Category: Finished Series: Mystery/Suspense

Welcome everyone to another episode of Haibane Renmei! This week’s episode is one of the more unique ones, though the solo title alone probably gives that away. Is this a good thing? Bad? Lets dive in and find out!

First up, what do I mean by unique? What makes this episode different from the rest and how does the title factor in? Doing my best to explain it, I think it has to do with the episodes focus. Previous episodes of Haibane Renmei seemed structured in three acts, acts that corresponded to the three titles. And each of these acts felt like the progressed the episodes story in some way. A clear beginning, middle and end so to speak. Yet this episode, with only one title, feels almost… stagnant. Like it’s one long act. One where the last episode introduced us to Rakka’s depression, this episode carried it through and fully explored it by giving it the time it needed, and next episode will begin to resolve it. Or maybe I’m just letting the singular title get to me and seeing differences where none exist. I liked it regardless.

Continue reading “Haibane Renmei – 8 [The Bird] – Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome back everyone to another episode of Haibane Renmei! This post accidentally got deleted so I had to rewrite it, so apologies for being slightly late. Last week was good but this one is even better. Rakka is figuring out her emotions, Reki is dropping lore and my emotions are being tugged all around. So without further ado lets dive in!

Right out of the gate I want to say that Haibane Renmei was really good this week. I was invested from beginning to end, hitting all the right spots. This was exactly what I was looking for. I loved how the episode didn’t try to speed-through anything. Rather, it kept the same slow pacing Haibane Renmei has always had but filled it with the material I’m really interested in. The episode focused on the aftermath of Kuu’s disappearance, not in a technical sense like I feared but an emotional sense. Giving us, and by extension the characters, time to process everything that happened and react while still moving everything forward. Using that time to show how they are different from each other and then explain those differences in ways that don’t just feel like info dumps. Which is great because Rakka had a lot going on this week.

Continue reading “Haibane Renmei – 7 [Scar/Illness/Arrival of Winter] – Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome all to the halfway point of Haibane Renmei! Or close enough to it at least since it’s thirteen episodes. We have a lot to cover this week and I’m running late so lets dive right into it!

Right off the bat I have to say that this was exactly what I wanted. Last week I said that I was afraid of Haibane Renmei becoming like every other SoL. That we would follow their daily lives but that nothing would meaningfully change and thus no one would grow. And as if in direct response, we got this episode next. This feels like a turning point, the exact kind of thing I asked for last week. An event that causes things to start to unravel. Where characters shift from reactive, like Rakka has learning about the world, to proactive, where she can start to search things out for herself. Now while I doubt that Rakka, and be extension Haibane Renmei, would be that overt about it I do expect things to change. And I’m very excited for that.

In the meantime though lets talk about why I like this episode.

Continue reading “Haibane Renmei – 6 [End of Summer/Rain/Loss] – Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome back everyone to another episode of Haibane Renmei! This week we are once again following a new character in Nemu. Is it any good? Was it as engaging as the last? Lets jump in and find out!

And what better place to start than the theme of the episode? Haibane Renmei is a very dense show, lots of religious symbolism and the like. Should make for a good jumping off point! The problem though is that Haibane Renmei covered so much that I’m not sure what the theme is. Is it about making mistakes and living with them, eventually learning to see they aren’t actually mistakes like in Nemu’s story? Is it a general creation myth about the town? Or maybe the whole thing is about the many paths life can take, I don’t know! What’s nice though is that Haibane Renmei doesn’t feel like its struggling with its messaging. This doesn’t feel like the shows fault, if that makes sense. Rather it has earned enough trust from me by now that its more likely I’m just not connecting with it.

So lets try to fix that, explore a few of these, and maybe piece it together along the way.

Continue reading “Haibane Renmei – 5 [Library/Abandoned Factory/Beginning of the World] – Throwback Thursday” →

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” →