Review of Haibane Renmei

"To recognize one's own sin is to have no sin" This was the line said by the character named The Communicator and it's a crucial detail that will make you think in this anime Haibane Renmei. Based on a collection of strip comics by Yoshitoshi Abe (Serial Experiments Lain), this is one of Abe's best works. It's a show that...... well let's just get the review to know more. The story starts out with a girl dreaming about falling from the sky and seeing a crow trying to save her, even though that the crow is too weak to pull the girl up. Later, a cocoongrows very big, it hatched and that's where our main character is born. She wakes up with a bunch of people who they call themselves The Haibane. The Haibane are a very old kind that have halos in their heads and flightless silver gray wings in their backs and each Haibane is named after remembering what their dreams were about. For example; Our main character is named Rakka, which means falling cause she was dreaming about falling from the sky. While the other one is named Reki, which means small stones and so on. The Haibane live in Old Home in the town of Gile, where both humans and Haibanes are forbidden to leave the town for unknown reasons and only the crows may go through the walls since they can fly. Later in the series, Rakka discovers that Reki has a dark past and she must help her to get rid of her sin before it too late to save her.

The story in the anime is really fascinating. Like Wolf's Rain. Haibane Renmei gives us a rich world full of mystery and questions for us to answer. Like why can't the Haibane have new clothes instead of old clothes? Why can't they remember who they really were before they became Haibane? Why Rakka has a connection with the crows and can talk to them? Why aren't they allowed to leave the city? Some mysteries in the anime are resolved but not everything is explained mind you. It's possible to solve these mysteries but it won't be a piece of cake (just like what JesuOtaku said about solving the history in Wolf's Rain can be possible), but with that said, it's a powerful story about the human spirit and it also explores the concepts of sin, redemption, trust, happiness and forgiveness. The characters are great but Rakka and Reki are by far the more developed. Rakka is just a scared girl who's uncomfortable in this new world that she now lives in, but by the time at the last episode, she learns to embrace this new life and therefore looking forward on taking care of the new born Haibanes while Reki is an old Haibane who's Sin-Bound, which are Haibanes that cannot remember their dreams and therefore have no "Day of Flight", and haunted by her tragic past. But with Rakka, she might have a chance to be free from the Circles of Sin. With that said, it's a fascinating world and it goes at such a slow but calm pace that the show wants you to learn this world and it's culture without rushing things out till the last episode. That's great and more anime series should do that.

The animation by Radix (Sakura Wars) is simple yet beautiful to look. The watercolor art is magnificent and the backgrounds are nicely drawn, allowing the atmosphere to be more life-like. Character models are also simplified yet they still look great and the animations in the characters expressions are not too shabby. The music by Ko Otani...... OMG! My ears are in Heaven. This is truly an underrated soundtrack. The piano set-pieces are gorgeous, the chanting is powerful and both OP and ED themes of the show fits the show's tone perfectly. The dub is made by MVM FIlms and was released by Geneon, but sadly they were out of prints ,since Geneon was closed a long time ago, but Funimation rescued the series and they released it in the "Anime Classics" DVD. I really like how the voice actresses and actors give a much calmed voices to the characters and fit so well. Carrie Savage does a good job of providing a confuse but emotional performance as Rakka, while Erika Weinstein makes a good hearted emotion to Reki and in the later episodes, she gives a more somber feel to Reki. The rest of the cast also did an excellent job with their characters and all in all, it's a great dub that doesn't disrespect the dialouge of the Japanese version.

Haibane Renmei is a show that it's just so memorable that words are weak to describe why I love this series. Despite being only 13 episodes, this anime delivers in just about everything really. From the story to the characters to the mysteries of the show and so on, it's really rare to find a show that defines perfection and this are one of them.