Tegami Bachi, Letter Bee, Vol. 2: The Letter to Jiggy Pepper

テガミバチ / Tegami Bachi #2

by Hiroyuki Asada

A New York Times best-selling sci-fi fantasy series with heart.

Amberground is locked in darkness. A man-made star casts only a dim light over the land. The pitch-black wilderness is infested with Gaichuu—colossal insects with metal exoskeletons. The Gaichuu make travel between the cities of Amberground extremely dangerous. But thankfully the Letter Bees, a brave corps of messengers, risk their lives in order to keep the hearts of Amberground connected.

Lag is close to becoming a Letter Bee! On the way to his final interview at the National Postal Service, he found a Niche, a feral young girl with shocking strength and hair made of golden swords. Now, as they approach the bridge to the middle-caste district, they stop to rest in Kyrie, a desperado town. They meet Nelli, a friendly young man who shows them to an inn. Nelli's so helpful that they never notice him steal Lag's crossing pass!

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Comics, Shonen, Comics Manga, Adventure

200 pages, Paperback

First published June 4, 2007

About the author

Hiroyuki Asada (浅田弘幸 Asada Hiroyuki) is a Japanese mangaka.
His most known series are I'll and Tegami Bachi.

All of Asada's manga were serialized in the monthly shōnen anthology Monthly Shōnen Jump (which has since been discontinued; Tegami Bachi now appears in its replacement Jump Square). He made his debut in 1986. He acquired a fanbase with Mint: Sleeping Rabbit, Renka by degrees, and his popularity improved with I'll.
He also worked on the character design of the 2019 anime adaptation of Tezuka's classic Dororo.
In his personal life, he is part of a unit with Shou Tajima (best known for Psych) and Takeshi Obata (best known for Hikaru no Go and Death Note), and his creation activity with "AQUARIOS 3".

Reviews

[Nesa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super cute and really sweet powerful messages in this volume, really enjoyed :)

[Rikito · Rating 5 out of 5]

The protagonist, Rag and his partner, Nicchi are becoming to know each other. Also I realized that being BEE which can be only chosen person is really hard. I want him to be great BEE.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed aspects of this volume, but I thought other parts were pretty boring. There were multiple scenes that were supposed to be really heartfelt, and I would say about half of them were effective and the other half just kind of annoyed me. I would say the best way to describe this volume is that half of it was interesting and heartfelt, and the other half was boring and hard to read.

[K.S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspired by Gauche Suede, Lag continues his journey to become a Letter Bee with his Dingo at his side. Only not everyone has the same high regard for the Letter Bees as he does. Nor does every Bee have similar goals to himself.

Beautifully illustrated with compelling characters, this quickly became one of my favorite series. Anyone who truly drawn to Naruto's quest for Sasuke in 'Naruto' should take a look at Lag's own quest inspired by Gauche, along with his journey to find Gauche and bring him home.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm finding this a difficult series to rate. One moment there's an incredibly moving scene packed with emotion, and the next there's a joke about underpants. However, I love the main character's tender heart and way of expressing himself, and the author's note that "if it's important, if the tears are for someone special, I think it's the right thing, even for a boy." I'll definitely read a few more volumes to see how it develops.

[Tania · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nunca compré este manga aunque el anime es de mis favoritos, por eso ahora lo estoy leyendo completo en Manga Plus.
En fin, quiero mucho a Lag, Niche y a Bistec, pero odio la traducción. En este tomo se explora un poco más el gran corazón que tiene Lag y el poder que eso le da al ámbar espiritual incrustado en su ojo.
Después hace la prueba para ver si puede ser aceptado como Letter Bee y recibe noticias sobre Gauche por primera vez en cinco años. Wuuuu.

[LordSlaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume is a bit darker than the previous one, but it is also filled with heart and light. The characters delve deeper into the well-crafted world of the story, the cast of characters expands, the story begins to open up. The writing and art in this volume are brilliant. An excellent series so far.

[Astartiée · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dans cet épisode toujours aussi bien ficelé, notre héros a grandi et passe l’épreuve pour devenir Letter Bee. Il se Lie d’amitié avec une enfant-make, être légendaire aux grands pouvoirs, qui devient son partenaire.

[Selena Pigoni · Rating 4 out of 5]

I decided to give Tegami Bachi another shot, and I'm glad I did. The second volume went a lot better for me than the first one. It didn't feel like an info-dump this time around, and the art, scenery especially, is lovely to look at.

[Natalia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sin palabras.

Nos cuenta cómo Lag llega hasta la ciudad donde tiene que hacer la entrevista, algunos acontecimientos previos a su llegada, su gran descubrimiento sobre su piedra de ámbar…

Cada vez tomo se va mejorando, espero que no me decepcione en los siguientes.

