Hypnosis Mic Animate Cafe
Ever wondered what a Hypnosis Mic Animate Cafe collaboration in Japan is like? Find out here as I share my visits to the Hypnosis Mic Animate Cafe Shop and Gratte Animate Cafe respectively back in May /June 2019!
Back in May 2019, Animate Cafe ran a collaboration cafe campaign for Hypnosis Mic – Division Rap Battle – and I was fortunate enough to visit it. ^ ^
I say fortunate because I actually couldn’t get any reservation for the Hypnosis Mic Animate Cafe collaboration prior to my trip! I had tried balloting for both the Animate Cafe and Animate Cafe Shop slots but my ballot attempts were unsuccessful. TT
However, I held on to a glimmer of hope by checking the open reservation slots 空席予約システム daily in Tokyo and guess what? One available time-slot opened up! I immediately grabbed it/applied for the Animate Cafe Shop and the rest, as they’ve said is history. ^ ^
So, what I’m trying to say is…don’t give up! If at first you did not get an Animate Cafe reservation via balloting, hold on hope and try again! For more information on how to do so, refer to my guide on Animate Cafes (How-to and Tips) . In that post, I shared on how to possibly get a reservation when your ballot wasn’t successful.
Page Contents
Overview
In 2019, Animate Cafe ran a month-long plus collaboration campaign for Hypnosis Mic. Perhaps as a testament to the growing popularity of the series, the cafe collaboration was a pretty big affair.
Animate actually had the collaboration in not just their Animate Cafe branches but also at their Animate Cafe Shops. Turns out several Animate Cafes Gratte also ran the collaboration as well, to my surprise, when I chanced upon one in Okayama. ^ ^ More on that in the section “Animate Gratte”.
The key difference across the different Hypnosis Mic Animate Cafe was the menu and range of food items served. Everything else was largely the same, with all branches offering the same coasters and the sale of exclusive cafe goods.
- Animate Cafe (Ikebukuro & Nagoya): Full menu complete with mains, desserts and drinks.
- Animate Cafe Shop (Shinjuku & Sendai) only had the full drinks menu with desserts
- Gratte Animate Cafe (Kichijoji, Osaka-Nipponbashi & Okayama ) have the character printed cookies and drinks.
*Do note that this cafe collaboration was held in 2019 and has since ended.
Special Birthday Campaign
There was a special birthday campaign for the 2019 Hypnosis Mic Animate Cafe Collaboration. With the birthdays of both Mantero’s (麻天狼) Doppo Kannonzaka (観音坂 独歩) a.k.a DOPPO ^^ and Mad Trigger Crew’s Jyuto Iruma (入間銃兎) a.k.a 45 Rabbit in May, Animate Cafe decided to have a mini celebration!
For every 2000 yen spent at any of the Hypnosis Mic Animate Cafe collaboration, you will receive a special not-for-sale postcard of either DOPPO or 45 Rabbit.
There were also two special “birthday” drinks for the two characters:
DOPPO’s Birthday Drink
Doppo Kannonzaka’s Birthday drink was Lemonade + Orange Jelly. It comes with a special sticker.
45 Rabbit’s Birthday Drink
Jyuto Iruma’s drink was Sangria (Non-Alcoholic) + Grenadine Syrup + Carbonated Water + Whipped Cream + chocolate (gun-shaped) and a monaka wafer (rabbit). ^ ^ It comes with a special sticker as well.
Note: Grenadine Syrup is a pretty common non-alcoholic syrup used in cocktails and mixed drinks. It has a tart and sweet flavour and is deep red in colour.
Hypnosis Mic Animate Cafe Shop
This was at the Animate Cafe Shop at Shinjuku. Hypnosis Mic was actually one of the last collaborations in this cafe shop. Sadly, this branch has closed down in July 2019. This is a pity because it was housed in a mall where there were quite a number of anime specialty shops and anime/manga pop-up events held.
