Category: Letter Bee

This episode was so full of win that it’s hard to know where to start. It seemed like a random filler at the start, but it was full of those tiny neat ideas and those awesome little quirks of the different characters with as closure a really heartwarming story about a doll. Not to mention that the villain in this episode was called Autobahn. Now, if that isn’t awesome then I don’t know anymore.

But seriously though, I didn’t know that Sylvette was such a successful doll maker here. This episode gave a whole new meaning to that doll of hers, as she started making them from Gauche, and later turned it into her profession. The Wheelchair Leopardess really got her time to shine in this episode.

I’m amazed at how many neat ideas the creators stuffed in this episode. I absolutely loved the villain, but also: a carriage carried by a rhino, an old guy who dresses up young and yet tries to hit on older women, and not to mention the shoddy outfit that Lag spent this episode in as the Dingo of Sylvette. Nichi in her few episodes was also fantastic again. I really love how the setting of this series feels like no other and I love how the creators don’t shy away from mentioning these seemingly useless but still original and very neat details about the world they live in.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

This episode was definitely meant to thicken the plot here. At first it seemed like another delivery from Lag, in which he had to deliver another letter full of lies, but the creators cleverly used it as a device to introduce a couple of new characters. Who are pretty much immediately a delight to watch and a worth addition to this series’ cast.

Reverse really has something for collecting skilled ex-bees here. First Gauche, and now it also turns out that one of the most skilled Bees of thirteen years ago is working on his side. This episode also gives us the first real hint beyond the nature of the Akatsuki that the government is really pulling off stuff behind the scenes, but again in this episode we just got to see the side of the Reverse.

Either way though, as characters they’re really charming. Valentine as a veteran Bee works really well: he’s mature, has experienced a lot and forms a real contrast with Lag. His dingo meanwhile is one of those lovable tough guys who gets the formula right with a neat balance between charms and temper. I especially loved the scene between him and Wasiolka.

Also, this episode again spoke of this mysterious “head bee”, but really: what do we exactly know about that? All we know is that it’s the best of the Letter Bees, but we’ve never seen it: neither Gauche or Valentine, despite being the most talented around due to rumours, didn’t manage to become one. So what does it take to make a head bee anyway? And who is the current head bee?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

What a wonderful little episode about a lighthouse keeper. it was told in a completely different style than usual, with us as viewers thrown right in the middle of a story, only revealing bit by bit what’s going on. I love these kinds of episodes in which a series just abandons standard storytelling and tries out something different, and it worked delightfully well here.

The story itself was also excellent here. There have been stories about old men who are abandoned by their children who don’t want to succeed their professions, but it still stood apart as unique by making the old man dead for years, not solving anything other than ridding the world of another Gaichu, and having the man create fake stories and letters in order to escape the loneliness. It’s totally bittersweet, even for a ghost story.

Nichi was also as adorable as ever here. We never actually saw her attempts to get Lag back, other than a bunch of silhouettes, but based on the things she said, along with the bruises she left on Lag’s body we can only imagine what it must have looked like. On top of that, we finally got to see Lag, meeting Jiggy Pepper, and he really turned out to be much more of an interesting guy than I thought.

I know that episodic series are often looked down upon and all, but I love them, exactly because they can be able to pull off episodes like these: it’s something much harder for series with a continuous story, which have their own advantages. For that to happen of course, the series in question does need to have the guts to abandon these conventions, of course, and I’m really glad that Letter Bee belongs to the series who do.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

I’m not sure whether this was a filler or an original chapter from the manga: it could be either one, because it was a random story and yet it had some small relevance: it related back to Lag’s desire to see Gauche again, and his difficulties in expressing his thoughts. Either way, it was in no way a wasted episode.

This episode was a tad predictable, but its charms more than made up for it. I’m not sure what exactly it was that made this episode stand apart from similar stories. Perhaps it was how easily that old maid’s plans, which could have dragged on forever, were thwarted, or how the childhood friend of that rich woman actually sold the treasure that she received when they last met, and always wanted to make up for it somehow.

Usually, bonds between two characters that are just based on one event feel shallow, however this time I could really buy it. It was that hairpin who saved that girl from her debts, and I can see how it made an impact on both of them. That girl, I find it very interesting that she said goodbye to her siblings when they were old enough to take care of themselves. It actually shows a lot about the world they’re in, and how Lag and the other bees aren’t the only children who are working, away from their parents. It’s interesting how in the Letter Bee world, it’s normal for children to develop themselves very early.

Also, the people in the world of Letter Bee have really weird watermarks. 😛
Rating: ** (Excellent)

This season I have room to blog 7 new series. After the first week, there was one show that you forced me to blog, two shows that instantly convinced me that they’re interesting to blog, and one series that I was guaranteed to blog right from the start. I’m still not really sure about the final three, though.

In any case, Letter Bee was the only series that I was guaranteed to blog (I blogged the first season, after all), but for it to turn out this good was beyond what I could have expected. The first episode was already a fantastic aftermath, and this episode again blew my expectations, especially considering so little happened. I mean, this pretty much is an episode in which Nichi runs away, gets a bit of time to think for herself and then goes back to Lag in the end. On paper it should be nothing special. But dammit, Nichi was beyond adorable.