[_fukurumi_ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aah, Zazie e Wasiolka. Ho letto i primi volumi di questo fumetti più di dieci anni fa e non mi ricordo quasi nulla, ma appena ho visto Wasiolka il mio cuore ha perso un battito.

Un volumetto un po' di passaggio, che suscita altre domande e spunti.

[Alva · Rating 5 out of 5]

The atmosphere! The clothing! The names (Jiggy Pepper just rolls of the tongue am I right?)! The dingos! And of course Lag and Niche are wonderful MCs. It’s like straight out of a childhood dream... so magical. Studio Ghibli should make a movie out of this. That would be something.

[Cherish · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really intriguing read. I am looking forward to reading the next volume.

[Erik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like this series. It's got heart. <3

[Forthright . · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now that all that world-building is out of the way, the pace picks up nicely!

[Kurtis Burkhardt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this series so far, great Shōnen manga so far with awesome beautiful art😻👌😁❤️❤️

[Isel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why?! 😱😱😱

[Coke Fernández · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10.
Muy entretenido, la cosa promete :).

[Nathanielle Peralta · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has a pretty interesting concept.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Niche is my favorite character! She's ridiculous, but makes a good teammate.

[Therese · Rating 4 out of 5]

Niche and Steak get 2 stars all of their own, they are great and made me literally laugh out loud. Art style is still really pretty and we get a little more world building.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first volume was slow to get into, liked this volume a lot better

[Mila Radonic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet and charming

It’s nice how we are starting to see Lag and Niches bond developing. I hope we get more of that in the next volume

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tribulations can't keep a good bee down.

[S46354595 · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's getting better as it goes along. Not my favorite thing I've ever read, but it's pretty good. And about the stuff in the first volume I was worried about, eh it's alright. It's definitely not made in abyss levels bad. It's like, slightly bad but manageable. Main reason is that in MIA it was adults being weird. In this it's just Niche, and she's like 9 and never had parents to teach her stuff. This is exactly how I'd expect a 9 year old living on the streets to act, granted it's still weird. So just watch out.

Tegami Bachi Review

4/5 stars

This will be a spoiler free review. Onto the review!

I picked up this manga on the recommendation of a friend. Well actually, she recommended the anime, but I wanted to read the manga since the anime never got finished. I have mixed feelings about this one. Maybe the anime would help. I don’t know.

The story follows this kid who decides to become a mail courier because he was once mailed somewhere, and it left an impression on him. Being a mail courier is a super dangerous job, because there are giant bugs that live in between the cities and try to eat people. People generally don’t travel a lot due to this issue. I loved the story and the characters. It was really fun to get to meet all the other mail couriers. They all have animal companions of some kind, which help them to fend off the bugs until they can take them down with special magical guns.

The main character’s goal is to eventually find his mother, who originally mailed him to his aunt at the start of the first volume. He remembers her from when he was little, and wants to know why she sent him away. Learning more about his mother is the main mystery of the series, which leads him to many new places where he meets lots of new, interesting people. And along the way, there are these giant bug fights that are really fun.

Now here’s where I feel conflicted. The main character’s animal companion is this random girl who decides to follow him around. She’s not technically human, so that’s how she’s able to count as an animal companion despite looking like a kid. Because she’s not human, she does not understand the need for acting like the humans do. What this generally means is a big chunk of the early volumes, she finds a dumb excuse to not wear pants for a panel or two. It’s always censored with big block text that literally says “censored,” but it was still kind of uncomfortable to read about.

Also, near the middle of the series we meet her older sister, who literally walks around naked because she also has no understanding of human behavior. She thinks of herself as more of an animal than her little sister does, because she lives out in the wild and doesn’t interact with people. When she has to be around people, she puts on a ribbon that she ties very carefully in a specific way, if you get my meaning.

Listen, I’ve seen worse fan service (see: Ghost in the Shell). I don’t mind the older sister doing what she does, because she’s an adult and can do whatever she wants. But the little sister is a kid. She looks to be maybe 10ish. As I said before, it’s always censored, so we’re never seeing anything. But for me personally, it’s the principle that matters. I read the entirety of this manga, because I felt it would be important to judge it after seeing where the manga went and if it continued to be an issue. It does go away for a while, but then near the end of the series, she loses her pants again briefly and I just ugggghhhhhhhhhhh whyyyyyyyyyyy…we were over this…

I did like the series as a whole. It has a great story with a lot of heart. For that alone, I think this is a great series and would recommend it. But you’ll have to consider for yourself if you want to read a series with so little pants. Wow, that’s a brand new sentence no one has ever said before. Consider your comfort level and read this at your own risk.

