English Dub Review: Meiji Tokyo Renka “The Long Road to Becoming a Fiancée”

Becoming a proper lady is pretty painful.

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Mei decides that she wants to become a proper lady to repay Gorou for his kindness. In order to facilitate this personal growth, she begs a local geisha house to take her in for training. She’s given a ton of training to work on, and also manages to save a red-haired guy from a tiny, rabid dog… good for her?

Our Take:

Episode five of Meiji Tokyo Renka was a pretty disappointing episode for me. Though I haven’t absolutely fell in love with the show yet, due to it not being a genre I’m really interested in, it was managing to be at least an interesting watch. The Long Road to Becoming a Fiancée really takes that a step back, unfortunately. Almost nothing happens, and what does happen is more uncomfortable than funny.

Whether it’s the style she dresses in, the way she speaks, or the method she uses to eat, Mei definitely does not meet the definition of a proper Meiji-era Tokyo lady. Up until now, it hasn’t really seemed like this bothered her. She’s just herself, and she’s fine with that. But apparently after everything Gorou has done for her (giving her a ride, taking her in, calling her his fiancee, etc.) she feels indebted and doesn’t want to embarrass him in front of his noble acquaintances. Wanting to look like a lady from a noble family is one thing, but wanting to change herself for a man she’s barely just met just feels skeevy to me.

And if it was just manners and such, that wouldn’t be such a big deal… but the geisha places so much emphasis on physical appearance. She tells Mei to look into a mirror before going out every day and chant about being beautiful. Much like ghosts transforming with spiritual power, she says, women can transform with makeup. Ew. This whole section takes another turn for the worse when the geisha begins beating Mei with a rod every time she does something wrong. It’s clearly meant to be comedic, and is really played up, but it just felt violent and gross. A girl changing her physical appearance through violence is just not something I want to watch, and I can’t wait until Mei gets back to being her normal self.

At least the dub comes up with a few funny lines, like when Mei explains the reason her kemono’s hem is pulled up uncommonly high: “It’s like that so I won’t trip over it.” When she wasn’t whacking Mei with a stick, the geisha did have some funny comparisons that she likened Mei to, such as an “injured chicken” and a “sad turtle”. Mei’s voice actor is still doing great and imbues her with a vitality and energy that’s perfect for her character.

This episode of Meiji Tokyo Renka was not up to the standard set by the previous four episodes. It just wasn’t entertaining, and it didn’t even move the plot forward that much. I feel like the events of the entire episode could’ve been summed up in a 5-minute segment, leaving more time for other, more interesting things to happen. The Road to Becoming a Fiancée might be long, but watching it felt even longer.