Hawaii Otamanors: Maid Cafes & Butler Cafes
The world of anime and manga, often referred to as "Otaku culture," has fostered unique expressions and communities globally. In Hawaiʻi, this underground scene saw a groundbreaking development in 2014 with the introduction of its very first Otaku Maid Cafe, a venture that uniquely blended traditional Japanese cafe culture with the distinctive flavors and spirit of the islands led by Kell Komatsubara. The concept originates in Japan and was inspired by Hawaii's very own Annamiller's and came back to Hawaii in its High Schools and Colleges. They are themed restaurants where waitresses are dressed in maid costumes, butlers are dressed in butler costumes and treat customers in a fantasy setting. The concept was exciting to westerners and local otaku organizers who sought to create something truly special and rooted in the islands' identity.
The cafe's menu was a testament to this blend, featuring stations that delighted attendees with familiar Maid Cafe concepts reimagined with local flair: Hawaii Musubi Station: A playful nod to the beloved local snack, offering various musubi creations. Hawaii Curry Omelette Station: A comforting and flavorful dish, likely incorporating local ingredients or preparation styles. Hawaii Summer Drink Station: Refreshing beverages designed to capture the essence of a Hawaiian summer. Otaku culture and Hawaiian culinary traditions made the experience authentically local with a best seller being the "Shoyu Chicken Triangle Jumbomusu". The Maid Cafe, alongside performances by groups like Crimson Apple, solidified the festival as a pivotal moment for the local Animanga community. It demonstrated a growing maturity and creativity within the scene, capable of producing high-quality, culturally resonant events that catered specifically to the Hawaiian fanbase.
The establishment of Hawaii's first Otaku Maid Cafe was a novelty; it was a significant step in validating and enriching the local Animanga community. It provided a tangible space for fans to engage with a cherished aspect of Japanese pop culture while celebrating their unique Hawaiian context. This initiative fostered a stronger sense of community, inspired local creativity in event planning and culinary arts, and ultimately built a crucial bridge between the global phenomenon of anime and the passionate, diverse fanbase in Hawaiʻi. It showed that Otaku culture could thrive and evolve in truly unique and localized ways. It also showed that local Restaurants could pair up to represent an "Individual Maid Cafe" and make sales through events as a way to cross-promote the restaurant chefs with volunteers of front of the house workers with split profits.
Otamanorial System
In Otaku culture, there exists a system called otamanorial or otaku manorial. This includes subcultures of Otaku servicemen [House Manager, Maids, and Butlers], culinary [Cooks], and horticulture [Gardeners]. It reflects a military like system for Maid cafes & Butler cafes that are non-gender specific and operation job title specification in operation positions of food business.
Otamanorial was originally developed to make a gender neutral community term for a combination of House Masters, Maids (Animaids), Butlers (Anibutlers), Cooks (Otaku Chefs), and Gardeners in online chats. Online there was controversy in the western online world with gender interest inequality. A general neutral term that many Otaku Butlers used was Otamanorials. This was used to reflect the victorian inspired family manor household system terminology of the word Manorialisms. The term had many different definitions on personal opinion, but eventually it started to represent both butlers and maid groups that varied with lolita anime sub-styles. Eventually it was seen as a comparison of restaurant service industry roles and then was put to use as a systematic management system.
At the largely popular Butler cafes that were frequented by Fujoshi were located on Otome-road in Ikebukuro. This slowly showed traces of interests in the other side of maids, which were Butlers. Butlers showed an association of victorian inspiration similar to that of lolita culture. Its closeness in aesthetics rather than animanga character concentration showed hints of a possibility of a merged culture between anibutler and lolita styles. As Animanga exposed more possibly themes... many otaku who were mostly female and some male took increased interest in anibutlers.
In Harajuku's Lolita scene there has been an increase of interest in animes such as One Piece, Fairy Tail, and Black Butler. This started to see Otaku Fashion, Idol culture, and Animanga shows to merge with Lolita to be Ota Lolita . Ota Lolita have been in existence for a long time, but it was not seen as mainstream, so it was nameless for some time. The term came out of discussions of Akihabara Maids and Harajuku Lolita in being separate identities, until people started to point out merged Ota Lolita fashion style. Some people describe it as a sub-style of Decora Lolita, Kawaii Lolita, or from as its own term of Ota Lolita.
