Letter Bee: Light and Blue Night Fantasy

Letter Bee is one of the Autumn anime of 2009 that I look forward to. Knowing that the anime is an adaptation of the manga makes me want to watch it even more. I want to pick up the manga but since idle time is a luxury nowadays, it was a given that I couldn't afford to read another new manga. I just have to settle with just the anime for now. This review however is for the special episode before the full season is released. As the tittle suggested, Letter Bee is about delivering letter/mail/package. Letter Bee is equivalent to your modern day postmen. Bee isthe company where Lag, the protagonist works at. He is accompany by Niche and Steak. Anyway, many refers Niche as Lag's guardian Dingo, whatever that is. Light and Blue Night Fantasy tells the tale of Lag delivering an important package to Elena, a former Letter Bee. They are to make a journey to Silencio. He is to bring a veteran as a guide for this delivery. That's where Darwin steps in. Lag doesn't know this but Darwin was once Elena's Dingo and the real package for Elena is Darwin himself. Ralgo keeps this a secret from Lag for he knows if Darwin finds out he'll abandon the trip. Letter Bee is a hazardous occupation. You might get attacked by Gaichuu during delivery hence why Lag carries a gun. The gun is called Shindan and is used to fire Heart when Gaichuu attacked. Shindan's ammunition is something that is called Spirit Amber. Lag's spirit amber is his red stone eye. What is a Gaichuu you asked? They are bugs but with size of a monsters ^^" Btw, Dingo is just a name given to the guardian. They pretty much protects the Bee from any harm. Niche for example, can hardens her hair and used it as a weapon against Gaichuu. Steak is usable too for he found their opponent weak spot. So guardian Dingo are not really human. They come in many forms, shapes and sizes. The relationship between a Dingo and a Letter Bee runs deep. It is as if they are partner for life. I have no complains when it comes to the characters. The voice of each character suits them perfectly, so are the character designs. I personally thinks that Lag's voice is super cute and makes him appears more adorable and wot not. No complains on the animation either. It is very pretty and smooth. I can feel that the production house puts a lot of effort with this episode. I appreciate that and hope the quality will stay consistent through out the season. If there's one thing I do not like about Letter Bee, it is the way the Gaichuu met their death. It just wasn't dramatic enough imo. Other than that, I'm sure the full season of Letter Bee is going to be an enjoyable ride.

This small OVA sees the Tegami Bachi manga adapted into animated form, and the results are excellent. The backgrounds and artwork are gorgeous, and very faithful to the manga's original style. The characters, though less detailed, are just as well depicted and yet again faithful to the author of the manga. The voice acting, music, CGI and other special affects also get high marks. Being only one episode so far, the story isn't remarkable, but the concept is creative and there's lots of potential there. The plot for this particular story was pulled off well and the conclusion was superb. Given the treatment of this OVA, itshows that the Tegami Bachi manga could make a succesful anime. I look forward to it!

This is my first review, so it'll be a bit short. I haven't read the manga so I saw the anime without knowing anything about it, and it turned out to be a really nice surprise. The story is sad but beautiful and despite being a short anime, it doesn't feel rushed. The characters are very likeable and expressive. But my praise has to go to the art and the music. It really lifts this beyond just an average/good anime. With backgrounds reminiscent of Van Gogh and the wonderful music, going from chants to classical, the whole thing has an XVIII/XIX century european feel to it. Overall,a very good fantasy drama that made me wish there was more of it.

This is more like a pilot or one-shot episode (as it aired prior to the beginning of the first season), and was actually re-used or re-animated as episode 17 in the first season of the anime. The season one episode title was: "Tegami Bachi to Dingo" (テガミバチとディンゴ) . So if you've seen the first season already, you've pretty much seen this episode. I want to say that the only difference is that there are more flashbacks in this OVA to compensate it as a one-shot, and the art looks a little sketchier in spots.