café Terrace. It’s entirely appropriate to show a heavy discussion about life and death as a girl in pajamas wears a gorilla mask.
Goddess Café Terrace Theater Heals Disease and Family Bonds
Riho’s evil twin appears in the Goddess Café Terrace soap opera again. A round of applause, please! Riho’s provocation worked. Her father defended his wife, she decided to take the miracle cancer treatment, and everyone lived happily ever after. Well. Mrs. Tsukishima saw through the act, and so did Hayato. Riho’s mother recognized the same acting style that belonged to her mother-in-law. Oh, didn’t you know? The best actress of the previous emperor’s age worked at the original Familia Café Terrace. Has Riho’s grandmother already died?
Relationship Rehearsals and a Campy Christmas Party
That’s over. Hayato needs to give Riho more experience to improve her acting skills. Like Method Acting for the love scenes? Show her your sushi roll, Hayato!
Next time, the Goddess Café Terrace Christmas party episode gets out of hand. You know Mao bought that vibrator for the Secret Santa gift exchange. We’re back to drunk girls and fanservice!
Goddess Café Terrace (The Café Terrace and Its Goddesses, Megami no Café Terrace) streams on Crunchyroll in Japanese audio and multiple language subtitles.
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Aw. I wanted to see Riho’s grandmother. But watching her mother drink whiskey with artisanal ice was fine, too. Although I’m happier to see the horny hijinks from Mao at the Christmas party. Which girl do you want to see handling Hayato’s yule log? Let us know in the comments below!
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