Can we have a Haibane Renmei thread? I don't think I've ever seen one on Sup Forums

Can we have a Haibane Renmei thread? I don't think I've ever seen one on Sup Forums.

I just finished this show and put off making a thread while I was watching it because I didn't want anything spoiled. Now that I'm done though I think it'd be fun to have a discussion with you guys about the show.

I don't really remember why I decided to pick it up, like I said I don't think I've ever seen anyone here talk about it at length. I enjoyed it immensely, it was such a beautiful and chilling story, like a perfect blend of comfy and anxiety as to what would happen next.

What do you guys think? Did you enjoy the show?

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Anyway, after watching it, it's pretty obvious where the Haibane come from. Well, I guess it's more appropriate to say it's obvious why they're in Glie. But, I was wondering about the young feathers. I know kids can and have done things which would bring them there, but there seems to be a lot of kids. The older Haibane like Rakka and Kuu all emerged from their cocoons much older than the young feathers. Since Haibane only seem to spend a few years (less than a decade it seems like) in the town before leaving, will the young feathers actually be that much older when they leave? Maybe they're going to stay longer, in order to fully comprehend the reason they're in the town. Then again, Kuu was younger than Rakka and still left before many of the older Haibane, so I guess there's no strict order to it all.

I watched it so long ago I barely remember anything.
But I'll never forget that train scene.
Also the Kou Otani soundtrack.

So Im not a Catholic but I've heard that children who die before being baptized always go to purgatory first.

Can you please remind me where the Haibane came from? They all died, right?

I remember loving this series many years ago but I've forgotten absolutely everything.

People think they all committed suicide because their dreams kinda fit but we only know that Reki did it for sure

I was a catholic but I don't consider myself one anymore. That's what I had heard though. It's why Catholics baptize their kids at a very young age, because if they die they want them to go to heaven. Protestants I think let their kids choose when they want to be baptized, I think in a way to allow the kid to take responsibility for their faith.

I wasn't sure whether the wings and halo meant anything though. I know in Evangelion all the Christian shit was included but didn't really mean anything according to Anno. I didn't know if that was the case in this show though.

It does seem a bit arbitrary. There's not much exploration into the Abandoned Factory group to give us a control and an experimental group to compare. Young Feathers could be dozens of years old but maintain their status in purgatory until an allotted time is reached. The show never really explained what exactly triggers Haibane to leave. A load of mystery was unexplained like what is outside the city and the mechanics. In the end though that doesn't even matter. It's about the character interactions and the story is about the growth of the protagonist in general.

I don't think so. It would indeed be weird for literal toddlers to commit suicide.

I think only the sinbound haibane were suicides, the rest were just kids who died and for whatever reason couldn't move directly to "heaven" or wherever it is that they go. Probably because they weren't mentally ready. Or what said.

It's one of my favorite anime but I hardly remember anything of it
I guess it's time for a rewatch soon

I love forgetting anime and manga. It means I get to experience it close to new a second or third time.

Which haibane would you fuck?

>The show never really explained what exactly triggers Haibane to leave.
I thought it kind of did, although not directly. I think when Rakka talked to that guy with the weird mask he mentioned that Kuu was ready to leave, that she had gained what she needed from the town and the other Haibane to move on.

It seems to me like the town is some sort of purgatory, and the Haibane are souls sent there to atone or to come to terms with their passing. This is why they have no memory of the past, they are basically given a blank slate and steered in the right direction by the Haibane Renmei to come to terms with what happened to them. I think that's also why they're named after their dreams, because it is what they should focus on and thus what they should be reminded of every time they talk with someone.

I enjoyed a lot of the mystery, precisely because it didn't matter. The lives of the Haibane in the town was very fleeting, and the town isn't supposed to be a permanent home. If they focused too hard on the physical world around them, they'd lose sight of where they were going and end up trapped, forever unable to move on.

It first aired October 10, 2002 so if you want to wait til then you could celebrate it's 15 year anniversary.

My memory is really bad so I ofter forget about most things of a show a few months after watching it. I only remember some of the details and major plot points.

>It first aired October 10, 2002 so if you want to wait til then you could celebrate it's 15 year anniversary.
Sounds like a good idea.

How old is Reki anyway?

Free bird was a top tier opening song.

...

