Review of Haibane Renmei

"He who recognizes his own sin has no sin" The first half is an extremely cozy feather blanket slice of life. Very slow, but warming and kind. The second half gets more into the deeper emotional themes of salvation and redemption. I like how it stays vague enough that the themes can be personalized, but detailed enough that it doesn't feel excessively experimental. I especially love the setting and characteristics of the world. It felt like an anime set in the same world as Fumito Ueda's video games Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, or The Last Guardian. The aesthetic and mood match the feel of those games andI really dig that.

If you like more interpretive anime with a slower pace, I would really recommend Haibane Renmei.

Side note: This series is from some of the same creators as Serial Experiments Lain, but I liked Haibane Renmei much more because it wasn't as intensely avant guarde and hard to grasp.