Haibane Renmei – 5 [Library/Abandoned Factory/Beginning of the World] – 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.

First up we have the new cast member of the episode: Nemu. I say new, she’s been in scenes like the dinner table before now, but this is her major debut. And I have to say… I’m not as engrossed as I was with Kana. Nemu is nice, don’t get me wrong. Seeing her with the children, how she treats the librarian and cares for the books is sweet. And she did reveal a good bit of information about how books are specifically curated for the town. How none of them reveal any information about the outside world, how information is controlled. But nothing about her really sparked my interest. Maybe this is because I wasn’t able to get the episode like I did last weeks, I don’t know. Whatever the case though Nemu was never what interested me about this episode. It was always Rakka and the books.

Speaking of the books lets take this opportunity to talk about “The Beginning of the World”! This book is what’s really throwing me for a loop here because I don’t see how it fits into everything else. Through it we see the town in a new light. How the people within it do wonder what is outside the walls. How they don’t really know how Glie, the town, came to be, etc. On its own it’s a very interesting inclusion for the series and provides an interesting perspective. But what does this have to do with the Haibane? Are we supposed to take its creation myth on how they got there seriously? Or does it just exist to show us the relationship between Nemu and Sumika? I don’t know to be honest. Let me know your interpretations down below, I would love to chat about it!

Moving on we come to the Charcoal Feathers! A minor but very important, in my opinion, part of the episode. These guys raised so many questions. Are they all Haibane? Why do they live separate from Old Home? Whats this about territory and not being allowed in each others areas? Does the Haibane Renmei organization help them at all or are they rebels like their dress and presentation suggests? Indeed, the implications of the Charcoal Feather’s existence rocks the setting of Haibane Renmei to its core. And I’m really excited to see what it does with them. To see how their perspective and inevitable influence on Rakka creates conflict in the story. Maybe they will inspire her to try and leave, or to look into the Haibane Renmei organization, or any number of things, it really doesn’t matter. What does is that they can act as a catalyst for change.

And of course I can’t talk about the Charcoal Feathers without also mentioning Reki’s history with them. While this history was unexpected, its not to surprisingly that Reki once went against the grain. The way she dresses, acts and holds herself, such as smoking, is very different from the rest of Old Home. It makes sense that she once pulled the Haibane equivalent of rebelling: Joining a biker gang. One that seems to want to hide their Haibane nature, going by Hyoko’s jacket and helmet. This raises the question: Who is Hyoko and what’s with the rules about entering each others territory? Like I said above, I’m really interested to learn about these guys. I think they bring a new perspective to the town/Haibane Renmei organization, a more combative one than we have seen anywhere else. I hope Haibane Renmei gives us more from them.

Finally I just want to mention some small tidbits I noticed throughout the episode. Stuff that may be important later but for now doesn’t have much to talk about. Stuff like how we now have proof that Haibane can indeed grow up. They aren’t born at a certain age and stay there like I feared but actually grow like humans do. We see it with both Nemu and Reki during various flashbacks across the episode. Another bit worth mentioning was the “mutual cooperation” conversation. How everyone helps each other get through the day, knowingly or not, to keep the town going. The most obvious example of this being the Haibane and how they work, but not for money. And the last little tidbit was in the creation myth and how it puts humans above Haibane. I wonder if this is just a story or if it will matter later.

So yeah, that’s the episode. All in all I think it was alright. Not my favorite, Kana still has that, but not as dull as Hikari’s was. It feels like Haibane Renmei is really starting to gear up for something. The constant allusions to outside the wall, building up the town and its inhabitants, introducing a new group of Haibane. It feels like something is going to happen soon to break us out of this daily SoL pattern. Nothing to action packed or exciting of course, Haibane Renmei isn’t that kind of show. But rather an event that changes the characters daily lives, introduces some kind of goal or mystery to solve. That’s my hope anyways. I like the series, I want Haibane Renmei to become more than a simple SoL. And it has all the tools to do it.