English Dub Review: Meiji Tokyo Renka “Chat Noir Won’t Look Back”

Mei is there for Shunzo in his time of need.

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Mei is excited to see that Ougae has commissioned a fancy new dress designed just for her. She’s going to wear it at a formal party where he will officially unveil her as his fiance! Everyone is pumped up and eager for the future that lies ahead… except for Shunzo.

He’s always the most mellow of the melee, but there seems to be something off with him. When he forgets his art tools at home, Mei travels to Shunzo’s school to give him the supplies. There, she is mistaken for his girlfriend, and learns a shocking discovery: Shunzo is going blind. After an emotional breakdown, he confesses how much Mei means to him, and how she inspires him to keep going when all hope is lost.

Our Take:

After that kind of a cliffhanger ending last week, I was fully expecting today’s episode to immediately pick up the plot thread of Shunzo, his desire to create art, and that darn cat! But we’re treated to a scene of Mei getting fitted for a new dress right off the bat. It isn’t necessarily a bad scene, per se. (Although I’m never a fan of how much emphasis is put on how anime girls have to look beautiful.) There are some fun gags, like the measuring song that Ougae and Fumi sing to themselves while randomly wrapping measuring tapes around Mei’s body. For how serious Ougae can be at times, it’s nice to see some of his childishness rising to the surface when it comes to Mei.

The scene doesn’t last for long, and then it’s time to rejoin the current plot: Shunzo and everything going on with him. Not only does he seem to be nursing a crush on Mei, but there’s something strange going on with him and his art. Since he forgets his painting supplies on the way to his art school (which has never been brought up since the first episode), Mei helpfully decides to follow him to school and drop-off the tools. We get to see a lot of Shunzo in this episode, and much of it takes place around his school. One of the first shots we get of the classroom is of the students pondering their professor’s crazy instruction: try to draw air. This definitely got a laugh out of me, as it was just real enough to be an eccentric drawing teacher’s actual assignment. Shunzo doesn’t seem to care about it, though, for reasons we soon learn.

When Mei breaks in and offers him his supplies, she’s quickly met with jeers and taunting from his classmates. They assume she’s his cute girlfriend come to visit, and he takes her outside to escape the prying eyes. This is probably the most confirmation we’ve gotten about Shunzo’s possible feelings of love for Mei. When she talks about how awkward it was since they thought she was his significant other, Shunzo responds simply with: “I don’t mind.” After his friend reveals his secret (he’s been going blind and is scared of surgery), Mei tries to encourage him. He eventually breaks down and tells her how much she inspires him. He tells her she makes him want to keep going, and then is able to finish his painting of the black cat. What’s more, Mei seems to have gotten her memories back of her former life as well!

The English dub this week didn’t stumble, delivering the usual excellent performance from Madeleine Morris as Mei. Since there was a focus on Shunzo this time around, Daman Mills gets some time to shine, and he performs well, giving a nuanced and graceful delivery when it comes to his confessions to Mei: “I’ve always wanted to draw you, Mei.”

The eleventh episode of Meiji Tokyo Renka comes complete with an abundance of Shunzo and Mei interactions. It was great to finally unpack his feelings and everything he’s going through. His repressed trauma has been lingering like a shadow over the show, and it’ll be interesting to see how different Shunzo acts after all this. It all felt a bit underwhelming with the way it unfolded, but I don’t expect tons of action or excitement from Meiji Tokyo Renka.