Many lolita have been criticized for making outfits that have been inspired by animanga, idol, and bright colors, however its starting to be harder and harder to not recognize ota lolita as its own style. A common comparison that is commonly argued due to similar themes is Otaku Maids (animaids) that are inspired by a similar time era to lolitas in their specific differences. It is described that these two different ideas had bled into one another to create what many lolita have dreaded for years... the coming of Ota Lolita fashion. With Ota Lolita it was the original early aspects that led to Otamanors.
Otamanorials are categorized by Otamanors and/or House families. This was established to those interested in various Harajuku styles. The most influential elements of the creation of Otamanorial style was from Animanga Cafes, such as; Maidreamin, Cure Maid Cafe, and @Home Cafe.
Word Usage of Otamanor
The definition of Otamanor, has its roots in the term “Maid Cafe” and “Butler Cafe” with a way of branching out from very super focused gender focused establishments. An Otamanor is a sort of niche-business establishment that caters to otaku with a manor-like sort of service. In English there would be people labeled at “Manor Otaku” who were interested in running or analyzing and even visiting businesses that were maid cafes and butler cafes and recognize its potential to be much more unique in its experience being catered to those interested in otaku culture. A Otamanor would be what would be a non-gender biased term and seen as much more respectful to western otaku users of the word. To not disrupt the Japanese Otaku “Maid Cafe Community” the term overseas of Otamanor would be used to brand itself as a separate interest that would be connected to the maid cafe community without the disruption of it.
The Term
It is a word unfamiliar to some as it can be seen as “otaku” and “manor” and when placed together it implies politeness, hospitality, and otaku focus. The quality of service goes past the visual-appeal at face value and incorporates many facets of “omotenashi” mixed with Otaku fashion mixed with European aesthetics. The word Otamanor has its origins in the west as an English slang word. The term would start to be used through describing series(s) before a sort of service and such series were: Hanaukyo Maid-tai, Steel Angel Kurumi, Hand Maid May, Black Butler, Mahoromatic, Hayate the Combat Butler, Emma a Victorian Romance. It was used as well as a way to distance negative meanings of bias of customer-base, business establishment, and otaku in general.
The idea of “Maid Cafe” at one point meant a place for “social safety” and “hobby celebration” of animation and comics with a positive forward thinking outlook. The term maid cafe or butler cafe comes up to anyone who mentions they are being served by a person in a french maid uniform, butler uniform, or cosplay in a service industry job. While it looks at the uniform for its confirmation use of the word it hardly describes a “maid cafe” or “butler cafe” in the experience and is not accurate, however it is used in this manner. The dilution of the terms came during the “Maid Cafe Boom”, which was neither good or bad and depended on how a person had been using the terms and how there were different ways of its usage going around the community. With such popularity it is no denying that the prevailing names of such places have drastically changed over time and are farther from the origin meaning of such places.
The Use
The purpose of the change to Otamanor was to implement gender-neutral language as to avoid a bias or focus on “gender” as to not be clumped up with businesses that are gender-centric for their services. False accusations of discrimination and demeaning actions of places like Maid Cafes and Butler Cafes were interpreted as such due to the type of service description defining itself from a “gender specific role” of the specific server.
Planning-Analysis
If you are considering running a maid cafe/butler cafe or otamanor themed establishment... you will definitely go to investigate the existing maid cafe to see the positives and negatives as well as ways to evolve. It can be easy to be caught up in all the successful businesses, however a smaller business can not simply copy a big business and gain the same success due to the experienced talents available to them.
However, unfortunately, amateurs can only see what is convenient for them and tend to be more focused on the means to the end instead of their original goal. As the basis of business, it is very important to see the inconvenience and have the ability to analyze. Therefore, the management of such establishments often fails even before starting a new business. Let’s look at: Food Analysis, Naming Style, Target Audiences, Revisit Value, and Market Approach.