In the flashbacks when she first hatched she seemed to probably be about Rakka's age. She then mentioned it had been 7 years since then and so she's probably in her mid 20s, same with Nemu. It would mean that the Haibane at the abandoned facotry are all about that age as well, late teens to 20s. All the boys hatched at old home are sent there, so I guess as the male young feathers grow they'll eventually be sent away.

I just started watching this!

4 episodes in.

Nothing has really happened...

>It seems to me like the town is some sort of purgatory, and the Haibane are souls sent there to atone or to come to terms with their passing. This is why they have no memory of the past, they are basically given a blank slate and steered in the right direction by the Haibane Renmei to come to terms with what happened to them. I think that's also why they're named after their dreams, because it is what they should focus on and thus what they should be reminded of every time they talk with someone.
You're on the mark for it being purgatory. That's the closest concept in The West we have with the level of afterlife they live in. I do think it tries to be different from capital P Purgatory though in most likely a lack of fluency in the subject and secondarily a blending of Buddhism.
>I enjoyed a lot of the mystery, precisely because it didn't matter. The lives of the Haibane in the town was very fleeting, and the town isn't supposed to be a permanent home. If they focused too hard on the physical world around them, they'd lose sight of where they were going and end up trapped, forever unable to move on.
I'm a sucker for layered plots that don't explain everything. The mystery in this was good and allows for a lot of speculation which is why right here and now we can enjoy a conversation about the show years after it ended. To be fair though trapped in a quaint little town where you are revered isn't a bad gig. It just depends on how long of an "Eternity" you spend there with out a stimulus. That would always worry me about the Young Feathers. Maybe that is their Heaven being able to play and be free or maybe it is their Hell being stagnated forever in the same place and relative time. I'm not religious by the way but it is fun to think about.

Wait until Fonzy jumps over the shark tank with his motorcycle. It's bitchin' cool, man.

>To be fair though trapped in a quaint little town where you are revered isn't a bad gig.
See what I really liked about the show is how they blended this comfy sort of slice-of-life with a feeling of overarching dread.

The girls do have a really nice life in Old Home, they do have to work but their jobs are pretty easy. The towns people are kind to them and often give them free treats or offer favors to them. But deep down every Haibane knows that this isn't the end of his/her journey. At any time their best friend could wander off, without a word. They might even wake-up one day themselves and know it's time to leave. When Kuu leaves I feel like it hit Rakka especially hard, she had barely settled in and didn't know anything about the day of flight, and then in a few minutes Kuu is gone and there's nothing anyone could've done. I think it's easy to imagine how she must've felt, why work? Why do anything but lay around? We're all doomed to leave and there's nothing that can stop it. Why even be friends with anyone, they're all going to leave anyway.

I kinda wish the Haibane kept journals. I guess Reki did keep a bit of a diary, but they should have a more formal collection of all the Haibane who pass through Glie. A record of who they were, what they were like, even the dreams they had. I think it'd give some solace to some of the Haibane that they had left a mark there, something their friends could turn to and read when they felt alone. Then again I guess it sort of goes against the theme of impermanence the show tries to convey.

>I think it's easy to imagine how she must've felt, why work? Why do anything but lay around? We're all doomed to leave and there's nothing that can stop it. Why even be friends with anyone, they're all going to leave anyway.
What's brilliant is that same frame of reference can be applied to real life. It's a desperate struggle against pure nihilism. Why live at all if the end is inevitable and in a few generations almost everything tangible about your existence will be gone? The ending in my opinion was accepting the inevitability and living for not the past but the future as well as as much as possible in the present. Life is fleeting and even more so in the purgatory the Haibane live in. They never die but they move on. Maybe that's what death is really like. Moving on from this life into the unknown.

Liked it up to the train scene.
Too much character conflict in my comfy melancholic show, and I don't give two shits about Reki's character either.

>Why live at all if the end is inevitable and in a few generations almost everything tangible about your existence will be gone?
I wonder if this is a feeling that all the Haibane experience at some point. Right after Kuu leaves, Reki says that they hadn't seen a Haibane leave for their day of flight in some time. It seems like the population of Old Home and the factory are self-limiting to some degree, with only so many Haibane living there at any one point. Nemu, Kana, and Hikari are less phased by Kuu leaving, so I wonder if they themselves had friends leave in the few years they'd been there. I wonder if Kuu had been around for long enough to have a friend leave. I guess everyone reacts to it differently, Rakka sort of bottled up her emotions and kept them to herself, which only made her feel more alone and worthless. Maybe the others experienced these feelings but shared them more openly and talked them out instead of holding it inside.

