Tegami Bachi REVERSE – 13

The Bee Hive must be really short-staffed if they have to send Zazie right back out after Carbernet. It might be time to introduce some new Bees.

Helmet head Lag!

The struggles of a Tegami Bachi… getting into her old pants.

「紅緋色の旋律」 (Benihi-iro no Senritsu)
“Deep Crimson Melody”

After all that talk about wanting to see Aria back in active service, my visions of a cool beauty taking out Gaichuu with ease were quickly shattered when she turned out to be a complete klutz. I would’ve never known given how strict and diligent she is back at the Bee Hive, so this other side of her was like a completely different character. Before Aria’s portion of the episode got underway, I kind of wish they touched upon Gauche’s condition, which didn’t get any real mention when most of it was on Lag for overexerting his heart. What I’m hoping this mean is that Gauche’s recovery will be saved for a much more critical part of the story, possibly in connection to conspiracy behind the Day of Flicker that was hinted at in the preview. Other than that, it was all Aria, Niche, and Steak this time, making for some pretty funny moments when Niche wasn’t the least bit amused by the veteran Bee she had to partner up with.

 

Lag’s face says it all about the disillusionment over Aria’s image.

Niche is pretty cute when it comes to being Lag’s dingo. That, and girls with big boobs.

Aria can only smile about Sylvette’s disgusting-tasting soup because she hasn’t tasted it yet.

At this point I had to stop and wonder how Aria was ever able to deliver letters.

Taken out of context, the look Niche and Aria are giving one another tells a different story.

Aria and Niche have their game faces on before another Gaichuu named after an alcoholic drink. This time it’s the Tequila Sunrise!

Aria should have really gotten an easy-to-use gun where can just pull a trigger rather than an instrument she has to play a tune on.

Niche shows some more creative uses of her hair since meeting her sister.

I know that a Bee and a dingo are supposed to be work together as a cohesive unit, but watching the absolute breakdown between Aria and Niche was pretty hilarious. In particular, Aria trying to run away at first followed by Niche telling her to fire her “Aribari”. Then there was Niche’s growing annoyance over how long it takes Aria to fire her shindan and to hurry it up with a “scramble dash”. Aribara, scramble dash. Great stuff.

 

Even without Lag’s shindan, we still get a trip down memory lane. Niche was watching comfortably in the grasp of a Tequila Sunrise too, however that works.

The scar on his forehead explains where the name Bolt came from, whereas it’s a mystery how we haven’t seen Aria trip at the Hive yet.

“Hibike! Benihi-iro no Senritsu!”
And here I thought Aria’s violin could only heal people. Three large shindans at once. Impressive.

It wasn’t Bolt, but Niche’s hair cushion reminded Aria of the one and only dingo for her.

Niche’s quirky manner of speech is pretty adorable and she continued to show that here. I really couldn’t help but laugh at her line, “Your dingo is really something something too” (Omae no dingo mo nakanaka no nakanaka da), after seeing some of Aria’s memories of Bolt. For the most part, the flashbacks themselves served as a nice little look into Aria’s past, which was a welcomed addition since I knew practically nothing about her up until now. All she’s been is the somewhat strict sub-master of the Hive.

 

Either Gauche can’t take a hint or he knew he didn’t have time to get into a relationship.

Poor Bolt lost most of his eyesight from growing older.

All it took was one sloppy fight together for these two to work out all the kinks as partners.

I wasn’t expected the bridge-keeper Signal (Camus) to be part of Reverse, but his bandaged face was a pretty good indicator now that I think about it.

Lawrence is making a good pitch for the “last boss” position in the series.

While this episode didn’t even go remotely the way I expected, it was an interesting surprise with a bunch of lighthearted moments. Balancing that out was a bit of backstory on Aria and how she retired from active service when Bolt started losing his vision, leading her to her office job thanks to Largo. That particular flashback wasn’t terribly sad, but it did provide some added depth to Aria’s character that I’ve been dying to see. It still blows my mind how much of a klutz she is, so it’ll probably take a little bit longer for my image of her to realign itself. The next episode should help in that regard since it looks like it’ll follow her and Niche’s delivery for a bit longer, plus delve into the Day of Flicker. Given how Lag was born on that mysterious day, I’m starting to wonder if there’s any connection between his birthday and how he’s probably considered someone who was able to become a spirit. Hopefully the story starts moving towards some answers soon.

Note: The Tegami Bachi REVERSE broadcast is on break next week. Episode 14 airs on January 8th.

 

Preview

More on the Day of Flicker, plus Elena Bran and her dingo Darwin seen in the pilot and episode 17.