Letter Bee – 7

Oh snap. Interesting twist at the end. Now that Lag’s training is finally complete (lol @ the training being WAY shorter than the actual journey to get there), it seems as if Letter Bee will finally start getting a bit deeper into the bigger mysteries of the story. Better late than never.

It’s all happiness and smiles at the beginning of the episode as Lag and Niche make it through their mini-ordeal and get on their way to the Bee exam. However, once again a short talk with Connor provides an edge of uncertainty — when Lag brings up the subject of Gauche’s sister, Sylvette, Connor is clearly uncomfortable (although he says he will bring Lag to see her when Lag is finished with the exam), and when Lag briefly mentions Gauche’s mission to become Head Bee, Connor’s reaction is definitely, “Yeah . . . let’s not talk about that right now.”

Letter Bee – 6

Boy did I need a good night’s sleep — I would have wrote about Monster yesterday, but a soul-crushing trip to the DMV coupled with a long day of work sapped all my mental energy. But I’ll make up for that by writing about Letter Bee right now and then posting about Monster in a couple of hours! Yay!

This episode kicks off right where the last one ended. As I expected, the Bees do have an ID system in place to prevent thieves from stealing the crossing letter and gaining illegal entry into Akatsuki. Poor Nelli barely makes it a few feet before she is found out and a giant lizard is let loose upon her. Harsh punishment. Lag and Niche quickly arrive to save the day, which leads to an assload of memories being unleashed upon everyone. For whatever reason, I am actually liking the use of memories to develop the characters, even though it really amounts to info dumping each episode. Maybe I am just a sucker for memories.

Letter Bee – 5

So, hey, Niche’s name is actually a decent foreshadowing of the direction she and Lag are going in right now. Who would have thought?

Lag is trying his damnedest to get on the path of the Letter Bee, but interestingly, Niche has also thrown herself completely into the role of Lag’s dingo. She is not just claiming that identity — she is owning it. Being addressed as anything less than “Niche, Lag’s dingo” is unacceptable to her. The episode treats this delicately, and rightfully so, because it could easily come off as a tad misogynistic if done incorrectly. But Niche sees that role as a protective role. As Lag explains it to Niche, a dingo is the partner of the Letter Bee. There is no ownership involved; they help each other deliver the letters.

Letter Bee – 4

Letter Bee‘s world is so strange.

It’s not just the names, although they are weird enough on their own. (“Love Someone Down”? I suppose a freak show deserves a bizarre name.) It is not even simply the terrain. (The Broccoli Forest is like an area from the children’s nightmare version of Candy Land.) There is just something about this world that is . . . I cannot even think of a proper way to describe it. Everything just comes together in a way that makes me go, “Hubbawaha?!” when I watch an episode. Not totally sure yet if that is a good or bad thing, however, haha.

Letter Bee – 3

After the first episode, I wondered if sending actual humans as “letters” was a rare occurrence in this world, but with Lag spearheading the delivery of this girl — whom he has dubbed “Niche” — it might be not be so strange here.

There is a somewhat sinister bent to this, though. Do the Bees deliver humans no questions asked, or is there some sort of screening process? The higher ups must not be such great people if they run an organization that keeps a little girl chained up in a crevice and will eventually release her to fend for herself (Connor says there is probably no place in town that can take her in, and somehow I don’t believe the organization will find a place for Niche to stay). Then again, Lag being delivered to his Aunt Sabrina is probably the best thing that could have happened to him. There are probably good Bees and bad Bees, too. Connor is cool with me; even though he won’t go as far as to deliver Niche himself, he at least sticks his neck out to enable Lag to deliver Niche to her destination.

Letter Bee – 2

I am happy to see that Lag’s story will really start going next week, but in a way, I am also sad to see Lag and Gauche part ways so early in the series.

Their relationship gets slightly more complex in this episode. The fun parts still remain — Lag teases Gauche a bit about the memories he witnessed while under the influence of the Spirit Amber. Lag’s tiny hint about having the hots for Sylvette made me laugh for a good while. And his line about jerks being promoted is gold. I really would have watched an entire series with just Lag and Gauche traveling around wastelands delivering letters. It would be awesome.

Letter Bee – 1

I had a bit of trouble figuring out what I wanted to blog this season. Kimi ni Todoke seems like a given to me (particularly if it can even partially replicate the success of last year’s Toradora!) and Sasameki Koto seems interesting enough for me to want to give it a shot, especially since I enjoyed Aoi Hana so much (although I am told Sasameki tends slightly more toward comedy). But what about another series? Nothing seemed to really grab me, but I have a good amount of time on my hands since Bakemonogatari will not continue until the end of the month.

But Letter Bee has stepped in nicely.