A girl is falling from the sky, with a crow flying next to her. The girl finds herself in a womb-like cocoon and "hatches" inside a room, where she is greeted by other girls with wings and a halo circle above their heads. The girl, who also has these wings, is given the name Rakka, and her mentor is Reki, who tells her they are "Haibane". They are in a small town surrounded by huge walls, and nobody is allowed to exit them, except traders with masks who don't speak. Rakka has a sense of guilt, but cannot remember anything about her previous life. When's Haibane's halo starts to flicker, it is time for them to go to the western wall and disappear in a beam of light. Reki is frustrated that she is bound by a sin she can't remember and wants to die in front of a speeding train, but Rakka saves her, gives her forgivness, and thus Reki also disappears in a beam of light.
Anime series "Haibane Renmei" is one of those stories that cram in more mysteries than they can chew. Just like "Lost", it brings up a riddle, then another one, and another one, and another one, but in the end, nothing is resolved, and the viewers have the impression as if the ending and a conclusion are missing. Set in a mysterious little town, where the main heroine Rakka was born from a cocoon in a room and doesn't remember anything from her past, and now has angel-like wings and a halo floating above her head, "Haibane Renmei" poses some universal existential questions where the viewers ask themselves: who are we? In what kind of a world are we living in? What is our purpose in life? Where did we come from? Where are we going? "Haibane Renmei's" world is fictional, but some of these universal parallels to our world overlap. One interpretation is that these characters died too young—maybe through suicide?—and are now in this town, stuck in a limbo of sorts, until they have repented for their errors and catch up with their lost time, when they are sent back to Earth, but not enough data is given for sufficient conclusions. The mood is overall depressive and "mellow", with only small bits of humor (a plate with a cake on it placed on the halo of Hyoko's head).
Most of the 13 episodes revolve around bland, mundane daily events of Rakka and other haibane: Reki works in a kindergarten with kids who also have wings and halo circles above their heads; Kana is fascinated with making the clock tower tick and ring; Hikari works at a bakery... It is almost a sort of 'slice-of-life' with slow pacing. The huge city walls keep them all inside, and Rakka observes some crows as they fly across the other side, back and forth, in a lingering shot that symbolizes their need to outgrow this narrowed-down status and set themselves free. Unfortunately, this never happens—the characters are all simply too passive to do anything outside this grey area. In one episode, Rakka follows the crows and falls at the bottom of a well, where she spots a skeleton of a bird at the ground. She has a feeling that she is somehow to blame for the crow's death, even though she doesn't remember anything from her past, so she burries its corpse and finds some relief and closure. This should have been explored more, but is, unfortunately, left frustatingly vague and never brought up later on. In another episode, the masked interpreter gives Rakka the assignment to clean the inside of the city walls, which are connected with a small water cannal, and she observes the unknown script written on it. Does this play role in the story later on? Is it expanded upon? No, just another throw-away mystery. "Haibane Renmei" is too cryptic and hermetic for its own good. It wants the viewers to decipher all these abstract allegories for themselves, but ultimately it makes the viewers think more about the practicality of the story than the sole authors did. Imagine if "The Truman Show" had just stopped at halfway into its story, and you would get the impression of the flawed vagueness of this anime.
Grade:++
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