Usually, when you announce where you are deciding to go for a meal the reaction is based on the place and it’s food. People think of the signage and think about what image the name evokes (1), then they will think about what are the best dishes of the place itself (2), and lastly they think of the price to quality of what they are getting (3). The subtext of what's underneath the main title is what's important as well as the businesses identity to explain what it is known for. When it comes to food there isn’t too much that comes to mind when thinking of Otaku food, but in the underground of cooks there really is a lot that's available to specialize from.
Most Otamanor places, especially maid cafe establishments shut down due to concentrating too much on selling services of the maids without having the strong foundation of food being the main focus. So much so that it has become an expectation that the “Maid Cafes'' is synonymous with food being not delicious, drinks being diluted, and the tastes never complementing one another with the food composition and the menu. This is really bad, because the expectation people have with a cafe is: comfortable furniture, well themed and decorated place, wide selection of drinks, a socializing place that feels like a good value for what you get, and a unique attraction.
Otamanor Maid Cafes are cafes before they are focused on maids to the general audience and to the otaku audience they are about the maids before the cafe. But as the name of a Maid Cafe or Butler Cafe their subtext name has both Maid/Butler and Cafe in them, so forgetting about the cafe portion with poor drink expertise and poorly served food is a fatal problem to such a business. Due to so much focus being on the person serving the customer, talking to the customer, and playing with the customer, only to be serving lackluster food makes things feel very uncomfortable to people. Food has to be a focus with dishes that taste good, quality drinks unique to the place, valued skill involved in the entertainment and development of its staff to not appear amateur. The unique needs of such a place involved a pathway of: restaurant management, culinary arts, content creation, idol training, and social teaching.
The price is high for food and the quality is very-low in value and the reason for that is because most Maid cafes resort to serving instant-made foods, that are not good quality, and looking for speed to satisfy many customers at the expense of lower quality service and value. Having a unpleasant feeling of “Moe” and being quite expensive with low-quality food makes an establishment live only on its gimmick of “Uniforms” and unworldliness the atmosphere provides with the stress of the pay-by-hour clock. A customer can not have a good time if they have never gone to one before, a regular will always have the timer on their mind, and the feeling at the end when paying is unpleasant with the feeling of “why did I come here?”. Key focus on menus to separate from the pack of failed businesses is by having menu items that require less staff by cooking during hours of operation and have many items cooked ahead of time. Then the main work can be assembly, which can be done by less staff and it could increase speed (+), maintain quality from the heaters (+/-), and make it appear there are more cooking staff in the back.
The reasoning tends to be that many “Maid & Butler Cafes” know that they are majorly cringe, so they do not expect repeaters to visit again, while accepting they are living off the gimmick and dismissing revisit-value. By accepting that focus of gimmick the typical establishment will be okay with serving unpleasant dishes at a high price and add payment for entry and per hour to get as much money during the one time only visit. While it might not be a good value there will always be a few simp customers who will come back no matter how bad the establishment is and just go there to oggle at the uniforms of the business. It is necessary to hire a number of customer service personnel wearing maid clothes, butler clothes, but also other employees as well to make the place work well. Therefore, a prideful business practice can be a smaller establishment that has a more balanced employee ratio of cooks to servers.
Maid cafes & Butler Cafes tend to offer various unique services with men in uniform or women in uniform can: play games like rock-paper-scissors, take pictures with signature, draw pictures, etc. But it's still difficult to make a profit, because the person-to-person takes a long time. This means the food portion is critical and almost requires take-out and a high emphasis on unique drinks to have more people purchasing things as they loiter in the establishment, instead of depending on hourly-time charges.
Group Inclusion
Maid Cafes and Butler Cafes are what people are used to hearing when looking for Theme Cafes that fit their expectation of “Otaku Theme Restaurant” that has “Cosplay Features” and “Live Entertainment”, but when people try to be less Gendercentric in their target market it has led to the term Otamanorial Cafe. The establishments of Maid Cafes and Butler Cafes aren’t a problem as a broad category of business, since in Japan themed Cafes have been around for a very long time, and their mannerisms and expectations are different than the west with many expected collective mindsets of etiquette pushed into older generations of Japan Society. However, with a growing feminist movement in Japan this view of business naming could possibly change.
