48. Tegami Bachi Vol. 2

The Letter to Jiggy Pepper by Hiroyuki Asada (Canada) - (US)
Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee, Volume 2


Pages: 191 pages
Ages: 13+
Finished: Mar. 15, 2010
First Published: Mar. 2, 2010
Publisher: Viz Media
Genre: manga, science fiction, fantasy
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

If goodbye makes you so sad ...
... I will stay by your side, Lag.

Acquired: Received a review copy from Simon & Schuster Canada.

Reason for Reading: Next in the series.

Summary: Lag is on his way to the National Postal Service where he must take his final interview and test to become a Letter Bee. Niche is accompanying him and insisting on being his Dingo which every Letter Bee must have. Niche is perfect to help in protecting Lag and helping him fight as she has amazing hair which is made of golden swords. They stop at a small town just outside the final bridge and meet Nelli, a friendly boy, that is until he steals Lags crossing pass and then they find out the sad story of Kyrie, the last town before the bridge, which has been nicknamed "The Dead End".

This volume is all story and very exciting. Niche picks up a strange creature, a kind of pet, she calls Steak, which we're never quite sure whether she intends to eat or not. This new character is cute in a strange way and turns the journiers into a trio. There is mystery behind Niche as others know about her and who she is more than Lag or the reader does making her mystical powers more intriguing and leaving the reader wanting a background on her. Not much fighting in this volume which I was pleased to see, since Volume 1 went a bit overboard with it. It's good to see that the series isn't going to rely on heavy battle scenes all the time, not that I don't enjoy a reasonable amount of good fighting! The artwork continues to impress me. It lacks the typical abundance of overdone facial expressions of most Japanese manga which I'm not a huge fan of, though Niche is the character who does express herself in that way. The characters and backgrounds are drawn with great details and I enjoy slowly looking at the frames. The individual story arc that this volume concentrated on was wrapped up nicely with a big ending but then the story continued on with the overall story arc and ended with a shocker and a direction for the next volume which thankfully already has a release date later this year in Sept. (2010). Can't wait to read it as we will finally get to meet a character who has only been talked about so far.