Review of Haibane Renmei

To be honest - I don't know why it has so many perfect score review. Don't get me wrong, it's a sweet slice-of-life anime with a taste of fantasy that's definitely worth watching if you like the genre but it's far from perfect. This review will contain spoilers but these are not about what happens in the anime but rather what *doesn't* happen, which is my main disappointment here. If you prefer not to read that, that's ok. The TL;DR is - The show ends in a way which reminds me of the cases where the original manga / novel continues past the end ofthe anime, however in this case the source material ended before the anime adaptation began and therefore a lot of things remain unexplained.

Basically this is a story about the Haibane, a group of people whose appearance resembles angels - They have wings, although they are way too small for them to fly (they can move them though) and halos (though those are molded and given to them at birth). All of the Haibane live (alongside humans) in a certain (unnamed) town which is surrounded by walls and nobody (neither Haibane nor human) is allowed to go out. All outside trade is done via a different race called the Toga, which communicate only using hand gestures and only to specific people called the Communicators. Haibane are "born" by hatching from cocoons. They already have general knowledge when born but no identity and live in the town until their "day of flight", where they go to a specific point in the woods near town and vanish in a ray of light, presumably finally gaining the ability to fly and leave the town walls.
The story follows a Haibane girl named Rakka from the moment she hatches and her relationship with her friend and mentor, a Haibane named Reki, as well as the group of Haibane she lives with in a dormitory they call "old home". It seems that the Haibane are not exactly perfect angels.

So what exactly is the disappointment? MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD!

Because the ending completely ignores the biggest mysteries presented in the first episode: What exactly are the Haibane to begin with (the only partial answer is that the Haibane are not sure themselves), what's outside the town walls and why nobody's allowed out (completely ignored) as well as what happens to a Haibane after their day of flight. It's seriously as though the story is expected to continue but never does. Really too bad.