It is anachronistic of the grieving process throughout history. Maybe one of the few constants people for millenia have experienced. Eventually the people that raised you die and in that ending you have to think of your own mortality. Kuu "leaving" is like your best friend or a loved one dying. The main difference is that it also reveals to the MC that "leaving" or death is a possibility. She's hit with a double amount of quandry in trying to accept the mortality of everyone around her as well as the process of grieving someone she considers family. It turns two fold and that's what triggers her wings turning black as well as her self harm. Cutting her feathers is symbolic in the wanting to hide so much from the pain that she inflicts more pain onto herself similar to what we experience when we try to cowardly compress pain instead of cope with it.

I definitely think both Rakka and Reki killed themselves. I think it follows that the other Haibane did as well, given the subject matter of their dreams but I guess I can't say for sure.

I think maybe "sin-bound" is sort of skewed by our culture in the west (assuming you live in the west I guess, where Christianity is very prevalent). In Christianity, suicide is a mortal sin. God really, really hates that shit. But, that's not to say that Rakka and Reki can't remember their dreams as a sort of punishment for committing a mortal sin. Instead, I think that "sin-bound" is just how the Haibane Renmei describe the condition of a Haibane not being able to accept why they have become Haibane. Perhaps the others have accepted why they have been born Haibane. Or their personalities are just the type that doesn't dwell too much on the past like Reki (and later Rakka with Kuu) does. Both Reki and Rakka get stuck wherein they focus too much on what has happened that they can't move forward anymore, and both feel as though they can't lean on anyone for help. Rakka eventually does get out, thanks to Reki, but Reki in return can't do the same (until the very end).

Reki is the one that claims to have been born sin-bound, with black spotted feathers. At the same time, she was also only found after he wings had sprouted. In the first episode she cleans Rakka's wings of blood, telling her they will be stained and spotted if they aren't cleaned. If both Rakka and Reki were sin-bound from birth, this wouldn't have mattered, since Rakka would've had black wings like Reki's from the beginning. So I don't think being born sin-bound is actually a thing, it's something that happens as you live as a Haibane.

>Cutting her feathers is symbolic in the wanting to hide so much from the pain that she inflicts more pain onto herself similar to what we experience when we try to cowardly compress pain instead of cope with it.

It was really disheartening to watch Rakka go through all that. The episodes up to Kuu leaving made it feel like Rakka was slowly getting accustomed to her new surroundings and trying to live a good, happy life. Then it was like the floor got pulled out from under her and she just kinda lost it for a little bit. When Reki found her in her room with the scissors and all the feather clippings, especially later on when we saw she did the same thing, was just really sad.

Knowing Japan's own problem with suicide, I wonder how this show was received there. I don't know if the turn of the century was a big year for suicides, I wonder if the show helped anyone. It would be interesting to hear some accounts of suicidal people watching this show and how they reacted at the time.

Haibane Renmei is one of my favorite atmospheric anime.
Will Yoshitoshi Abe ever work on another show?

Has he done anything recently?

Did you guys think Rakka finding 2 cocoons in the last episode foreshadowing of maybe another Haibane leaving soon? Since it seems like only a certain number exist at any one time, I think maybe it means another will leave before they both hatch. I feel like Nemu is probably going to leave, now that Reki is gone and she no longer has to worry over her.

There's Despera, but who knows what the deal with that is. Aside from that, I think the last show he was part of was Texhnolyze.

He's making a web manga about a girl who takes pictures of food starting Monday per this: twitter.com/abfly/status/888699612428591106

I don't think Rakka was a suicide. I think she probably died unintentionally while running away from her problems. Reki is more likely to be a suicide given her dream, but even then there is a little ambiguity.

I think the Haibane are there because they likely died in their youth (Kana probably drowned, Nemu died in her sleep, Hikari got hit by a bus? who knows) with things left undone, or their lives unfulfilled. Glie gives them an opportunity to fix their flaws and grow before moving on to whatever comes after. As for the young feathers, I think they were just little children who died, so Glie gives them a chance to have a childhood. Their dreams/names. were all dreams of a future rather than a possible means of dying.

