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Old 2007-05-22, 15:03   Link #101
Joojoobees
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NieA_7 had a couple of good points, but I came to it after Haibane Renmei and so I was quite disappointed. I think it implied too much that it was going to have a plot, and then it didn't. I would have far preferred it if it just showed life in that little town, trying to run the bath house. My favorite episode was the one where they get the UFO fuel to heat the bath water.

Unfortunately there were some serious problems with the show, such as the ridiculous relationship between the room mates. Why not just throw Niea out on her ass? She wasn't paying rent, she was eating all the food, and she broke the roof. There was no reason to put up with that.

Haibane Renmei was so great in part because it made a lot of sense, even though there were so many mysteries left unsolved. The characters always made sense. I could really believe they would act the way they did, given the world they lived in. NieA_7 had some nice moments, but it utterly fails in this regard. I just could not believe the characters engaged in action that was true to themselves or the world in which they lived.
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Old 2007-05-24, 07:22   Link #102
gaguri
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Quote:
Originally Posted by joojoobees
Haibane Renmei was so great in part because it made a lot of sense, even though there were so many mysteries left unsolved.
I personally believe that the more elusive elements of Haibane renmei weren't mysteries to be solved. The whole world is something of an enigma, wonders and questions that are worth speculating over without having an answer. And I love how the show isn't pretentious by trying to explain what means what, but showing the world as it is and letting us come to our own unique understanding of that world.

V thank you, was half-expecting some inane rebuttal. I was just starting to think if there wasn't any sanity left in this forum :3

Last edited by gaguri; 2007-05-24 at 08:55.
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Old 2007-05-24, 07:53   Link #103
Joojoobees
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Originally Posted by gaguri View Post
I personally believe that the more elusive elements of Haibane renmei weren't mysteries to be solved. The whole world is something of an enigma, wonders and questions that are worth speculating over without having an answer. And I love how the show isn't pretentious by trying to explain what means what, but showing the world as it is and letting us come to our own unique understanding of that world.
Well said.
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Old 2007-06-01, 14:49   Link #104
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Originally Posted by Joojoobees View Post
The characters always made sense. I could really believe they would act the way they did, given the world they lived in
Yes, all the characters act in a very believable way. I don't know if this is thanks to Abe or to the people who helped make it an anime series, but believable characters who act in accordance with their own nature -- and who can be seen to have some individual self-consistent nature - are always important, even in a fantastic setting -- in fact especially in a fantastic setting, or we would have no firm basis which allowed us to suspend disbelief in the fantastic elements. In that department, the only risk Haibane Renmei ran was that it would make the Haibane's life too normal: although Abe's original conception (at least in his artbook) was to depict the everyday life of angels, if it becomes too everyday then people may lose interest.
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Old 2007-06-03, 10:12   Link #105
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Haibane Renmei will always hold a special place in my heart. It touched me at a time when I was in most need of emotional carthasis.

For a series that was not deliberately storyboarded (ABe claimed to have scripted the episodes as they came subconsciously to his mind -- in other words, he simply allowed the characters to "tell" their own story rather than to impose a plot structure of his own), it turned out to be a rare diamond in the rough. Despite being a 13-episode series, this is one show that reveals multiple levels of intepretation the more often you watch it. That's an indication of a work of art, and I'm very glad to have partaken in it.
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Old 2007-06-03, 12:14   Link #106
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For a series that was not deliberately storyboarded (ABe claimed to have scripted the episodes as they came subconsciously to his mind -- in other words, he simply allowed the characters to "tell" their own story rather than to impose a plot structure of his own),
Interesting! I hadn't heard that before.

