Kamen Rider Cafe Culture – rating system

as observant readers will know, I am a huge fan of the tokusatsu franchise kamen rider – having watched the whole thing (watching week-to-week these days, as it airs), one thing that always stuck out to me was that cafes, bars and restaurants crop up in over half the seasons, often serving as some kind of “HQ” for the lead characters to come back to. so, I got to thinking – I should review these joints! both as dining establishments, but also to try and understand a little bit more about what purpose they serve in the plot as a whole. read on to hear more about the rating system I’ve been devising as the first part of this series!

I don’t want to give a ‘star’ rating to these things, as I think that’ll end up being kinda reductive, so I’ve attempted a system that’s more flexible, in consideration of the various ways that I’ve been analyzing these locations. like, what am I looking for? what am I pleased by? what makes one place better than another?! 

and so, I’ve decided on something similar to a ‘radar chart’, with five variables – these are gonna cross over, obviously, and they’re probably going to get pretty granular as I go along, because… well, why not?!

the elements of a given restaurant or cafe that I have found myself interested in comparing boils down to essentially five elements: 

• Decor and theming
• Menu
• Function
• Employment
• the Oyassan Factor  

Let’s unpack these a bit! 

I think Decor and theming is pretty straightforward, for the most part – how’re these places lookin’? how do they work as set pieces? how well do their decorative elements like furniture, art or signage work within the show? what do they tell me about the characters? and then there’s theming – how have they decided to theme the places, if at all? how well do they live up to those themes? as part of this, I want to also think about the various exteriors, if available – how do they look from the outside? if there’s a real-world location that they utilize, I want to try and look into the rokechi (ロケ地), or, filming location, and see how they were in the past, and maybe see if I can figure out how they’re doing now. why would I do that? because I think it’s interesting, obviously, but also because I’d like to know more about the historical context for various locations.

Menu is also pretty straightforward – what are they serving?! I’m keeping an eye out for what they’ve got on the menu, but also how much they’re charging – and, if it fits in with the decor/theming, how well. bonus points for if the menu is fun, tasty, or has something interesting to say about cafe culture in Japan!

with function, I think what I’m looking for is perhaps a little more complicated – how does the given dining establishment function or factor within the plot? how well is it utilized? do people meet up there to eat, talk, plan, hang out? if so, how important is it to the plot? would the given season suffer for its loss, or perhaps… would it have benefitted from a cafe that isn’t there?! 

now, employment feels like it crosses over with function a bit – and that’s true! But I am still interested in if any of our masked riders work at a given place, or to what degree the surrounding ensemble cast might possibly be employed there. if the lead doesn’t work there, do any of his friends? what about their friends? family? how well do we know the employees? additionally – who is the boss? how well do they treat their staff? how important are they to the plot? 

but that leads us into – The Oyassan Factor. from the first season onwards, through Tachibana Toubei, we were introduced to a fairly formalized character role wherein a wise – possibly older, often comedic – character will assist the riders at large as a mentor. the name – probably best translated as ‘pops’ – is what Tachibana is most often called, hence this role has become known across future seasons (at least in Japan) as ‘the oyassan position’ (おやっさんポジション). But here, I want to think qualitatively about how this role plays into things – who is in the oyassan position in a given season? how well do they do? do they know they’re interacting with a kamen rider? do they exist at all? 

the ways an oyassan will often function is through imparting wisdom, helping with conflict resolution between various characters, in some cases helping with training, but most importantly – being a tentpole character that the various characters – and the audience! – can return to. sounds a lot like cafes themselves, though, RIGHT???? but perhaps I am getting ahead of myself…

over the course of this project, I also want to more generally consider how food and beverages factor into the rest of the season, and how that reflects cultural elements worth touching on. I tack this on at the end mostly because I know – having worked on this project for a pretty long time already – that uh, there are more than a few seasons that don’t have any cafes or restaurants central to their plot… so, I kinda need to give myself some leeway in terms of what’s left for me to even talk about, in those cases! 

needless to say, this will be a long-form project – at the moment I’m only working my way through the main-series seasons, and any of the movies, v-cinemas, DVD/web extras will be lower priority, if at all (unless they’re requested, I suppose…) I’m really looking forward to revisiting these older seasons first, so I hope you’ll enjoy the ride! :^)