While Rakka was hurt by Kuu leaving, she definitely overreacted. It was a pity party and was probably similar to what happened in her previous life. It was more than just grief over losing a friend, it was self pity and lack of self worth that caused her feathers to turn black. Likewise I don't think Reki was born with black feathers, I think they turned black while she was born alone and scared and ignored (unintentionally).

It's also not a perfect life in Glie. They are outsiders, and they can never really have a real life in that town apart from being a Haibane. They are taken care of while they are giong through their trials, but they really are limited. It's why Hyouko tries to hide being one. It's a safe and comfortable place but no one really wants to be there forever.

It more foreshadows two new Haibane. They already foreshadowed Nemu leaving, when she was alone on the balcony after Reki left. I think she probably had her day of flight not too long after that. I think Kana and Hikari will be around a bit longer though as well as Rakka, so Old Home wont be so empty.

Man, Haibane threads are always comfy.

Depressed suicidal girls with brain problems: the anime

I kinda regret watching it, even though it was watchable. It was good up until you knew what was going on.

It's still good in context. It's only when you apply the real whatever that be your frame of reference West or East upon it that it becomes much darker.

>It's also not a perfect life in Glie

If we agree that Glie is some sort of purgatory, a town that exists on a different level of existence than on earth, who are the townspeople exactly? What about the Toga (the ones who come into the city to trade)? Who are the Haibane Renmei? Are they all also lost souls, or some sort of agent of god's will? If they weren't there, the Haibane would live normal lives in the town. With them there, the Haibane are reminded that they are not like everyone else, they are something different than regular people. I think this keeps them aware of their place in the world, as transient beings only there for a short time, while the townsfolk are the ones who truly belong there. I feel like the Toga serve the purpose of instilling hope in the Haibane that something exists beyond the walls. Without them, the Haibane would have no reason to believe anything exists beyond the walls, and that the day of flight is something to be feared instead of looked forward to.

But this all brings up the question of intent. Whatever god or goddess sent the Haibane to Glie is totally unknown. Is this supposed to be a test for the Haibane, or a punishment? It's hard to say if Kuu suffered much as she left before we got much of her backstory, but both Rakka and Reki are shown to have suffered greatly trying to move forward. Is this a punishment that Haibane must go through, or just another step in moving from one plane of existence to the next?

>a town that exists on a different level of existence than on earth, who are the townspeople exactly?
Honestly they are not that important to the plot. They are the NPCs in an MMORPG. I'm sure they don't feel like this and the anime makes sure with the pregnant chick to humanize them. Ultimately though they are not important not unlike the hundreds of people you would pass by on your morning commute in NYC would be. People coming into the city to trade have a unique bend to their existence because they can actually go where the Haibane cannot. Ultimately that is not important because they live outside of the rules of the Haibane. It would be interesting to follow them but they live literally outside the scope of where Haibane can go. The world is very limited to Haibane. Much like it seems to most people that live within 20 miles of where they were born which is the norm for people even in reality, and much like reality they will meet their fate inside these limitations.

As for the rest that could only be explained by more backstory which is outside the scope of the anime. It would take talented and interested writers to flesh out the story beyond what we have seen. That would also be improbable because Haibane Renmei is a classic only to us as interested in it as we are. We are a minority in the West and the East has all but forgotten about the series. Expect no revitalization.

I always have this dumb fan theory that the town of Glie exists in the samw world as Kino. I know it's 100% not true but it's fun to imagine the world beyond the wall is the same one in Kino's Journey

That's pretty fan fiction tier. Outside of your crossover fan fiction one true pair why would you even consider believing this?

I know, I know. Maybe it's because I watched both anime for the first time at the same time to come up with this dumb fan fic "theory." They both have this very somber tone with their muted color palettes and world building

The world there exists for the Haibane. The townspeople might be normal humans who just happen to live there. The librarian mentioned she used to think about leaving the town, but she said that once you leave you can't come back, so she stayed and is happy there.

The Toga provide everything the town needs that they can't provide on their own. It's not really clear what they are, whether human or spirit or what, but they serve the town quietly. The renmei are strongly implied to be failed haibane who serve to help the haibane move on and have their day of flight.

