Customer Reviews

Tegami Bachi, Letter Bee, Vol. 1: Letter and Letter Bee

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In the little world of Hiroyuki Asada, a letter bee is a mailman who will deliver anything with a postal tag -- and with it, the "heart" of the sender. And "Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee, Volume 1" introduces readers to a star-studded little world of night, insectile monsters and die-hard letter carriers, although the time skip is a bit confusing.

A letter bee named Gauche Suede (and his faithul dingo) comes across a small boy in a burned-up house, soon after his mother has been stolen by mysterious strangers. Since the kid has a postal sticker stuck to his back, he officially counts as "a letter" and must be delivered to his destination -- his aunt's house in a far-off city.

As they travel through a star-studded wasteland, Lag begins to learn about the world of the letter bees -- the insectile gaichuu that attack them, their "heart" (or memory) shooting guns that are the only weapons that can take out the gaichuu, and their determination to take any letter to its destination. He and Gauche also start to bond, and learn one another's secrets and sorrows.

Skip ahead a few years: Lag is on his way to become a letter bee, despite his lack of a dingo. But then he stumbles across a strange little girl in a niche at a train station, with a sticker on her arm. Naming her Niche, Lag takes the reluctant girl to her destination (after jamming some baggy boxers on her), but discovers that she's a creature even stranger than he once thought -- even more so than he is.

"Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee" is not a manga for people who like nonstop one-on-one fights or high drama -- it's a gentle, quiet little story with plenty of heart and poignancy. And Asada's artwork makes it a lovely experience -- he fills out the story with starlit night skies, quaint little villages, childlike round-faced people, and shimmering eruptions of "heart" that light up the desolate landscape.

The only real problem with the first volume is that the first half is a bit confusing -- I initially thought that Gauche was going to be the protagonist and titular "letter bee," but it turned out to be Lag's journey instead. But Asada keeps things interesting and moving along at a nimble clip, with moments of humor (Niche in her baggy boxers) and action (attacks from the gaichuu). And he injects some distinctly fantastical elements to his protagonists, which ought to be interesting in the future.

Despite one odd aspect of himself, Lag seems very much a normal little boy -- he's haunted by the mysterious loss of his mother, and later shows great compassion and courage (much like his mentor Gauche). Niche is a murkier character, since her emotions and past are are strange as her magical body -- especially since she hardly ever changes expression. But she seems to be warming up to Lag.

"Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee Volume 1" is a bit confusing in its first half, but it's a charming, magical story interlaced with uplifting moments and sorrow.

I enjoyed reading this volume so much. I love the characters. The story is interesting and the art beautiful. I like the idea of a "dark" world where good people succeed and progress in spite of the struggles and difficulties. I love Lag Seeing's characters and Niche. Can't wait 'til next volume's out!

Normally letters are made up of paper. But one day Gauche has to deliver a letter in the form of a young boy.

That's not the only thing off kilter in this fantasy manga. The story occurs in a place known as Amberground, a land of darkness, where there is one manmade star that mainly gives light to the elite caste. Other places of Amberground are very, very dark and it's called a "land of perpetual night." There is also the problem of running into Gaichuu, which are more or less gigantic insect monsters that roam the countryside and wreak havoc.

Gauche works as a special kind of delivery person known as a Letter Bee. He and other Letter Bees are described as "a rare breed of government agent [who] travel this dark, dangerous territory on official business. People entrust these agents with their HEARTS." He has to face Gaichuu as he delivers his mail. His parents are gone, but his younger sister is still alive, and if he earns enough money, he can heal her crippled legs. He works with a strong dedication to his job.

Still, he's surprised when he has to deliver a boy. The boy is named Lag Seeing and he's in a terrible, depressed space because his mother was taken away from him. So far, it's not clear exactly who took her or why. Gauche can't help him there, but he can take Lag Seeing to his aunt, which is where Lag's supposed to be delivered anyway. A little more than half the book covers this part of the story.

Five years pass, and the story picks up again with Lag Seeing having decided that he's going to be a Letter Bee as well. He wants to catch up with Gauche again, but he also wants to find his beloved mother. He sets out into the world, not knowing what will happen to him. Readers, likewise, are still learning about the world presented in this manga.

