Tegami Bachi REVERSE – 08

Strained family reunions at their best

My manga readers out there, will you BAWWW with me over the latest chapter? I’m going to avoid spoilers, so I shall express myself in a cry of anguish: NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! Interpret that as you will. Switching back to where the anime is at – MY FAVOURITE PART – shall console me.

I usually become viciously angry every time a narrator steps in and starts explaining everything like he’s Jesus or something. This is not an exception. Narrator-man tells us about the legend of Maka, but I’m too blinded by rage to listen. He only talks for a brief period of time, before we switch back to present time where Lag is reading a journal. He seems intrigued by the mystery surrounding Maka and Blue Notes Blues. Who wouldn’t be? Figuring that this was Niche’s birth town, he offers to re-introduce her to everyone there. Her response is surprisingly cold.

AHHH A SHINY POKEMON!!!

As Lag sees a cave, a group of villagers yell at him to get away from the “Holy Site.” They stop being so uptight when they realize that he’s a letter bee, and instantly change their attitudes. Lag is practically forced to sit down and have a massive meal with at least 5 people breathing down his neck. Even the Mayor stands by eagerly, greeting him like some sort of prince. Although the mood is jovial, it’s hard to ignore Niche’s wary glare for the entire time they reside in that room.

Moving onto the whole reason Lag is there! The one witness who saw Noir tells Lag that the man in black had entered a cave and that’s all he saw. Before Lag can run off and inspect it, they very firmly reiterate that it’s a Holy Site, and entry is forbidden. The Mayor tries to offhandedly discourage him by just saying it’s where the Maka resides to end the conversation, but Lag pipes up about the village being “polluted by sin.” Get ready for story time.

Awww corpse chibis!

Once upon a time, Blue Notes Blues was undergoing a bit of crisis. People were dying, crops weren’t growing, and all their geothermal energy was being lost for some reason. One of the “survivors” of this horrible period (a pregnant woman named Celica) caught word of the rumour that a sip from the lake in Blue Notes Scale – where the Maka resides – allows you to live forever. Filled with greed, she headed to the cave to do just that. She returned shortly after and locked herself in her house for months. She died after giving birth to two cursed twins with azure eyes and golden hair. Although the warmth of the land was restored at this point, the two babies fashioned after Maka itself represented a curse. The Maka no longer heeds to the villager’s calls for help.

Lag tries to take all of this is, but it’s understandably a bit challenging to do so. His doubts about Niche fade away as he sees her cute, sleeping face. Aww. Even more AWWWW-worthy is when Niche reassures Lag that she’s okay despite being called a cursed child and gets a tight bearhug in return. Lag cries, of course, and then they head off to the cave. The Mayor is doing his daily morning creeper “peek through the window” routine, and sees them heading out.

The cave is full of Gaichuu trapped in blocks of ice. Lag is alarmed for all of 5 seconds before Niche runs off and they move onto more important things. Although I guess the fact that one of the biggest pillars is broken and some shindan bullet cartridges are lying around is pretty important too. I’m kind of more focused on MAKA than Noir and his evil escapades at the moment though.

The Bee and Dingo come across an underwater lake – Blue Scales Blue. Suddenly, the water shoots up as a golden figure pierces through the surface. Lag can only gape at the dragon-phoenix hybrid that has shown itself before him. The Maka. On the Maka is a naked woman with blonde hair in swords, much like Niche. This mystical scene trainwrecks into Lag telling the woman to put panties on in a stuttering, blushing, pre-pubescent mess.

After pulling a Bayonetta, the conversation turns serious again. She addresses Niche as her sister and criticizes her for forgetting how to grow and socializing with a human. Nevermind, it’s not serious. Niche reacts as only Niche can, saying she doesn’t know this crazy lady. Just to be a bitch, the Maka-woman attacks Lag to find out just what he is. Niche saves him, confusing her sister a little by her actions. It must look weird to see her twin so tsurupettan and protecting some weird non-human creature.

The family reunion just gets worse when the villagers arrive. First they try to bed forgiveness, then they go try and sneak some immortality water. The Maka-woman looks down disdainfully and tells us the true version of the story. The Maka was NEVER  creature who cared for the humans, it simply observed them. The only time it ever did something for a human was for Celica, who came crawling into her cave in a near-death state. It was not to drink water to live forever, it was because the villagers beat her and forced her to become a sacrifice for the Maka.

Having no relatives in the village, she was the best option as a sacrifice in order to appease the Maka and regain the quality of the land. So they were trying to appease a God who cannot help them so that it would fix a problem the humans caused in the first place. The Mayor left out the little detail that they mined Spirit Amber to the point where they screwed themselves over. No wonder it’s so cold over there. Celica is ready to die, but begs the Maka to save her baby. Yes, they wanted to sacrifice a pregnant woman, they wouldn’t even wait for her to give birth.

Maka was like “Aw, hell no” and gave her the strength to return to the village and give birth. She had two twin girls, who were locked away and given only water everyday. It was only a matter of time before the Mayor felt the need to throw the accursed infants into a ravine to avoid a bad reputation from the other village. Do all villagers smile and clap after murdering two adorable babies? Was it really that easy for them?

Maybe the one with her eyes shut is Niche. She’s stunted XD

Extra Screencaps:

Those arms o_o

STFU, MAYBE I LIKE BEING A LOLI

No, really. We’ll just replace your arm with a machine gun. Come on, it’ll be fun!

End Thoughts: Lucky me – I get more than one episode of Maka goodness. I know some otaku are allergic to the backstory/explanation episodes and find them boring, but I love finding out about the characters. What I really liked was that we have 2 versions of the legend. The first one from the Mayor twists the truth, and the second one reveals the truth. Essentially, we get the same legend twice – but with very different connotations. Both stories are correct in a way, but the framing makes all the difference. Leave out a few details, fabricate others, change your tone and you can completely fool someone while still (sort of) telling the truth.

I cannot express my joy at seeing Niche’s sister FINALLYYYYY. Her voice is NOT what I expected it to be though. It’s so manly o__o. She looks really badass though! Will Niche ever grow up to be that cool? I kind of hope so. She’s cute as she is now, but grown up Niche would be a babe~ By the way, can I fangirl over how much I love the scenery in Tegami Bachi again? Because this show makes me actually want to go OUTSIDE. WHAT A FEAT. An otaku going outside…can you even imagine?

I’m still really curious what Niche’s sister meant by Lag must not be human. Is it because of the Spirit Amber in his eye? Something to do with the Flicker? Something to do with being albisian? I don’t even remember this being explained in the manga yet, and now it’s bugging me. I feel like there are a lot of secrets in Tegami Bachi that aren’t even hinted at. It’s just revealed all of a sudden. o.o Is this a good thing or a bad thing? That, I am not too sure of.

Preview: I want my fighting action now!!! Seeing Niche at the top of her game? I can’t wait. In-between fighting, her sister seems to be touched by Lag’s shindan. Or rather, the memories emanating from his shindan shot…