I think the story is stronger for not spelling out the backstory of everything. It makes it feel more real, if they explained everything it would just be a story. In interviews Yoshitoshi ABe has refrained from answering questions about the town and toga, saying he had ideas in his head but he wanted to let people apply their own ideas and thoughts to it.

Haibane Renmei is a complete story, so there is no reason to make a sequel or continue it with more anime. It would only take away from what is there. The fact that we all yearn to know more just goes to show how well it was done.

They are similar in tone and I can agree to that. They are separate worlds though. It's best to keep your imagination compartmentalized. It would be cool for a crossover but that isn't going to happen outside a Predators v. Aliens comic money grab and you don't want that for two series you enjoy.

>Haibane Renmei is a complete story,
This is true. That's why we can only analyze based on the few episodes of this amazing limited portrayal that we can glimpse. It's fun to expand but the resolution can only go so far. In the end we are limited to what the episodes allow us to grasp. Would a sequel be better to expand the series? Probably not. The quaintness of the setting permits a certain familiarity to the characters. Honestly I would do without the Haibane in the Abandoned Factory because that causes more problems than resolutions. It's a superficial conflict resolved in a couple of episodes. That could have easily been replaced with the traders from outside the walls and been more satisfying. That's just my personal gripe.

OP should check out the CFF Old Home bulletin board. They pretty much discussed every aspect of the show. A few people also were translating the script doujins there word for word, and interviews with ABe.

Kino had a similar melancholy feel to it but I agree its way different from HR and doesn't really make sense as a crossover. Sora no woto is pretty nice too but its a lot more moe and less serious. The only other anime I can think of that covers vaguely similar themes well is Koe no Katachi, especially with guilt and self worth.

>Kino had a similar melancholy feel to it but I agree its way different from HR
Excellent comparison in tone.
>Sora no woto is pretty nice too but its a lot more moe and less serious
Besides the cultural mixup you are correct.
>The only other anime I can think of that covers vaguely similar themes well is Koe no Katachi, especially with guilt and self worth.
lol wut? C'mon, man. I get maybe the emotional aspect but the setting is way too modern to compare. I would put Fist of the North Star ahead of Koe no Katachi in terms of thematic comparison.

Shouya and Rakka/Reki have similar personal arcs. They both struggle with self worth, and focusing on other peoples struggles as a way to find their own salvation. Shouya/Reki tries to help Shouko/Rakka as they also struggle with it, and saves themselves by doing so. It's a little different obviously but the themes are there.

of all the anime that should have had more episodes, Haibane Renmei is up there

Childhood is loving Kana. Adulthood is realizing Nemu makes more sense

I guess the focus was too different on the characters to make it plain for me. That's probably me being a simpleton instead of looking at the story from the other side. My apologies.

Project D coming soon.

youtube.com/watch?v=0pQrCbOg9Vk

He's pretty active on Twitter and still attends Comiket. He does illustration work for other sometimes, serialized Ryushika Ryushika from 2009 to 2015, and he recently had an feature+interview in the Illustration magazine.
Plus he's happily married with a child, and going by his Twitter he's a technophile, so he keeps himself busy.

So what's going on with Despera?

>Honestly they are not that important to the plot
I agree, somewhat. The regular townsfolk don't really have any effect on the Haibane, they only exist as a sort of background population that inhabits the town and thus dictates the Haibane must live far away from them. It creates a sense of isolation in the Haibane, the distinction between those who belong in that world and those who don't is made clear by the pretense of the humans.

But, I'm getting at the intent of the god that put them there. The Haibane are reminded at all times they are like outsiders in this town, destined to leave sooner rather than later. Was this system divised by god to encourage the Haibane to continue seeking their own inner peace and moving on, or is it supposed to be a reminder to them that they aren't "normal" and that they don't belong in this town they've been forced to live in?

I suppose it depends on how you look at why they are in Glie in the first place. Is it a pergatory where they must atone for their sins in their previous life/existence, or are they simply there to find the peace and strength to move on to what comes next?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The director died. Unless they find someone they want to direct it its probably dead.

I think the god that put them there probably put normal people there so that it is essentially the same as their normal life. Its supposed to be a safe, kind place that allows the haibane to work on their flaws before moving on. The reminders are so that they know this is temporary and not supposed to be their final destination. They can't get too comfortable there or they will never move forward. I don't think the haibane are necessarily there to atone for mistakes as a punishment, but rather to improve themselves and become more full or complete people.

