Tegamibachi
Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee

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Despite it's flaws, Tegamibachi's positives are more than enough for me to recommend it to someone.

Lets begin with what tegamibachi does well:
-The main cast is interesting and the character development and interactions are really good. Each character has a relatively fleshed out backstory that drives them forward. Gauche's issue is handled very well and really drives forward that the heart is what matters most in this story. There are a lot of tearjerker moments and a lot of heartwarming ones even revolving around characters you'll see only once.
People have complained a lot that Lag is a crybaby but you need to keep in mind ... that he's a very compassionate 12yo kid on his journey to self discovery. Niche is ok-ish and gladly the author realized quickly enough that the underpants gag grew tiresome.

-The world and world building are equally very good. Lag's and co travels around the world have this adventuring air around it that makes you somewhat excited about what are they gonna discover next. Amberground is a land filled with mysteries which keep you wanting to keep reading in hope that your questions are gonna be answered.

-Tying everything together is a very clean art which makes clever use of lighting to drive forward that this land is almost devoid of light and life. The characters are also really well drawn out and this manga has some of the most expressive eye drawings i've seen.

Now lets move on to the main issue that is the last 30-40 chapters of the story.
Tegamibachi's peak as others mentioned is around the midpoint when the gang has to battle a really strong foe endangering the entire world. At the same point, some mysteries about the world are solved with even newer ones, bigger ones presented. At this point you feel that the story has enough momentum to start solving the loose plot points and reach a satisfying conclusion, but this is where the author dropped the ball hard.
Instead of moving the story forward, he introduces some new characters presents them as an antagonising Plan-B and proceeds to a very rushed ending that leaves open ALOT of questions and plot-points either about characters either about the world itself. To give you some context, the strong foe i mentioned above is a struggle that lasts more than 15 chapters whereas the "final boss" takes place in 6.
I can only attribute this rushed ending in editorial pressure but still for a manga that has had such a good way of handling mystery, it feels very awkward to the point where you wish there was an extra 2 chapters to tell you what the hell happened afterwards.

Keep in mind that the ending itself (ie what happened to the main cast) is very good and if you take into account the entire manga's characterisation, rather moving. But those 30 or so chapters leading to that ending were spent badly on unnecessary stuff.

To conclude, tegamibachi has some very good messages and heartwarming moments, has some good mystery that will grind your gears a bit, but drops the ball near the end. Still for all those good moments i'd say you should give it a chance.

"hidden gem, but not really." This is what Tegamibachi can be described as.

CHARACTERS:

-Lag, the main character, is defined by his empathy, though you can make a case for him being a crybaby, his emotional reactions are fitting for the situations he encounters, and he balances his vulnerability with taking initiative.

-Gauche stands out as the best character, with his amnesia being handled masterfully. Rather than reverting to square one after regaining his memory, Gauche's old and new memories blend, leading to internal conflict between helping his friends in the Letter Bees, the protagonists, and his friends in Reverse group, the antagonists.

Niche's character isn't inherently bad, but ... the author's portrayal of her is off-putting and contradictory. Her past as a trafficking victim and trust issues are overshadowed by unnecessary fanservice scenes, which ironically contradict the arc focused on such issues. Fortunately, these scenes become less frequent as the story progresses.


Story:

The manga's beginning and middle are captivating, brimming with enigma and suspense. The mysteries in the story resemble a hydra; just when you think something is solved, new complexities emerge. The narrative also effectively weaves past events and characters into later chapters.

HOWEVER, the story loses its momentum in the last 30 chapters, leaving readers with a sense of confusion. It seems that the author might have faced editorial pressures or cancellation threats, leading to a rushed and poorly paced conclusion

Numerous plot points are introduced but left unresolved, such as Zaji's sudden trust issues despite being one of the most open and sociable characters. The ending raises more questions than answers, leaving you wanting for a proper epilogue to tie up loose ends.


TLDR:

Tegamibachi has a great momentum with the beginning and middle, but loses track of itself towards the end. It becomes stuffed with fast pacing,and unresolved plot points leading to an unsatisfying ending


Beginning 7/10
Middle 7/10
Ending 0/10

Overall this story is like a Low 7 at maximum, and a 5 at minimum, and you should only read if you dont mind a dissapointing end

A series that forget what the main plotline was.

Some light spoilers in this review upto vol. 12. Nothing super major, because the main story actually takes a small break before getting back into it.

The series is about Delivering Letters... Mostly. They're 3 main concepts to the series. The artificial Sun, Being the best bee & delivering letter and killing Gaichuu's which is the main enemy of the series.... I think. It's not entirely clear. The idea here is that the chads, the Main characters are people who deliver letters known as the Letter Bee's. However letters here are more than just simple words on ... a piece of paper but rather contain their heart or piece of their soul. Letter Bee's have a weapon called a shindan which uses the user's own heart/soul to shoot. They use there dingo's (sidekicks) find the weak points of Gaichu's and the Bee's shoot them dead with there Shindan. That's basically the story for the first 15 volumes until the author realized that the actual main story about the main character's mother was also a thing and very abruptly came back to it.

The main character is a very uncharismatic character for like 18 volumes of the series. A constant crybaby that really destroys the emotional weight this story could've had. When a scene does require him to cry it just falls flat due to how much you cannot take the main character seriously anymore. Its disappointing but what can you do. You can choose to not read the manga. That's a bright idea.

The action and the story was actually very underwhelming. Though I was initially interested in the story, the way it was unraveled was one of most boring and poorly paced ways ever. The story is 2 fold. 1 is finding the truth about the MMC"s mother and what happened to her. Why she was taken to the capital. However we talk a long break from this main story to fuck around. For about 10 volumes there is this big fucking gaichu that attacks peoples hearts. Huge problem but this guy is fucking annoying. Its literally a giant monster with no absolute personality. He's not vicious either. The *taking heart* basically borrows the people's soul so when the MC can inevitably defeat it they can return back. This completely destroys any sort of tension the you may get when the characters themselves are in no real danger.

The things I enjoyed about the series was the characters and world building which also fucks right off. However the actual solid moments of character interactions are just constantly bogged down with information about shit I don't care about. Imagine you are playing a video game and you pick a codex that's underneath a bed that tells you the minute details about shit you can't even connect to. That is the main dialogue of tegami bachi between characters. It sucks too because they are some great characters they are just severly underutilized. Jiggy Pepper and the Bearded Dingo were probably the best characters in the series.

The MMC"s Dingo Niche was a problem as well. I quite liked her as well. She was funny and had some decent action scenes. There is a running joke where she doesn't wear underwear which would be fine when its done once.... Not the amount the author decided to shove in to the point that it became very uncomfortable.

I was under the impression this was a good series but not a single person has told me this was a good manga so far as I was Live reacting on discord. Everyone told me that it was boring and I can see why. There are many characters that get sidelines, many plotlines that get dropped out of knowhere. It is incredibly disappointing.

If there is 1 refuge I can say about the quality of the series, its the quality of the ending. The ending is ballsy. Yes everything leading up to the ending was an asspull and the way the actual ending occurred was also an asspull. But the consequence that occurred did make me think, ok yeah, this is a decent ending to the series. Its not a well written series but the ending did take some balls. Either that or the author realized that he should just throw some action on the screen.

Overall. I'm disappointed. Gonna go back to playing Hades. At least that was entertaining. Due to the ending I did consider giving the series a 5/10 because I'm not made of stone damn it. However... Considering I've typed all of this out, they were moments where I did enjoy the series it was just far too few in between and if push comes to a shove I would not recommend this series.