Hiroyuki Asada (浅田弘幸 Asada Hiroyuki) is a Japanese mangaka. His most known series are I'll and Tegami Bachi.
All of Asada's manga were serialized in the monthly shōnen anthology Monthly Shōnen Jump (which has since been discontinued; Tegami Bachi now appears in its replacement Jump Square). He made his debut in 1986. He acquired a fanbase with Mint: Sleeping Rabbit, Renka by degrees, and his popularity improved with I'll. He also worked on the character design of the 2019 anime adaptation of Tezuka's classic Dororo. In his personal life, he is part of a unit with Shou Tajima (best known for Psych) and Takeshi Obata (best known for Hikaru no Go and Death Note), and his creation activity with "AQUARIOS 3".
The protagonist, Rag and his partner, Nicchi are becoming to know each other. Also I realized that being BEE which can be only chosen person is really hard. I want him to be great BEE.
I really enjoyed aspects of this volume, but I thought other parts were pretty boring. There were multiple scenes that were supposed to be really heartfelt, and I would say about half of them were effective and the other half just kind of annoyed me. I would say the best way to describe this volume is that half of it was interesting and heartfelt, and the other half was boring and hard to read.
Inspired by Gauche Suede, Lag continues his journey to become a Letter Bee with his Dingo at his side. Only not everyone has the same high regard for the Letter Bees as he does. Nor does every Bee have similar goals to himself.
Beautifully illustrated with compelling characters, this quickly became one of my favorite series. Anyone who truly drawn to Naruto's quest for Sasuke in 'Naruto' should take a look at Lag's own quest inspired by Gauche, along with his journey to find Gauche and bring him home.
It's getting better as it goes along. Not my favorite thing I've ever read, but it's pretty good. And about the stuff in the first volume I was worried about, eh it's alright. It's definitely not made in abyss levels bad. It's like, slightly bad but manageable. Main reason is that in MIA it was adults being weird. In this it's just Niche, and she's like 9 and never had parents to teach her stuff. This is exactly how I'd expect a 9 year old living on the streets to act, granted it's still weird. So just watch out.
I'm finding this a difficult series to rate. One moment there's an incredibly moving scene packed with emotion, and the next there's a joke about underpants. However, I love the main character's tender heart and way of expressing himself, and the author's note that "if it's important, if the tears are for someone special, I think it's the right thing, even for a boy." I'll definitely read a few more volumes to see how it develops.
Nunca compré este manga aunque el anime es de mis favoritos, por eso ahora lo estoy leyendo completo en Manga Plus. En fin, quiero mucho a Lag, Niche y a Bistec, pero odio la traducción. En este tomo se explora un poco más el gran corazón que tiene Lag y el poder que eso le da al ámbar espiritual incrustado en su ojo. Después hace la prueba para ver si puede ser aceptado como Letter Bee y recibe noticias sobre Gauche por primera vez en cinco años. Wuuuu.
This volume is a bit darker than the previous one, but it is also filled with heart and light. The characters delve deeper into the well-crafted world of the story, the cast of characters expands, the story begins to open up. The writing and art in this volume are brilliant. An excellent series so far.
Dans cet épisode toujours aussi bien ficelé, notre héros a grandi et passe l’épreuve pour devenir Letter Bee. Il se Lie d’amitié avec une enfant-make, être légendaire aux grands pouvoirs, qui devient son partenaire.
I decided to give Tegami Bachi another shot, and I'm glad I did. The second volume went a lot better for me than the first one. It didn't feel like an info-dump this time around, and the art, scenery especially, is lovely to look at.
Nos cuenta cómo Lag llega hasta la ciudad donde tiene que hacer la entrevista, algunos acontecimientos previos a su llegada, su gran descubrimiento sobre su piedra de ámbar…
Cada vez tomo se va mejorando, espero que no me decepcione en los siguientes.
Aah, Zazie e Wasiolka. Ho letto i primi volumi di questo fumetti più di dieci anni fa e non mi ricordo quasi nulla, ma appena ho visto Wasiolka il mio cuore ha perso un battito.
Un volumetto un po' di passaggio, che suscita altre domande e spunti.
The atmosphere! The clothing! The names (Jiggy Pepper just rolls of the tongue am I right?)! The dingos! And of course Lag and Niche are wonderful MCs. It’s like straight out of a childhood dream... so magical. Studio Ghibli should make a movie out of this. That would be something.
Niche and Steak get 2 stars all of their own, they are great and made me literally laugh out loud. Art style is still really pretty and we get a little more world building.
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.
So far I've read the first 5 volumes of this manga. Premise: Awesome. Story: meh. Not really even with a capital M. Tankobon manga like Tegami Bachi are something I can see myself getting into; where there is an individual story with a beginning and end to each volume without much cutoff (ala Mushishi). It's really a cozy and intimate little experience that I get with most books. I like manga, but the problem with other series I enjoy like Soul Eater is that it's just one collective work where you have to keep reading and reading the volumes like a neverending bag of potato chips. Tegami Bachi is far more personal in the fact that it's tankobon, and that's mixed in with its serene but surreal indigo-laden caste-based steampunk-ish world. However the problem I have with what I've read with the series is that it falls into many traps that are becoming shonen manga cliches. There's a naive young protagonist who looks up to someone but also boasts special powers. There's a weird girl, a bizarre mascot, snarky side characters, a mysterious side species that bear the same powers as the protagonist a job to do, and a mystery to solve. Been there done ALL that. Other than the unique premise the story is on autopilot writing itself. The action is cool but a bit too flashy, and not a lot of characters nor are they extremely three dimensional so it's hard to sympathize with the apparent danger. The art, as I mentioned before is very, VERY cool. It's cool to the point where I just accept the created world as steampunk fantasy and suspend my disbelief. The characters all look cool and the concept of a dark world with an artificial sun makes me want to keep reading just to figure out what it is. The other nice part and shonen trap that Letter Bee doesn't fall into is the fan service. Most of the costumes are pleasant, baggy, honest and unique (Bar Aria's with needless straps that serve no purpose other than the illusion of underboob-bearing lingerie). Will I keep reading it? We'll see.
The second volume in the series Tegami bachi, a shōnen manga by Hiroyuki Asada, features Lag Seeing and his brand new dingo Niche traveling and venturing to find Lag's savior, Guache Suede, and become a letter bee. The sequel to the first volume, It continues where the first left off, with Lag receiving Niche as his partner to travel across amberground with. And together, they travel to the letter bee exam, with a few surprises along the way.
To be honest, I think the 1st book was WAY better, and leaving Guache was a REALLY big mistake. Lag is interesting and all, but Guache was a lot cooler. However, the side plot made up for it, though the new characters weren't very well explained. As in my previous review, the comedy was rare, but very funny when it did happen. The emotions running in this book were even MORE powerful than the last, and that's basically crazy talk looking at the previous one. As for categories on recommendations, I would recommend to fans who like mostly light-hearted, powerfully emotional stuff. On age, maybe 8, 9+. Overall, the excellent side plot made up for most of it, but still had quite a few flaws. Three out of five stars.