I don't see any unusual tricks of perspective. A better name might be "paper cafe" rather than 2D cafe as it reminds me of paper dolls and paper dollhouses.
That thing is insanely expensive! Is there something special about it to justify the price tag?? I feel like I'd be cheap and buy some poster board and make kids build their own(?)
There's also a [store/boutique/experience/outlet/place where you pay for a thing] in my town where they just have neat sets for you to take photos in. There's a room of ducks, a fake bridge through a magical forest, an upside down room, etc.
The entire business model is selling tickets so people can take photos and post to social media. And it's a great one.
I stumbled upon one of these walking around my city the other day. I thought it was either a new museum, or some pop-up museum exhibit, but it was instead exactly what you described: a photo studio with many preconfigured sets that are pretty inventive.
In hindsight it’s so obvious: cameras are getting very good, sharing photos and video is now trivial for the majority of the population, and everyone has a camera in their pocket. What a money-making opportunity, even if someday people will eventually go, “meh, I don’t need to visit that new photo studio place that opened up.”
This reminds me of how Apple seems to (or at least used to) choose apps to promote on the iOS App Store when a new version of iOS came out: what new capability will now be widely available with the new iOS version? Make an app that highlights that capability, and not only will Apple feature you, but also a bunch of tastemakers will use your app and spread the word. It could be support for new camera features, adding AR capability, adding calendar integration, improved sharing capabilities, etc.
Go to what’s new but ubiquitous, and there are probably people willing - at least in the short term - to pay with eyeballs or money.
I wonder if anyone did the pop art makeup look and went to the 2d cafe with that on their face yet. That’d make for some nice photos for Instagram for sure!
I've seen pictures of this restaurant multiple times on the web. What I haven't seen, is a person in the picture. I wonder if having a person in it ruins the illusion?
I lived in tokyo for a bit and i always wondered if these theme cafes get repeat customers. I enjoyed going to like a Feudal Japan era cafe, but animal cafes aside, i never really had a desire for a repeat visit especially since the lines can be SUPER long.
Aren’t many of the ones that are themed after IP’s explicitly temporary?
I went to a bird café In a mostly residential area just north of Ueno park last year. It was a total blast. We only went in because my spouse didn't feel well and need to rest, but it ended up one of the highlights of our trip. Everyone was super happy. All guests were laughing at the birds that were in a huge cage; the caged birds were seemingly having a great time snuggling and humping each other; the birds you could visit with were clearly excited to get attention. One bird kept chirping at my wife every time she stopped petting it. The entire place liked like a room for kids, but there were no kids, just happy adults and birds. The music they played sounded like music from a happy scene in an anime. It was almost surreal.
I would go back in a heartbeat!
We did go to a hedgehog cafe which was bad. Unhappy staff and the animals are nocturnal and just want to sleep. It felt just like animal abuse.
This is quite similar to a room in Meow Wolf (https://santafe.meowwolf.com/). That one was quite well done, down to painted shadows in spots where real shadows were cast from the lighting.
Eh, thats definitely something happening in the west but theme cafe culture has been a big thing in Tokyo for far longer than Instagram has existed. These places don't typically stay around for too many years but they are common places to take casual dates, or for groups of people with shared interests to go. C.f.: gundam themed cafes, cat cafes, feudal era cafes, etc.
Don’t these kind of places rely on perspective tricks, ideal POVs, lighting, and really good photographers (like those floating crosswalks)? I think if I saw it in real life, it wouldn’t be as impressive since those conditions would break down quickly.
Yes - BUT the main reason people go isn't for the first-person experience, it's so they can take photos and post online. So none of those limitations really matter.
Kind of reminded me of how Starbucks used to disallow photography in their Chinese stores. It was to prevent copying, but it didn’t go down well since it was mainly a lifestyle business in that country.
Are all restaurants doing this? I'm pretty sure the Italian cafe down my street is still doing their own thing (serving good food at good prices).
If its not your cup of tea to visit a place like this, the solution is simple. Visit somewhere else for food. Otherwise, there are all sorts of inventive restaraunts through the ages, from Benihana's (at least in the 70s when it was fresh-and-cool), to "Blind Restaurants" to sports-bars, and now apparently this 2D-cafe drawing style.
No, these restaurants don't necessarily serve the best food (in my experience anyway). But that's also not the point... the point of Benihana's / Blind Cafes / Cat Cafes / Sports Bars / 2D Cafes / etc. etc. is to provide a new experience beyond just food and drink.
Taking pictures and sharing them with friends is not a generational thing. It has been a cornerstone of human culture since the concept of photography was invented.
However sometimes it feels like it is being hijacked. Sometimes it feel that the main experience is "sharing a picture", rather than having an experience (view, sound, smell, all senses plus emotions) and then trying to share it with pictures. Sometimes it feels that people are too focused on being the directors of their lives rather being the (ad-lib) actors.
The gamification and addiction-inducing practices of certain social media probably has something to do with this trend. This, I think, is the generational thing.
I doubt it; people have been going on vacation, and selecting places based on non-self-interest reasons for ages.
In my own family, every vacation turns into a question of how many tours and points-of-interest we can fit, and the whole thing is just stressful. And at those PoIs, the only real interest is getting a good picture with $thing in the background, and visiting the next thing.
And it's common enough behavior that whole industries revolve around it, which we call tourism.
And of course, those tourist hotspots are natural places for locals to avoid, because they cater very directly to those tourists.
Instagram is a very direct extension of the model, but with a much tighter feedback loop, and much more advanced strategies and competition. Boomer-style tourism is just as culturally dumb (and profitable) as instragram-tourism, but implementation-wise, instagram-tourism is simply on a different level of technical proficiency.
>Sometimes it feel that the main experience is "sharing a picture", rather than having an experience (view, sound, smell, all senses plus emotions) and then trying to share it with pictures.
Sure, I can agree with this! But whether you allow the experience to be hijacked is entirely up to you. You and your family/friends can simply put your phones away and look for yourself. Fighting smartphone addiction is better with friends.
Japan raised comics to an art form long before Instagram. Akira volume 1 was published before Instagram's founders were even born. This isn't generational.
I'm amazed by the number of restaurants I walk by in Vancouver. That you happen to see the internet photo worthy more often than the straight forward venues is a side effect of the internet photo worthy restaurant essentially self selecting itself to be shared online
Do we have to assume that they do it to satisfy an IG crowd, or can we simply allow them doing it for the sake of the experience?
Another take, is it that bad though if they did? It would be free marketing. Hopefully it would bring actual customers and not just selfie-photographers :)
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