Asobit City is sinking fast

RB wrote on 25.10.2009:

2005年前後はアキバにとってバブル状態だったんですかね。そのバブルは、とっくにはじけてしまってるよという意味でしょうか？　どちらにせよ、今後は本当に良い商品・良いサービスを提供できない店は生き残れないという気がします。再開発が一段落して、高層ビルがどんどん増え続けることはもう無いにせよ、フツーの街へと変わっていく流れはもう止めようが無いんでしょうね。5年後に完成予定という東京国際マンガ図書館もアキバに誘致出来れば良かったのでしょうが。また、ポケモンセンターのように世界的にヒットした作品のオフィシャルショップもアキバに出店してくれれば最高ですが・・・。

それにしても、JEANS-MATE前のメイドを撮った写真は「これまでのアキバ」と「これからのアキバ」が交錯している瞬間を見事に捉えてます！

Patrick wrote on 24.10.2009:

She does look lonely, or at least isolated in this picture. I actually didn't notice that until you mentioned it, but that adds another dimension to things.

Despite what may seem like a harsh comment above, I personally hold nothing against maids; I go to cafes almost everyday, and have celebrated my birthday with maids five years running. Maid cafes are places of comfort and peace. However, when we look at the entire system, it is hard to deny that maids have been co-opted to be the image of a fun and interesting Akihabara (or even an "otaku" Akiba) even as the neighborhood loses that unique character. Maids appear in the media and draw tourists. Even a cursory review of maid history reveals this to be true.


1) The first maid café TV appearance was in 2003, on a TV Tokyo business program called "Gaiya no Yoake." This was sponsored by Nikkei, Japan's economic newspaper, and was very much tied up in aspirations to change the image of the area in this the early stages of its re-development into the heart of Japan’s high technology and “contents industry.” Soon after, the cafes started courting the media and offering intuitive entertainment services, gaudy and childish décor and mini-skirted, colorful anime maid uniforms. The greeting of “Welcome home, master” became something of a standard. The epitome of this is @home café, which has grown from a location on the fifth floor of Don Quixote to five locations since opening in 2004. (Not that I have any beef with @home; that happens to be where I spend my birthdays...)

2) Maid cafes were chosen to represent Akihabara in the media not because they were the top industries there at the time (that honor belongs to doujinshi and bishoujo games), but because cute girls in costume are visually more appealing and are easier to explain to a mainstream audience. That is, maids were taken up as the symbols of the Otaku Mecca because they ironically were not very deeply tied to otaku culture.

3) The maid boom occurred when Pinafore in Akihabara, dressed up to appear like @home (read: it does not in fact offer entertainment service), was featured in Fuji TV’s primetime drama "Densha Otoko" in 2005. The show’s final episode had 25.5 percent of the national viewing audience, and Akihabara and its maid cafes were suddenly a very hot topic. Tourists started flocking to the area with family and friends to visit maid cafés. An estimated 35 percent of customers are now female, with some cafés reporting monthly earnings in tens of millions of yen. TV coverage of @home café increased by 685 percent, culminating in an NHK 2005 Christmas special broadcast in over 180 countries. Akihabara’s four cafes in 2002 ballooned to some 40 establishments in 2006.


We all know what has happened since: Maid cafes have grown and diversified past the point of saturation and girls in costume can be found on almost every corner of Akihabara. This despite the fact that otaku-oriented stores are closing, new mainstream-oriented stores have been popping up and cosplayers have been chased off the streets. Maids are almost like a ghost, a hollow distorted image of what Akihabara is in the consciousness of many people. That is what I see when I look at that maid, and that makes me even sadder still.

Pif wrote on 24.10.2009:

The shot of the maid in front of the under-construction jeans mate, with everyone striding on by is kinda sad. Like a wildlife losing their natural habitat.