Review of Haibane Renmei: Vol. 2

Introduction

It`s been a while since I looked at the first volume of Haibane Renmei, but I have been counting the pennies, and waiting for a suitable sale to continue. Since neither materialised, I did the sensible thing and bit the bullet. As I said at the end of my previous review, this is a series that deserves to be seen, and I`m nothing if not deserving.

If you want something different from your anime, something other than the usual clichés about giant robots, girls with guns, hapless teenaged boys surrounded by a harem of lovelies, in other words something unique, then you could do worse then look up the work of Yoshitoshi ABe. I first noticed his work with the mind-bending Serial Experiments Lain. This journey into a young girl`s mind as she explored the net and found another plane of existence was by turns confusing, chilling, and inspiring. Surreal visuals combined with a complex narrative that invites repeated viewing. Next was the dystopian vision of Texhnolyze, with a prizefighter`s existence in a literal underworld in the midst of a three-way battle for supremacy revealing a dark and foreboding vision of humanity. And with Haibane-Renmei, his attention turns to… angels?

The Haibane are indeed angelic in appearance. They are reborn, with no memory of their previous lives into a mysteriously structured society, and they do indeed have wings and haloes. Their haloes are provided by the Haibane-Renmei, a group that regulates all aspects of their existence, and they live side by side with humans in an isolated town, trading work for goods. We explore this world through the eyes of Rakka, the newest addition to the community of Haibane. The second volume from MVM subtitled Wings Of Sorrow contains the next three episodes.

5. Library • The Old Factory • The Beginning of the World
Rakka continues looking for her place in the walled town of Glie, and she continues to shadow the other Haibane to see which job most suits her. This time around, she`s helping Nemu at the library. It`s good timing, as Nemu`s superior Sumika is just about to go on maternity leave. When Rakka learns that all the books in the library are brought to the town from outside by the Toga, she`s immediately hopeful of learning what lies outside the town walls. Meanwhile, Nemu is looking for a suitable gift for Sumika, while Reki runs into some Haibane from the wrong end of town.

6. End of Summer • Rain • Loss
It`s time for Rakka to settle in as a Haibane, and she decides to move out of the guest room and look for a room of her own in Old Home. Finding some place clean enough is a challenge, but with Kuu`s help she soon finds a nice room. With winter coming, Kuu gives her a coat to keep the cold away. It looks as if Kuu is finally gaining some maturity, giving away a coat that she has no hope of growing into. But it`s deeper than that. Kuu is becoming restive and listless, and Rakka even sees her halo begin to fade. She doesn`t know enough to ask about it, and by the time she learns of the Day Of Flight, it`s too late.

7. Scar • Illness • Arrival of Winter
Rakka is disconsolate, and while the other Haibane expect her to get over it, her melancholy just deepens until she becomes physically unwell. Reki is shocked to see this. Haibane whose wings become stained cannot achieve the Day Of Flight, and are even shunned by other Haibane. But how does Reki know what dye to use to mask the stain until it fades?

Video

Haibane-Renmei gets a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer. It`s clear if a little soft, and the transfer is largely absent of the occasional compression artefacts and aliasing that I noticed in the first volume. The animation is lush with a suitably ethereal feel to it, the palette consists mostly of pastels, and the use of light is delicately but effectively done. The CGI blends well with the 2D animation, and it`s hard to spot the seams.

Audio

You get a choice between DD 2.0 English and Japanese, accompanied by translated English subtitles or signs. Everything is clear and in order for both dialogue tracks. The incidental music suits the story well, and the theme songs are really quite special.

Features

You get a brief selection of extras, including the Creditless Closing, art gallery with 44 images, the episode previews and the usual MVM trailers, in this case for Gungrave and R.O.D the TV.

Conclusion

You just don`t get much better than Haibane-Renmei. It`s Yoshitoshi ABe at the top of his game, and it`s peerless anime. Regardless of what you think of the medium, regardless of what you think of animation in general, this is a series that everyone can watch, indeed should watch, as it is criminally underrated. It`s gentle, emotional, understated storytelling that appeals to the heart and soul. I can only think of one other title with the same sort of ethos, Mushi-shi, and while the stories may be completely different, there is a commonality of tone and pace. In a medium notable for eye-candy and immediate visual impact, there`s something to be said for shows that you just relax into.

Previously, I marked out Haibane-Renmei from ABe`s other work as accessible and likeable. Whereas Lain offered a cyberpunk puzzle, and Texhnolyze a nihilistic dystopian vision, Haibane-Renmei offered likeable characters in a pleasant story. With this second volume it becomes even stronger in this aspect, as the emotions of the characters become more important. Technocratic ideas and subterranean societal decay are all well and good on an intellectual level, but Haibane-Renmei hits you right in the sympathies, grabs you at the most fundamental level, and is a much stronger show because of it. While on top of all that, there is still the mystery, exploration and enigma associated with the typical ABe world.

Rakka`s obsession with the world outside the town walls is merely sharpened by her work in the library, where all books may come from the outside, but there is precious little about the outside to read. It turns out that Rakka`s obsession isn`t unique, and just as in real life, while the young and innocent have the freedom to explore and question, as time passes and we grow, such questions are left aside as childish pursuits. Librarian Sumika also had a similar phase, and now that she is about to go on maternity leave, Nemu wants to give her a suitable present. There aren`t any books about the outside, but there are fragments of myths and legends, and Nemu and Rakka go about bringing them together in a handwritten book. There`s something ever so delicious about angel-like beings writing a world`s creation story that just appeals to me.

Things get darker in the final two episodes, when we learn at first hand what the Day Of Flight means for the Haibane. It turns out that when the day arrives, they leave the walls of the town and fly free. It`s a metaphor for ascension, or death, with the bottom line that no one truly knows what it means, beyond the loss of one of their number. Rakka is grief-stricken by all this, and that shows when her feathers become marred. It`s a sign of impurity, as grief is selfish and destructive, and Haibane should be beyond this. Such Haibane cannot leave, and the Day Of Flight is denied to them, unless their wings become pure again. Which raises the question of the Sin Bound. Apparently a Haibane who doesn`t recall the dream they had in their cocoon, is considered Sin Bound, their feathers forever marred, and can never achieve the Day Of Flight. If there is a more obvious metaphor for Original Sin, I cannot think of one.

Haibane-Renmei is a delightful story, and this second volume of episodes adds to the awesome first by developing the story and the characters. This series should be a blind buy.