Making Otaku Establishments Gender-Neutral
In the West it is an issue of those with gender-specific business and gender-specific language that could perpetuate patriarchal norms in applying for a job, getting better pay, or being given proper opportunity. Many in the community are aware of global changes in view of gender bias and equality, but oftentimes those voicing the opinion for change are not within the Western Otaku Community, yet. Arguments with sub-faction groups within Otaku Culture had ignored such arguments or requests from smaller groups who would end up being silenced and phased out. While it does maintain the status quo of what is currently the norm, as more people become casuals in the Otaku Culture it could call for more diversity in order to filter out those who feel that it is not an important issue.
Non-Gender Specific Naming for Communication
Gender-neutral language is growing from the feminist movement in the west with masculine pronouns used only when appropriate in a discussion of identity or feminine pronouns used when appropriate in identity as well. The move of such otaku establishments choosing these changes as their own direction is to attend to “Linguistic Sensitivity” related to women. The impacts of the words used in otaku culture trickle down to how fans are treated both in club gatherings and outside. For example by referring to the feminine title of a server being a “Maid” in the naming of an establishment-type it causes people to envision Maids as female and that the business allows for a patriarchal service system, even if it may not be true.
Communications of branding by Maid Cafe could possibly alienate people who do not identify as a male customer of the target market from the word “Maid”, so they may be turned away indirectly and convey a message to the customer of their own ideas. This sort of discomfort also affects those who feel uncomfortable going to a Butler Cafe where they may assume its to target a female customer target market from the gendercentric word “Butler”. This is also a sign in the societal change of communication in word association and the changes happening in western society of gender perception and sexuality perception.
Incorporating gender neutral language has been difficult in otaku culture as it's been the norm for so long and many are actually against it who run such establishments.
Political Correctness Language
Language evolves, regardless of peoples feelings of political correctness- english evolves, so societies use of words change in rules and are accepted by certain groups based on the usage and most popular definition of how it’s used rather than how it was previously intended. Just as english evolves, so does Japanese, and when both are intertwined in a culture things get complicated when people who speak one or the other may have their own definitions depending on the country. For example Otaku in Japan is just a huge enthusiast, meanwhile in the West its a Culture of Animanga and Japan.
Otaku Butler
What is a Otaku Butler?, A butler is proud of the uniform and serve customers as their master (goshujin-sama) and/or (ojou-sama). A self respect of a butler is important to customers seeing that staff members have pride in what they do and for their reason of being. With emphasis on details in actions to poses as well as speaking with others. All the details will match the Classic Butler Look.
Butlers of the Otaku Culture, there has been a growing interest in butlers in Japan, so it is to no surprise that many have been turning up. Butlers in the otaku scene are unlike that of proper butlers who may be the equivalent of that of a french maid and are an act of fantasy and reality of animanga. This allows a new-identity of butler that is befitting of otaku in its unique community. The spotlight has arrived on butler's from the spending power displayed in Ikebukuro towards butler cafes.
Elegant layered dress, tailcoats, and many accessories help make each butler different. The types can cater to all sorts of female otaku if personalities fit, like: The boy next door type, little brother type, tsundere type, androgynous type, accepting of eccentrics type, and many more. There are also certain identifying fetishes that butler's can choose to go into to up their likeability, like types of haircuts, glasses or no glasses, or just being groomed like a cosplayer. It's all in a day work for the idea of being a butler.
Having a steady interest in pretty boys and those in service and wearing semi european 16th century garb has always been a fantasy in Japan. However, the appearances in designs in animanga have drastically started to form a different appearance from its original inspiration of time era. This would bring us to the idea that is the Taku Butler (Takubutler). It takes the approach of elegance, cuteness, and luxury, which is the male counterpart of the Animanga Maid (Animaid).
