This episode was actually pretty good. It’s still the kind of drama we’re used to from this series: simple and emotional, and on top of that this episode simply showed the story of a random person who happened to cross Lag’s path at an unfortunate time. However, the way in which letter Bee sets itself apart from all of the other dramas this season is the way in which its drama feels really genuine.
Normally this episode would have been very cheesy indeed: we have this girl who has lost her little brother, and the final wish of this brother is to send a message to a Letter Bee who used to be friends with them. However, this episode was surprisingly well told: the creators added lots of small details that spiced up this episode, like the way in which that girl first deceives Lag, Nichi who wants to be called a Dingo while Lag wants to return her to a place in which she can grow up safely (still not recognizing that he’d be absolutely screwed if it wasn’t for her), the traveller and his falcon, the villagers, the background music. It all amounted to a surprisingly good climax.
Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but if you exclude the still frames, then the animation is actually pretty good, isn’t it? And with that, I mostly mean the in-between animation. I think that that’s also the thing that Studio Pierrot is especially good at. I especially noticed this when I watched Kaze no Youjinbo: its animation is either incredibly good or incredibly bad. And you can also spot those really good parts of animation in the opening episodes of GTO. I’m hoping that the awesome animators who were responsible for those good parts are going to return here as well. This episode was at least an indication that the creators are going for a very good frame-rates.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
The line that Niche said in episode 3 “You are the first person to make me wear pants” was really, really disturbing… So much that I’m considering dropping the series. Can some manga reader tell me if this anime will ever return to the goodness of the first 2 episodes?
it’s not that bad if you don’t see her as a little girl. That’s what I do, and it becomes quite amusing when she says stuff like that, it’s like some twisted version of regular tsundere confession lines
Perrin, what are you to be so stressed from words that clearly have no sexual meaning whatsoever? A puritan? A nun?
Niche, as an half animal, said by examples: “you are the one who’s ever been closer to me” and that is all.
By the way i’m reading the manga. The anime follows accurately the first 5 chapters up now. The pants joke recurs some times in the manga, and it’s the only attempt of fanservice that’s there. It’s not that it bothers too much, as the story is very good. There are a lot of mysteries in Lag’s future as a letter bee. THe first chapter were just a bit cheesy just as the anime is, but later the story becomes darker and mysterious. I wont spoil anything though 😉