I got into a disagreement with someone the other day. This guy at work was insisting that all anime is a waste of time. I felt confident responding that, since it is essentially TV, some anime is a waste of time, and some anime is a pleasant way to spend time, although you could be doing something more important, but that some anime does exist (and I was thinking about Haibane Renmei here ), which stands amongst the greatest achievements of television, and possibly all of storytelling.
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Old 2008-03-31, 21:12   Link #107
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This series definitely made me think long and hard about the events contained within in each episode. I really love the fact that it conveys dark (but ultimately hopeful) and complex ideas in a relatively simple and understandable way. I don't mean simple in that the messages contained are easy to follow but there is logical consistency throughout the series and that pleased me to no end.

All the interpretations here were great to read and helped me appreciate the anime even more. If nothing else, I hope this bump will get more people to watch an excellent series.

EDIT: Actually, I have a question!

Spoiler:

Last edited by Moonbase; 2008-04-02 at 14:18.
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Old 2008-04-22, 11:36   Link #108
TinyRedLeaf
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Originally Posted by Moonbase
If anything, this anime has made it all too clear that many interpretations can exist without any of them being necessarily wrong. That said, if one were to subscribe to the interpretation that the town is purgatory, what exactly were the humans/the actual village? Sorry if this has been addressed before!
Don't you just hate it when no one is around to answer your question?

In case you're still wondering, yes, the question has been addressed before, but not in this forum. Others have discussed their theories here. If you ask me, I think the real answer is simply because ABe wanted to have humans in Glie. Without humans, Glie would have been a ghost town. It would hardly have been a warm and loving place for haibane to grow up. Of course, it could also have been a city of haibane. But from a story-telling perspective, the girls of Old Home wouldn't be special anymore if everyone else around them were also haibane.

Simply put, I don't think ABe had any special symbolism in mind. It probably just felt like the "right" thing to do, from an artistic point-of-view.

If you were to imagine Glie as Purgatory (Limbo would actually be a better comparison), I suppose you can think of the humans as angels. Whoever created Glie also created humans to inhabit the town, to serve as both guardians and role models for children who arrive in Glie as haibane.

However, I don't like comparing Glie to Limbo. I can see the similarities, but it seems obvious that both places take a different approach towards the resolution of "sin".

Rather, I have a feeling that ABe had something more Buddhist in mind when he created Glie. Specifically, I think Glie is another dimension in reality, another rung in the karmic ladder that a soul climbs for eternity. Haibane arrive in Glie to experience the life they did not get to savour in their previous existence. The humans, on the other hand, are on a separate journey.

From the humans' perspective, Glie seems very much like a refuge from the outside world. For them, perhaps, coming to Glie is a reward for good deeds done in their previous lives. As such, it's a place of temporary rest, before they move on to the next phase of life, wherever that may be. Meanwhile, as chance would have it, they get to share a life with haibane in this particular existence. So they make the best of it, as most humans do.

It ought to be clear that I'm looking at Glie from an Eastern religious perspective, especially from the Eastern tradition of reincarnation. It's not surprising that many fans from the West tend to view Haibane Renmei as a Christian allegory. Your surrounding environment and cultural traditions will colour the way you look at the world. I think it's wonderful how the show manages to blend many possible worldviews into 13 short episodes. It generates a lot of interesting discussions, that's for certain.
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Old 2008-04-22, 12:00   Link #109
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It's also wonderful how the show never showed any of this.

Anyways, I don't think we need to argue if Glie is purgatory or limbo anymore, because technicalities aside, each one of us knows exactly how another interprets Glie.

I'm with TinyRedLeaf here that the humans were just there. They could also not be normal humans, but they certainly did not realize that they were something else besides humans if they are something else. I have never been able to gather all of my thoughts about this anime in one go, but it is just beautiful.
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Old 2008-04-22, 14:29   Link #110
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never did figure out what were those strange beings that came to the city to trade.

anyone got a theory into what or who they are?

perhaps the eternally restless souls? or something, i dunno?
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Old 2008-04-22, 22:22   Link #111
TinyRedLeaf
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Weren't they the Touga? I thought that was pretty clear, based on Hikari's explanations to Rakka.

