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Kirito and Eugeo Train to Be Knights and Waiters at Sword Art Online: Alicization Cafe
posted on by Kim Morrissy
In Sword Art Online: Alicization, Kirito and Eugeo train to become knights so that they can rescue their friend Alice. But the Sword Art Online: Alicization Tower Records cafe indicates there are other careers that they may be training for as well. Kirito and his friends look like they have an illustrious career in the service industry ahead of them, greeting customers of the cafe with a friendly smile.
The Sword Art Online: Alicization collaboration cafe opened in three Tower Records cafe venues in January: Sapporo, Tokyo, and Osaka. The collaboration period is split into two parts, with each time period having slightly different food menu items. I visited the Tokyo venue in Shibuya during the second half.
The cafe interior is decorated with characters and screenshots from both Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale and Sword Art Online: Alicization. I suppose that this is because popular returning characters like Asuna, Leafa, and Sinon get more screen time in Ordinal Scale, so this was a way of ensuring that every character got some fair representation.
Like all good collab cafes, the menu had some food items inspired directly by the anime itself. There's the Cardinal's sandwiches and steamed buns from episode 12, and the school lunch Kirito was eating in episode 7. But I absolutely had to buy the Honey Pie, the delicious sweet that Kirito always makes sure to snag whenever he's passing through the East Third Route.
As you'd expect, the drinks were inspired by the characters. Eugeo may be a cool guy, but his drink tasted awful (sorry). I much preferred Asuna's berry-flavored drink. Each drink came with a cute super-deformed drawing of the character, exclusive to Tower Records.
While eating and drinking to Sword Art Online-inspired food, the cafe played the various OP and ED theme songs from throughout the entire series. A large screen also played an Alicization anime trailer. This was one of the earlier trailers, so there was nothing too spoiler-heavy for those who aren't caught up with the series.
I have to say, though, that there was a big gap between the dramatic delivery of the trailer and the overall laid-back atmosphere of the cafe. In some ways, Alicization is the highest-stakes adventure in the series yet. If only all the Sword Art Online characters could live and co-exist in a peaceful world serving snazzy food and drinks. If only...
The Sword Art Online: Alicization cafe will run from January 24 to March 3. For more information about the venue, menu, and shop items, check out the Tower Records website.
