The late hire, Chico Neige!
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Hiroyuki Asada
Translation: JN Productions
What They Say
Lag now knows what he has to do to save Amberground: unite the five children born on the mysterious Day of the Flicker. And his latest delivery may lead him to vital information. But meanwhile Lag has to cope with his brash new partner, Chico, who insists that nothing will stand in her way to becoming Head Bee!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
In light of the revelation from last volume, the Bees work vigorously to find a plan to move forward. At the core of this is the search for the other children born on the Day of the Flicker, which our heroes make into a priority. Dr Thunderland (Jr) actually manages to figure out something else from the information Lag delivered, though he decides not to tell the younger Bees in order not to damage our hero further. Based on his theory, the Empress is a living Spirit Amber, and the Bees in the capital are constantly “firing” the device that creates the sun.
Though things are heating up, Lag still keeps to his job, which he soon finds interrupted by a rather brash girl. This girl, Chico Neige, turns out to be a “late hire” who was reevaluated and brought on to help with the backed up workload. Lag ends up showing her the ropes, but it turns out they really just can’t get along, as she believes purely in efficiency, as well as her goal of becoming a top bee and going to the capital! Even so, they end up on a delivery together in which a poor old woman’s letter failed to deliver before her daughter died, and as a result she turned to booze to ease her sorrows. Chico deems the letter pointless, but Lag stays on. Will our hero prove that his method is right and help the woman gain some closure, or is it truly a pointless task? Also, just what’s the deal with Chico’s mysterious posterior?
Finally, Chico does a surprising 180 and drags Lag along to help deliver a letter to an animal living in the forest. Is there any purpose to delivering a letter to a beast? And could this creature truly be one of the five children born on the Day of the Flicker?
In Summary
In a lot of ways, this volume is a bit on the slow side. Though we just came off of massive revelations, there’s nothing of the sort to be found here. Of course, that isn’t to say what’s here is in any way subpar. Once more, we’re treated to a pair of touching tales that really help to show off how powerful the connection between people (and animals!) can be. There’s also of course the matter of Chico, who makes an interesting and surprisingly fun addition to the cast. It definitely is just a tad disappointing that the action has slowed down a bit, but even so this book remains another fantastic addition to a wonderful series.
Content Grade: A-
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: A-
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: November 4th, 2014
MSRP: $9.99