The art looks like pretty typical shonen work: It's neither very detailed nor too sparse, and it has its fair share of action scenes with plenty of fighting and big action words across the page. Tegami Bachi has been intriguing so far, especially with how it often talks about hearts. The theme of the heart is almost constant in these pages. A land of darkness is archetypical, and many aspects of the plot are still murky and mysterious.

-- Danica Davidson

I found a copy of this manga volume while browsing the shelves at my local library, and I checked it out and see what it was all about.

This volume starts with a government employee named Gauche, who is a Letter Bee (and as you can probably guess, it has to do with mail delivery). As a Letter Bee, it's Gauche's duty to deliver any letter to it's destination. It turns out that the letter he needs to deliver is a young boy named Lag Seeing. As Gauche takes the boy to his destination, the two become friends, and Lag is inspired to become a Letter Bee when he is older. Five years later, Lag starts on his way toward realizing his dream.

By the time I finished reading this manga volume, I was intrigued enough to want to read more volumes of this series if I can find them at my library. Personally, I think this is a manga series that can be enjoyed by readers who are fourteen or fifteen years of age and older.

I wrote this review after checking out a copy of this manga volume through the King County Library System.

Tegami Bachi Letter Bee Volume 1 is a pretty good read with a sort of "prelude" chapter and then a chapter 1 introduction to the story. The prelude is pretty interesting and introduces a character and the cover character as a young child. The world revolves around the delivery of letters with some supernatural elements. Letters can be anything from items and objects to even children and people as seen in this volume. The second chapter starts off with the main character and his pursuit of becoming a letter bee and hoping to find certain people. It ends pretty well and exciting and the ending preview of the next chapter makes it something that I cant wait to read.

This is a relatively new offering from VIZ Media and was in Shonen Jump for a few issues of that magazine. It was probably taken out because of the fact that the chapters span close to 100 pages. Regardless, its all worth it and is a pretty decent read. Its not like other series where you are turning pages so swiftly but its also not dull enough where you rather read something else.

The volume is read in the traditional format, has some pretty nice look art with clean sound effects and translations as well. Enjoy it and pick this up.

Reason for Reading: The dark planet intrigued me but mostly the plot revolves around mail carriers and I {ahem} really like getting mail, so thought this sounded cool. Plus the cover is gorgeous.

Comments: Amberground is a dark planet divided into three rings separated by rivers which also separates the classes. In the middle of the planet is Akatsuki, the city of the government and wealthy. No one may enter without extremely hard to get special passes. Above Akatsuki is a man-made sun which glows down on the city bathing it in light. Across the river live the middle classes and across another live the lower classes, the further you go from Akatsuki and its man-made sun the darker the perpetual night-time sky becomes. It is in this world that the Letter Bees carry mail from one end to the other, they have special passes to cross the bridges and must traverse the dangerous lands inhabited by Gaichuu, huge insect like creatures completely covered in metal armour. Here we meet Gauche Suede, 18yos, on his way to pick up a letter but when he gets there he finds that the letter he must deliver is a child, Lag, who does not believe he has been abandoned to be delivered to his aunt.

I really enjoyed this manga story. Gauche is very determined and respective of his honourable job as Letter Bee, but Lag creates animosity between them right from the start and this is an ongoing source for humour to contrast the darker aspects of the story. Both Gauche and Lag have back-stories that are revealed during their journey showing the difficult, emotional situations each is dealing with separately. Of course what would a journey over dangerous terrain be without monsters to fight? And so Gauche and Lag find themselves often attacked by the Gaichuu in which there is no defence against except a special gun that all Letter Bees carry which, with concentration, will shoot a part of their heart energy at the insect-like creatures and reduce them to nothing. It is during one of these battles that a unique ability of Lag's is found. Part Two gets even better which takes place five years later and concentrates on Lag along with the introduction of a fabulous female character, Niche. I loved the plot, lots of story threads going on and the book ends on an exciting note leaving the reader anxious for the next volume. I also enjoyed the artwork, Lag is cute and Gauche while possibly slightly ambiguous was obviously a male to me. Many scenes of the terrain and background brought the desolation of the planet to the reader. The only thing that bothered me were the fight scenes lasted a little on the long side, sometimes too many pages of nothing but BAM, CLICK, WWHOOSH, AAAA, CLANK. These I skipped over, I got the point. In all, I really enjoyed the mixture of humour, darkness and plot. I'll be reading Vol. 2 shortly.

