Tegami Bachi 21 - Potpouri of Memories

After finishing a long trip delivery, Connor suggested that they went to the Therapy room to relax themselves. It was a room developed by the corpse doctor, Dr Thunderland Jr. They were surprised to see that the room has a nice smell. There, they met a person named Mana Jones who collaborate with Dr Thunderland for this project, and she explained how the relaxing smell was made with various herbs and flower. That was when Lag found out that Mana was an old acquaintance of Gauche, and the story went back to the past..

It all went back to the day when Mana was still a researcher in the academy, looking for a way to to relieve muscle fatigue using plant aroma. She didn't seem to be happy to see Dr Thunderland because she thought that he didn't value her research much. One night she fell asleep in her research room accidentally caused fire. As a result, some chemical liquid fell from the top of a rack and caught her eyes, resulting in blindness in both eyes. As Mana's superior, Dr Thunderland was summoned by Amberground Bioscience Advisory Panel to discuss about the accident and he was informed that Mana wished to withdraw from her research due to her condition. He then went to visit Mana in the hospital and but it seems like Mana was set with her decision to quit. Gauche later had a talk with Dr Thunderland in Mana's burnt room and from that he knows how much care the corpse doctor had for Mana. Dr Thunderland realised one thing that could reignite Mana's will to continue her research, and sent her a bottle of helenseed which remind her of the first time she tried to apply as researcher in that place, showing how much desire she had at that time. Meanwhile Dr Thunderland was summoned again for the verdict of Mana's punishment, but Mana appeared soon after to withdraw her wish to quit. She was relieved off her punishment, but was given only one week to prove the value of her research..

comments: It's quite rare that the arc doesn't end with just one episode. Although this episode focus more on Mana Jones (Marina Inoue ftw \o/) and Dr. Thunderland Jr, we still got to see a bit piece of Gauche before he lost his heart, it's good to see the continuity of this in the next episode. Proving the value of her research within one week, when all these years it yields virtually nothing will prove to be difficult for them. Seeing the story still has a long way to go, it's fairly safe to assume that we would see season 2 in the future. Dr Corpse really is a kind doctor. We've seen this side of him before when he quarantined the stray cats to prevent widespread disease, and this episode further shows that, giving Mana a pass even though her research yield no scientific result. He seems having too much enthusiasm in research. And just a rant from me as a researcher who works on lab myself, I cannot comprehend why must she put such dangerous chemical bottle at the very top of the shelves?

"That which is easily obtained has little value"