Forum - View topicMeiji Tokyo Renka (TV).
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15457 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Meiji Tokyo Renka (TV) Genres: romance, supernatural Themes: amnesia, bishounen, ghosts, historical, male harem, reverse harem, special abilities, time travel Plot Summary: On the night of a crimson full moon, high school girl Mei Ayazuki, lured by the magic of mysterious magician Charlie, enters into a box. When she awakens, she's in Tokyo during the Meiji Period. The lost and confused Mei is aided by Ougai Mori and Shunso Hishida, who take her in their carriage to the Rokumeikan, a lavish ballroom full of powerful high officials. where she meets historic figures such as Kyoka Izumi, Otojiro Kawakami, Yakumo Koizumi, and Goro Fujita. In this world, during the "Misty Hour" between sundown and sunup, "mononoke" appear. Those who can see them are called "Tamayori," and Mei herself possesses this power. As she navigates an unfamiliar life, romance begins to bloom between Mei and these men -- and the power of the tamayori will only strengthen their bonds. She may choose to never return to her original time. ---------------------------------- Probably should have started this discussion thread sooner, but here we go. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15457 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episodes 1 to 4
Probably should preface that I really am not the intended audience for this one, this being the newest reverse harem on the block, being of the historical kind, but by golly can a reverse harem anime still work for me. Or is there a new politically correct way of saying a bunch of dudes after one, likely high school age, girl? At the very least it has (mostly) had the guys separated by different roles that are not necessarily part of the same group that forces her to interact with them all directly, but as her own role as some sort of I guess ghost seeing psychic has her run into their differing professions. It earned itself some points early on that her modern high school uniform was treated as a strong oddity, and quite scandalous for the time period, it a staple for these sorts of stories, and it seemed interested using that first episode to characterise the boys by how they reacted to it. Not that I was too interested in that sort of thing personally, it was too much of a wave of new characters, that tends to overwhelm me in most anime where I am meant to categorise traits of characters in my head. Half a dozen boys (or girls) is I think a bit hard, and I have had a bit of trouble recalling the first encounter to when they appear proper, it kind of made me feel a bit too relatable when one of the guys tries to get her to recall a first meeting to a character about to be relevant, and her response was that she met way too much people that night and has trouble recalling anyone in particular. With I think when seeing him again having her recall a guy in uniform. I want to then go into either Mei as the main character, or how people treat her, so I will start with the traits she has shown so far. She actually does seem to have a personality, which can be more of a hurdle than it sounds, and perhaps I am too picky with this over male series counterparts, but can be important for me with these series. She likes meat, particular beef, which I guess can be a bit generic, but the specific choice of having her into it beyond being feminine and that at times a motivation for her, is a good choice when compared to others. Episode four that had her trying to understand how much something in Meiji era yen was by converting it to beef bowls, was pretty funny. She is somewhat resourceful, a bit clumsy without feeling infuriating, follows things that are her motivation, has her own trauma to overcome, and her compassion seems like a useful tool. I don't think she is entirely perfect with all of these things, from how she does seem to interact with the orbits of others, but things like her seeming to have a conflict with a woman (over Mei butting in as low class) are a positive, along with her praised for knowing things that are rare for the time period. And the fourth episode ending with her asking what I would saying is a clearly male biologically gendered geisha, into making her a woman, of her own motivations. What I am not a fan of, is where her place of wanting to appear more of a Meiji era woman, and it is Ougai. This man pretty much picked this teenage girl up on the side of the road, like that guy from Pretty Woman, and having been interested in her for the era strange traits, just seems to have decided that she is now his fiancée, and calls her by the name of "Little Squirrel". is it only me that feels a little creeped out by that. Maybe it is just my gender, but I would not be happy if some guy just suddenly decided to refer to me as Little Squirrel. I guess it kind of annoys me that she seems to have decided to go along with this fiancée thing, when she fully intends to return to the presence, and seems totally unnecessary for this guy to even want to make it a public announcement. He wasn't too bad when he was talking about her use of cutlery being good for the time period, or discussing how her even rudimentary knowledge of Shakespeare is impressive to him, and making her fascinating to her beyond the fact his first meeting with her was in what would be considered scandalous attire. Which I think that I next want to mention, and I don't really know what to say on most background characters as the masses having I think time period accurate attire, that is kind of ugly. Making all the characters who are meant to be visually appealing and main characters, stand out quite a bit. I mean, you want to be historically accurate, but also make most relevant characters nice to look at, but it creates weird disconnect when you have a crowd of women in fashion and hair done up to look accurate, squeeing (is that the word?) over merchandise of a celebrity who looks more modern in looks, with one of the girls we were meant to take notice of being a weird mesh between the other girls and a modern look, and Mei standing out even further. I don't really have an answer. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11340 |
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Thanks for making this.
First off, the main thing that's bugging the hell out of me is the hair highlights. They look like someone slammed a bowl of pudding down in front of her and it splashed all over her hair. It's really weird. On the other hand, visually I'm inclined to like this because it shares the same director and animation director/character designer as Kamisama Kiss, so it's got a pleasant nostalgia to it for me. I'm a little baffled at how readily she's accepted being his fiance too. She protested a bit at first, but even then it was more out of "huh?" than "hold up there." I'm getting the feeling she wasn't so happy in her old life, since she was outcast for seeing spirits. Though there was that one friend... While it does have it's share of usual problematic reverse harem tropes, I'm still finding it a lot of fun. Like when she launched the fork into the matron's hair, and she held the entire conversation with it stuck there - and then it turned out the woman had been well aware of it being there all along, but was just ignoring it to save face, until she got rebuffed by Ougai. I think one of the attractions of this sort of series is being able to set aside the reality for the fantasy. It's not a genuine desire to be swept off your feet irl, so much as it's indulging in how nice it would be if you didn't have to always be on your guard and worry about the what-ifs of going along with being so swept. These guys may be ignoring her agency to a degree, but they're not predators (which they likely would be irl). She's got little time to think or carefully consider the outcome of all that's being thrown at her, and irl your best bet is to just say no to it all, but that's no fun, so here you can vicariously throw such caution to the wind and roll with it, knowing nothing terrible is going to happen to her except maybe a little emotional drama. But I can't believe we're revisiting the Takoyaki Princess mythology again!!  I thought that was a one-off with Hiiro no Kakera. Hopefully this one ends up making more sense!