An important point to note is that Animate Cafe and Animate Cafe Shop had slightly different rules.
As I had previously visited the Animate Cafe Shop (Shinjuku) in 2018 for the My Hero Academia Collaboration, I was familiar with the rules and was thus less jittery about it. I did up a short mini comparison on the two type of cafes that may be helpful to you.
Inside the Cafe Shop: Dining Area
Animate Cafe Shops are generally smaller in space than Animate Cafes. This is also probably the reason why the menu is mostly just drinks with one or two desserts. It’s free seating and most fans will generally choose to sit in front of their favourite character.
Note: With the 2020 Global Pandemic, Animate Cafe has introduced new temporary rules, including fixed distances between seats.
Interestingly, perhaps to accommodate for more fans, they transformed the goods section into an additional dining/drinking space! Back when I visited in 2018 for the My Hero Academia Collaboration, this whole area had no dining tables. It was probably a good decision, seeing how the cafe shop was full when I was there.
So where was my seat? At the Manterou section, in front of Doppo! ^ ^
As I was a solo diner (drinker?), I felt that it might be more considerate if I had opted for a counter seat instead of a table seat. Plus, I get to enjoy my drinks with DOPPO. A win in all aspect.
Fun fact: Out of all the customers/fans for my time-slot, there was a male overseas fan too. And I could tell he was a fan because he was so delighted with his order and just couldn’t stop grinning and taking photos.
You can generally distinguish between the super fans by their reactions to the food/drinks haha. I usually have the same reaction at all my favourite series cafe collaborations too! I once saw a male YYH fan doing the same at the Yu Yu Hakusho x Anime Plaza Cafe. He ordered EVERY DRINK on the menu and was positively delighted. I was delighted at his delighted reaction too, if that made sense. ^ ^
Hypnosis Mic Animate Cafe Shop Menu
For Animate, their cafe shops usually only serve drinks and one or two desserts/appetizers. By the way, I pretty much love the names of the desserts and drinks for this collaboration. It’s like giving your favourite song tracks a delicious flavour! ^ ^
For the full HypMic 2019 collaboration food menu, please check it out here.
Side-note: Animate Cafe usually will keep the web-pages of its anime cafe collaborations online long after the campaign has ended.
Animate Cafe Gratte
Remember how I mentioned at the start of this blog-post that my reservation ballots for the Hypnosis Mic Animate Cafe was unsuccessful? Well, what I didn’t realize was that Okayama, which I had planned to visit as part of my sight-seeing itinerary in Kansai, had an Animate Cafe Gratte branch too!
Prior to this trip, I had never been to an Anime Cafe Gratte so everything was new to me. Right from the ordering process (it’s via a kiosk) to the collection of drinks, it was a fun experience!
Animate Cafe Gratte is basically a specialty cafe that sells character-printed drinks and cookies. The base drink is iced coffee and/or iced tea. Each drink costs 600 yen. A cookie costs 500 yen. As the drinks and cookies are packed-to-go, the dining area typically is quite small.
Animate Cafe Gratte usually runs several different anime collaborations at the same time. When I was there in 2019, they had the Bungo Stray Dogs Animate Cafe collaboration menu too. I ended up ordering a Chuuya Gratte drink. ^ ^
Like all Animate Cafes, you’ll get a random coaster with each drink ordered. There are other special add-on items too which I will talk more about in my introductory guide to the Animate Gratte Cafes! (Coming Soon) Do check back to see when the post is up. Or you know, subscribe to my mailing list to get first dibs on updates. ^ ^
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My HypMic Drinks!