With no one source of the creation of Taku butlers it is important to take a look at the many inspirations separately. It was said that it began with Victorian, Edwardian, and Rococo with a 16th century setting of british aristocrats, royalty, and those with wealth inheritance. It then had taken some inspirations of gothic lolita fashion, traveling circuses, and butler cafes. This had taken a drastic change when people started to call ikebukuro the maiden road to mark a particular butler cafe “Swallowtail Butler Cafe” that began comparisons to maid cafes and made a mark of takubutler idea standardization.
Those who have taken part as a maid or a butler were seen as discarded people of society. People's parents would look down upon the interest or job and even give up on the child if they were devote themselves to their otaku ways. This conscious alienation began to bring together butlers who wanted to create a system that would be both fantasy and blur the lines into reality. Through the door of a butler cafe would be where certain otaku fantasy, otaku experience, and otaku culture could be shared and thrived upon to a growing customer base.
Typical acts are to open doors, give a warm welcome, and have formalities of position and destination explained. Waited on hand and foot with a sort of card or bell to be notified a server would come. A smile with a subservient bow, permission asked, and body language of respect to a higher authority. No leering eyes, no creepy touching, and many acts of forgotten chivalry that has its positives for its flattery, but also its negatives as being a time of divided gender treatment and a show of that time through action of one person receiving subservient acts while the other person provided.
While there is no dress code for a butler cafe it still gives off a fancy vibe, so those dressed for the occasion can sometimes receive different nick names from the service staff at western style butler cafes. A lady dressed in just about anything may be called “Madam”, but if in a fancy dress, petticoat, gothic lolita, or interesting garments the person maybe sometimes addressed as “Mistress”, “Milady” or “Ojousama” to fit the setting of their given appearance.
Otaku Maid
What is an Otaku Maid (Animaid)? A Maid is no standard serving role as other serving positions in the restaurant industry as it requires a great deal of necessary etiquette training to handle customers properly. The ability to learn or provide great delivery as well as service is most important to the experience of the customer and the maid with both people needing to follow strict rules. In history maids are to keep things nice and tidy the position in a otaku establishment is quite different as it is in food service, prestige-system, entertainment, and an optional environment with hourly paid areas. The original animaids were not as they seem with the “Fantasy” element of diving into an anime, but a matter of excellent service and having a laid back european atmosphere.
Maids in the Otaku Culture are referred to as Animaids and then specify the type. There are many sorts of maids and knowing which one is which will help people understand the sort of establishment they are going to. Since the big maid cafe boom it has been part of the Akihabara experience and the Otaku Journey to head over to a Maid Cafe, but over the years it has changed drastically to suit loyal regulars and serve the tourism industry. People who have experienced a proper Otamanor establishment have a strange feeling towards the difference of Tourist-centered Maid Cafes. While there was a little bit of cuteness and over the top colors there are a much wider range of those elements pushed to new heights with: Fantasy Magical Blessings, Awkwardly happy and positive interactions, with Cute Decorated food and drink with a timer running down for paid hours stayed at a Tourist-centered Maid Cafe.
Bright layered dress, legwear, headdress, and other sorts of decor help differentiate the Maid staff and identify those in the prestige-system. The types can cater to all sorts of male otaku: The girl next door type, little sister type, seme type, uke type, and finding a type can separate a person from the rest. It is important to identify fetishes that maid's can choose from as different haircuts, types of glasses or no glasses at all, make up and social skills, and being presentable. It all plays into the idea of being inside a place for otaku and a place for european nobility.
The place that started the traditional Maid cafe was “Cure Maid” and what further developed the standard was another establishment known as “Schatzkriste” that had interior designs like a European library with light snacks, soups, and a large selection of teas. The illusion of sophistication would be the aura of an Otaku Maid with a touch of cute, mannerisms, wholesomeness, to ensure that a customer's every need is tended to. Things would change when the pioneering @Home Cafe (2004) started gaining popularity and owner Yoshio Oda collaborated with fashion designer Keita Maruyama to make the Otaku worker uniforms that are a standard and staple of Akihabara’s Maid Cafes.
Many foreigners who visit maid cafes for different reasons than Japanese in Japan and that can drastically change the type of Maids that a person may meet.
