Maid Cafe

Started by Gothik-Tenkasen, December 04, 2007, 07:51:35 PM

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Gothik-Tenkasen

I would like to work at the Maid Cafe during Fanime 08. I have a gothic lolita maid cosplay and can impersonate young Japanese school girls.

Where do I sign up for this?  ???
She makes me feel like it's raining outside
And when the stars come I'm all torn up inside

wirewolf6

I want to do it this year  :o I didn't really follow up last year so could not do it! >_<

jemz

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Jerry

Hi ladies and gents

As a reminder this is NOT an official sign up.

As of yet, we are planning to open up Maid volunteers soon.

please wait until AFTER our next official general Fanime Staff meeting

which I believe is not until. um...

Sunday Janurary 6 2008 um. somewhere in the Marriot.

Please stand-by until we get an official thread started by Sydney, aka board name- Mai-chan.

Thanks for your patience and interest in this project.  :D
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Jun-Watarase

Quote from: Gothik-Tenkasen on December 04, 2007, 07:51:35 PM
I would like to work at the Maid Cafe during Fanime 08. I have a gothic lolita maid cosplay and can impersonate young Japanese school girls.

Where do I sign up for this?  ???

A couple of things wrong with this.

Gothic Lolita != Maid. Unless you plan on being some kind specialy kinda maid(an extreme personality type some what cold-hearted and otherwise void of emotion), then Gothic Lolita is not the look you're going after.

Secondly.

How does one impersonate a young Japanese school girl. I'm morbidly curious how this takes place. Because not only are you conveniently categorizing "Japanese school girl" as a personality type, you're looking down on the majority of Japan's culture by stating you can mimic how a JP girl is, based on your knowledge of what seemingly seems to be, a little bit of music, some comics that you read, and some cartoons that you watch.

So how do you "impersonate a young Japanese school girl"?

Oh if the maidcafe heads are reading. This was an issue of a many people last year. The "maid costumes" weren't really maid costumes. Only 1 of them was close to it, and the others were more gothic-lolita in design, than "maid uniform". Majority of people can't tell the difference(as the majority doesn't even know what gothic-lolita really is...) but it is a minor issue. Unless you're going to have them play the role of a loli-goth chara.

Training issues: here's the fun one. You can't just trainset all of the maids to be exactly the same, well... you can... but... it's hard for certain people to all act the same. Chara-type maids are often used to display more fitting personalities. The proper estute maid, the energetic helpful maid, the quiet one, the motherly type, etc. etc. etc. I mentioned this in an e-mail to someone, and I never got a reply, nor was it ever brought up again last year.

Email me at [email protected] if you want to be a maid! Sign ups close in March! Hurry!
FanimaidCafe.com

alkaline

#5
[Ha Ha! Edited!]

Jerry

nothing official has happened or been announced yet...

we'll wait until after the Fanime general staff meeting on Jan 6th.

and as soon as we hear from more concrete sources, We'll hopefully have a meeting so that we could discuss all of this in person to person in a round table.

please be patient and hopefully we'll get to these concerns and matters once we begin to actually get aquainted with each other.

crossing our fingers which may or may not be soon.  :P

until then have a good new year everyone.
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Cl2is

Whoo! Can't wait ^^
Much labu for the Maid Cafe
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Jerry

at some point - we'll have to gather up all interested and hold our own meeting aside from the main fanime staff meetings.

Feel free to contact me or post here if you are interested in the project.

I believe from last estimates were looking for about approximately 30~40 maid and any other staff that would  be interested to help out.

again all on a volunteer/un-paid basis.

So thanks again for showing interested in this "little" project.  :D
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Kazuko

#9
x: spiffy

but really How does Lolita fashion = Maid? or cosplay? because really

IT DOESN'T

sure there are lolita esque maid outfits but thats it =\

I just hope the outfits for the maid cafe are actually a bit better this year and more maid like

Reinna

I participated last year, and I think I might do it again this year.  However, it's kind of still up in the air because I'm also staffing this year, doing masquerade stuff, and scrambling to gatherings etc.

Jerry

we'll probably have extended hours compared to last year.

so any or all help is much appreciated.

I miss working for Masquerade though...

ah those were the days...  :P
(reliving the life of a ninja stage monkey)
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Jecca

Ooh i want to help out with the cafe. Any excuse to dress up cute is fine by me hehe  ;). i'll check back for the official sign up. or you can always email me <3

PyronIkari

Quote from: Jecca on January 23, 2008, 12:50:24 PM
Ooh i want to help out with the cafe. Any excuse to dress up cute is fine by me hehe  ;). i'll check back for the official sign up. or you can always email me <3

See... this is a bad mentallity to have for the project, and could be rather deprimental. It's more than just dressing up.

