Coming of age is an accurate way to describe the story. Haibane are angel-looking creatures, who were humans in their previous lives and then were reborn in a mysterious city. They also have no recollections of their past, which motivates them to learn about the world as well as themselves. The very first dream every one of them experiences plays a huge role, as the events of it are the starting point of their new life. The story uses slice of life elements to introduce the world and the haibane as well. Unfortunately, there are only 13 episodes, which isn't enough to cover both the lore of the city and the character arcs of the two protagonists, Rakka and Reki. And initially I was extremely disappointed that the author chose the latter over the former. In my opinion it made the story incomplete by leaving so many questions hanging in the air.
Then my opinion was later changed thanks to Umeneko, a manga, which takes a different approach to tell a story. The writer presents an original concept but doesn't do anything substantial with it, and as a result the story doesn't get anywhere. Conversely, Haibane Renmei skillfully places story pieces like dominoes and the resulted chain reaction creates a well-written character drama. And if that was sacrificed to improve the world building it wouldn't have left any impression on me. The presented world is used as a foundation for an actual story instead of trying to replace it. I would still like to know if the dreams are somehow connected to the person's past, though. But I doubt there is much thought put into that, because there is a character whose dream is about being asleep.
The visuals is probably the reason people forgot this anime exists. I can't say the animation is dated because it would be an insult to better-animated older shows. The animation is bad, it's not the Project No 9 level of bad but it's close to it. The good direction can usually compensate for the lackluster animation, but the direction here is pretty standard. And the cherry on top - the show's resolution is 480p. There is a 1080p version but this is just a poor upscale of the DVD release. The music is the only salvation. I have watched hundreds of anime and only a handful of them had genuinely good music. Those are Terror in Resonance, Tokyo Ghoul, and every Sawano's ost. Haibane Renmei's ost is easily one of the best ost out there. It sets the tone for the story and significantly improves a lot of scenes. I'm confident that the first episode and the last episode were greatly benefited from the music.
In summery, Haibane Renmei is far from a perfect show, even though it has a potential to be so. But it also a perfect example of the late 90s to early 00s anime. It doesn't want you to scrutinize every bit of it to point out the flaws. This is the case where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The beautiful music, the hand-drawn art style, and the believable characters did convince me to look at the show as a whole.
