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The Maid Cafe of the Future
By Yung Namahage • 3 years ago


As sick as I am of hearing about it (no pun intended), coronavirus is still very much a thing. Stores and restaurants might be reopening across the world, but that doesn't change the fact that there's still a life-threatening disease out there. Japan's maid cafe industry was hit pretty hard by the new laws and restrictions following the virus' spread, much like any other cafe. Waitresses in cute maid outfits can't exactly serve you if they're trying to social distance, and there's no way you can see their eager expressions if they're wearing a face mask. To get around this, one company plans to take their maid cafes into cyberspace.


Tokyo company Infinia, known for their successful @Home Cafe chain of maid cafes, has announced that they're opening a brand new establishment called Virtual @Home Cafe. As the name suggests, it's a maid cafe for the virtual age. There are three (so far) 3D maids you can interact with from the comfort of your own home, featuring character designs by Ankotaku of Onsen Musume fame.



A press release from the company says:


"You access the virtual space from your smartphone and transform into "Goshujin-sama (Master)/Ojyou-sama (My Lady) in an avatar. Then, you can enjoy conversations, playing games, and taking pictures with cute maids who have become virtual characters. You don't need to come to the @Home Cafe stores in Akihabara and Osaka to experience the feeling of being "Goshujin-sama/Ojyou-sama." Through "Virtual @Home Cafe," which has evolved over the past 20 years since the birth of the maid cafe, we will bring the ultimate "virtual moe" to you."



I should state that this service is intended to be SFW, with the website straight up saying:


"This service is not an adult service. Please note that if you make sexual statements or abusive language, you will be suspended from using the service."


But I can't help but imagine a virtual strip club or massage parlor using the same technology. Here's a video of what the maid cafe would look like in action:



Virtual Maid@Home launches this Summer in Japan, and you can check out the website or Twitter page for more information. What do you think of Virtual Maid@Home? Would you visit a virtual maid cafe over a real one? Could virtual maid cafes even replace real ones in the future? Drop your thoughts in the comments!