>Is it a pergatory where they must atone for their sins in their previous life/existence, or are they simply there to find the peace and strength to move on to what comes next?
I don't think anything in Haibane Renmei really suggested atonement to me.

It seemed to me like they can live how they want, and can move on or not as they decide. But it has been a long time since I've given it a watch.

even the "sinbound" part wasnt really about being sinful in the western sense, it was about being stuck on your own and needing others to help you and forgiving yourself.

>It seemed to me like they can live how they want, and can move on or not as they decide

Well Haibane that never experience their Day of Flight are stuck in Glie forever. They lose their wings and halo, and are forced to live away from both the Haibane and humans, as they no longer belong to either group. It's unclear if this only happens to Haibane in the "sin-bound" state though, or if they have any choice in the matter. It seems to me as though all Haibane who aren't sin-bound have a Day of Flight, and we aren't told if any former Haibane actually live in the town at all. There is a time limit though, and Reki was just about at the end of hers by episode 13. If she hadn't called out for help before the winter ended she'd have been fucked.

The head of the renmei essentially told Rakka that failed haibane lose their halo and wings and essentially grow old and die there. He also strongly implied that this is who the renmei are, failed haibane who are trying to guide the haibane so that they don't make the same mistakes. He even wears a cloak with fake wings on it.

Reki though was somewhat of a special case, it looks like she would have just ended her existence right then and there rather than just becoming a failed haibane.

You know, a common thread of all the Haibane dreams is that if they are how the person died, none of them depict the actual moment of death. Reki dreamed of walking on railroad tracks and being struck by a train, but she never dreamt about being hit. Similarly, Rakka dreamt of falling out of the sky, but never about hitting the ground. When Reki is about to accept her fate and be stuck in Glie forever, she relives her dream and starts watching it to its bitter end.

Obviously there's no evidence to prove this, but I wonder if all Haibane who remain experience this. Maybe it's why the Renmei place such an importance on these dreams, because they are the key to a Haibane's ability to move on.

Yeah but for real the gunfight in episode 8 makes the series. It just comes out of nowhere.

Shirokuma Cafe has the hands down violent shift that you would not expect. Cannibalism was on the menu and it even grossed me out.

I've always wondered about where the little Haibane came from. The ones in the abandoned factory mention in passing that they couldn't take care of them, which is why Raka is taking one for a visit. Plus it's a co-ed place. So, you know. And we never even see the artist Haibane, so who knows what's going down there.

Man, this looks so bad. How can you screw up adapting ABe's charadesigns for animation this badly? It only looks faintly like ABe in like two cuts. Just give me Despera, I really hope that the new director they reportedly found will turn out to be Hamasaki.

I always figured the little ones were just young children who died and this is their chance to have a normal childhood.

The artist ones would be interesting too. I'm sure there were more than just old home and the abandoned factory. I think on a map ABe drew there was an abandoned farm too.

The threads are "rare" because they always fill up with comfy blogposters.

It's not unheard of for young kids to commit suicide. We don't really get a lot of background on them though so it's left pretty vague.

Does anyone know what Hyoko and Midori mean in Japanese? It'd be interesting to know so we could have some insight into their dreams.

Do they even mention if Haibane are born anywhere besides Old Home? Any males born there are sent away, but does the factory get cocoons as well? I wonder if the Haibane at the factory will come back to Old Home now that Reki is gone. Nemu seems to like that they've segregated the boys and girls, though it's not really her call as to whether they should mix. I also don't remember why the kids are allowed to go visit the factory, is there someone there they know? Or is it just important to for the kids to talk with other Haibane?

I don't believe we're given any more information than the two canonical Haibane locations - Old Home and the Abandoned Factory, plus the additional one that ABe tells us is also there. I'd be surprised if cocoons only showed up at Old Home though - that's one non-sexual explanation for the visit. That one was "born" at the factory but they don't feel like it's a good location to raise the little ones so they send them off to Old Home.

I think ABe mentioned the little ones were different from the older ones. And I'm still not convinced the older ones were all suicides, mainly just Reki.

Hyouko can mean ice lake (Rakka accidentally calls him Hyoko - chick/baby chicken). Midori can mean the color blue/green, but I'm not sure how that translates to a dream.

