Megami no Cafe Terrace Vol 20,21,22 - Ending was really good. Akane!

I just finished reading Volumes 20, 21, and 22 of Megami no Café Terrace, which concludes the story with an ending that was honestly better than I expected. Volumes 19 and 20 were mostly about tying up loose ends with the various heroines and side heroines, so I won't focus too much on those.

Volume 21 instead focuses on solving the situation with Fuwa. It was truly an "Avengers assemble" moment, except the Avengers are all old ladies in this case. Fuwa makes his move by creating an ad-hoc scandal to discredit a local politician, who is the husband of Ami's sister, in order to transform the entire area into a resort and destroy the café.

Honestly, Hayato was quite discouraged and had no idea how to fight back, considering the scale of the situation. He was ready to close the shop and went one last time to visit his grandmother's grave. While he was there crying, he found a whole team of grandmothers waiting for him.

They are all the original "goddesses" of the café from the days of Hayato's grandmother. They have all risen to various positions of power and, together with the other characters we have seen so far, including the Queen and Princess from that faraway country, they launch an investigation into Fuwa to stop his plans.

Thankfully, Fuwa had plenty of skeletons in his closet, and they managed to best him quite easily by finding enough information to have him arrested. It was an enjoyable moment, made even better by how hateful Fuwa's character had been throughout the various volumes. I half-expected them to try to redeem him somehow, but instead, they kept him as a purely villainous person. It turns out he was also the one who ordered the café to be burned down in the past.

Once that was resolved, the story returned to the romantic situation that Hayato left off undecided due to the emergency, which surprised me even more. My taste in girls rarely matches that of manga or light novel authors, but this time I got it right. Akane wins and becomes Hayato's wife.

I have liked Akane since the very first volume I read (you can check my post history for this category) because of her looks and her direct personality. The intimate moments between her and Hayato felt the most genuine among all the heroines, and it is nice to see that it worked out.

I also liked how the manga avoided long drama sequences regarding the rejection of the other heroines. Instead, it opted for a time skip showing that they are all still living together months after Akane's wedding. Eventually, they will move out and live their own lives, as narrated in the scene with Hayato's daughter, but ending with them together was exactly what the series needed because they are family.

I am also not sure how canon it is, though it is technically presented as a scene so obvious there is no need to discuss it in the main story, but that final scene with all the heroines having fun with Hayato while Akane is okay with it was very entertaining. It was a good way to keep the harem theme open.

Overall, Megami no Café Terrace has been a great read, and I am definitely going to give the author's other series a chance. Apparently, he has a new one currently being serialized, so I guess that is where I may be headed next.