Haibane Renmei (Anime)

Haibane Renmei is truly a masterpieceful anime. Before watching it, I had only seen media of that caliber in manga, but Haibane Renmei is a great example of a great unconventional anime. It's the story of a girl who gets named Rakka, who wakes up in this new world where she becomes one of the Haibane, angel like creatures with wings (that they can't use to fly) and halos, which are prevented in a very realistic manner for something that could never exist. She lives in Old Home, a house of Haibane in a city of normal humans with walls outside that make sure Haibane can't leave. This is the basic plot layout, but you learn of many more things in this city, as well as ending up having to interpret certain important aspects of the series, sort of like Paranoia Agent. What makes this different than Paranoia Agent though, is it uses no symbolism; just a straightforeward (and very well done) plot that ends up making you think about it a lot anyways. It's first half is very light hearted; just Rakka's experiance getting used to this town with very nice people. Then, halfway through the series, the mood takes a very dramatic shift, where in my opinion, the series gets great. As mentioned before, one thing I like is how nice everybody is to eachother. More so than cheesy yugioh friendship preachers, minus the preaching. This is a series I can say so much about yet give such a little idea of what it's really about, as I don't want to spoil any of the immense things you can spoil in it. While Haruhi in my opinion is better, due to it's well crafted characters and wide appeal. This series has good characters, not as good as Haurhi or River's Edge, and slow pacing, the slow pacing being a big turn off to some people. To quote the anime news network review, "If you’re an adult (or perhaps a mature teenager [like me]) with discerning taste, you’re going to like Haibane Renmei. This show has class and style, and is one of the most unique releases of the year."


Rating: 9.5/10
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