Haibane Renmei

Willen · Post by **Willen** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 11:00 pm

I think the wings are to give the idea that the Haibane are living another life. Filling a need or completing a task that they had in their previous life. Plus, it's cute. And you get an excuse to do this:

with apologies to Scintilla who originally posted this pic on anther thread

Isenfolme · Post by **Isenfolme** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 5:54 am

I finished watching Haibane Renmei about a month ago, and fell deeply in love with it. It's this series that has inspired me to quit lurking on this site and actually get the gumption together to try making an amv myself. Of course, that may be a good or bad thing depending... *g*

Back to the point...

I think Haibane Renmei works on two levels. The first level is as a metaphor for life in general - how we all live in an essentially enclosed world and must work to find our way through it. That's the obvious one.

The second level, the "real" story if you like, I think is as Willen said - the Haibane living out a second life, finishing up something that was left undone in their first lives. I don't think the cocoon dream has to reflect how the individual Haibane each died. After all, although it's easy to see how that might apply to Reki and Rakka it's much harder to make the connection for the other Haibane like Hikari and Nemu. Rather, I think they more likely reflect the personalities of the Haibane, and the thing that they have to work through in their new lives. The town itself is like a stepping stone between earth and heaven (or life and death if you're not religiously inclined).

Mainly though, I think the series is about salvation. It's about the fact that you can't save yourself from your darkness by your own actions, but need to rely on someone else to help you. Salvation requires both that you recognise you need help and accept it, and that you somehow receive that help - something made clear in the cases of Reki and Rakka respectively. As an exploration of salvation I think Haibane Renmei does a fabulous job, and in fact does better than many of the theological texts I've read. I'm not sure that anyone other than someone like myself who spends far too long each day trying to analyse the nature of grace would appreciate the theology of the series above anything else, but that's me, I guess.

*returns to thesis...*

nekozumi_onigiri · Post by **nekozumi_onigiri** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 11:25 am

I bought the second DVD (because I couldn't find the first) and it was amazing. I love the art and the unique storyline, the character designs are great too. It's so captivating and cozy, but so sad. Even in the happy moments there's an underlying tone of sadness.

musashi1600 · Post by **musashi1600** » Sat Apr 22, 2006 7:53 pm

Lovely Rei wrote:[align=center]Spoilers!!!![/align]

Oh god do I wish they explained what the Haibane were and why they were stuck in the town.

They didn't have to explicitly explain it; they dropped enough hints for you you draw your own conclusions while leaving room for interpretation. IMO, that's better than just coming out and explaining it.