Posted by OP Sequence:
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OP: 「はじまりの日」 (Hajimari no Hi) by スガ シカオ (Suga Shikao)
Watch the OP!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Streaming ▼
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「テガミとテガミバチ」 (Tegami to Tegami Bachi)
“Letter and Letter Bee”
Where Armed Librarians have seemingly failed to deliver, Armed Postmen step up to the task.
The story here follows a seven year old boy named Lag Seeing (Sawashiro Miyuki) after a Letter Bee mail carrier, Gauche Suede (Fukuyama Jun) discovers him by his burnt down isolated home somewhere in the mountains. Much to Gauche’s surprise, Lag is the actual package he’s been sent to pick up and deliver. Naturally, Lag is shocked to hear this when he comes to, but after listening to Gauche’s explanation of the situation he eventually comes along on his own accord. He finds it hard to believe that his mother would send him away though, which we find out later is because she was taken away (possibly killed) by a group of men before their house was destroyed.
Over the course of the episode, Gauche explains to Lag (and us) about the presence of armored insect creatures known as Gaichuu 「鎧虫」 that roam around in the outside world. To combat them, Letter Bees are equipped with a Shindanjuu 「心弾銃」 (literally a “Heart-Bullet Gun”) embedded with a Spirit Amber 「精霊琥珀」, which uses fragments of the user’s own heart as its source of power. Unsurprisingly, this slowly eats away at their very being and will someday result in very dire consequences. As it turns out, a Shindan can be used for both offense and healing.
The interesting part here is that the user’s heart seems to resonate with people around him/her when a Shindan is used. This explains why Gauche’s memories of a girl named Sylvette (Mizuki Nana) were caught up in Lag’s memories of his mother at the beginning of the episode, and vice-versa when Lag went a bit berserk with Gauche’s gun. In the latter case, we also learn about a female Letter Bee named Aria Link (Koshimizu Ami), who appears to be really close to Gauche. For someone who’s seen the Letter Bee OVA prior to this, I have an idea of things to come with Aria but I’m still looking forward to the lengthier version with all the itty-bitty details. As indicated by the opening sequence, Lag’s encounter with Gauche puts him on the path of a Letter Bee later on, where we should learn more about his past and the reason why a Spirit Amber is embedded into his left eye.
For a first episode, not a terribly lot happened but I found the full twenty or so minutes very entertaining. It established the premise of the story as well as some of the terminology, plus hinted at a lot of things to come with the flashbacks. The setting of the series is somewhat dark, but the ambiance was not thanks to the amiable characters. The backdrops were really nice to look at since I love combinations of blue and purple shades, as well as the mechanical-like details of the Gaichuu seen when they’re destroyed. In short, I have to say that I’m quite pleased with Studio Pierrot‘s work here on the first episode, so I hope they can keep it up. Overall, this felt like a prequel episode to the OVA, which left me wanting to see more.
Cast-wise, you can never go wrong with Sawashiro Miyuki (recent CANAAN interview here). I absolutely love her work in almost any type of role she plays and there are A LOT she can play. Fukuyama Jun and Koshimizu Ami look like they’re together again as potential love interests, which continues the trend of Lelouch x Kallen, Lawrence x Horo, Kyoutarou x Nodoka (Saki!?). In any case, they’re always fun to watch too. We should hear more from Mizuki Nana as well, plus there’s Fujimura Ayumi, who’s been on my radar ever since Nabari no Ou but has yet to show up as Niche.
As for the music, it’s been a while since I’ve heard such a refreshing opening theme in an anime series. Whether or not it’s because of a lack of songs by male singers I’m not sure, but it works for me either way. The ending theme is performed by the Second Annual Animax Anison Grand Prix winner HIMEKA, who many of you may know from the first opening theme to Valkyria Chronicles, “Asu e no Kizuna”. All I have to say is this French Canadian girl sure knows how to represent! Much like “Asu e no Kizuna”, “Hatenaki Michi” is a powerful song and by no means sounds like it’s being sung by a foreigner. The ending sequence itself is a bit strange though, because it starts off with the preview for the next episode. As for the actual sequence, I love how the emotion-filled scenes foreshadow even more things to come.
Given the visuals, audio, premise, and story thus far, I’m definitely going to follow this series. Between Armed Librarians and Letter Bees, the latter really got out the door on the right foot. Streaming simulcasts with official subtitles are available via Crunchyroll, but as usual, delayed one week if you’re not a paying member.
ED Sequence:
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ED: 「果てなき道」 (Hatenaki Michi) by HIMEKA
Watch the ED!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Streaming ▼
Yup, I haven’t given up on the Armed Librarians show, I’ll give it another 2 or 3 episodes. But Letter Bee really came out as a good surprise.
Been waiting for a long time and it is here. Thnks Omni good to see ur gona be blogin this.
My mistake sorry Divine. I should be thanking u instead. Just watched it live and it was great.
This looks really nice, I’ll give it a watch.
Yay Divine are you going to blog it?
I thought Gauches voice would be a little deeper, but that may be how 18 year old jap males sound like.
