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Forum - View topicThe Dream of Redemption in Haibane Renmei
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varmintx
 Posts: 1232 Location: Covington, KY |
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Man, I love reading in-depth editorials like this. If I had one request for ANN, it would be for the staff to write more of these.
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Narmanda
 Posts: 10 |
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I'm really enjoying these editorials, Nick!
Haibane is one of my favorite series of all time; it's one that I always want to share with people, but I second guess myself due to the poor visual quality. I'd love to see a remake with modern technology. |
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Neko-sensei
Posts: 286 |
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A very concise and well-reasoned piece! For my part, I don't think that it's really that helpful to draw a distinction between the characters and the world they inhabit; Glie is a geography of the mind, or rather perhaps of the soul. [Which is exactly the idea stolen from Murakami: in Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, the protagonist's Glie-like place exists solely inside his head.] Haibane Renmei is deeply moving precisely because of this conflation between person and place.
For example, take the pivotal sequence of the show: Rakka loses herself in the Circle of Sin beneath the endlessly spinning windmills on the Hill of Winds; the crows, capable of leaving the Walls, "call" her with the summons of forgiveness into the salvation to which one can only be open at the extremity of despair; she enters the Western Woods to explore the hidden possibility of redemption as the bells from Old Home, the core of her personality, ring through the changeful autumn air (the season is both death and harvest, presaging rebirth); as she walks through the woods we see the empty vastness of the sky above her, beautiful yet despairing, but beneath her feet a single ruddy leaf flutters in the breeze, a sign of change; Rakka reaches the well, the portal into her mind and her dreams; accepting the crows' invitation, she descends into an oubliette that in a beautiful twist serves exactly the opposite function; and she finds, in the bosom of the earth of Glie, a relic of her past, and of an entity outside of her self. ...Which brings me to the other point I'd add to this editorial: while it's entirely true that the Haibane must forgive themselves, and must come to terms with the traumas of their past in order to reach that forgiveness, the only way that can happen is by contact with something outside themselves. Rakka can be saved only by Reki's compassion, her friends' support, her mentor's advice, her opportunity to work (work as an expression of self is so, so fundamental to the concept of this series), and the unfathomable forgiveness of someone she can't even remember; without those elements, she could never solve the Riddle of Sin for herself. Western thinkers (outside of certain religious traditions) tend to be uncomfortable with the idea that the self is not sufficient, but that is exactly what Haibane Renmei argues: salvation comes from others, through relationships, is expressed through work, and comes to fruition in our own salvation of others—thus the odd structure of the show. Rakka's salvation is not complete until she saves Reki, who has been trying to attain forgiveness on her own, locked up in her room, through self-torment and regret, rather than in the company of others. So I guess that, honestly, I rather violently disagree with large chunks of this nevertheless excellent piece. (Comfort is a trap in the show only insofar as seeking the self-comfort of total solitude is a sure path to the void.) Thank you for opening the forums to the dozens of people who are about to bury you in essays! [Full disclosure: I once wrote a very lengthy Lit Theory paper on this series examining it as a Marxist Paradise, which it totally is. Literally any theoretical angle has something to say about this show: Gender Studies about the motif of cooking and caretaking in all the Haibane's activities, an old-fashioned Formalist critique about the nature of Glie's construction, and so on and so forth.] |
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5499 Location: Iscandar |
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Great piece of writing Nick. I enjoyed reading it.
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Redcrimson
 Posts: 160 |
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I've been waiting for this one! Still kinda weird seeing this stuff pop up on ANN instead of your blog.
Anyways, I always read Haibane Renmei as being more specifically about spoiler[suicide.] Particularly in teenagers/adolescents, as it has an unusually high rate of occurrence in Japan from what I understand. |
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nobahn
 Subscriber Posts: 5143 |
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Neko-sensei--
I wouldn't mind reading your essay! (I don't suppose that that you've posted it online, have you?) I wrote: I think that the kind of people who will like this will be the kind of people who enjoy (no, savor) character development. I think that the kind of people who will be most disinclined to like this will be people expecting any sort of action; even the plot development is slowly paced until about episode number five (or six) -- and it is a thirteen episode series. The Soundtrack is simply to die for -- Ko Otani is brilliant (in my opinion, at least). |
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kazume
Posts: 129 |
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I'm surprised no one's requested X show to have a piece like this. I was expecting a flood of requests but I can see people are either holding themselves back maybe wondering their "favorite" show doesn't seserve an in-depth look like this one or maybe they don't want their fave crushed by a harsher reality such as "it's not good enough, theres no real mind provoking themes to it, etc.)
However Haibane Renmei totally deserves it as a long forgotten show that had a certain charm to it (the trailer shown back then in a random anime video I had included this one, and it was the trailer alone that made me seek it out as pricey as it was back then.) Anyways, inb4 "Do one of these for show X" from a random poster *cue the upvotes* Oh wait, this aint Youtube 
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DTJB
 Posts: 671 Location: Dubuque, IA |
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Coincidence. I can't bring myself to read this article yet because I JUST STARTED watching this series. Maybe I'll remember to come back to this once I'm done.
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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trilaan
 Posts: 1070 Location: Texas |
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Excellent article. As for the show, I'm philosophically opposed to it but it is a good one.
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nobahn
Subscriber Posts: 5143 |
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^
OK, you've piqued my interest (But in a good way!  ). What, exactly, do my mean by, "I'm philosophically opposed to it . . . ."? I'm quite curious.
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KuroiEr
Posts: 24 |
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I loved the music from this series. To this day I have the ost on my favorites playlist.
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Hakajin
Posts: 46 |
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I generally agree with this article, but I do disagree with one thing: the Haibane aren't being punished. They're simply too hung up on what happened in their past lives to move on, and Glie is a place for them to work through their issues. It's a great example of a Purgatory-type setting. The word "Purgatory" is related to the word "purge," which means to flush out the excess or bad.
Unlike the author, I was very moved by this series. Rakka's experience after spoiler[Kou has her day of flight] remined me so much of a horrible existential crisis I went through, where I was obsessed with the mind/body problem and death. That feeling of hopelessness and purposelessness, the way Rakka's dragging movements convey just how much her despair sap her energy... I really sympathized with that. I mean, Reki's story and their friendship got to me, too, but that was the part that got me the most. |
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HaruhiToy
 Posts: 4118 |
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I would still say the word punishment can still apply; it just isn't really very harsh. More like a "time out" that more parents favor over someting corporal. And they are expected to work through their issue and if they do not there are consequences. If I had only one word to describe the whole anime I would use the word "wistful." The nature of the town always bothered me. Although the Haibene live on the fringe of it the whole setup is for them. What is the world like outside those walls and how do the non-Haibene interact with it? They must at some level to have the level of industrial support they have such as gasoline, textiles, and all sorts of goods that couldn't be produced just within their own little world. Is it all illusion? My other comment is: for a story without violence the resolution with Reki was one of the more heart-stopping scenes I have ever seen in an anime. |
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Tempest_Wing
Posts: 305 |
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Still waiting for Funi to release this on BD dammit. This and Ergo proxy...and maybe Texnolyze.
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