Tegami Bachi REVERSE – 07

Giant sea lion carriages. It’s the only way to travel up in the frigid north.

「Film noir」

The search for Gauche is underway and Lag is sent up north to the town of Blue Notes Blue to look for him. However, upon stumbling on some clues, he uses his Akabari to find out more on how Gauche ended up with Reverse, while Zazie has the unfortunate pleasure of running into the man himself. Surprisingly, not a whole lot else happened other than that, but this episode flew by pretty quickly with more backstory of Gauche’s mysterious betrayal and the corruption in Akatsuki that the Reverse organization is trying to overturn. Noir and Zazie firing shindans at one another definitely helped quicken the pace, despite how lopsided their exchange was.

The flashbacks from Lag’s shindan didn’t add too much in comparison, though the sight of one of the government’s human experiments put a new darker perspective on the corruption happening in the capital. Furthermore, they revealed that Gauche isn’t brainwashed or anything of the sort, but acting of his own accord based on the information that Lawrence has provided him on the underhanded workings of the world. More specifically, the light in Akatsuki is the true evil in the world and Gauche was able to escape its rays and return to the darkness. It’s unusual how light is portrayed as the “bad thing” in this story, but the idea doesn’t feel out of place either given the nature of the perpetually dark world of Amberground. The fact that there’s an artificial sun that only high class citizens living in Akatsuki get to bask in places more doubt on if light is a good thing, plus there’s the whole Day of Flicker (Matataki no Hi) incident to take into consideration.

With Zazie as the latest victim of the marauders and from Noir no less, I would’ve like to see the story continue with Lag’s pursuit. That of course is only true if the preview didn’t indicate that the story is going to delve into Niche’s past instead, which is something I’ve been curious about ever since the preview at the end of the first season. From the look of it, Lag and Niche are going to come into contact with who I would imagine to be Niche’s mother, Maka. I have no idea what will come from Niche returning to her hometown after all this time, but I sure as hell want to find out.

I was hoping Aria would partake in the search for Gauche, but it’s all left up to Lag.

Niche goes ski jumping with her self-made skis. Knees bent and… take off!

It just looks like a Gaichuu shed its skin, but Lag looks for answers in the cartridge shells left behind.

Elsewhere up north, Gauche finds Zazie first and doesn’t hesitate to shoot him and steal his letters.

Let’s just be grateful shindans don’t completely obliterate humans nor dingos like they do Gaichuu. Gone is Gauche’s “Kurobari”, replaced by his “Gymnopedies”.

The memories revealed in the bullet cartridge start off the same as the ones seen in episode one, which show a much younger Gauche taken in by Reverse.

Zazie’s not going down without a fight and reveals how he won’t let Lag suffer the same pain he did.

With the government’s artificial light in Amberground portrayed as the source of evil, things are reversed in more ways than one.

The nameless girl soon receives the name Roda from Gauche, indicating that the latter hasn’t lost all his memories just yet.

It’s a bit surprising to learn that Gauche stopped by Yuusari one last time before leaving his past behind, including Sylvette whom he walked right by.

Human experimentation that led to the creation of a mermaid? The government’s looking more and more corrupt in light of this.

With a new gun, new name, and new outlook on the world as one of Lawrence’s marauders, it looks like Lag’s going to have to write one hell of a letter to bring Gauche back.

On top of the pointblank shot, Zazie sustains another hit from Noir’s Gymnopedies.

He does get a glimpse of some Gaichuu experimentation Noir’s been up to though.

Zazie is one tough cookie and musters enough strength to fire another Aotoge into the sky. I thought he was trying to signal to Lag in the area, but Niche didn’t make much of the shindan even when she noticed it lighting up the skies.

Lag on the other hand is still enjoying the show after falling into a cavern.

I can’t even imagine where Lag would be now without Niche.

Niche recognizes her hometown of Blue Notes Blues, where she was born over 200 years ago.

Preview

Niche is reunited with who I would imagine to be her mother Maka. And to think she might look like that in a few (more hundred) years without a care in the world for clothes.