As I was on a budget and I already had lunch reservation at another cafe, I decided to just order two drinks. I was really tempted to order desserts too but an overdose of sweets in this trip meant that I HAD to refrain. TT
Not surprisingly, I had a hard time deciding on what to order. Why oh why did I limit myself to two drinks?! Anyway, in the end I went with:
- Buster Bros!!! VS Mad Trigger Crew
- Shinjuku Style Cocktail (Non Alcoholic)
Buster Bros!!! VS Mad Trigger Crew Drink
A confession: I chose this drink because I thought it would be pretty to look at. Plus the whole glowing ice thing was intriguing. Although I wasn’t sure if the ice could be eaten. (It can’t and you shouldn’t.)
Having seen it up-close and personal, I have to say that this was probably one of the funkiest anime drinks I ever had! Every sip of the “Mad Trigger Crew” portion sees a different colour. LOL
And because a photo doesn’t give the glowing ice enough credit, here’s a video clip of it on my Instagram. ^ ^
The Buster Bros!!! VS Mad Trigger Crew drink is made up of Acerola Drink + Grenadine Syrup + Mixed Berry + Whipped Cream + Monaka / Blue Raspberry Syrup + Blueberry Syrup + Yuzu Drink + Glowing Ice + Whipped Cream + Monaka. This was 800 Yen.
Note: Acerola is a fruit that is similar to cherries! It is commonly known as Acerola Cherry or BarBados Cherry.
For the Shinjuku Style Cocktail, I chose it primarily because I was at the Animate Cafe Shop in Shinjuku and I’m sitting at Manterou’s section. ^ ^ So it’s only right that I choose a Shinjuku theme drink, no?
The non-alcoholic version of Shinjuku Style Cocktail consists of Ginger ale + cola syrup + blue syrup + mixed nuts.
The drink was priced at 600 Yen so it isn’t cheap. The nuts went well with the drink. I would have liked a bigger portion though for 600 yen.
Hypnosis Mic Animate Cafe
Exclusive Goods
As shared in all my Anime Cafes escapades, one of the best things about visiting Animate Cafes are the exclusive and limited goods you can ONLY buy at the cafes itself. For Animate Cafes, my must-buy goods are usually the chibi acrylic stands. I mean, how can you resist these super cute chibi designs?!
With more and more fans discovering the joy of visiting anime cafes, I’ve noticed that in recent years, there will always be one or two category of goods that are sold out and/or selling fast.
For the HypMic Collaboration, the exclusive Animate Cafe good that was sold out/selling fast was the storage boxes. There were 4 different designs corresponding to the four Rap teams and every one of them was sold out in Animate Cafe Shop Shinjuku!!
Apart from the hot-selling storage boxes (you can choose the design), the other exclusive goods were can-badges, luggage/bag tags, acrylic stands and glass-markers (for cups). And in true Animate fashion, they were all sold in blind packaging, i.e. you can’t choose the designs.
Due to demand, Animate Cafe actually allowed customers to pre-order the storage boxes to collect at a later date. This was great but unfortunately, as the pick-up date was way after my last day in Japan, I couldn’t pre-order any.
I had previously bought a similar storage box at the Card Captor Sakura X Animate Cafe in 2018 so I was okay with not getting any. However, I had a friend who’s a big Fling Posse Fan so I was hoping to help her get one.
Thankfully, when I chanced upon the Animate Cafe Gratte in Okayama (totally unplanned), HypMic was one of its collaborations. And there were a couple of storage boxes on sale too!! So, I quickly grabbed one of the few remaining ones and she’s a happy gal. ^ ^
HypMic goods on display
My HypMic Coasters
Apart from the random coasters given with each drink/dessert order, there was also a special Coaster Present Campaign for the HypMic Collaboration.
With every 2000 yen spent at the cafe, you’ll get a special team coaster! If you recall, the coasters for the drinks & food menu are of individual characters. (Refer to the section “Hypnosis Mic Animate Cafe Shop Menu” for the images of those coasters).
Here’s all of the coasters that I got from the Hypnosis Mic Animate Cafe collaboration. ^ ^ The acrylic with the number 4 at the top was my table tag number.
I actually had the Fling Posse Team special coaster as well (from Okayama). Naturally, since there was Dice in it, I gave it to my friend as a gift. She’s a huge Dice fangirl.