Maids started as a concept that moved towards being exclusively towards Otaku and it had become so popular there were different cafes with different target audiences and the types of maids varied way past ones specializing towards the otaku market. The popularity of maids grew, because of Japan's social problems of being overworked, lack of socialization from unpaid hours, or really stressed out from having no time, and people would cool off at maid cafes with a familiar maid they would request.
The greetings at the door are met with the experience explained to the customer and what sort of establishment it is and its services explained. There will be a bow and permission to be asked to lead the person (s) to their desired area or floor that has different sorts of services. In really busy places with high turnover in customers that are not regulars tend to have most of their interactions being Tatemae. Tatemae is social etiquette to not cause social drama and public speaking etiquette of faked sincerity and is integral to japanese working culture. In smaller establishments there is a higher chance of Honne of social vulnerability of saying one's true feelings and ignoring social etiquette like many smaller establishments tend to do for example small bars, small restaurants, and small goods stores.
Every place will have its different staff that will have their own interests. What is looked for in workers of maids or butlers is for a “Shougai gakushuu” a Learning Mindset, so that there can be discussions with a variety of customers.
The word “Otamanor” means “Otaku Manor”, and an “Otamanor Otaku” and is synonymous with “Historic fashion”, but became a reference to mostly thematics of: Fantaji Otaku (fantasy), Gothic Otaku (historic), Gunji Otaku (military). Or it would refer to establishments that used the european-style or kawaisa-style of services and named themself a otamanor. The term came from people overseas who would be seeking the butler and/or maid experience at a cafe and were nicknamed “Cafe Otaku”.
These individuals would seek out a number of cafe establishments based on a set criteria of what they were interested in from such themed cafes. Some would look for a theme that would be more befitting of a classic European style with some high-service fantasy elements or a much more cute experience of magical blessed foods with over the top enthusiastic interactions. Those who would take it one step further to understanding how things are run and may even have a project business of their own would be known as “Manor Otaku” in reference to looking to own or interested in learning about owners life of an otamanor.
The thematics of Otamanor comes from the businesses that have existed as Cafes, Maid Cafes, and Butler Cafes, along with pop up events. Different sorts of terminology was brought to the discussion in order to organize different sorts of places based on their themes. Many of the styles of otamanor thematics are based on gothic lolita terminology in the west, like: Otamanor (Old-School, Classic, Casual, Sweet, Natural, Country), Punk Otamanor (Steam, Cyber, Hydro, Solar, Atom, Ray, Bio, Diesel, Scrap), Ethnic Otamanor (Wa, Qi), Color Otamanor (Shiro, Kuro), Themed Otamanor (pirate, hospital, ero) Gunji Otamanor, Church Otamanor (nun-style/monk-style). Such categories are said to be western in origins to their organized positions.
Historically otamanor otaku were influenced from Lolita subculture, Otamanor otaku has been affected by European Fantaji hospitality in the modern times. It is said that communities of the fandoms that had their own opinions on the matter were: Steel Angel Kurumi (1999), Ouran Host Club (2006), Hellsing (2006), Vampire Knight (2008), Black Butler (2008), Blazblue (2008) all had a hand its development. Interpretations of otamanors helped the development and people interested in making their own would create a community involvement to raise people's knowledge about them. Those with the courage to run a maid cafe or butler cafe as fundraisers for small animanga circles would gain invaluable experience and leave their mark.
In Japan, the dedicated word of otamanor simply doesn’t exist and is a word that has come from the otaku community. The word would be quite confusing as a manor implies a mansion and in most places in the world that would be a large home. But, in Japan a mansion means in reference to an “Apartment” high-rise building. As it seems that it has no place in Japan, many “weebs” or those living in Japan often dismiss the term altogether as it is an English-ified definition and word.
The Maid Cafe space had become popular in the 2010's as one of the main attractions for youth to become Music Talents in the genres of Anison with its wide variety of anime inspired songs there is a fascinating backstory to its beginnings that happened in what at this point seems like a past life. The goal of the movement was to be both musically talented and a master of hospitality services in Hawaii as there was no formal training in Hawaii and where the talents went were described by one parents as "The Abyss" of who knows where. Capturing the hearts of Japanese students traveling abroad and English speaking friends with Hawaii cultural sensibilities was the gimmick of a competition in Hawaii that would try to make a scene in the underground. To make it work for Japanese and English speaking audiences it seemed what would be impossible odds, but those who learned Japanese at home, learned from shows, and even become Japanese majors would spend their time trying to rise in the ranks for a short time.
