Review of Haibane Renmei

Haibane Renmei was all right. I honestly feel like I should leave it at that, why complicate things...? I guess maybe I felt like Haibane Renmei was trying so very hard not to offend me.. but to be honest I guess it kind of did.. it seemed kind of straightforward in some ways Characters on a journey? Check. Destination unknown? Mega check. Trials and tribulations? Check.But where is this journey, who are the characters? Where are they going? Well the answer is Rakka and Rekki, the women of the Old Home, a place in some kind of unclearly defined countryside or other surrounded by a wall, with angelic wings sprouting behind them. They do tasks for the local village and their mysterious elder-type figures known as the Tohka.

So, translated, that's angelic aspiring super good aspiring angelic people doing tasks in a giant house for their elder-type masters who control every aspect of their lives.

Ok, still not getting it??

This is basically just a heavily masked story of majordomo control complex! It doesn't really have anything to do with where these people are going, it's just intended to affirm the notion that there really isn't anything in the world these angelic female people should care about, and that obedience to the masked elder-type Tohka is of the highest and most extreme importance.

Yep, if you look closely the themes of Haibane Renmei are arch-conservative in nature and hence it can all be really quite boring. I'm not going to spoil the story by hopefully saying it doesn't really go anywhere beyond those points. It's an affirmation of the safe space, but it's told with such incredible force that if you weren't paying attention you might not notice it.

As is, I can't say I couldn't stand it because that's not true at all, but I thought it would be more fun based on the things I saw about it.