At first, I could not understand how an anime could both be bright and dark at the same time. Now I understand that it's a balance of life so rarely properly portrayed, that Haibane Renmei on that level could easily be called a masterpiece.
The story is easily one of my favorite ones.
A perpetual question, need, and curiosity. What is beyond the walls, how do haibanes come to existence, who were they before and who are they now that they can chose their own storyline? What happens after they've lived their intended life as haibane? If you remove the haibane part you can very easily see that the questions are the staples of philosophy in our own world. Questions which are constantly answered but to which there is no right answer. It is us who chose the proper answer for our own life.
As such, humanity in this anime is given the mask of haibanes to hide behind so it can freely talk and reveal itself even in doing no such thing.
The plot handles these questions very well through action rather than in words. The portrayal of depression, jealousy and bitterness for life, and how it affects our characters is especially wonderful. This anime, being psychologically heavy, left you wanting more.
The art is okay, it's not overpowering and it shouldn't be accentuated anyways considering the heavy lifting is left to the story and inner (and outer) conflict. Sound is similar in that aspect.
The characters are, like in all good animes, developed nicely though because of the plot there can't be any heavy backstory. However, we can see in our two main characters that even without backstory (thought, in a way it is present) humanity, the fears and aspirations can easily be figured out.
It's hard to describe this anime without watching it. It's lyrical in that way. Because it deals heavily with psychology and emotions, fear and content being two prominent things, to convey the feeling and heaviness is difficult. It's definitely a must-watch anime for those who like to delve deeper into humanity, and what it means to exist. In contrast, it's easily balanced by the slice-of-life feeling that it gets when it's not emotionally heavy, and so for anyone who likes to watch anime that isn't action filled, it's definitely a good choice. It's perhaps one of the most unique things that exist out in the anime community. It has a different feeling than anything else I ever watched.