Notably there were already groups of people that usually had one person in the group who liked Maids and Butlers, a Video Editor who loves Japanese films and Super Sentai, also a Gunpla expert, an Indie Artist, a Musician, and usually a obsessed Anime Collector like Fan. There was a group that use to meet up at Yum Yum Tree to talk about Anime with their friends who were too old at this point to become idols, especially female idols and many of them had moved on from their aspirations as animator, model sculptor, restaurant manager, and so on and worked for the City and County of Honolulu. So they would have a fated meeting at Annamillers as the alternative meeting spot talking about idols from the 1980s and the idols in 1990s and wishing there was a scene in Hawaii. At that time it was all about understanding "Voice" and "Audio Technology" as well as "Fashion Beauty". The main place that a lot of this was from, was thanks to the Pearl Ridge Shirokiya (1981-2001) where immersion into a Hawaii Japanese sort of vibe was very much alive back then. The sound was very City Pop, Japanese Pop, and the Idol Sound was becoming more clear.
While it is nearly impossible to remember what happened so many years ago some of the names still were floating around in people's memory. Meanwhile in Japan there are wide known idols that were up and coming the Hawaii lacked a scene as many of the people involved in researching it were playing catch up, so they didn't really know what to do, so they just copied and hoped something would catch on, but it didn't. Unfortunately the interest in a direct from Japan model was not attractive in the islands, but there was a following for people who took the route to put a Hawaii spin on it. This would happen in the underground scene where the competition wasn't strong and people thought that they would be stuck in their garage or basement forever in the underground scene. Those who were interested in becoming idols would try to make their dream work by entering the Hawaii Maid Underground scene, since there was no Idol Underground in Hawaii, because it was seen as too niche and too strange for people in Hawaii that were quite conservative and not into really stylish or colorful things.
The Hawaii Maid Underground scene was a complex part of the Otaku culture as it was growing in the late 1990's. There it intertwined with the Pennsylvania-Dutch, Local, and Hawaiian in its connection where those who were into it were theatre kids and those who were interested in Manga imports from Japan. It was viewed by those on the outside as a insignificant part of young girls, since there were rarely any guys at these events and it was pointed out to be a really weird Japanese pop culture trend. It was dismissed and scowled at by traditional academic places from the Hawaii DOE as it was not embraced for its way of dress in its anime inspired uniforms and anna millers aesthetic to bring the unique diner setting of Anna Millers and Yum Yum Tree in a renaissance period to Hawaii. They would not be able to perform in school cafeterias like Brown Bags to Stardom, or get noticed or found from the Music Industry or Dance studios, and instead performed in residential garages and smaller intimate venues such as peoples living room houses and concept cafes in a home kitchen.
The term underground maids would be used at this time as people who were part of it wanted to keep it a secret as they could be excluded from groups for being geeky by liking anime, manga, and Japanese things in general. It was looked down upon to be interested in imports such as that and to nerd out on Hawaii's old diner scene was not a good look and low aspiring. The time it was around was so short, by the time it was the early 2000's people would become Japanese majors, modelling, and take plenty of photos and try to get job experience in Japan instead of doing anything in Hawaii. They felt that there could be fans there or find others that could enjoy them, but many would come back as speaking mostly english and being halfu was not as attractive as the Japanese Maids and Idols. They would settle for jobs back in Hawaii as they felt they belonged, but they didn't get that feeling back that made them move to Japan for a time with things like JET, so they would hope conventions would be the next place that could establish a culture like that in Hawaii.