I like the pace and hope they follow the manga and opt for the ending to be around chapter 31 of the manga.
pues mas o menos, solo que no me llama la atención
saludos
Haha, I knew that you will like it. To me it reminds me a lot of Kino no Tabi as the atmosphere is pretty much similar except while one is a traveler, the other travels as a way to deliver mails.
Yeah Himeka ! “Vive le Québec xD”
Is this anything like the movie “The Postman” starring Kevin Costner? heh j/k
Judging by how ridiculously deep the OVA was, I can definitely take a liking to this. It also doesn’t hurt to give us the entire 1st episode as background infomation instead of just dropping us into some bs present-day scenario full of flashbacks & dream sequences.
So happy that you’re following this OMNI! It’s looking to be a promising series, and after seeing the OVA I was certain to go on following it. The story is an interesting and fresh change of pace compared to other anime- with a colorful cast of characters. Can’t wait to see how the rest of the series will turn out.
ffff I meant Divine. I really can’t keep up/or track of things can I? I’m following pretty much everything you guys are watching! Too many great fall shows. 🙁
hum, seems good.
dont worry about nothing happening this episode cuz if it follows the path of the manga itll be a lot more exciting next episode and itll only get better once they introduce niche
thats alot of purple
read upto 7 year old boy.
not interested.
@Kain
Show Spoiler ▼
I wish to find out watching this anime why Lag and Gauche look nearly exactly the same, the only difference between them is that Gauche’s eyes are slightly paler, this could be attributed to colour leaving his eyes as he shoots his heart though, to put it in the most Anime way possible.
I remember reading the manga for this a while back and it never caught my interest but i decided to check out the anime and suprisingly enough the anime > manga.
Dragonite88, Cherubium, Harowiin:
We’ve both expressed interest in this series; I just happened to beat Omni out the door with a post so he let me finish it.
As for blogging Letter Bee, we’re not sure who’s going to be doing it. I’d like to hand it over to Omni so he doesn’t miss out on this series though. (He doesn’t tend to watch anything he’s not blogging.) This would work out well for me too, since I only want to blog a series (maybe two) regularly. 🙂
For the record, I did watch the first episode, and I thought it was decent, but not that great, certainly not enough to guarantee blogging it. Lag Seeing’s crybaby-ness didn’t get on my nerves in the manga like it does here in the anime. I agree with the commenter above who said that the story gets better once Niche appears, but until all the shows air and my schedule gets sorted out, there’s no telling if I’ll have time to follow this to that point or not.
Well if Omni and Divine opt for a duel blogging that’s fine.
It’s just Divine DON’T push yourself to far like last time and end up sickly.
WTH, I must have watched a different one because I watched letter bee ep one and it was totally diff than this. He had to deliver this dog named darwin who was someones old dingo to some old woman ?? I dunno so strange
Cherubium:
We’re more or less trying to decide “who’s willing to do it” at this point.
I enjoy blogging, but don’t want to commit to a lot of shows on a regular basis like before. It sounds like you already know — my schedule never really accommodated it very well and I lost a bunch of sleep over it. If only I could make this my day job! 🙂
I had a lot of fun writing those mini Snapshots before, so I might opt to do something similar again. They’re pretty quick to get out (a handful of screenshots and a small blurp of impressions) and get the discussion on an episode going here.
Omni’s very good with his summaries (he basically has it down to an art), but I’m still on the fence about mine. Sometimes I get overly detailed (in a bad way) and that eats up all my time.
Kev:
That was the OVA. It takes place when Lag is already a Letter Bee himself. This TV series should get there pretty soon.
Divine
The way you bloged HnG was good it was short and sweet though you did try to get so many pics of Hina lol. Well if time does permit I hope to see u blogin like the good all dayz.
This show was surprisingly good. I’m not even sure what about it made it interesting, because the premise sounds kind of silly, but the execution was pleasing.
Dragonite88:
Thanks for the feedback. 🙂
I’m in the middle of figuring out something that’ll work in the long run. These next couple of weeks should let me assess what I can manage. Sometimes I really wish I could cover all the shows that I watch, share my thoughts, and read everyone else’s on them.
As you guys can probably tell, Omni’s pretty dedicated to the site, so he puts out good content all the time. The last thing I’d want to do here is try and cover a lot of shows with half-assed write-ups no one would bother reading. (I have personal standards/expectations I’d like to maintain.)
That said, I really like Letter Bee so it’s higher on my priority list so far. ^_^
@divine
An OVA? So i guess i watched the wrong episode cause I was so confused when i saw this blog entry that I thought maybe I had dreamed the events of the OVA. lol
Thanks clearing that up.
Yay ♥ As long as someone does it, I’m happy regardless. Both of your do fabulous jobs imo.
I have watched the first episode and I loved it 🙂
Lelouch talking to a small kid. LMAO. XD
Haven’t given up on Armed Librarians as well; can’t wait to see this MEAT join the ‘good’ guys side and kick some bad guys buttocks. Eeek, action-hero fanboy alert!
Lelouch as Gauche is just too bizarre…
Show Spoiler ▼
very humourous on the armed librarians part 😛 I noticed Letter bee maybe 6 months ago. Lovely that it was turned into an anime.