Tegami Bachi REVERSE – 14

What a perfect day for-OH MY GOD IS THAT A GIANT FETUS?!?!

I actually forgot about Tegami Bachi REVERSE in all the ruckus that the new Winter season has been causing. There have been a bunch of shows, and most of them have been pretty subpar. Hopefully you Metanites/Metanornians (still working on what I should call the readers…) have found something to your liking. As for Tegami Bachi, IT CONTINUES! With a new opening and ending!

Lag lies there feverishly with a metal helmet on beside Gauche. The helmet is apparently a heartometer, which measures…well, heart. Lag always reads at the maximum end of the scale, so it’s kind of pointless to use it on him. Since Lag is stuck there, motionless, Dr. Thunderland graces him with a story. No, not a fairytale, a horrid tale of death and despair. Yeah, that will cheer his patient up.

Meanwhile, Aria is still on her delivery path to Franklin, ending up in a deep canyon devoid of any light. This is where the airship went down 12 years ago, and it’s a pretty sketchy place. Franklin’s house is in the deepest part of the canyon (which Aria finds via sliding down a hill on her ass) as he isn’t the most friendly of hermits. Or the prettiest. It doesn’t get much uglier than this.

He proceeds to rave and holler about something being stolen, before smacking Aria over the head with some wooden THING out of paranoia. Aria stares at him calmly, not even wiping the blood off of her face, and explains that they’re not his enemies. The crazy man calms down enough to accept the letter, asking Aria to come inside and read it for him.

Aria WILL sell you her Girl Scout cookies, whatever the cost

Franklin starts to tell them his story of how he worked on the airship (named Holden Caufield, a nod to “The Catcher in the Rye”) with his friend Negich.  Now, as the airship was ready to leave, there were a LOT of familiar faces either onboard or just there to watch. Balor, Albisian thriplets (who grow up to become the gatekeepers), Dr. Thunderland, and even Lloyd are all a part of this huge event. Let’s not forget Aria and Gauche too.

At the same time, Dr. Thunderland appears to be explaining the same story to Lag. He doesn’t remember what happened at all, and his eye was stolen after the airship crashed. Hence the eyepatch. Lag’s fever suddenly rises, setting the heartometer off the scale as his memories overflow. Sylvette inconveniently rolls in at this point, and everyone basically just stares at Lag with an “OH SHIT” expression until he gets better.

Meanwhile, Franklin talks about his eyes getting worse as the sun seemed to be weakening just before the flight. As Franklin is merrily maintaining the ship (which is steered directly into the sun, apparently. Good job, boys.) during the flight, the sun starts to flicker on and off. The sun mutters “Mother…Mother…Mother…” and reveals its’ true form. A GIANT FETUS.

If I could, I’d talk about how awesome and creepy this monstrosity is for the rest of the review, but more stuff happens. The airship crashes, leaving on a few survivors. Franklin may be crazy, be he may also be right. If that’s true, the sun is an evil creation that needs to be destroyed PRONTO. He also darkly warns Aria that anyone who has had their heart stolen by the sun can’t get it back. Of course, as he says this, Lag returns to normal and Gauche wakes up. Not Noir but…Gauche. At long last, a happy reunion.

Bonus Screenshots:

Antigravity powers INITIATE!

OH GOD IT’S TERRIBLE WE ALL LOST OUR CONTACT LENSES!!!! HOW WILL WE SURVIVE?!?!

Remember that time Connor ate that donut? And Zaji adjusted his hat? Yeah, good times.

Steak’s more intelligent cousin, Sirloin.

End Thoughts: After keeping us in the dark about almost everything for so long, a bunch of mysteries are solved in one fell swoop. It’s a bit overwhelming to have this much revealed all at once, but I guess it’s making up for lost time. Did they really have to wait this long to reveal everything? I mean, it’s kind of a big deal to know about the artificial sun and the past of like EVERY SINGLE ADULT CHARACTER. There’s STILL a lot to be answered and confirmed (what, you really want me to trust that creepoid with 100% of my heart?)

All that backstory actually makes for a great episode – overload or not. It’s certainly one you don’t want to miss. Not only that, GAUCHE WAKES UP! I liked the switching between Aria and Lag, except where it switched between Franklin’s “ANGST DESPAIR ANGSSSTTTT!” into Lag’s MEGAGLOMP of comedic relief. That should have been a serious moment -.- Otherwise, it was very well done. The revelation of the sun’s true nature puts a really dark spin on what most assume is a pretty light-hearted show. It’s surprisingly sick when you think about it, a giant government experiment stealing lives and floating in the sky.

By the way, I’m loving the new OP and ED. Suga Shikao did the OP for season 1, which is one of my favourite opening songs. <3 The OP animation is pretty bad since it just reuses animation…even things from season 1 -_- The ED is ADORABLE though, you need to watch it. Check out how Steak floats off of Niche’s head, then soundly lands back on her head XD

I get the feeling we’re going to get an anime original ending at this rate. This might not be bad, since the anime seems to be handling things well so far. Thanks to the power of reading the manga beforehand (don’t click if you haven’t read chapter 44!), Show ▼

Preview: Lag brings Gauche home and all is well…except that Gauche is brooding far too much. And is that…Roda? Will she make things better or worse? TUNE IN NEXT WEEK FOR MORE DRAMA!

About Overcooled

A neuroscience graduate, black belt, and all-around nerd. You'll either find me in my lab or curled up in my rilakkuma kigurumi watching anime.