Maid Uniforms would be based on traditional Victorian-style French maid outfits mixed with the Anna Millers uniforms to try and incorporate elements of Hawaii fashion. The uniforms were designed by a student who previously was in the Honolulu Community College fashion program and was taught about complex sewing techniques by his aunty who was a teacher at Maui Community College that are both responsible for the designs of the Hawaii Otamanorial Uniforms and Menu designs. There were Hawaiian Floral Patterns, Lei Accents made of fabric worn as an accessories that were locally made headdress from local crafters. There were lighter fabrics that were breathable too, so it was familiar and different, but of course there was also a apron that was designed closely to resemble a Anna Millers style to make Hawaii have a distinct and different scene than Hawaii as they were trying to move away from the idea of copying Japan.
The Top 20 Tracks, The Soundtrack or the song lists that people had were not really idol like as it was whatever music people would bring back from Tower Records Japan. While there isn't anyone who has turned in information about the songs of the 90's scene there is a list that exists of the 00's that had some of the songs that some of the maids practiced. The music of what Idol Songs were was hard to understand as there was very little information about it in the days before the internet and even early days of internet, so the information just wasn't available. The playlist was songs like: Maaya Sakamoto "No Promises needed",
Ami Suzuki "Ashita, Atsuku, Motto, Tsuyoku", Utada Hikaru "First Love",
Yoko Ishida "Otome Policy", Kohmi Hirose "Groovy", Ayumi Hamasaki "Appears", Namie Amuro "Chase the Chance", Zard "Don't You See", Ryoko Hirosue "5 seconds before falling in love", Masami Okui "Only One Number One"
Megumi Hayashibara "Lively Motion", Favorite Blue "More Intense than Love, More Loving than Anyone", Every Little Thing "Forever Yours",
Romantic Mode "Dreams", Rina Chinen "Wing", Two Mix "White Reflection",
Okamoto Mayo "Tomorrow", Yui Horie "Gifts for the Future", Masami Nakatsukasa, "Feeling Heart", and Takako Uehara "My Greatest Memories".
The Hawaii Cultural and Social Dynamics changed the way people would talk at the days they were practicing to make their dream of a Maid Cafe and/or Idol life work through the phrasing of things. It used what is seen as polite in Hawaii the way the locals do it, and had Aloha Hospitality infused into a welcoming feeling. While in Japan a Maids might greet customers with "Welcome Home Master" the Hawaii equivalent was "Aloha Everyone, Welcome to our Hale". The theme of family was done instead of the Master and Servant idea. The maid café regulars would be greeted as "Aloha Kakou, Welcome back to the hale" and when they leave they would say "A hui hou, until We Meet Again". While the words were forming in the Hawaii Otamanor Lexicon what really vought peoples attention was the menu as the major differentiator.
Instead of Curry Rice there was Porco Moco (Molokai Coffee Pot Roast with two eggs for a loco moco), instead of omurice they might served fried rice omelette (three egg) with ketchup art. Instead of Cakes and Japan Parfait there were Fruit Pies and Hawaiian Parfaits. Instead of Neapolitan Spaghetti there was Cremascampi (angel hair pasta, cream, wine, garlic, butter). The Language and communication the maids would use would be a mix of Japanese, English, and Hawaiian pidgin, creating a unique and authentically local dialect for the experience. This would be part of the immersive experience for both friends and loyal fanboys. Behind the scenes a key challenge would be to navigate the line between respectful cultural nods and cultural appropriation. The concept was handled with care, ideally with the involvement local aspiring Hawaiian idols who acted as cultural consultants to ensure it was a Hawaii thing.
Even though Hawaii had a large Japanese and Japanese-American population there was no natural audience for such a thing. It didn't appeal to a wider range of locals and tourists that would be necessary to be sustainable, if that wasn't bad enough most people didn't even know it existed within micro-groups. Marketing was practically non existent and people would be embarassed if they were found out doing the maid or butler thing. Even though they did a delicate balance of appealing to the otaku crowd while also being approachable to the general public... they knew it wasn't socially acceptable. The "underground" nature made the small groups have a feeling of dumb fun, celebration, and exclusivity that there was a small and intimate crowd where the costs were shared. It was a cultural experiment, blending the escapist fantasy of maid culture with the warm, family-oriented space where "kawaii" and "aloha" could meet.
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