English Dub Review: Meiji Tokyo Renka “Caught in the Ghost Hotel” and “Flower of Asakusa Rendezvous”

Mei contacts a ghost and throws a fork into a rich lady’s hair.

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Caught in the Ghost Hotel finds Mei and Syunso running into Yakumo on the streets of Tokyo. He asks Mei to help him take care of a little ghost problem, and she very-obligingly accepts. (Much to Ougai’s chagrin.) It turns out that his haunting problem was not malicious at all, and Mei learns something about herself in the process of assisting Yakumo with his problem.

In Flower of Asakusa Rendezvous, Mei and Ougai go on a sightseeing trip through Tokyo after his aunt tells him he has to marry someone from the upper-class. They have a good time, and Ougai tells Mei that it doesn’t matter where she’s from as long as she keeps being herself.

Our Take:

The red full moon has risen in the Meiji-era Tokyo, and strange things have begun happening. In this third episode of the series, Caught in the Ghost Hotel, Mei and Syunso are enlisted to deal with a long-lost ghost. It turns out that Yakumo, one of the men we met in the premiere episode who I had since completely forgotten about, used to be able to see ghosts just like Mei. He developed a special connection with one named Jane, but then suffered an accident that injured one of his eyes. Ever since then, he’s been unable to see ghosts, and wants Mei’s help to say hello to Jane just once more and tell her he’s sorry.

This episode wasn’t quite as attention-holding as the previous two, but it still packed some pretty cool stuff. For one thing, I loved how slick that cut from the intro scene to the title screen was. That musical cue, too, was dope. Yakumo’s character design is super rad-looking, what with each eye being a different color. He has a fun personality as well, and I think he might be one of my favorite guys the show has introduced up to this point. (Also, he had an emotional support ghost, which is badass.) The twist being that Jane wasn’t mad at him, but it was her excitement causing the suspicious accidents is… I’m not sure. It’s nice to upset the traditional angry ghost type of story, but I’m also not sure how her positive energy could cause so many things to break or otherwise go wrong. Ah well, supernatural stories don’t really require realism.

One thing I really liked was how Mei learned more about Yakumo’s work in her present-day timeline through going back in time and dealing with him in person. Apparently, he ends up writing some ghost stories and becoming pretty famous in Japan, so getting to meet the author in the flesh allows Mei to become more connected to his stories that she’s read in school, I assume. He is able to write ghost stories with deep emotional ties because he himself used to have an intense personal connection with a ghost. In a way, he has Jane to thank for his fame, I guess. We also got some positive development for Syunso. I liked the little moment of him sitting on the couch while Mei takes the floor: “Nah, I’m fine down here.” They have a fun chemistry together. And it was very sweet to see him opening up to her and talking about how he likes painting in the dark hours, and envies her ghost-seeing abilities.

The fourth episode, Flower of Asakusa Rendezvous, I did not enjoy as much. Maybe because it lacked a lot of action in the plot, and maybe because it starred the cliche creeper Ougai. The conflict of a royal marrying beneath his class is something that I’ve seen a lot in recent years, and there’s not too much freshness that Meiji Tokyo Renka can bring to the table. At least I appreciated the focus on Mei’s self-esteem being boosted, even if it was only because of her fiancee status. And speaking of that, this is one of my biggest issues with the show right now. How does Mei feel about the whole fiancee thing? Even Syunso noticed she didn’t seem to like discussing it, and tried to ask her about it. She shrugged him off, which is fine, she doesn’t owe him an explanation. But as an audience member, I feel like we should know what she’s feeling. But we don’t even get internal monologue about it. She’s so opinionated and free-willed when it comes to things like agreeing to hunt ghosts, but seems to lose all her moxy when it comes to holding hands with Ougai. Maybe that’s just a natural consequence of the series being based on a Japanese dating simulator game?

The dub this week was good, with a lot of fun moments from the new guys. Also, the best line of the two episodes had to be Ougai’s request to his maid: “Spoon me, Fumi.” Also, I really hope they find that cat: “Whether it’s a ghost or not, I’m sure it still has cat preferences.”

These two episodes cemented the show’s status as being a watchable, if not highly enjoyable, romance. Mei is still a lot of fun to watch, but I hope the series can allow feelings about the fiancee business to come through next week.