Considering how birds were the only creatures that could fly over the wall, it is ironic that the only "humans" that could pass through the walls were...

Spoiler:
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Old 2008-04-24, 06:32   Link #112
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Woo I've never seen thisthread before. Awesome.

To be honest, I've never really questioned it. I felt extremely satisfied when it finished and the questions that were unanswered.. didn't need to be. Probably because the Haibane will all find out eventually, even if we won't.

And now for the argument. (Or debate :P). TinyRedLeaf.. are you talking about the Haibane's Day of Flight? Because to me... it seems they use their wings to fly over the wall, rather than go through it.
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Old 2008-04-26, 21:34   Link #113
TinyRedLeaf
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No, I'm not referring to the haibane Day of Flight (sudachi no hi, literally, "day of leaving the nest"). I was referring to the Touga. Although it was not explicitly mentioned, there were strong hints that both the Communicator (Washi) and the Touga are former haibane who had lost their wings because they failed to leave the nest. In a way, they are "failed souls". Reki was likely to have suffered the same fate had Rakka not saved her in the end.
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Old 2008-04-27, 12:44   Link #114
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Oh yeah.... ehe oh yeah sorry. I see now. Ya I like that theory.
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Old 2009-04-26, 01:30   Link #115
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Just finished up this anime.

I would've loved to have learned more about the world in Haibane Renmei, but it seems that this was not one of the primary focuses of the story.

Overall it was a solid anime. I enjoyed the watch nonetheless, which is getting harder to say sometimes when I'm watching anime lately. Unlike most anime, I felt like I was really pulled into the world of Haibane Renmei, where I personally was as curious as Rakka as she explored her new world. For this fact, it definitely earns a positive review no matter what.

My only criticisms revolve around how some of the characters were developed, specifically Rakka. At first, she really just seemed like a flat character. She was just an innocent being, which was not necessarily a bad thing. However, they took further steps in putting her into a situation where, for lack of a better word, she goes emo. It just seemed to be too large of a leap for me for her to go form being extremely happy about her existence, to wanting to be erased and becoming sin-bound. Oh well, I can live with it.
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Old 2009-04-26, 20:54   Link #116
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My favorite anime, so I'd end up offering praise rather than opinion If it fails, it is definitely in the animation department, the fluidity and detail are simply not there most of the times.
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Old 2009-04-28, 00:51   Link #117
Vicious108
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Well I'm pretty late here but Haibane Renmei is quite simply my favorite anime ever.

With Rakka being my favorite character. I adore her story. She's an amazing representation of the downward spiral that is human depression. I always imagine her alone in that grim and dark room with the morbid paintings. Of course the good part is that she is able to overcome it all in the end. Thanks to Rakka, who was also a great character.

I notice that the main complaint people have with this show is the lack of answers about how their world worked, what was behind the walls and what the Haibane really were in the end. But, as someone has probably pointed out already in the 115 posts I haven't read, that wasn't what the show was about, and what was truly important, Rakka and Reki's stories of overcoming grief and obtaining atonement etc, had all the answers required and personally I was extremely satisfied with its conclusion.
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Old 2009-12-18, 06:04   Link #118
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I just saw the first episode of this anime (dubbed in English) last night and it seems very good. Maybe after I finish Now And Then, Here And There, I'll watch this since I've read so many good reviews for this series. Plus Rakka reminds me of myself in a way.
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Old 2009-12-18, 16:07   Link #119
Vicious108
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Switch to the Japanese track. The English dub has got nothing on it.
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Old 2009-12-19, 06:31   Link #120
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Switch to the Japanese track. The English dub has got nothing on it.
Well, I'm not trying to be mean or anything, but I'm the kind of person who likes both dubs and subs. In some cases, I even watch the dub first (one case being with the first Gunslinger Girl season). But I'll watch the Japanese soon. I wonder if the DVD boxset for this will be re-released?
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