Review of Haibane Renmei

Haibane Renmei is another work by the brilliant Yasuyuki Ueda, creator of both Texhnolyze and Serial Experiments Lain. Since these are some of my favorite anime of all time, I was bound to check this one out. However, I had no expectations set, because I've seen many opinions that this is the weakest out of the three. Still, Ueda seems to consistently deliver, so I was hoping for something at least good enough to get a solid message out of, but what I got was much more. This is an uncommon instance where a tv show has multiple messages hidden within it, and they are allfilled with a great deal of meaning. There is commentary on discrimination at two different levels: the townsfolk towards the haibane in general and the haibane towards the sin-bound. It pursues this message while simultaneously having a mysterious world that no one knows about with very mysterious people that don't know about their past or how they came to be haibane in the first place. The people of the haibane grow up without questioning how they were created, and they live life in no particularly unordinary way. However, Rakka hatches from the cocoon, and soon she starts to question what purpose the haibane even have, and what the purpose of life is in general. Living life to the fullest is a common theme here, and while this is what the general haibane ideology consists of, Rakka is an outlier and her curious yet intelligent way of going about things is absolutely striking. She makes for one of the most interesting and developed characters in anime.

I could see criticisms about the art, but in my opinion it fits the show perfectly. The realistic art style and the way nothing is overly animated makes it an amazing representation of what the meaning of Haibane Renmei is in the first place. The soundtrack is also something to take note of, and it has some of the most lovely and chilling songs you'll ever hear.

The only gripe I have with this anime is that there were a lot of questions left unanswered at the end of the show, and the slow typical slice of life pacing near the beginning with nothing really happening wasn't for me. For some this might add more mysteriousness to the show and environment, which I could see, but for me it ended on a note I wasn't really expecting. Since I'm avoiding spoilers I'm not going to name any specifics, and don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad, I just hoped for something more.

Overall, Haibane Renmei slowly but beautifully unravels its message throughout the show and makes for one of the most interesting and intriguing pieces of media I've ever had the pleasure to consume. I would say it is certainly near his other works in terms of quality and barely any aspect of this show falters. You have to be patient with it, but if you enjoy his other works then I feel like you'll have the ability to appreciate the beauty that this show provides. Even if you don't, there's no denying the sheer quality and meaningful nature of this excellent piece of art.