I think Haibane were born at the abandoned factory too. Old Home seems to be more for gentle girls, while the factory was more rough kids of both genders. They mentioned that the factory sends some of their little haibane to live at old home because they cant really take care of them there. That kind of implies they were born at the factory.

Old Home has a house mother as well who seems to act like the primary caregiver for the children, and is helped by Reki at times. I don't think the house mother was a Haibane though. It must be difficult for her to see so many Haibane come and go.

blue/green like the ocean maybe?

>That kind of implies they were born at the factory.
That makes sense. It explains why some kids are sent back for short periods as well. It would be nice to see the two groups come together more, maybe once Hyouko takes his day of flight the Renmei will allow more freedoms to the two groups. However I also think that life is probably a lot different at the factory and Haibane accustomed to that life won't really want to go live at Old Home necessarily.

Is there any sort of way to get a time period the town is set in? They have electricity and mopeds, but there doesn't seem to be any TV or Radio to speak of. I was thinking maybe it's supposed to be in the early 1900s or something, but it's hard to say.

Midori is their general catch-all color for blues and greens, so its not really clear what the context is for the character Midori. It's also a relatively common normal name too.

I think the town was supposed to be set "out of time" and has a lot of things that mix time periods. The thrift store owner was listening to a radio when they walked in though.

What would even be on the radio? Does it receive from other worlds? Or does Glie have its own radio station giving the news on the particulars of the nothing that's happened each day?

The only angstfest I ever enjoyed in this medium, the others either exasperated or bored me. It's surprisingly intricate thematically once you figure it out, it's pretty great.
More episodes with such a narrow focus? Wanting more is perfectly normal, but that thirst shouldn't be quenched with more episodes.

>Can we have a Haibane Renmei thread?
yes we can

Cant believe I nearly missed the yearly Haibane thread

Any day now for ABe's new work.

animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-01-10/yoshitoshi-abe-despera-project-is-moving-forward-with-new-director/.83127

What ABe opening theme is your favorite? I like NieA's one the most.

>I didn't want anything spoiled
But apparently it's alright to make a thread when you're done, even though all those other newfags that might be watching will end up having their shit spoiled to them?

Delete this thread, you selfish cunt.

Haibane is better when you get spoiled beforehand anyway.

>Not liking best character

How you don't like an angel with black wings who drives a vespa and smokes ??

Reki's vespa is symbolism for her struggle, Kana says it's only a one-seater in the first episode, yet she only lets Rakka ride it with her (we see Hikari ride it in the OP but Reki gets annoyed when she tries to touch it), when Kuu tried to ride it she crashed. She always lets the keys on like she's always ready to leave at any moment (episode 8 iirc).

The cigarette is a symbolism of self-destruction and Reki finds Rakka's name after some ashes fell on the ground.

And best girl.

>drives a vespa
>smokes

Well there you are

Talking shit about Reki's vespa is crossing the line.

Those are fighting words user

>Reki's vespa is symbolism for her struggle
>The cigarette is a symbolism of self-destruction

Damn user i'm really need to re-watch Haibane Ranmei

>My mom told me motorcycles and smoking are "bad" things

>thinks literally inhaling ashes isn't bad
>calling a scooter motorcycle

were you raised by the electric jew

Reki's cigarette is this.

...

First you are going to die anyway so whats matter if you smoke once in a while and second both of them have two wheels so they are the same for me

>mfw there's a Haibane thread

>Comment from Yoshitoshi ABe:
>"I enjoyed drawing this for the series' Blu-ray release. In other words, I have become more subjective about the Haibane world than when I was working on it in 2002, although I still feel a special warmth while drawing. I still can't start writing a follow-up story of Yomi and Yami (twins) that begins with the departure of Nemu, but I know that I will complete it some day."

I think that was early digital animation.

>Yomi and Yami

Oh snap, ABe has names for them.

Wait, so the twins aren't Lain and NieA?

I watched this like 7 years ago. I should really rewatch it, but all I remember is that it got really depressing towards the end?

It's quite a ride and you'll probably enjoy it again if you don't remember much about it. That is assuming you enjoyed it the first time around, Melancholy isn't for everyone.

i remember seeing the posters and thought it would be the prettiest anime in the world, and then the actual show was ugly as shit.
also the story and characters were pretty dumb up until the end which was pretty fucking good