Friday, February 10, 2012

Letter Bee: delivering letters, connecting hearts + earthquake in Visayas

Even though we have texting and e-mailing as our way of communicating people, it wouldn’t hurt to send a hand-written letter. Letters are very appeasing due to their purpose of sending what the writer wants to covey to others. As for delivery, the mailmen are fit for the job.

Even an anime show focuses on the theme of sending letters in the form of Letter Bee (known in Japan as Tegami Bachi). But don’t expect normal mailmen; the delivery people are known as Letter Bees (hence, the title), working hard to send letters no matter what the circumstances. With their Dingo as their companions and armed with Shindan (weapons designed to hunt down Gaichuus, the armed beetles), delivering letters is just a hard day’s work for them.

Gauche Suede (left) and Lag Seeing (right)

The first few episodes focused on Gauche Suede, together with his Dingo, a white wolf named Roda. He was on his way to one of his deliveries when he saw a boy lying down unconscious, marked as a letter. The boy was none other than Lag Seeing, whose mother was sent to another place. Lag assumed that there were people abducting his mom. After seeing the address, it became Gauche’s mission to send him to Campbell.

Their first meeting was a little rough, since the boy often complained about the food as well as Gauche’s coolly, harsh behavior. After mistakenly holding Gauche’s weapon and its power went out of whack, Lag discovered his past, as well as Gauche’s true reason of becoming a Letter Bee. Gauche’s younger sister, Sylvette, couldn’t walk due to an illness and had to stay alone in Yuusari for a long time, and as a brother, he had to ensure that the hope of curing the illness stays intact.

During another fight with a Gaichuu, Gauche was severely injured and Lag had to assist him to loading his Shindan. That’s when the Letter Bee saw the boy’s concealed eye, which turned out to be a fake eye made out of red Spirit Amber. The Amber resonated with the Shindan, causing Lag to shoot the beetle’s joints with a red needle, effectively killing it.

By the time they reached Campbell, Lag stayed in a woman’s inn to watch over Gauche, whose wounds had festered. After being recovered, the Letter Bee finally recognized Lag as a true friend, and promised to look for clues about his mother’s disappearance when he reached Akatsuki. As they parted ways, Lag made a vow: to become a Letter Bee just like Gauche.

5 years had passed, and Lag set off to apply for his job. That was when he met the girl who would become his dingo, Niche, a young girl with hair that would become weapons, and his co-workers: Connor Kluff, the boy with a huge appetite; and Zazie Shrine, the boy hungry to kill Gaichuus ever since the day his parents were rendered comatose by them. But as he sets off for work, he discovered what really happened to Gauche: he was missing.

And with that, he starts his career, while hoping to find clues about Gauche’s disappearance.

Letter Bee is just one of the coolest animes ever created. The series ended with snippets about an anti-government organization, Reverse, whose main goal is reformation and equality of the society, as well as a revelation that would surely knock the daylights out of Lag (literally).

But don’t worry if you’re craving for more. There’s the sequel, Letter Bee Reverse, which now focuses on Reverse and how the Letter Bees cope up with the threat of Marauders, thieves tasked to plunder letters.

Speaking of threats, a 6.9 magnitude earthquake just struck Iloilo and some parts of Visayas a few days ago. Although I’m fortunate to be alive, the others were not so lucky, with broken buildings, brownouts, and innocent lives taken. Worse, aftershocks did occur.

One of the casualties... and yes, I'm not joking

Poor them… I hope my relatives in Bacolod are ok.

Anyway, that’s all, folks. Sayonara ^^

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