The basic premise of Haibane Renmei is the story of a young girl named Rakka, a newly arrived Haibane (basically an angelic-looking being), and the other characters who are also Haibane and live in the city of Glie a city walled from the rest of the world. The story follow Raka as she tries to get used to being a Haibane and the new world she now inhabits while also trying to understand who or what she is and what it means to be a Haibane ...
So what makes an anime about a bunch of girl with wings and halos living together original and worth watching? Well God is in the details my friends and that`s where this show excels, in the details. Clearly a lot of work and passion went to making Haibane Renmei and it really shows because it looks great, sounds great and is surprisingly depth-full, especially the story and characters which where as interesting to watch as they where thought provoking. Now I should mention that Haibane Renmei is based on a Doujin by Abe Yoshitoshi (serial experiments Lain) so I should give give him credit as he is the original creator, with this having a very similar atmosphere and feel too his other work. Clearly his original ideas where not watered down by the studio as they allowed him to write the screenplay for this anime so it retains the feel of the original very well. And of course its always good to know the original artist was involved greatly in the making of the adoption. As I said whats really great about this show is the atmosphere that Abe Yoshitoshi creates, its the kind that you can see feel in all his works that really pulls you in with it foreboding and mystery while making you think, it not incredibly deep like say Mushishi is but it still better than the vast majority of anime out there is.
On top of all this is the characters which are defiantly this shows strongest element, their played subtly and not too much in your face especially the main characters Rakka and Reki who by the way where extremely interesting to watch and grow. They where given much time to develop and it never felt rushed, which was a accomplishment seeing as this was only 13 episodes. I also found it interesting how the focus of the show is never entirely on one character and actually cleverly allows for all the characters to shine while allowing for their stories to mix and develop which was a nice touch as some animes tend to only focus on only one character and sometimes overdevelop them ignoring other potential interesting characters.
The art for this series was excellent , after all it was based on Abe Yoshitoshi orginal Doujin so difficult to go wrong there. Its stunning in its beauty, with European-style architecture in the city and beautiful green rolling fields which really make you feel the tranquillity and secluded oasis feeling that this anime gives off but never losing that mysterious feeling that so important to this anime. Because of this I really enjoyed this setting, which is basically a walled off city similar to a small European village ( what! An anime thats not set in Japan, quickly to the Führer bunker!) and separated from the outside world so no-one knows what its like beyond the walls. I thought this was kinda cool because it created a sense of danger and foreboding that all humans get from not knowing what’s goes on so close to where they live. It created a good mystery and left it open for interpretation as to why this city is walled off and what if anything is in the outside world and especially the all important question of what the Haibane really are.
If I had one compliant about this show its that there where times when the main character sometimes acts in ways that just didn’t make sense to me. One example is that after being born a Haibane from a cocoon, given a Halo and even grows wings in the middle of the night she never has any real questions about anything that’s happening. If that happened to me id be asking questions at a million miles a minute like, “why do we have wings?, can I fly?, does everyone have wings? , can I fly?, what are the halos made off?, can I fly?, am I dead?, “is this heaven?” ,“seriously, can I fly?” but she just accepts all of it like it doesn’t concern her at all. I get that she has no memories but did she leave her common sense in that cocoon. I don’t know, this is a small complaint that I just thought id mention to balance this review out a bit, because otherwise this is a relativity flawless series. When you watch it you might see what im talking about here or you might not, it could be that im just nitpicking here but whatever, moving on.
Anyway this problem should not keep you from watching what is otherwise a great and unique series, the feel of it is great, the characters are great, the art is great. I would recommend this series to anyone looking for something a little different and proof of the heights of originality and greatness that anime can rise to if it really tries and given a a chance.