You have to present and act yourself in a specific manner. It's not just an excuse to put on a maid uniform and pretend you're a waitress. Even though it's volunteer work, you have to have the mentallity to actually do a job, and do a job very dilligently.

ph1shf00d

Who said that she wasn't going to?  She just said that she likes to dress up cute, and there's really nothing wrong with that.  Even if there's hard work to do, there are plenty of perks to being a maid, I'm sure, and you don't really have to jump on her because she wants to enjoy one aspect of being a maid in a cafe. =/

I thought anime conventions and all the events that go on inside them were meant to be, oh, I dunno, fun?

Jecca

thanks for the back-up ph1sh! :P I never said it was just about dressing up, or id just cosplay during fanime and not have to put in all the hard work im sure the volunteers did last year. Please don't misunderstand or read too much into the post. I think it the cafe was ment to be fun. You can look cute and have fun while doing your best to do your job and create an experience for all of the guests of the cafe. Thats what i think they benefit from, if we don't enjoy ourselves how can they? The outfit is a perk to me, not the main goal. Lighten up pyron.

PyronIkari

"Fun" doesn't mean lack of order nor lack of decent thought.

Who said she wasn't going to? Her obviously if all that she felt worth mentioning was "looking cute". People jump into things and don't realize what they are, and do a half assed job all the time, sometimes it's not their fault but their superiors, and sometimes it is their fault. To be honest...

The only reason girls work at Maid Cafes is because it pays really well for the job. I honestly don't see what "perks" there are. Volunteering for something half-assedly is actually worse than not volunteering for something for many reasons. You hinder those that are actually trying to work hard(getting in the way of other maids, taking over tables and doing a bad job at it etc.), you may take up a spot that someone else wanted that would have worked hard and did understand the role, that it's "not just for fun" and that a lot of real work is involved, and you may reflect the project poorly as a whole.

So if someone is so eager to jump into this and point out nothing more than "LOLOLOL I WANNA LOOK CUTE" that person might want to first understand what goes into a project, and understand that it might not be just fun and looking cute. Despite being successful last year in terms of numbers, it did exactly what I said would happen. It would reflect poorly to anyone that knew what Maid Cafes were like, and that in turn reflects Fanime poorly. Sure, it's not huge, it's not going to make people stop coming to the con, but that's not the point really. Fanime shouldn't be doing shotty projects and doing things half-assedly. No con should.

Volunteering isn't easy work, people shouldn't take it lightly.

Jerry

Thanks for being interested Jecca, but again unfortunately I havent heard anything official as of yet.

Please PM me your e-mail and/or contact info (aim sn or watever)

or feel free to contact me via my profile.

Just play nice you guys  :P
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ph1shf00d

Pyron, again, no one was trying to say that they were going to ditch all responsibility and do a shoddy job just for the sake of some fun.  I mean, people talk about how "fun" cosplaying is all the time.  And yeah, it can be really fun.  But do people talk about all the work that goes into constructing a good costume?  They may point out some of the difficulties they had while making the costume, but most people who really enjoy cosplaying are quicker to point out how well their photos came out, or perhaps how much fun it was meeting other cosplayers from their series. Does that at all change how much time and effort they put into the costume?  Probably not, and if people can tell that the costume was well-made, then they're appreciating the effort that the person put into making it.

I can understand complaining about a job poorly done AFTER its been done, but complaining about/assuming  a half-assed job before it's even happened?  That's a bit harsh, don't you think?  After reading this thread I know you were burned by last year's Maid Cafe because of how inaccurately it portrayed actual Maid Cafes, but you really don't have to try to shut down every bit of optimism people may have for a hopefully-improved Cafe this year. 

This is just an interest thread.  Just because someone says that they think it'd be fun to look cute or because they're just casually interested in the event, doesn't mean they're making a commitment to be as ignorant or lazy a volunteer as possible.  Once the planning gets underway, people can choose to commit to this task despite how difficult it may be, and if they still want to follow through with volunteering even after they've done their research, I think it'd be safe to say that they'll take their job seriously enough.

And just because there aren't many perks for working as a maid in a cafe in Japan, doesn't guarantee that there won't be any perks for volunteering as a maid in a cafe in an American anime convention.  The staff may try to imitate Japanese Maid Cafes as closely as possible, but they still won't be able to change the environmental and cultural factors that will probably surround the event.  If the volunteer maids at Fanime's maid cafe end up having a great time working there, there's definitely a chance that it won't be because they were slacking off or just enjoyed showing off their pretty dresses.  Even while working hard, they might have a great time accommodating appreciative anime fans.

Like Jecca said, lighten up.  It really isn't impossible to have fun while still working hard and creating a really enjoyable and generally accurate Maid Cafe. 