Highlights of the Cafe
As with all Animate Cafes, there will be large-sized cardboard standees and life-sized banners of our favourite characters found throughout its cafe space. At the Hypnosis Mic Animate Cafe Shop, this was no exception.
Perhaps acknowledging the Rap Battle characteristics of the franchise, the life-sized banners were also used to differentiate seating areas. ^ ^
Here’s the Buster Bros!!! section:
Mad Trigger Crew:
Team Manterou!
Fling Posse!
Aren’t these banners a sight to feast on? ^ ^ Which area/team would you choose to sit at? Let me know in the comments!
My Loot!
This wasn’t all my HypMic loot actually. At Okayama, I managed to get another Buster Bros!!! Luggage tag , a chibi Dice acrylic stand, a Fling Posse storage box and another Fling Posse Team Coaster.
As shared earlier, the Dice acrylic stand and the Fling Posse storage boxes were gifts for my friend. Oh and I believed I got Jyuto’s Birthday Postcard as well. ^ ^
HypMic Crane Games: Buster Bros!!!
If you have read my Bungo Stray Dogs x Animate Cafe post, you might remember that it ended up being a Chuuya trip for me. ^ ^ Well, for Hypnosis Mic…it turned out to be a Buster Bros!!! trip.
Most of the blind packaging exclusive goods I got from the Hypnosis Mic Animate Cafe Shop and Animate Cafe Gratte were from the Buster Bros!!! team.
And I got these playing at the crane games: ^ ^
I won 2 HypMic cushions (they are so squishy and comfy!) and a super adorable plushie of Jiro Yamada!
There were so many different HypMic prizes available for winning at the crane game machines when I was in Japan in 2019! I was fortunate enough to win what I had because the machines (to me) were so challenging! I just wish we get some of these awesome prizes in my country.
Case in point: Check out the machine I won the cushions from. It wasn’t easy for me to lift the cushions. Had to make quite a number of attempts before I could successfully get one! As there was a limit of 1 prize per customer, I went back another day to try to get a second cushion.
I would have love to get all 4 cushions but it would have been too expensive for me to do so and I was only in Osaka for 3 days. So two would have to do. ^ ^
Some Final Thoughts
And there you have it, my Hypnosis Mic adventures in 2019. ^ ^
I had a really fun time at the Animate Cafe Shop and playing all the HypMic Crane Games Machines. To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t expecting to be able to visit the Hypnosis Mic Animate Cafe in 2019 since I couldn’t get a reservation. So all the HypMic stuff in this trip really was a welcome bonus to me. ^ ^
Considering how I’m not sure when the next time I could visit an anime cafe in Japan would be, I was really fortunate that I’ve managed to at least visit a HypMic Anime Cafe twice in this trip. Hopefully the global travel and pandemic situation would ease up soon. Everyone, please continue to stay safe and mask up!
Fun Fact: When Hypnosis Mic first debuted in 2017, there wasn’t much online chatter about it. I remember visiting Japan in early 2018 for my crazy anime escapades and it was still a relatively quiet fandom. That all changed within a year!
During my next visit to Japan in end 2018, I started to see saw HypMic fans and media everywhere. I’m talking about Posters, Goods, Advertisements and even fans carrying ita-bags! It was like an explosion. I even chanced upon a fan meet where fans were gathering after some HypMic event (I presumed) in a park!
With the anime adaptation debuting in October 2020, I’m pretty sure the fandom will be even bigger!
So who’s excited for the anime in October 2020? Raise your hands! *Raise Hands* With the anime, it’s almost guaranteed that there will be more HypMic anime cafe collaborations coming in 2020 and 2021! And who knows? We might even see more of the newer teams being featured in the collaborations!
For more information about Hypnosis Mic, do visit their official website: https://hypnosismic.com/
Thank you for reading! ^ ^
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