Blend S!

I recently had the pleasure of watching Blend S. Despite seeing so much coverage for it while in Japan, I never thought to start it because I assumed it was a simple slice of life anime with lots of moe tossed in. To be quite fair, I wasn’t far off. The only other thing I didn’t know was that it was based on a 4koma manga. This dictated the pacing of the show and, usually, I find 4komas hilarious.

I enjoyed Blend S like most people did but what really got to me was the concept. I did not know Blend S took place in a themed café with character archetypes as waitresses. Why do I care about such a concept? Well, aside from the alluring charm of themed restaurants and waitresses, they drew me in with my favourite character archetype: the tsundere.

Say what you want but I love tsunderes! The fact that they had a tsundere waitress since episode 1 with some greatly played out tsundere scenes was enough to sell the show to me. And I’m talking about properly executed tsundere interactions.

In real-life Japan, maid cafes are a thing obviously. Did you know that some places provide either a tsundere event or a full-on tsundere maid café? These tsundere waitresses though are nothing like a tsundere! They treat you horribly at the start with zero reluctance and almost never stutter in conversation. They throw your food at you and regularly mix up your order. It’s only at the end of the entire meal, when you’re about to leave, do they actually become just ever so dere dere and make you promise to come back. THAT. IS. NOT. TSUNDERE. That’s just unfortunate service.

A tsundere waitress will act normal initially, but react differently according to the situation at hand. She will have some reluctance when you don’t take a certain recommendation or if you notice that she’s helping you with making a decision. She will stutter when you catch her off-guard or thank her when she brings the meal. She’ll regularly keep a pouty but dynamic expression while her body language changes to fit. A tsundere is obviously extremely difficult to pull off in reality but Blend S shows what it could be if done properly.

I’m going off on a tangent again (as I always do) but I basically really enjoyed Blend S because of its concept. It’s not unique but hey, it’s certainly entertaining for me. It just got me a little more because I never understood the real-life tsundere cafes. They never stuck out as tsundere for me. They were more sadists than anything. Then again, moe anime certainly can do most things better than real life.