Unless, of course, pulling long, exhausting hours devoid of any enjoyment whatsoever is an integral part of the cultural accuracy of imitating a Maid Cafe. =/

PyronIkari

Quote from: ph1shf00d on January 23, 2008, 08:25:55 PM
Pyron, again, no one was trying to say that they were going to ditch all responsibility and do a shoddy job just for the sake of some fun.  I mean, people talk about how "fun" cosplaying is all the time.  And yeah, it can be really fun.  But do people talk about all the work that goes into constructing a good costume?  They may point out some of the difficulties they had while making the costume, but most people who really enjoy cosplaying are quicker to point out how well their photos came out, or perhaps how much fun it was meeting other cosplayers from their series. Does that at all change how much time and effort they put into the costume?  Probably not, and if people can tell that the costume was well-made, then they're appreciating the effort that the person put into making it.
This is such a poor analogy I don't even know why you stated it. You're comparing end result, to doing something because of getting to where the costume while doing it. It's like stating "I want to be a fireman... because I like what the costume looks like". Your example is. "Eating a cake you baked yourself is good".

QuoteI can understand complaining about a job poorly done AFTER its been done, but complaining about/assuming  a half-assed job before it's even happened?  That's a bit harsh, don't you think?  After reading this thread I know you were burned by last year's Maid Cafe because of how inaccurately it portrayed actual Maid Cafes, but you really don't have to try to shut down every bit of optimism people may have for a hopefully-improved Cafe this year. 
You still don't get it do you? You go into something with a mentallity. People are going into this with a mentallity of "OH HEY IT'S FUN MAID CAFE I DRESS UPS AND I ACT CUTES IT WILL BE SO AWESOMES!" despite not knowing a damned thing about what they have to do, how they're supposed to act, the entire point and purpose, or anything like that. It's not about crushing enthusiasm, it's about making people understand what exactly they're doing. Want to know a major issue with last year? Maid's complained because they felt it was sexist and degrading to call customers "master". LOOK AT THE JOB YOU SIGNED UP FOR. You volunteered to be a maid, and you don't want to call someone master?

If you have a little "wow fun fun fun this will be fun because I will be cutes and wear a dress" attitude, frankly, I personally don't think you'll do a good job because that attitude reflects a lot of what you think about the project as a whole. Sure, you could be totally different, but hey... I'm looking at it realistically. It's like someone going into a job interview at a game company and going "I love video games, they are my life, they are so great, I want to work on games so much because I love them!" Chances are, they won't get hired, because they show that they think their job is a play field, more than work, and dedication.

Quote
This is just an interest thread.  Just because someone says that they think it'd be fun to look cute or because they're just casually interested in the event, doesn't mean they're making a commitment to be as ignorant or lazy a volunteer as possible.  Once the planning gets underway, people can choose to commit to this task despite how difficult it may be, and if they still want to follow through with volunteering even after they've done their research, I think it'd be safe to say that they'll take their job seriously enough.
See above about how maid's complained about "having to do things".

QuoteAnd just because there aren't many perks for working as a maid in a cafe in Japan, doesn't guarantee that there won't be any perks for volunteering as a maid in a cafe in an American anime convention.  The staff may try to imitate Japanese Maid Cafes as closely as possible, but they still won't be able to change the environmental and cultural factors that will probably surround the event.  If the volunteer maids at Fanime's maid cafe end up having a great time working there, there's definitely a chance that it won't be because they were slacking off or just enjoyed showing off their pretty dresses.  Even while working hard, they might have a great time accommodating appreciative anime fans.
Yes, they can enjoy themselves while working. Here, I'll put it into realistics as to why things like this exist. And hell, I'll even use a great example to retrospect it.

Culture week in Japan. A class puts a maid cafe on as their class theme. Chances are, according to who organizes it, will show the accuracy as to what the maid cafe will be, and as to what they're aiming for. Now, it's a LOT of work for these classes to put these events on, and each class member has to put in a lot of time and effort into doing it. Why do they do it? Because they support and care about their class, and they want to share the experience with friends and classmates... but regardless they go into it, KNOWING there will be a lot of hardwork, and a lot of effort that needs to be put in.

Now in that situation, people are enthusiastic and want to do it, that's great... that's what is supposed to happen and what people are supposed to get out of it.

Let's look at it from a different perspective now. You're throwing a play, and the lead role is a princess. Someone jumps out and goes "I want to do the lead role because I want to wear the princess dress!" Are you going to go "YAY YOU, YOU CAN DO IT THEN!" If you do, then I fear for the casting and production of the play.

Frankly, if her main focus is to wear a maid dress... then her head is definitely in the wrong place when considering joining a project like this, and seriously, she's probably wasting her time and should just wear a made costume and walk around the halls and enjoy the con. If she wants to support the idea/project and work dilligently and learn how to act and actually put a lot of effort into this project, then that's a different story.

QuoteLike Jecca said, lighten up.  It really isn't impossible to have fun while still working hard and creating a really enjoyable and generally accurate Maid Cafe. 

Unless, of course, pulling long, exhausting hours devoid of any enjoyment whatsoever is an integral part of the cultural accuracy of imitating a Maid Cafe. =/
You can have fun, but you should still have a good mentallity of what you're getting into before you jump at it. You know... look before you leap? Because volunteering into a project and dropping out half way is worse then never joining at all.