The Cafe Terrace And Its Goddesses Recap

While the second season won’t be airing until 2024, let’s recap what went down in The Cafe Terrace And Its Goddesses earlier this year.

Let’s start with a fact file for each of the girls to jog your memory:

Akane Hououji

A nineteen-year-old musician who plays guitar and sings in a band. She’s the “cool and mysterious” one.

Ouka Makuzawa

A nineteen-year-old fashion student who aims to make it as a costume designer. She’s a tsundere.

Shiragiku Ono

A twenty-year-old introvert who struggles to speak up in social situations. She’s not so shy that she’d be considered a dandere, but she’s a lot quieter than the other four.

Ami Tsuruga

A seventeen-year-old high school senior. She’s very loud, very clumsy, and very energetic. The polar opposite of Shiragiku.

Riho Tsukishima

A twenty-year-old, hardworking college student who has a tsundere side.

As the story goes on we’ll gain more insight into their backstories etc. But for now, that’s a base summary of their characters.

Episode 1: Familia

The anime opens with an introduction to our main character – Hayato Kasukabe. He’s a eighteen-year-old university student who has returned to the seaside town where he grew up to run his grandmother’s cafe following her passing. He’s a little brash, some would say insensitive. Expecting the premises to be empty, he enters the cafe for the first time in years to find the house occupied by five (barely clothed) girls.

The girls explain to Hayato that they knew his grandmother who allowed them to stay there, and that they were all very fond of her. It is revealed that at this point Hayato has no intention of taking over the cafe and is going to sell it. The girls try to persuade him not to, but he’s dead set on the idea. Until the sale is made, Hayato moves into the cafe and begins to live with the five girls. I’m sure many of you will already see where this is going. Anyway, onto the next episode.

Episode 2: A Promise With Grandma

At this point, it’s pretty clear what kind of series this is going to be. Fanservice here, there, and everywhere. Ouka walks in on Hayato in the bath ready to take a bath herself, and then has the audacity to throw stuff at him when she was the one who walked in on him.

After some convincing from the girls and remembering his grandmother’s wishes, Hayato decides to keep the cafe open and take over as the new owner. He and Riho walk through town and let fellow business owners know that they will be re-opening the cafe. The two of them end up at a shrine, and Riho lectures Hayato on how to respectfully thank people who will be helping them. Hayato uncharacteristically takes Riho’s words on board and goes back to all the business owners that they thanked to thank them again, properly this time.

Episode 3: Opening

Hayato is still adjusting to sharing a house with the five girls. As they prepare for opening day, Ouka reveals that she’s used her skillset to make traditional maid uniforms for the girls, which they all happily receive. Ouka’s thinking is that many customers will show up just to see the girls in the uniforms, which in turn will boost sales and interactivity.

When they open the cafe, a particularly rude customer comes in and talks trash about literally everything. The man moves on to insulting Hayato’s grandma, to which he has to clench his fist and bite his lip at – punching a customer on their day of opening would burn their business before they’ve even got started. While Hayato could control his anger, the girls couldn’t. Hayato holds them all back as they attempt to swing at the man. After Hayato retaliates verbally by roasting the man, the other customers in the cafe rally around Hayato and the girls and bully the rude man out of the cafe.

Episode 4: Cherry Blossom Festival!

The episode opens with Hayato and the girls eating breakfast and discussing how they could improve their menu. It’s revealed that Shiragiku has an incredibly low alcohol tolerance and gets very sexual when she’s intoxicated. This is a reoccurring trope that happens a lot throughout the series, she’ll make sexual advances towards Hayato whenever she intakes the slightest amount of alcohol.

Hayato, Ouka and Ami head to the Cherry Blossom Festival to set up a stall and represent Cafe Familia while Akane, Shiragiku and Riho watch over the cafe itself. While at the festival, Ouka bumps into a group of bad-news guys who try to take her on a date. They come over and start a fight at Cafe Familia’s stall, but are scared away by all the other stall owners ganging up on them.

They meet the troublemakers the next day on the way back to the cafe from the festival, to which Ami uses Shoryuken (yes, Shoryuken, lmao) to knock the main perpetrator out. Before the others can run away, Hayato tells them that Ouka is a million times scarier than Ami and that her nickname is “Mad Dog Ouka”. This scares the other two off big time. Obviously Hayato’s statement isn’t true, but it did the job and got the losers to run away. Ouka berates Hayato and tells him to never call her “Mad Dog” ever again.

Episode 5: Day Off

Hayato visits Riho in her room and finds her on the computer researching information on how to improve the cafe. Hayato asks her why despite only being a part-timer, she’s working so hard. He tells her to just take life at her own pace and to not overdo it, to which Riho is massively shocked. Hayato pats her on the head and makes his exit. After this encounter, Riho can be seen showing subtle signs of affection towards Hayato.

On his day off, Hayato is going to see a movie when he hears talk on the street about a band playing nearby. He goes to check it out and finds out that it’s Akane’s band that’s playing. Akane had been keeping her band activities private from everyone, and didn’t expect Hayato to come and watch her play. Hayato tells her that he enjoyed her music and that he won’t let the others know. Akane blushes, and the two of them head home together.

Episode 6: Two Months!

