Category: Haibane Renmei

Welcome everyone to another week of Haibane Renmei! This is another slow one like the last, yet for some reason I can’t help but like it more. Is it the characters? The subject focus? Read on to find out!

So like I said, this week was another slow episode with the primary difference being the focus character. Where last week focused on Hikari, visiting the temple and her time at the bakery, this week is about Kana. And just like Hikari, Haibane Renmei shows us a day in her life. We visit the clock tower, the shop, do morning chores etc. Yet despite how mundane all of this was for some reason I liked this one a whole lot more! Something about Kana’s day to day was just more… satisfying? Engaging? I suspect it’s because of the message, the “theme” of Kana as a character. Or perhaps it was the concepts which Haibane Renmei introduced this week, building off of the last. Either way though one fact remains true: I really vibed with this episode and I’m once again looking forward to more.

Continue reading “Haibane Renmei – 4 [Trash Day/Clock Tower/Birds Flying Over the Walls] – Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome everyone to week 2 of Haibane Renmei! This episode isn’t to surprising. It establishes the setting of the story and a number of surrounding locations, but what a setting it is. We have a lot to talk about this week so lets skip the animation and jump into it!

Right away I have to say that I was impressed not only by how much information Haibane Renmei packed into the episode but how natural it felt. There were no long winded exposition dumps or classroom scenes with a map. Instead it was a series of events that fit together, each opening up a new aspect of the world. Take the start of the episode for instance: After a while of running around in rags the others eventually offer to take Rakka into town to get clothes. From there getting clothes leads into a discussion of money, work and their place in the town. With that leading into the nature of the town itself and how it connects, or in this case doesn’t, to the rest of the world. I want to say this is nothing special. But with how anime normally treats exposition it honestly kind of is.

Continue reading “Haibane Renmei – 2 [Town and Wall/Touga/Haibane Renmei] – Throwback Thursday” →

Hello and welcome everyone to the next season of Throwback Thursday, Haibane Renmei! I know nothing of this show going into it and after 1 episode I can comfortably say: What the hell have I gotten myself into? So without further ado lets dive into the 1st episode!

Starting off, Haibane Renmei looks… dated. And fuzzy. But mostly dated! I’m unsure how much of this is just artifacting from how I am watching it and how much is the show itself, so for now I will give it the benefit of the doubt. Regardless, it has the clear look of a show caught in the transition from cel to digital. The story and atmosphere calling for the more personal touch of paint yet suffering from the cheap and familiar look of the first digital animations. This isn’t to say it doesn’t have its moments, Haibane Renmei end’s on a particularly gruesome scene that shocked me out of my preconceptions about the show. But the coloring of the characters in this first episode felt flat and lifeless at times. My hope is that some strong editing and a good narrative can make up for this moving forward.

Continue reading “Haibane Renmei – 1 [Cocoon/Dream of Falling from the Sky/Old Home] – Throwback Thursday” →