First Impressions / Tegami Bachi

OP2 Sequence

[flv:Tegami_Bachi_REVERSE_OP2.mp4 512 288]

OP2: 「約束」 (Yakusoku) by スガシカオ (Suga Shikao)
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Aria proves she’s one tough Bee despite her clumsiness.

「瞬きの日」 (Matataki no Hi)
“Day of Flicker”

The truth behind the Day of Flicker is revealed and Gauche reawakens with his original memories intact? How could I possible let this episode go by without saying a few words about it? We have new opening and ending themes to boot, with Suga Shikao back for the former. For the ending we have a catchy song by Yamazaru, alongside a really cute sequence that busts it old school SNES Mode 7 style. Taking that all into consideration, I’m quickly reminded why I like this series so much. In fact, I’m going to try to make time to keep covering it in some minimalistic manner, which this post makes some strides towards by cutting down on screen captures and captions.

Anyway, on top of reinforcing the idea that the Akatsuki government’s soiled their hands with conspiracies and that the Reverse activists have every reason to be pissed off, this episode shed some light on characters we’ve met long ago. In particular, the bridge gatekeeper Signal (Camus) actually has two more brothers, Thane and Jean, all of whom were on board the airship “Progres” that crashed twelves years ago. Dr. Thunderland Jr. was another survivor, as were an engineer named Houdai Franklin (Tsuchida Hiroshi), and the commander Balor. As for the conspiracy, the true purpose of the flight seemed to be bringing humans close to the artificial sun so that it can re-energize itself by stealing the “light” from their eyesight. In other words, it’s another human experiment and probably the biggest one in the world of Amberground, seeing as the artificial sun is some living entity that resembles a combination of God and Envy. A rather befitting similarity, considering that human experimentation comes off as much of a taboo as human transmutation does in Fullmetal Alchemist. Quite honestly, that level of corruption by the government was beyond anything I was anticipating, and the mere thought of what it entails changed my perspective of this series in a drastic way. The memories that came pouring out of Lag’s spirit amber eye raises even more questions, particularly the ones that aren’t his own and show the world before it had fallen into perpetual darkness.

 

Niche has to reassess the power rankings. Aria’s deemed 500 times stronger than Lag now.

The look on Largo’s face makes it seem like he knew what was going to happen.

An explosion of memories prompted by…?

In a way, the Amberground government has harnessed the power of an evil god.

Visions of Amberground before it fell into perpetual darkness? I think so.

A heartfelt reunion that I’ve been waiting to see since the first season.

At the moment, I’m curious if Gauche has truly returned to his normal self, since the preview shows him thinking things over upon returning home after all these years. The new opening sequence isn’t really indicative of what we’re in store for, since it’s mainly comprised of a lot of older scenes we’ve already seen. What we do know is that we haven’t seen the last of Roda, so it’ll be interesting to see how Gauche is affected if and when he sees her again. Tegami Bachi’s getting pretty epic!

 

ED2 Sequence

[flv:Tegami_Bachi_REVERSE_ED2.mp4 512 288]

ED2: 「ペルセウス」 (Perseus) by 山猿 (Yamazaru)
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Preview

Gauche returns home for the first time in years. I get the feeling his time with Reverse will affect how he feels about the government even now.

26 Comments

  1. There is a huge massive spoiler in the middle of this. Question is will it be revealed in the anime before the season ends. Manga readers will know which one I’m talking about. Don’t want to ruin it for the anime folks so Show Spoiler ▼

    Karmafan
    Reply

  2. holy crap its 14 eps already! I thought it would just end at 13 eps. I guess I need 2 pick up the pace.

    Haven’t read the manga for a while. Look like im going to postpone reading the manga until the anime ends

    Alec
    Reply

  4. That was the most heart-felt reunion. (SOB~) I’m so happy and relieved that Gauche is back. I only watched this anime to see if Lag can bring him back. And Lag delivered. I love the new opening and ending. Now I got to wait till next week to see what happens next.

    Rika
    Reply

  5. OH MY GOD IT’S A GIANT FETUS. INSIDE THE SUN. IT’S A GIANT EYE-STEALING FETUS.

    That just blew my mind.

    And Jun Fukuyama returns! Awww, Lag is such a crybaby. Love’im. <3

    Poiira
    Reply

  8. Dr. Thunderland looked like such a delinquent as a Bee X03. And Aria’s uniform needs A LOT of air too.

    This episode continues with the excellent development. After seeing you wouldn’t be covering this any longer, I was somewhat disappointed. Its understandable though due to the low amount of comments this show gets and newer shows coming out and all that. It’s truly a great anime that I don’t think gets the attention it deserves. Glad to see that you’re, at least, still watching it, regardless if you will continue to blog it or not =03.

    frubam
    Reply

  9. This episode is great! Not only Gauche has awakened, but the truth behind the airship crash is revealed.
    So Divine is not going to cover this series anymore? That will be disappointing since it’s getting interesting.

    Kae
    Reply

  10. what gets me the most in this episode is the fact that the “thing” was shouting mother. I was wondering if this was the memory of people’s hearts it stole or is it calling to its own mother. I really do not want that thing to hatch as that would be worse than the flying dragonfly. It would shine death as it eats people’s hearts.

    Shadiic
    Reply

  12. *resists to give manga spoiler* give it an episode or two, and we’ll be breaking off the manga now.

    I’ve been reminded that there’s a one-eyed dinosaur living in that sun.
    And an assumption: was the yound Houdai voiced by Kousuke Toriumi? sure sounded like him

    Sebz
    Reply

      2. Oh, I’m not sure about younger one, but it didn’t quite sound like Toriumi Kousuke. There wasn’t a separate seiyuu listed for his younger version.

        However, I’m pretty sure I heard Fukuyama Jun doubling up roles as one of the other triplets, plus Abe Atsushi as the younger Camus (who was listed in the credits).

        Divine
        Reply

  18. ” The memories that came pouring out of Lag’s spirit amber eye raises even more questions, particularly the ones that aren’t his own and show the world before it had fallen into perpetual darkness.”

    The theory is that Lag is a sprite amber that was turned into a human baby on the Day of Flicker (possibly in a similar way in how Roda became a human?) which would explain why he holds these ancient memories. I don’t see how the creature in the artificial sun connects in all of this (maybe they used the power from that day to create Lag?) but it sort if makes sense after Niche’s sister’s comment about him.

    But anyway, the final scene was just so beautiful T_T I’m glad that your back on blogging this Divine.

    Arabesque
    Reply

  19. am I seriously the only one who practically peed myself at that…well I don’t really know what it is…in the sun? I mean granted I have NO tolerance for scary things but SERIOUSLY?

    mother…mother…MOTHERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!

    ohhh it gives me the chills just thinking about it…

    Shiki
    Reply

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