Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee

[shinta|hikari]

Well, the Lag beam was shown a few episodes before, and that is practically the same move that his idol Gauche uses. It is not really unexpected, or even a power up at all, since he already had it years before.

Hmm... I find the animation in this episode a bit lacking, but that is probably because I watched the OAV right before it. The half naked Niche was actually a lot less cute than the fully robed one. I think is is because of the way they drew her body almost squarish.

So for now, Nopan Niche > Boxers Niche > Half Naked Niche

[Ryllharu]

So Niche really is like a demon (or dragon more appropriately) in human form. Interesting.

I had thought Lag could see the memories of other Shindan bullets because of the amber in his eye. Is it the case that anyone can see them, or is Niche special on that front as well? She saw a quick summary of most of who Lag cares about, notably which included herself.

I don't see it as a shonen power up ability. He's really weak otherwise, which is why he needs such a powerful dingo. It's basically the only thing Lag can do. He can't even defend himself against normal snakes, but he's the only one who can completely defeat a gaichu.

[Buffalobiian]

I had thought Lag could see the memories of other Shindan bullets because of the amber in his eye. Is it the case that anyone can see them, or is Niche special on that front as well? She saw a quick summary of most of who Lag cares about, notably which included herself.

I think the way the Shidan gun works is you shoot a fragment of you heart at the beast, which then resonates with their own heart and explode. The snowflakes are probably even more fragmented remains of Heart, so people who come in contact with it will see whatever memories the shooter used in the attack.

Lag saw Gausche's
Gausche saw Lag's
Niche saw Lag's.

It's not exclusive to Lag's eye.

I don't see it as a shonen power up ability. He's really weak otherwise, which is why he needs such a powerful dingo. It's basically the only thing Lag can do. He can't even defend himself against normal snakes, but he's the only one who can completely defeat a gaichu.

Lag's beam wasn't really the powerup I was talking about, since he shot it before. I was referring to the fact that he couldn't initially release his power with a normal gun, but now he can because he got more emotional.

The very first time he shot with Gausche's gun was when he was out of control, and his stone resonated with that of the gun. In the DVD special, he wields a Shindan gun without a loaded stone, but was still able to shoot, indicating that the conventional stone doesn't need to be there. In both cases however, it was a Shindan gun.

I thought Shindan guns were made differently, and there was some sort of energy transfer mechanism between the barrel and the stone for it to work, rather than a normal gun with a hole cut out simply to house the stone.

Based on all that, plus the fact that it failed to shoot initially, I thought it was physically impossible to shoot a Heart beam. The way a change of Heart could reverse this (assumed) physical impossibility lead to my previous response. I did, however, expect a Shindan beam to kill the bug one way or another.

[Ryllharu]

I think the way the Shidan gun works is you shoot a fragment of you heart at the beast, which then resonates with their own heart and explode. The snowflakes are probably even more fragmented remains of Heart, so people who come in contact with it will see whatever memories the shooter used in the attack.

Lag saw Gausche's
Gausche saw Lag's
Niche saw Lag's.

It's not exclusive to Lag's eye.

I don't think your reasoning is wrong, but why was Gauche so surprised that Lag saw all of his memories in the prologue then?

[Buffalobiian]

I don't think your reasoning is wrong, but why was Gauche so surprised that Lag saw all of his memories in the prologue then?

Is that the DVD?

[Ryllharu]

No, the initial two episodes of the series.

[Buffalobiian]

I don't think your reasoning is wrong, but why was Gauche so surprised that Lag saw all of his memories in the prologue then?

edit: If you're talking about the latter part of Episode 1, Lag saw Gausche's memories because Gausche used his own Heart to heal Lag's depleted one when he accidentally loaded it ans shot a massive amount.

@ Episode 2, 1:40, Gausche wasn't surprised at all to see Lag knowing some of his past as a side effect of healing.

I haven't seen any other instance where Lag saw Gausche's memories.

In Episode 2 against the Buckers Gaichuu, they saw each other's memories. That can be explained in that they both loaded the shot. Gausche said "Shindan loaded", while Lag was steadying the gun. Then they got separated, Lag's eye resonated and shot the Gaichuu. If Gausche's fragment was loaded already into the gun, then it would explain why both memories were shot.

As for the "surprise", in episode 1 Gausche was scratched by the shot. The look on his face could be attributed to the shock of getting hit, plus the general awe at seeing something spectacular. He was pretty composed after that. He wasn't going "wtf was that??" at least.

In episode 2, he was surprised at Lag's eye, and that Lag's heart resonated with his own while he loaded his own Shindan for the second time, as per his comment after the battle: "You even resonated with my heart."

[Buffalobiian]

Horriblesubs - Episode 05

[masamuneehs]

just watched episode 2. and again, while i did enjoy the episode, i certainly didnt love it.

it's good, but the cgi, the somewhat flat feel to the characters, and the less than stellar animation delivery just add up to a 'meh' when it comes time to ask myself i i want to watch the next episode of this. i liked younger Lag better than current Lag, and Gauche was a fairly interesting character, but the rapid rate he changed his stance on his relationship with Lag felt uninentionally comically overly wholesome.

i like the setting, and the weird audio tracks are nice, but i just can not get into this series after these first two episodes.

[Buffalobiian]

Stuttering, asking Steak to cook nicely, Steak cooking itself nicely.....

Episode 5 was easily the funniest episode to date, all thanks to Niche.

From the preview, I guess you really can channel Heart into anything you want pretty much, at least in Lag's case. The OP shows a girl playing a violin with a shining (stone-embedded?) scroll, which supports the idea that there can indeed be a variety of weapons.

