This anime was done by yoshitoshi ABe (that's not a typo), who came up with the concept, screenplay, etc. It is based on a short doujinshi of his "Charcoal Feathers in Old Home," written pretty much out of whatever floated up from the subconscious of the creator.
It's being released by Pioneer (now Geneon). Haibane Renmei means "charcoal feather league" by the way.
The plot
I don't want to spoil much, not that it would actually "spoil" anything. So I'll be brief. The series is about beings called "Haibane" who live in the town of Glie and look a heck of a lot like angels. They have charcoal gray wings that sprout from their backs shortly after they are "born" into the town. They are also fitted with halos.
The very first scene sealed the deal for me, and let's set it straight right now: I love this anime. I'm going to go ahead and describe the first scene.
As the series opens, we find our main character plummeting headfirst through nothingness. She speaks to us, somberly, calmly, about her situation. She knows she is falling, but doesn't seem to mind. Her voice draws us in and invites us to join her descent (well, it does for me). We find that a crow is falling with her. The crow, which we later learn is very symbolic, grabs her and attempts to halt her descent in a futile display. She calmly thanks it for the effort and thus releases it. Things pick up from here, as does the volume, and our girl breaks through the bottom of the clouds and is falling, still quite high in the sky, toward the ground.
Thus ends the opening scene. All this occurs before we even know what the series is about and, already, I'm in love with it. Very effective.
Rakka, as the girl is later named, is hatched from a giant cocoon under the watchful eyes of a small group of female angel-like beings, the Haibane of Old Home. She is fitted with a halo and painfully sprouts her wings in a graphic scene.
We learn a few things about the Haibane.
- They have no memory of who they were before they were hatched. Only a dream. In Rakka's case, her dream was falling from the sky.
- They live in the walled town of Glie and are not permitted to leave or go near the walls. They are not alone. Humans also live there. The humans are also not allowed to leave. The only beings who leave the town are the birds and the Toga. On top of this, the only people in the town allowed to "talk" to the Toga are the Haibane Renmei, a powerful group that we really don't learn much about in volume one.
- The Haibane Renmei control the lives of the Haibane, and to a lesser extent, the lives of the other citizens of the town.
That's enough background on plot specifics.
The story is very well done. At some places, it is comedic, at other places very touching and serious. Start to finish, it keeps us watching, wondering.
The artwork
I really like ABe's artwork. If you didn't know already, ABe did the character designs for
Serial Experiments Lain, and also brought us NeiA_7. The setting is just wonderful. Glie is an odd mix of kind of old and really old. There are green hillsides with windmills, cobbled streets, and even an abandoned factory. The colors are soft and natural and generally beautiful.
The sound
I don't really have a good enough system to judge the technical aspects of the sound. However, I thought it sounded superb. I really like the sound track. The ending theme is very strange! I want the sound track. It's great.
Just like every other aspect of this anime, the sound track isn't flashy and bright. It's not depressing, either, though. A lot of it is symphonic, lots of strings. Somehow this series manages to be very upbeat about things, while at the same time remaining melancholy. The sound track plays a huge part in this.
The packaging
I can't really say anything bad about the packaging. The collector's box came with two pencil boards. I think the normal volume one only comes with one. The case is clear, but the cover isn't reversible. The front cover of the volume has the picture of Rakka you've probably already seen (if you've seen anything about this series). She is standing with her back to us, turning her head toward us against a cloudy blue background and decorative windows. The art box is pretty cool. Simple brown with the title on it, not all cluttered like some other boxes I have.
Miscellaneous comments
I love this anime! I don't know what else to say. Watch it. If you liked "Lain," or thought "Lain" was just a bit too dark, you'll like this series.
There is a lot of symbolism, and because it was written out of the subconscious of the creator, everything seems to ring of symbolic truth, even if we don't know why or what that truth is.