A simply beautiful manga with creative characters. I just loved the idea of guns and heart bullets. Its a story of a young boy whose mother gets kidnapped into the man made sun. He becomes a packages is to be sent to his art by a letter bee AKA Tegami Bachi Gauche Suede. Lag (the main character) touched by what the letter bees goes through to bring letter, decides to become a letter bee himself.
The story is very heartwarming and touching. Each story is filled with care and love that is not uncreative at all. Hiroyuki asada is a really great mangaka and don't judge this book by the cover. The art ic clean and at first may take a little getting use to but it is very unique and will grow on you. I at first was also wary because i'm pretty picky with books because of the art sometimes. Trust me, it will instantly become your one of your favorite series. In fact it's getting to be pretty popular and their is even an anime being made. I suggest you get your hands on this book now or you'll regret it. :D

Story overview:

In a land of perpetual night (called Amberground), there is no sun. The world is heated from something called Spirit Amber, which is a source of energy that is buried deep beneath the ground. Light (low as it is) seems to come from either the stars in the sky, or a small man-made sun that hovers above the capital, Akatskui (which is restricted only to the "elite" and those with a special Capital Crossing Pass).

An eighteen-year-old man named Gauche Suede, along with his dog, Roda, travel from place to place to deliver messages. This position is called a Letter Bee (basically, they are a postal service). Gauche comes across a town that has been burned down, and to his surprise he finds a package in the form of a young boy (named Lag Seeing). On their journey, both Gauche and Lag inadvertently (and in a strange way) exchange glimpses into each other's hearts. They form a bond, which five years later, brings Lag to go off on his own to become a Letter Bee himself.

However, that is not Lag's main goal. You see, the elite of Akatskui captured his mother, and now he seeks to find a way into the Capital. Gauche promised Lag that he would look into the issue, but there was no word from him over these past five years (after Lag was safely delivered to his aunt). Therefore, Lag goes out to have an interview to become a Letter Bee. In the process, he comes across a strange animal-like girl who he ends up helping, which causes him to miss his interview. But in doing so he gains one of the Letter Bee requirements, a "dingo" (a companion, usually a dog, that has a contract with the Letter Bee).

My thoughts:

There is a lot I left out in the overview above, but I did not want to give away too many spoilers, even if I did, there is not enough room to list all that went into this story. One of my requirements for a great story is that it has to have heart. This has that and more. I was refreshed to find a manga with artwork in the elegant and clean style that I appreciate so much. But that's not all. I love the characters, and a story about a dark world without any sun? It can't get any better for a speculative fiction buff. I am thoroughly looking forward to reading the next one once it comes out.

Things to consider:

This is rated "Teen" from Viz Media, but honestly, I can see it being appropriate for younger. There is the typical action violence, but it is done without any gore, and there were no inappropriate nude or sexual scenes. The closest was where Lag sees that Nichi is a girl, but this was done in good taste. Now, I cannot say anything for the series as a whole (as they are not yet released in the US), but this one gets a preteen (tween) safety stamp from me.

James D. Maxon

Author of,[...]

Manga and speculative fiction reviewer:
[...]

I was first introduced to the Anime of this story, and decided to go looking for the Manga. I'm so glad I did! The art and the characters grabbed me from the beginning and now I am hooked and have to follow along with the story of Lag Seeing on his quest to become a Letter Bee.
In this alternate reality world of Amberground it is always night. Man has made an artificial sun that shines over the capitol city, were only the rich and powerful are allowed. 7 year old Lag Seeing awakes to find that his Mother has been taken to the capitol and he is now a package for the postal service, the Letter Bees (often just shortened to Bees) to deliver to his aunt. The events during his own delivery lead Lag to decide that he one day will become a Bee to find his abducted Mother and the Bee who risked his life for Lag's, Gauche Suede. The people he meets along the way all impact Lag in some way, and have a charm of their own.
Hiroyuki Asada had created a beautiful work and I am eagerly awaiting what happens next!