Gauche was a fairly interesting character, but the rapid rate he changed his stance on his relationship with Lag felt uninentionally comically overly wholesome.

I thought his change came about so rapidly because they've been affected by each other's heart fragments. Further, both characters could emotionally relate. Lag was someone who was left behind, while Gausche was someone who left a relative behind to become a letter bee. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they saw a bit of that "someone" in each other during their travel.

[Buffalobiian]

Horriblesubs - Episode 06

---------------

I didn't like this episode as much, mainly because it all this happened due to Nelli's (stupid) misunderstanding. If she's been working her ass off as I suspect, then maybe it leaves room for her error in misinterpreting her brother's actions.

Meanwhile, the explanation for Shindan firing was almost exactly as we suspected, with the gun being there for housing an Amber (for those who have none), and giving your Heart a shape. Different Shindan abilities should be interesting, and also explains how it worked out in the DVD special.

One thing I did like about the episode was when Nelli thanked Lag for delivering the letter. In the end, it was she, not Jiggy, who really needed to know what Nello though.

[Buffalobiian]

HorribleSubs - episode 07

[Kraco]

I didn't like this episode as much, mainly because it all this happened due to Nelli's (stupid) misunderstanding. If she's been working her ass off as I suspect, then maybe it leaves room for her error in misinterpreting her brother's actions.

While the conclusion was nice, it wasn't far away that I'd have dropped the episode. I seem to have poor tolerance to forceful do-gooders who insist on fixing something against the opinions of those who really are affected by whatever the naive person is trying to fix, especially if getting so distracted might hurt the do-gooder's own aims in life. And damn he's a crybaby as well. You'd expect Nelli to cry during all this but Lag was bloody crying more than her. What an insufferable kid. Without Dingo Niche this show would be too annoying to watch.

(I only watch KSN's subs so I haven't yet seen that ep 7.)

[Buffalobiian]

Episode 07 comments:


-------------------------------------

That was an awesome episode filled with pretty much everything I like about Letter Bee. Niche getting embarrassed was cute, but still visually weird with those eyes and all. Still, when she hurries to put on some pants like that, you can't help but smile.

That Gaichuu fight may well be my favourite to date. For starters, the centipede was actually visually menacing. The CG actually made that black, shiny armour better than a 2D counterpart may have. The combo-finish wasn't well-rehearsed or anything, but that made it all the better. It brings out how well Lag and his dingo back each other up, in contrast to some other wanna-bees.

I had really underestimated the time skip since Gausche first met Lag, so I never expect Aria to look so different. Still hot in a more mature way.

They've certainly got me hooked on the entire Gausche mystery. Zazie (who is surprisingly a nice character) made it sound like Gausche isn't actually dead, while Aria commented on Gausche and Lag sharing the same hair and eye colour.

Hair colour...as in silver hair?

Add that to the fact that Largo revealed Signal (and perhaps all other gatekeepers) had an "old" name...... it's not unreasonable to join the dots and postulate on what has become of Gausche.

Perhaps only these Albisians have the ability to become psychic guardians with their sight as the price (voluntarily or not). It's already been suggested that kidnapping is nothing new to these shady people of Akatsuki.

[Kraco]

Finally watched episode 7 (KSN release) and it was indeed a good episode. They even managed to make the other candidate not look like a complete asshole right from the start even if he just had to turn out to be one by the end of the episode. He certainly showed some guts, though, to copy the letter and then sneak past Lag while he was still fighting. Too bad it was all the wrong kind of guts.

Considering Niche's looks and eyes, I don't think there were any problems as long as you remembered she's still a monster of a sort. She's not going to look exactly like a little girl ever.

Gausche's fate was foreshadowed by various hints for so long that it's not altogether surprising it didn't apparently end well for him. Only the fact Lag is so dense and opinionated spared him from realising it earlier from the behavior of the people around him. Let's hope it won't turn him emo even for a moment, though.

[Buffalobiian]

Horriblesubs - Episode 08

[Ryllharu]

Wow, Lag is one of the biggest crybabies I've seen in a long time, if not ever. At least everyone acknowledges it, including Lag himself despite being a little bit embarrassed. I do wonder who is taking Gauche's disappearance harder, Sylvette or Aria?

Sylvette's suprise attack on Niche was funny, but it also led to a finishing blow when Niche realized how filled out Sylvette is (especially for her age!).

All in all, another good episode, and the cliffhanger was in the middle of the episode for once!

[Buffalobiian]

Dang!

Looks like I underestimated the effect time has on Sylvette too. I can't tell whether I'm happy or disappointed that she's not a loli anymore. :S

That was really sweet of Niche. I smiled big time

I actually laughed a bit at Lag's crying this episode, mainly at his jumped conclusion that Gausche came home (which was obviously not the case). I also found it a bit hard to get into it emotionally this episode because I was distracted with figuring out what could have happened to Gausche. Where exactly was he? Right now it seems equally likely that he lost is heart from overusing his gun during his deliveries or that he got kidnapped from digging too far into Lag's mother's case.

I managed to get into the mood after Niche's little speech though, which helped get my mind off that and sympathise with Sylvette's situation.

[Dark Dragon]

Episode 7 caught me off guard since the manga indicated that Zazie was a girl and the voice didn't match at all. It turn out that it was some random decision by the scanlator to refer to him as such.

I know that lag is suppose to be a crybaby but that scene was still a bit hard to watch, so i hope they don't over do that aspect in the future.

[animus]

Wait, so I can't really tell due to the inconsistent art. Is Sylvette older or supposed to be the same age as Lag? In some shots she clearly looks older, and in others her length in the wheelchair and looks make her look like 13.