This episode is pretty slow plot-wise, Hayato notices that Ami is acting quieter than usual and attempts to talk to her. It turns out the reason for her quietness is because she lost her karate match, and she doesn’t like the idea of someone being stronger than her. She’s also been dedicated to learning the Hadoken but hasn’t had much luck (First the Shoryuken now this, clearly she’s a Street Fighter fan). Hayato and Ouka attempt to cheer her up, and she eventually comes round.

Episode 7: A Year In My Life

This one’s dedicated to Akane and her backstory. As it turns out, Akane belongs to a wealthy family. Her mother gave her a year to do whatever she wanted, and when the year came to an end the agreement was that Akane would come home to her family. Akane didn’t want to however, and pleads with her mother to give her longer. Her mother refuses, and insists that Akane comes home with her right there and then. She also insists that Akane should marry someone of her choosing. Hayato gets involved and suggests that Akane should make her mother a cup of coffee to prove to her that she hasn’t just been wasting a year. Her mother tastes it and completely changes her views, allowing Akane to live as she pleases.

The other girls come bursting into the room begging the woman to let Akane stay, but by that point she’d already made her mind up to let Akane live how she wants. Akane herself is overjoyed and appreciative of Hayato’s help. Her mother teases her and tells her how easy it is to see that she’s developed feelings for Hayato

Episode 8: A Beach Hut!

Hayato takes a promotional photo of the girls playing in the sea that will go on the cafe’s social media pages, the picture is above. With summer around the corner, Hayato and the girls need to come up with a new plan to attract customers. They decide to hire a beach hut, and Ouka designs some new uniforms to withstand the heat.

The beach hut’s business booms, with customers coming in and out from the beach. Hayato notices that Riho is working harder than the other girls as usual, so he tells her to take it easy. She takes no notice and carries on doing a million things at once without a break. This backfires and she collapses due to overwork and the heat. She wakes up in a hospital bed with Hayato at the side of her. Hayato reminds her once again that it’s okay to take a break every now and then and to not overdo it, but Riho responds to this as if she doesn’t know how to take it easy. It’s like working excessively hard is all she’s ever known. The reason for this is revealed in the next episode.

Episode 9: Riho and Her Past

As the title suggests, we get an insight into Riho’s past in this episode. A TV crew and director turns up at the beach hut, asking if Riho Tsukishima works there. As it happens, Riho was a child actor in her younger days and was very popular. The director came to see what she’s doing and how she’s living her life in the present.

Riho hated the attention. She did not appreciate the TV crew showing up to her current workplace at all. During her days as a child actor, her mother forced her to work super, super hard – not in a healthy way at all. Young Riho was overworked, and her father could see this, so he told the TV stations to not be too hard on her. Due to her mother’s excessive encouragment for her to work hard, overworking became a trait that Riho took into later life. She exclaims how disappointed she is that her child-acting secret is out, and that the girls and Hayato now know about her past.

Episode 10: Ouka and Kikka

We’ve had Akane, we’ve had Riho, now it’s Ouka’s turn to share her backstory. Ami is goofing around as usual and Ouka yells at her. Turns out this isn’t Ouka, it’s her twin younger sister – Kikka. Kikka hurls insults at everyone in Cafe Familia, stating that it’s not a suitable place for her older sister to work. Hearing enough of her little sister’s harsh words, Ouka slaps Kikka. The reason for Kikka being at the cafe is because Ouka didn’t come home for Obon, so Kikka set out to find her and figure out what’s going on.

Over the next few days, Ouka seems unlike herself and causes accidents like dropping glasses on the floor or bumping into customers. She secretly hated the argument that she had with her sister and wants to make up. With this at the forefront of her mind, she keeps making mistakes in the cafe.

After not speaking for a while, Ouka and Kikka make up and get back on good terms with each other. Ouka talks with Hayato about how he was the only one who could tell the difference between her and Kikka.

Episode 11: Fireworks Of Love

Fanservice, fanservice, and a bit more fanservice for good measure. There’s an accurate description of this episode for you. Hayato and the girls go to a bathhouse because the bathtub at home is broken. As you can imagine, there’s if anything too much fanservice in this episode.

After the bathhouse visit, Hayato and Riho head to the grocery store to pick up food for tomorrow’s breakfast. Once they get home, Riho confesses her feelings to Hayato. After Hayato tells her that it would make him happy if she did ever properly confess, she plays it off as a joke and says “the simple fact that it would make you happy is enough for me”. Riho notices Akane making a lot of advances towards Hayato and starts to get jealous.

Episode 12: Two Encounters

The final episode! In this one we learned that Shiragiku is actually Hayato’s childhood friend, and we all know how characters who fall victim to that trope end up. Towards the end of the episode, Hayato and the girls vow to do the best job that they can with Cafe Familia for Hayato’s grandma’s sake.

The final scene shows a cut to the future where a much older Hayato is talking with his daughter. The young girl has the same hair color as Hayato – blue. Or perhaps she took after her mother in the hair color department? The girl looks at an old picture of Hayato and her mother and says “Hey, this was when mom worked part-time here at the cafe, wasn’t it?” confirming that one of the five girls is Hayato’s significant other.

Conclusion

You’re now caught up and ready to go for season two! Feel free to check back a little closer the time to refresh your memory. Leave any thoughts on this series in the comments below!

While you’re here, check out our other posts at LAN. We cover everything anime related and are always doing our best to bring you the latest news and episode reviews! Today our recommendations are: Our Favourite Anime Waifus Of 2023, New Fist Of The North Star Anime Is In Production and Board Game-Style Demon Slayer Video Game Is Coming Next Year.