Have a nice day/night everyone!

[☾ Liz ☆ Stellar Kitten Book Reviews ☆ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Niche and Steak are so adorable <3 I love the art and story for this manga

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reason for Reading: Next in the series.

Summary: Lag is on his way to the National Postal Service where he must take his final interview and test to become a Letter Bee. Niche is accompanying him and insisting on being his Dingo which every Letter Bee must have. Niche is perfect to help in protecting Lag and helping him fight as she has amazing hair which is made of golden swords. They stop at a small town just outside the final bridge and meet Nelli, a friendly boy, that is until he steals Lags crossing pass and then they find out the sad story of Kyrie, the last town before the bridge, which has been nicknamed "The Dead End".

This volume is all story and very exciting. Niche picks up a strange creature, a kind of pet, she calls Steak, which we're never quite sure whether she intends to eat or not. This new character is cute in a strange way and turns the journiers into a trio. There is mystery behind Niche as others know about her and who she is more than Lag or the reader does making her mystical powers more intriguing and leaving the reader wanting a background on her. Not much fighting in this volume which I was pleased to see, since Volume 1 went a bit overboard with it. It's good to see that the series isn't going to rely on heavy battle scenes all the time, not that I don't enjoy a reasonable amount of good fighting! The artwork continues to impress me. It lacks the typical abundance of overdone facial expressions of most Japanese manga which I'm not a huge fan of, though Niche is the character who does express herself in that way. The characters and backgrounds are drawn with great details and I enjoy slowly looking at the frames. The individual story arc that this volume concentrated on was wrapped up nicely with a big ending but then the story continued on with the overall story arc and ended with a shocker and a direction for the next volume which thankfully already has a release date later this year in Sept. (2010). Can't wait to read it as we will finally get to meet a character who has only been talked about so far.

[jzmcdaisy · Rating 3 out of 5]

So far I've read the first 5 volumes of this manga. Premise: Awesome. Story: meh. Not really even with a capital M. Tankobon manga like Tegami Bachi are something I can see myself getting into; where there is an individual story with a beginning and end to each volume without much cutoff (ala Mushishi). It's really a cozy and intimate little experience that I get with most books. I like manga, but the problem with other series I enjoy like Soul Eater is that it's just one collective work where you have to keep reading and reading the volumes like a neverending bag of potato chips. Tegami Bachi is far more personal in the fact that it's tankobon, and that's mixed in with its serene but surreal indigo-laden caste-based steampunk-ish world. However the problem I have with what I've read with the series is that it falls into many traps that are becoming shonen manga cliches. There's a naive young protagonist who looks up to someone but also boasts special powers. There's a weird girl, a bizarre mascot, snarky side characters, a mysterious side species that bear the same powers as the protagonist a job to do, and a mystery to solve. Been there done ALL that. Other than the unique premise the story is on autopilot writing itself. The action is cool but a bit too flashy, and not a lot of characters nor are they extremely three dimensional so it's hard to sympathize with the apparent danger. The art, as I mentioned before is very, VERY cool. It's cool to the point where I just accept the created world as steampunk fantasy and suspend my disbelief. The characters all look cool and the concept of a dark world with an artificial sun makes me want to keep reading just to figure out what it is. The other nice part and shonen trap that Letter Bee doesn't fall into is the fan service. Most of the costumes are pleasant, baggy, honest and unique (Bar Aria's with needless straps that serve no purpose other than the illusion of underboob-bearing lingerie). Will I keep reading it? We'll see.

[Maxwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second volume in the series Tegami bachi, a shōnen manga by Hiroyuki Asada, features Lag Seeing and his brand new dingo Niche traveling and venturing to find Lag's savior, Guache Suede, and become a letter bee. The sequel to the first volume, It continues where the first left off, with Lag receiving Niche as his partner to travel across amberground with. And together, they travel to the letter bee exam, with a few surprises along the way.

To be honest, I think the 1st book was WAY better, and leaving Guache was a REALLY big mistake. Lag is interesting and all, but Guache was a lot cooler. However, the side plot made up for it, though the new characters weren't very well explained. As in my previous review, the comedy was rare, but very funny when it did happen. The emotions running in this book were even MORE powerful than the last, and that's basically crazy talk looking at the previous one. As for categories on recommendations, I would recommend to fans who like mostly light-hearted, powerfully emotional stuff. On age, maybe 8, 9+. Overall, the excellent side plot made up for most of it, but still had quite a few flaws. Three out of five stars.