I’m not really sure what it is about her, but just her being on the screen is fun enough to watch. And on top of that, this episode was just really subtle. Again, it rushed nothing and actually took its time to flesh Nichi out a bit more, on top of showing much more about the gunsmith and his bread baking wife who were already introduced in the first season. The time that Nichi spent with them felt really natural. I also loved that a lot was also going o off-screen, like how we suddenly switched to Lag, trying to keep that drunk performer under control: we didn’t exactly see how it happened, but knowing both of them, there really was no need to animate those scenes, as you’d know what happened to them anyway.

This was quite a unique start to a sequel. I mean, even sequels like to start off slowly, or with some kind of introduction or semi-introduction. Letter Bee instead goes for a very touching opening arc that is chock full of character-development. Most of that happened in the previous episode, but this episode also had plenty of it. In particular, it brought the relationship between Lag and Nichi much closer. By far my favourite part of this episode was the point in which Lag and Nichi rejoined with each other.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Okay. So I was prepared for a huge cliff-hanger. What I did not expect however, was that Letter Bee’s first season would end with by far its best episode so far. How are we supposed to wait SIX MONTHS for the next episode, after seeing such an amazing episode?

Seriously, all of Lag’s build-up, both from the fillers and the manga-episodes, it just came together wonderfully in those final ten minutes. Most series usually take an episode or three for their mid-way climax. This show did it just in ten minutes, but those minutes did just about everything right. It’s such a short but gripping conclusion, which completely made up for the duller moments of the rest of this series. The attention this series has spent on fleshing out Lag has surely paid off!

As for the Honey Waters Arc, that one too was very heart-warming as it concluded. I especially like how the creators weren’t as conceited in trying to make the rest of the villagers have a change of heart either: these people have a deep seeded hate against the government. Just a few words of love and peace from Lag ain’t going to make them change that easily.

Overall, I’m glad to have blogged this series, as it definitely was an interesting ride, even though its beginning wasn’t exactly impressive. And hey, this show had the best ED of the past winter-season, its characterization of Nichi was excellent, Lag himself also grew into a fine young man, and the potential of the series’ back-story has only grown over the course of the series. Yeah, there are enough things to praise this series for.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Studio Pierrot… what do you think you’re doing here? My gripe with this episode is small, but it’s still very strange for such a thing to have happened: remember the episode that talked about Zazie’s past? This episode acted like it never happened, showing nearly the exact same flashback twice. Why wasn’t this caught? Adapting a manga isn’t just a matter in which you animate every page accurately. Story flow comes before the need to be faithful and if the creators decided to flesh out Zazie more in a filler episode (which of course was a nice idea), they also need to readjust the point in the manga that they tried to expand.

So yeah, that and the dull fight in this episode didn’t impress me at first. I think that overall, the Gaichuu fights in Letter Bee have all been unimpressive and mediocre. All of the interesting stuff happened around them and the fights were just something necessary to get to them. You really don’t want to watch this series for its action.

Still, when that Gaichuu started gobbling away that girl’s memories, I have to admit that I was totally reminded of why I’m still following this series. That’s the strength of this series: it’s seemingly stupid at times, and doesn’t have the best writers, but surprisingly heavy. Characters may seem like annoying stereotypes at one time, and yet I find myself to care about them once their memories get shown. It’s strange, but as mediocrily (is that a word) told as the regular story is, these memories are all told remarkably well.

Also, Gauche still remains a mystery. Considering that there are only two episodes left, I really wonder how much we’ll get to know of what the heck happened to him, before the long six-month wait until the second season appears. Right now things hint at an accident that happened somewhere around Honey Waters, and could it be that particular Gaichuu that got him? It’s unlikely, though: he was supposed to be the best Bee out there.
Rating: * (Good)

This episode was surprisingly darker than what we’ve seen of this series so far. It’s still a typical Letter Bee episode, with Lag crying, misguided villains and Gaichuu fighting, but some parts were surprisingly heavy.

The thing is, that most of the time in series about kids, bad guys tend to underestimate those kids, and go easy on them, allowing the kids to easily overpower the adults with whatever God-mode beam they have.
Letter Bee too has its share of God-mode Beams: the shindan. However, the adults around them have no pity for them whatsoever. As an anti-government
town, they hate everything that has to do with it, and even tried to feed a bunch of kids to a huge monster. It’s happened more often that kids are put into such ridiculous situations, but thanks to the build-up of the rest of this series, this was actually one of those cases in which I bought it.

As for the “one unable to become a spirit”, we’re still not exactly sure what those are, but Nichi seems to be one, strangely enough. At first I thought that they simply meant that they’re unable to become ghosts, but a “seirei” doesn’t seem to be often associated with humans. In any case, they seem to be so wanted that people are trying to create fake ones by performing surgery on them. Now where do they get those arms from in the first place, and what would be the point in creating them?

The episode closed off with a bit of a deus ex machina, though. What was Zazie doing there, appearing just at the right moment?
Rating: ** (Excellent)