English Dub Review: Meiji Tokyo Renka “I Miss You Dearly, Rainy Day”

Mei commiserates about true love with a pond dragon.

Overview (Spoilers Below):

When a monstrous dragon named Shirayuki from a play that Kyoka is working on escapes into the real world, he’s at a loss. He can’t finish the play without her. Luckily, Mei and Shunzo happen to be wandering by while he sings to the pond where she is now living.

Mei vows to help him get Shirayuki back, despite Ougae’s objections. When the ghost police come to search the pond, everything escalates as Shirayuki gets enraged. Mei dives into the water in an effort to talk some sense into her. She, along with Kyoka, manage to convince Shirayuki to return home to her rightful place without causing any more trouble.

Our Take:

Episode seven of Meiji Tokyo Renka opens on a wonderful note, with Mei leaning against her balcony railing, dreaming of the delicious pork cutlet from the party that happened in the last episode. While she salivates over meat, we get a little recap treat. She’s been trapped in this era of Tokyo by that weird blue-haired magician, but he’s promised to send her back during the next full moon, which happens to be coming up in about a month. On this ominous note, the jazzy title screen music starts up and we’re officially launched into I Miss You Dearly, Rainy Day. 

I’ve got to say, this episode did not really do anything for me in terms of plot. The entire premise of a dragon demon lady from a play coming to life made for a curious opening scene, but nothing exciting happened to follow it up. The segment where Mei and Shunzo hunt for his ghost cat was a bit of silliness at least, but it didn’t last long until we were thrown into another mystery. And this one wasn’t even a real mystery. Basically, Shirayuki was just worried about not being with her true love, and so decided to leave before Kyoka could write a depressing ending to her story. There’s no major revelations, stakes, or suspense to speak of. Shirayuki just kind of floats over the pond while everyone else talks to each other on the edge of it, or jumps in and talks to her.

While Shirayuki and Kyoka were in the midst of their tiff, we get to see a little more of the relationship between Mei and Ougae. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as well-crafted as last week’s episode, in my opinion. Rather than communicate honestly with him, Mei goes behind his back to help Kyoka with his little playwright problem. Sure, she may be in the right for following her instincts to assist someone in need, but it doesn’t bode well that she can’t trust Ougae enough to tell him the truth. He’s not innocent in this either, of course. Rather than trusting her enough to make decisions for herself, he strictly prohibits her from interfering right away, without hearing her out or discussing things with her.

On a related note, one of the big things Mei grapples with in this episode is the question of her rightful place. Obviously, she doesn’t belong in this era. But could she learn to? She seems to relate to Shirayuki a lot and even brings up her own love for Ougai to the dragon woman. Setting aside whether this is believable or not with the relationship progress we’ve seen thus far, this is a big decision for Mei. And it’s a hard one no matter how you look at it. Even if she loves Ougai enough to want to be with him forever, that would mean leaving behind her family and her favorite things in the current-era of Tokyo she’s from.

The dub this week was pretty solid, especially during Mei’s emotional scenes. With pick-up lines like this, I have no idea why Mei hasn’t found the cat yet: “Come out and get it, ghost kitty!” I appreciated Kyoka’s little song to Shirayuki. Even though it was only a little bit of song, they dubbed it for the broadcast release! “Do you think I’m a weirdo who likes to sing to a pond in the rain?”  Let’s all appreciate how nice Mei is to help Kyoka out when his initial reaction is so rude: “What can a hopeless idiot like you possibly do to help?” 

I Miss You Dearly, Rainy Day certainly wasn’t my favorite episode of Meiji Tokyo Renka yet. The show has managed to shoot above its standard romance and dating sim origins in past episodes, but this one didn’t really come through. The plot had potential but didn’t deliver on anything to hold my attention. Mei and Ougae’s relationship is still underdeveloped. And they still haven’t found that damn cat!