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15457 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I didn't notice anything weird about hair, I am going to have to look at some comparisons to have it more obvious what is strange.
So far I do think it is being among the better reverse harems. This level of being pulled along I think mostly becomes more of a problem when said character fits into the total amnesia, or seem to somehow ended up with a character that could be described as a lack of it. For me at least it is those characters who I think are meant to be super insert, but feel creepy in how it kind of feels like the guys are taking advantage of that girl. Mei has her own wants, and I do think she acts on them, which makes the idea that some gentleman would find her interesting believable, something beyond interested in a blank slate. She could say no if she was not actually comfortable. But I still say it is fine that she gone with the flow a bit, like really the first episode when a normal smart response of going to a party would be a no, but that would totally be no fun and doesn't get the story going. I am hoping for more humorous scenes like the fork. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15457 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 5
I think that this was my favourite episode yet, largely for Mei being such a lovable dork in trying to be ladylike for the Meiji era. I was reminded of the likes of the likes of Yona, Nanami, and some OHSHC Haruhi, a little goofy but not come across as stupid. Usually the idea of a heroine forced to act lady like and receiving physical punishment would be a bit of a problem, but it was so convincing that this was just something Mei wanted and was determined, made it enjoyable. Maybe it just had my attention a bit more strongly this time, but I in general found the episode much more funny and entertaining. The dog was hilarious, where he was running all over the place before letting the guy in, and having to tell "wan-chan" he couldn't come in, making it sigh sadly. Even the fact a fire was started, and was built up by getting the guy to also crossdress as a geisha was entertaining, Mei happily volunteering herself, and pushing that he too was in it also. Wonder how it is going down next episode? About the only problem I had was when her teacher looks like he (?) was about to kiss her while doing her makeup. Along with her looking to almost receive the same treatment when she got home, but slinking under the arm after a wall slam was funny. |
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phia_one
Posts: 1657 Location: Pennsylvania |
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This show had become my favorite of the season and a lot of it is because of Mei. She's adorable!
As a fan of otome/reverse harems, I think this is the first one I watched where the MC actually admitted she was in love with one of the guys. I'm guessing it's thanks to the fact the show decided to go with one route while still giving all the guys their time to shine. Ougai has grown on me over the past few episodes. He's not my favorite guy, but I'm starting to see why Mei loves him. He's very accepting of her and he got bonus points for not giving Mei the "Why didn't you listen to me" speech or something along those lines after she went back to the lake. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11340 |
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8
"But the germs!" "No such thing." That's probably about right. I know germ theory was just starting to become accepted around this time, but I don't know how up to speed Japan was. Probably there were people on both sides as above. That was a fun episode. Ougai's a bit possessive when he's in his cups, eh. "Other people keep trying to feed her!" |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15457 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Talking about how Japan was, I would think that there should be a real good reason why she might not want to stay in the time period, at least after the Meiji era.
I thought it funny when it looked like Ougai was the only one left out of a party. Also, that she was drawn in because something smelt good. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11340 |
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That's a good point. I've never thought about it before, but given that all these stories set in the Meiji feature people usually in their early 20s or younger, if they survive the story, they'll have a lot of suffering in their futures... Now I'm sad.
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11340 |
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9
Took her long enough to ask. Now then, what's the catch? Does it have to do with her fainting last week? |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11340 |
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11
So he was going blind because he couldn't admit to being in love with her? And now his eyes are fine because The Cat Returns and he's honest with his feelings? Ok... And I'm starting to get some I'm My Own Great Great Grandma vibes here... 
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15457 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I really could not figure out what the deal with the cat was. Was he still blind at the end, because they went backwards on giving his eyes the more alive look after removing it? Was kind of wondering if it was meant to be some part of him, it would be interesting if they sprinkled it in up till now.
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11340 |
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It seemed to me like his eyes were just fine now, which was weird, since he seemed to be having a problem with them before she even arrived in their time. I mean, he didn't start that painting the day she showed up, and his friend had apparently been on his case about seeing a doctor for a long time. But now, he seems cured and no longer needing surgery. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11340 |
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Episode 12 finale
Well, okay then. I don't get why she felt she needed to go back, but at least she got a kiss before she went. When they showed her again as a child, I thought it was the ghosts of all her Meiji era friends she was playing with, which would explain a lot, and so I was hoping that in the present she would realize that and still be hanging out with them, at least. But it seemed like once Charlie used up his magic, that was the end of it. It didn't even feel like she was going to still be able to see ghosts at all, let alone them being Ougai and the gang. Failing that, I hoped that she'd accomplish whatever it was she felt she needed to do in the present (have a school girl life and friends?) and then once she felt she'd become a well-rounded person she could go back. But then Charlie broke, so that cut that off. So it was kind of a bummer of an ending for me. Bah, Tamehameha Princess stories always end up lame. I should have learned my lesson the last time.
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