Hello everyone and welcome to a very late post about Haibane Renmei! I don’t really have an excuse. To be frank I thought this episode was rather dull. Why? Well lets jump in and find out!
So like I said, I found this episode rather dull. It was primarily setup on Rakka’s end, giving her a time limit as well as setting the stakes for what is to come. It also did some work setting the tone but overall I think Haibane Renmei has kept the tone pretty consistent throughout its run so it was a little unnecessary. Overall this episode didn’t really tell us anything new or reframe anything we had already been told. That’s fine I suppose, more of the same with Haibane Renmei is still a decent character piece. And it’s not like every episode has to be some grand reveal, that’s just an unreasonable expectation. But what I can say is that this episode is never going to be my, or anyone’s, favorite out of the season. I just doesn’t have anything to set it apart and give it that “favorite” spark.
Overall feelings aside though what does this episode of Haibane Renmei bring to the table? Well if you ask me first and foremost is the timelimit. We’ve always known that Reki would have to figure it out eventually, that it was coming. But now the Communicator has given us a deadline of the end of Winter. After that she must seclude herself away until the day she dies. If you ask me when combined with the camera shots following this dialogue its obvious what will happen to her: She will become a Renmei, just like I theorized before. She will lose her halo, cover her wings and have to dedicate her life to other Haibane passing her by. It’s a bit sad when you think about it. But also nothing different than what she has done leading up to this. The question now though is: How does she avoid it?
If I’m being frank the answer seems pretty straight forward: Stop hating yourself. However as someone who occasionally suffers from bouts of depression himself, and fills that void by painting copious amounts of 40k minis every time he does, it’s not that easy. So while the destination is obvious I’m really interested in what Haibane Renmei will do for the journey. Will Nemu have to have her day of flight? Or Rakka? Will she have to really open up and talk to people despite the risk of what they may think of her afterwords? And this is all assuming that Reki even will reach her ending. That Haibane Renmei will give us a happy ending. Its entirely possible Reki ends this series never flying away. A bitter ending to contrast Rakka’s inevitable day of flight herself.
Speaking of Reki’s issues lets take a moment to talk about how she got them. Was that a good segway into the factory backstory? No but I’m rolling with it. Like a lot of the episode Haibane Renmei doesn’t tell us anything new here. Rather it hints at a lot, preparing for the final two episodes to drop some bombshells. Stuff like Hyoko and Reki almost died, that they blame her, etc. But it doesn’t give us any concrete details as to what happened. My guess? Reki convinced Hyoko to go touch the Wall, maybe in an attempt to climb out. This is why Reki knows the symptoms for touching the Wall as well as how to treat it. This would also explain why she isn’t allowed in the Factory territory anymore since she almost got him killed, etc etc. Hopefully she can come to forgive herself for this.
Next up on hints and Wall talk we have Rakka and the letters! This is something I’m a lot less confident about. Haibane Renmei is clearly building up to something with the tags and the writing, giving us a history to both the Wall and the town. But I honestly have no idea what it could mean. Are they gravestones? Wards to keep out whatever the invisible beast inside the wall was? Prayers? The answer could be anything. In fact considering Haibane Renmei’s focus on religion and faith we might not even get an answer. They could be the physical manifestation of “belief” and how you don’t need to know how the world or God works to be protected by it. I honestly don’t know. Here’s hoping it comes up in the finale though.
So yeah all in all this was a rather uneventful episode of Haibane Renmei. I don’t hate it. We got some hints as to what will happen, a set deadline and a bit of character conflict between Reki and Rakka. But I also don’t love it. This doesn’t feel like it needed to be a whole episode on it’s own. Sadly though to move any faster would be to go against the pacing Haibane Renmei has established in the 10 episodes leading up to this. That slow, plodding pace. Building momentum with every episode with a clear goal in mind rather than rushing to the finish line. Let’s just hope the finale is worth it! I don’t need some big eventful bang. Just a satisfying conclusion.
I see what you did there, even if it was unintentional.
From what I remember, Reki felt abandoned when Kuramori had her Day of Flight, befriended the factory Haibane, and talked Hyoko into helping her climb the wall, but Hyoko got seriously wounded. The two of them got caught and were forbidden from stepping into each other’s areas again. That’s what I remember, at least, and from gleaning info on other websites.
That’s how I remember it too.
Sounds accurate. The show will probably talk about it more next episode but I figured it had something to do with them touching/climbing the wall.