In the land of Amber Ground, a place of perpetual night only partially illuminated by an artificial sun, there's monster creature called Gaichuu. They like to eat "heart" contains in a letter.
Tegami Bachi or Letter Bees are couriers that deliver and protect those important letters and packages.
Lag Seeing is a human letter that Gauche Suede must deliver. After a wondrous journey in which Lag almost died and saved by Gauche, they become a close friend and promise to seeing each other when Lag become a Bee. The manga then follows his ambition and the path of his idol Gauche who went missing...
Contributed by Azh
Story & Characters
The land of Amberground is shrouded in an eternal night, only illuminated by the artificial sun that sits above the
capital city of Akatsuki. A courier service exists to deliver peoples letters across the harsh and unforgiving land,
these couriers are known as Tegami Bachi, or Letter Bee's. Our story follows one such Letter Bee, "Lag
Seeing" as he strives to achieve his one goal in life, to become like his idol Gauche Suede, who delivered Lag as a
letter once.
Tegami Bachi is generally well paced, despite some filler episodes that while being fillers still got you more attached
to the characters. Towards the end of the series though I found my interest waning, partially because of some cliches,
but the last few episodes got me hooked again, though in order to branch away a little from the manga the anime, kind of
created its own ending, and didn't manage to answer many questions posed during the last bit of the story, but the
heart warming story almost makes you forget about the unanswered questions.
A brief rundown of some strangely important yet unexplained concepts in Tegami Bachi would be first The Gaichuu,
insectoid machines that seek out the "Heart" in people and letter. Now since the Letter Bee's deliver
letters, to combat these Gaichuu the Letter Bee's use Shindans, a weapon, typically a gun that fires a fragment of
the shooters heart, with the help of a Spirit Amber inside the shindan, Spirit Ambers appear to be a petrified insect in
amber, while shindans are typically ineffective against humans the can destroy Gaichuu
As for characters the story mainly follows a very small group of characters, I can only think of a max of 8 characters
that appear regularly throughout the show. The four main characters would have to be Lag Seeing, the series protagonist
who is a 12 year old boy, who has a Spirit Amber implanted in his left eye. Niche, Lag's Dingo, a sort of
partner/bodyguard to Letter Bee's she has a mysterious abililty to turn her hair into a series of razor sharp
blades. Zazie is a fellow Letter Bee, who is only interested in destroying Gaichuu, and finally Conner Cuhl, a
Letter Bee, who along with Zazie takes a role as one of Lags dear friends and somewhat of a
mentor.
While Tegami Bachi's story may not be the most complex, or deep, it still manages to tell a heartwarming
coming-of-age tale, and doesn't take itself too seriously.
Rating: 7
Art
Tegami Bachi's art is difficult to explain... The pallete seems to use a lot of darker, cool colors like purple,
blue, and black. While light tends to be very orange, except for the artificial sun which is a very cartoonish pointy,
childish sun bathed in an eerie whie light. The Gaichuu are so a sight to see, (if they weren't trying to kill you
and all) the are very inticately designed with many small details and you rarely see the same one many times, they
appear to be rendered in CG, which is always a nice touch.
The general art is almost story bookish at times, but not often, the entire setting is decidedly French, late
1800's judging by the lack of automobiles,(aside from one motorcycle), so the clothes are all pretty faithful to
that time period.
As for characters they all fit their role very well, Lag in particular fits his character extremely well, he is a kid
still so they definitely gave Lag a more childish, rounded face. One thing that was a little strange was that excluding
Lag and Niche, all of the children's eyes really creep me out, because they are completely black, I do not know
what possesed the character designer to do this, but I found it weird.
Rating: 7
Sound
As far as memorable soundtracks go Tegami Bachi ranks in my top 10, honestly there is not one song in this anime that I
hated, while some take some time to get used to(Opening 4) they all kinda grew on me. Every opening besides Four was
very befitting of the show, I really can't descibe them in any other way that that, they just fit. Opening four on
the other hand was a little less fitting, it was a hip-hop-ish song that when they first put it in for use it was
off-beat with the movement of the pictures in the opening, but thinking about it I believe it was meant to make the
viewer think that somethings not quite right, because after a certain event happens a second version of the song is
introduced.
Expect to hear a lot of classical music in the backgrounds, as it tries really hard to get the time period right for
some reason. These classical songs come in all sorts of varieties, from sad tear jerkers, to upbeat songs. One character
even plays a violen, and Lag's shindan the Nocturne Op. 20 is even named after a classical music composition.
As of the time of this writing Tegami Bachi is only in Japanese, while im not complaining, I do tend to watch anime in
their English dub, if its not horrible. But this just blew me away, just the pure emotion that Lag in particular give
off, its insane. He cries in nearly every episode and they all sound like a 12 year old just balling his eyes out, even
the comedy bits are very high energy, and believable. There was no point were it sounded like acting, it sounded like
Lag was talking, or Zazie, it was just so believable, I couldn't recognize any actors at all, so really just
top-notch voice acting.
Rating: 9
Presentation
Tegami Bachi is one of those shows where you go in not knowing what to expect, but come out praising it. When you start
Tegami Bachi it is honestly hard to put down, the connection to the characters may not be as strong as in say Angel
Beats! But it still a strong connection. As you follow Lag's adventure across Amberground a rare thing happens, you
genuinely start care for Lag, and the rest of the Letter Bee's.
Tegami Bachi stands as one of the most original, yet simple animes I've seen, I would honestly recommend it to
anyone who enjoys a good, original, and heart warming anime.
Rating: 8
Final Verdict
7.6667 (good)
Reviewed by fallenkaze, Apr 24, 2013
