Tegami Bachi (Letter Bee) episode 4 review; Lag and Niche, bound by trust

      Well, Lag and Niche finally make it to Rent, and after a bit of searching he locates “love someone down” which looks like a circus tent. After a worker tells Lag to wait outside, Niche decides to have a look around where they find dozen of caged wounded animals. Lag says he wishes he had one as a dingo, Niche asks what a dingo is, and Lag explains the whole Letter Bee/dingo working relationship to her. Soon, a boss/or someone in charge who isn’t too friendly comes around, and after an initial bit of misunderstanding they accept the letter/Niche, give Lag a tip, and send him on his way.

       Well, as Lag is on his way to the interview he begins to wonder about Niche, then he runs into two travelers looking for a freak show called love Someone Down in Rent, and they show Lag a flier advertising a girl who has recieved the blood of the legendary Maka. Lag suddenly realizes that Niche is the new attraction at the freak show, he thinks about all the wounded animals and “borrows” the travelers’ horse and race back to Rent.

 

       Then we see Niche chained and caged with the freak show workers trying to force her to show them her rumored golden swords, they call her Maka-chan, but she says she’s called Niche. Lag races towards town thinking about Niche the whole way. Back at the freak show, Niche tells them her name is Niche and to get it right, the boss notices that she wearing pants and demands she take them off and produces a knife to threaten Niche. He tosses the knife at her but she blocks it with her hair which turns out to be her golden swords.

 

       Niche uses her hair and slice through her chains. The boss is over joyed because Niche is the real deal, and he can charge big bucks for her. Then Niche turns her hair on her cage and destroys it, then she destroys all the other cages, freeing all the animals, and then she finally destroys the tent while making her escape. Lag arrives just in time to see the destruction of the tent, and to see Niche fleeing by air.

 

       Lag chases after Niche who has headed into a forest filled with gaichuu, and he arrives just as Niche is facing off against a Four Roses gaichuu. Lag tells Niche to run away as he fires his gun at it, the bullet just bounces off the gaichuu, and Lag realises that the gun needs a crystal to stop the monster. Niche attacks the monster, lopping its head off with her hair but that still doesn’t kill the monster. As the monster attacks Niche, Lag dives towards her and drags her to safety.

       After Lag and Niche roll to safety, Lag sees that Niche has recieved a head wound and can’t move, so he makes his stand against the monster. Niche regains some awareness and tells Lag that she was glad she saw him again. Just when all hope seems lost, Lag’s amber eye activates and he’s able to fire the normal gun just like a real Letter Bee’s gun, destroying the monster. After Lag fires the gun he drops to the ground from exhustion, and Niche feels the after affects of Lags use of his heart. Niche see all his sad partings; his mother, Gauche, his aunt, the town, and Niche, and all his emotions touch Niche.

        Lag looks at Niche and tells her he was glad he could see her again, and Niche goes over to Lag and starts licking his wounds. Lag tells her to stop, but Niche tells Lag to be quiet saying that his wounds will heal faster. Niche tells lag that she’s only ever done this for herself, but because he named her, made her wear pants, and because goodbyes are so sad for him, she’ll stay by his side.

        After they get out of the forest they see that they’re being followed by a small creature that Niche freed from the freak show, which takes a liking to Niche and she names it Steak. Afterwards, Lag says he’s sorry for taking her to a place like that, and Niche asks, so you failed at your job? Lag says, no, pointing to Niche’s now destroyed address label, and says address unknown, you’re no longer a letter, just Niche.

       Niche tells Lag that she’s not just Niche, but she’s now Lag’s dingo. Niche asks Lag if he really said that anyone could become a dingo as long as they’re strong, Lag starts to argue but Niche says not to worry because while Lag’s weak, she’s strong. The episode ends with Lag following Niche as she heads towards Lag’s destination.

       Well, this episode of Letter Bee was very entertaining and enjoyable, but the really interesting thing is how the episode highlights the differences between Lag and Gauche, and how their differences will affect the rest of the series.

       The first major difference between Gauche and Lag is that Lag wears his heart on his sleeve while Gauche hide his true feelings until the end. When Gauche first met Lag he really cared more about the completion of the job than he really cared about the “Person”, Lag. To Gauche, Lag never really became a person until after he was delivered.

        On the other hand, Lag Seeing, immediately begins to transform/humanize the “letter” into the “human or human-like” Niche.  When Gauche asked the “letter” what his name was, it was more for confirmation and management purposes, OK, you’re Lag Seeing, so I got to deliver you.  Lag’s reaction to his “letter” is quite different from Gauche’s reaction, once Lag discovers that she had no real name he almost at once goes about giving the “letter” a name thereby transforming Niche from a letter/object to a unique individual.

       Also, Lag must have understood by the end of third episode that Niche wasn’t quite human or at least not normal but he chose to treat Niche as a human girl by demanding that she put on some pants. It was clear that Lag’s decision to have Niche wear pants upset the freak show’s owner, since he considered Niche/Maka to be nothing more than another creature to be displayed and tamed.  So, in one episode, Lag has managed to individualize and humanize Niche, and gave her feelings of self-worth for the first time, “My name is Niche!” Later, Niche goes on to do the same thing of the creature that followed her into the woods, once Niche decided to accept the creature as a traveling companion she names it, “Steak”.

      Now, to one of the more notable fan service moments of the episode, the Niche on top of Lag scene, while one can add sexual context to any scene where you see a girl sitting atop a guy licking him, I found this scene to be quite touching/uplifting (the writer beats back his inner lolicon). In the previous episode Niche noticed Lag licking his wound and comments that she also licked her wounds, so when Niche licks Lag’s wounds and tells him that she has only done this for herself, Niche has fully accepted Lag as a member of her family. Now, I tend to look at Lag, Niche, and Steak as a pack, and we really know who runs the show.