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ANN Book Club -- Haibane Renmei.

This is only the second time for me with this series and I didn't understand why people loved this series when I first saw it, so this thread might help. Maybe part of it is that it is a series that feels heavily targeted towards 18-24 year olds to me. For this reason it might not strike as strong of a chord for those of us who are not in this bracket.

I'm not sure what Tokoro and Abe's views on classism and socialism are, but I do notice some similarities between this and Niea. There seems to be some glorifying of a simpler low income lifestyle. I'm also under the impression that Haibane are on a lower social rung than the humans.

It also looks like Abe did the script for both episodes. I can't recall if he actually wrote the entire series himself (doesn't happen often in television series) but wouldn't be surprised since the series feels so consistent.

I have a feeling that the tradition of a mother combing a daughter's hair is not practiced in the States. As odd as it may be, it wasn't until recently that I discovered that many people in the US don't know about "sneezing when someone is gossiping about you." Either way I find that Reki's grooming of Raka feels very maternal and reminds me of this practice.

The Toga remind me of the forest people in Samurai Seven and Nausicaa. I think it's the anonymity that the masks provide that they have in common.

Like in watching the first episode I remembered the same feeling I got from it when I watched it the first time in realizing just how new everything was to Rakka when she first arrived there, so for most of the time at first I got this feeling that it could be very easy to make Rakka feel offended or uncomfortable, like she didn't fit in or she was incompetent or something, and I got a little bit worried about what people would say or do around her, almost to the point where I was paying just that much attention to what everyone else was saying/doing.

I decided to watch it dubbed this time as I don't think I have ever seen it dubbed, with the sub-titles up anyway, as that is how I almost always watch dubbed anime so I can note any differences.

The first thing that threw me off was seeing Reki smoking. For whatever reason, seeing an angelic like being smoking seemed like such a jarring thing, it still seems like it to me now watching for a 3rd time as well.

Seeing the huge cocoon is certainly odd, but pretty interesting, and when Rakka is "born" and can't recall her name, and gets one from her dream, I find it interesting that she can't recall the bird at all. She held it, talked to it, and it tried to stop her fall, which was kinda interesting, and of course foreshadowing of future events, however that still doesn't explain anything yet.

When Rakka's spoiler[wings come in however,] I was truly disturbed the first time I saw that. Even now actually, it's such a difficult scene to see in some ways, I always feel for her. As for the feathers being grey, I have no idea why that was choose, I assume to keep the whole "are they good or bad and that's why they are Haibane" thoughts to a minimum. I never understood the halos however, that to me seems simply a design choice, and an odd one. Why would they choose to put one on their heads? Who came up with that idea? It's so odd to me. Maybe there are thoughts on this I am unaware of however.

Ok, first thing first. Does anybody actually call this show Aureole Secret Factory?

...did anybody else notice that they were freaking enormous when they came out, but have since shrunk?

And my last thought is ...

And my last thought is that all the haibane killed themselves in their past lives. It makes sense to me, most of the dreams make it seem like they recently died, two people were falling, one was floating in the water, one was sleeping, Reki is the only one whose dream doesn't conform. The only disconcerting thing, and the thing that makes me doubt my theory, is that there a ton of little wings.

The haibane, you may notice, have a lot of connections to birds, both as haibane and in their relations with the crows. Thoughts on this and its significance?

I don't remember the little wings you mention.

The problem with that theory is, as you already mentioned, the young feathers. (Must be a sub/dub difference in the pet name, but wings, feathers, meh, what's the difference?) It's hard to imagine suicide amongst all those multitude of goobers, so my best guess is that they died in infancy, or four years or younger.