Welcome all to a (late) episode of Haibane Renmei! This week is a bit slower compared to the last few but no less lighter. We got a lot of information dropped on us this week. So how about we jump right into it?
Compared to the last few episodes this week felt like setup rather than payoff. Like Haibane Renmei is gearing up for it’s final act. This isn’t a bad thing! Where the previous episodes gave us a lot of character growth and revelatory moments, Rakka in the well for example, this week is a lot more information focused. Answering a lot of questions I’ve had since the beginning of the series while asking a few more. But these new question’s aren’t really about the world at large, they aren’t meant to introduce new aspects or parts of the setting. Instead it feels like their purpose is to connect the dots. Pointing us towards the gaps in our knowledge, like the Renmei, the Haibane and the Sin-Bound, and promising to fill them in. So while there wasn’t a lot of forward progress this week I can clearly see the path being laid.
Take Reki for example! We already knew the basics of her past: Lonely, shunned, Sin-Bound, ran away to the factory at some point and ultimately returned to be cared for by Kuramori. None of this new. But this week Haibane Renmei has started to fill in some details, drawing a lot of parallels to Rakka’s life in the process. We see how Reki defines her existence by being alone. That she was born alone, that everyone will leave her, that she doesn’t deserve to be loved etc, and how she seems to process all of this by taking care of others. By earning the love she doesn’t think she deserves. Compare this to Rakka who was born surrounded by friends, who was doted on by everyone all the time etc, and we see how different their lives are and how similar they could have been.
This leads back into the riddle the Communicator asked Rakka last week: The riddle of sin. This week we learn that he asked the same question to Reki and that, more importantly, she doesn’t have an answer. Like I thought, Reki is still trapped in this cycle of self-hatred and sin. And it seems to only be getting worse. In Rakka it appeared like she had a contemporary. Someone who was experiencing the same thing she was, someone who wouldn’t abandon her and fly away. So to see her overcome being Sin-Bound, to clear away the disease and come out better… I can’t imagine what that is doing to Reki’s psyche. Is she jealous? Depressed? Will this be the inspiration she needed to finally solve the riddle? Or will this be the catalyst that plunges her even deeper, unable to ever escape the wall?
Personally I think it’s the latter. I think that Reki is going to be stuck within the walls forever. And what happens then? I think she joins the Renmei. My suspicion is that all Sin-Bound Haibane who are unable to fly are forced into the Renmei. That they aren’t allowed to talk because the townspeople and other Haibane might recognize the voice. That they dedicate their lives to helping other Haibane do what they could not. It’s a perfect fit for Reki to! She already spends a lot of time taking care of others. So she would be able to dedicate her entire life to it with the Renmei, forever stuck in the riddle. The only hole in this is that the Communicator implied that Reki knows what happens to Sin-Bound, meaning this wouldn’t be that big a secret. But in the grand-scheme I think we can get past that.
Next up lets talk about Rakka! I’ve mentioned it a few times but she seems to have recovered both emotionally and physically. She’s up and about, chatting away and confident enough in herself to head off alone to drop off the cane. But this whole “punishment” thing seems weird to me. First up, it’s almost like a reward. Maybe it’s just me but getting the holy duty to clean the giant magic wall that is the foundation of your religion seems like an Honor. At the very least its a very important job since you are gathering the materials for the halos at the same time. Yet Haibane Renmei treats it like an actual punishment for reason. Does it have to do with the “thing” that stalks the interior of the walls? Or are they actually proud of her for overcoming the Sin-Bound? I’m kinda curious.
Speaking of the wall lets end this post by talking about it a bit. This was a “The walls are made of WHAT” kind of moment, I’m sure you can guess which show I’m talking about. I never imagined that this thing was hollow or that it was simultaneously keeping something out as well as the Haibane in. But it makes sense now why touching the wall is so detrimental for people and why it’s such an object of worship. This is no longer a metaphor for walling them off from Hell/The horrors of the world. It’s literally doing just that! Combine that with the odd tags we can’t read and the flakes that form halos appearing almost like frost on a window pane and we have a lot of new mysteries to solve.
So yeah all in all this was another good episode of Haibane Renmei. I do kind of wish that the wall had stayed a mystery. That we didn’t see inside and it remained a metaphor for the show, keeping the scope firmly within the walls. That it had focused on the characters to the end. But Haibane Renmei has earned enough of my trust that I’m going to believe that it knows what its doing. That this is all going to connect back into a singular, focused point about religion, sin and the afterlife. If it doesn’t then I’ll probably be disappointed, yeah. However I’m willing to place my faith in the series and get invested for what is to come. Only 3 more episodes y’all! Going to be big ones, I can feel it.
