Haibane Renmei

At last. I can talk about a series I watched during my absence in GGF and wanted to contact Qwarky so much regarding this. I actually found out about HR when I read Q's entry in GFwiki.

In one word to describe this series: beautiful. It's not so much the visual appeal that makes it "beautiful", but the characters' involvement with each other and how Rakka has been brought up in her new "family" of Haibane. When I saw the opening sequence of Rakka falling down with the crow, I had my doubts, and I already put this anime in the "supernatural phenomenon" catergory of it being very convoluted with therories and the like. I was pleasantly surprised that this focused quite a bit with character building and dealing with Rakka's new start in life as a Haibane.

I'm not sure if people will agree with me, but when I think of Reki, another character will immediately pop up in my head as being of similar qualities to Reki, and that is Misato c/o Evangelion. Perhaps it's the guardian role that both of them play and that they are willing to spend time to guide their "children" in a new life.

Regarding the wall:

Spoiler:

The story element that surprised me was the element of the Wall. Perhaps it's natural human instinct or thought to foresee that whenever an authority claims to not do something, that will fuel a desire to break the rules and go against it. I honestly expected the plot to move in the direction of Rakka wanting to escape by the 12th episode, but I was met with a better conclusion regarding her "inner struggles".

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I found myself very surprised that my feelings for Rakka drew close, but for Reki even closer. It's been sometime since I've seen it, but Reki demonstrates that she wants to things right, even though she previously messed up her own life. It's these enduring and understanding attitudes that make such a character, real or imaginative, much more appreciative. What I like is the wide range of characters. We have Kuu who is a simple minded yet optimistic Haibane. And for quite the longest time, I kept thinking she was a boy, similarily to Ed in Cowboy Bebop.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by lemonmanko

the show left me with emotions only a few can do that.

Watch Millennium Actress and get back to me on that.

And for the thread, getting the 4 DVD collection for $16 USD was a sweet deal through righstuf (the promotion is over), and after I'm done 24 season 3, I'll be sure that even watching this again gets priority over Patlabor =O.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.