title_name=Haibane Renmei
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灰羽連盟
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Charcoal Feather Federation
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Drama , Fantasy
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Animanga/Anime| Information
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is a set of original
Dōjinshi written and illustrated by
Yoshitoshi ABe . It is also the name of an
Anime series based on those books. Both series follow a young girl named Rakka, a newly arrived ''haibane'' (an angelic-looking being), and other characters in the city of Glie (''guri''), a walled city with one entrance where no one is allowed to leave.
The music for the series is by Japanese composer
Kow Otani
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; : A new arrival to Old Home, Rakka struggles throughout the series to find herself, and has trouble escaping from curiosity of her past. She forms many friendships, but her closest is that with Reki.
; : Always smiling and being kind to the other Haibane, Reki - one of the most senior Haibane in the home - is troubled by her past and by her dreams. Reki has been a Haibane for seven years.
; : The youngest of the "older" Haibane, Kuu overcame initial awkwardness to achieve a sense of peace. She develops a good friendship with Rakka.
; : The oldest Haibane at the home, she is often teased for her habit of sleeping in. Nemu has been a Haibane for nine years.
; : A mechanically inclined tomboy, she works at the clock tower in the center of town.
; : A serious, but occasionally mischievous haibane. She works in a bakery in town.
; : The leader of another group of Haibane in town (the "
Co-educational " Abandoned Factory nest).
The series starts out with two parallel scenes. One contains the image of a girl falling from the sky, cradling a crow; it tries to stop her fall, but cannot. The other consists of a group of Haibane finding a large
Cocoon growing in a storage room. When the cocoon breaks open, the teenage girl inside is brought to the guest room, where she is cared for by several Haibane, mostly one named Reki. All the girl can remember is her dream of falling. As Haibane are traditionally named based on their dreams within the cocoon, she is named Rakka ("falling"). Shortly after arriving, the Haibane present Rakka with a
Halo , and Reki helps Rakka go through the painful ordeal of having
Wings grow from her back.
As time progresses, Rakka learns her way around the Old Home, one of two places in the city where Haibane live. She learns about the town, in which the people are friendly and generous to the Haibane, but in which Haibane must work and are subject to restrictive rules with harsh penalties. Foremost of these is to not touch or even approach the wall that surrounds the town. These rules are enforced by the Haibane Renmei, who oversee the lives of the Haibane.
Rakka begins to bond with her friends, especially Reki and another Haibane named Kuu, and begins to search for a job. However, during this time, Kuu grows distanced. One day, Kuu disappears in the western forest near the wall. Rakka becomes distraught when she learns that Kuu has passed over the wall and will never return, as this is the eventual fate of all Haibane who are not tied down by guilt.
Rakka becomes depressed, and notices her wings turning black. Despite Rakka's desperate attempts to curb and conceal it by cutting her feathers, Reki discovers this and shows Rakka how to hide and treat the spots. Rakka learns that she is "sin-bound", caught up in guilt for past deeds. Reki reveals that she was born with this condition, with black wings and a dark dream she could not fully remember, and has been hiding it ever since. Depressed and confused about her condition, Rakka later runs off in despair, then is led into the western woods by crows. There she finds a well, climbs to the bottom, sees her full dream, and buries a dead crow found at the bottom of the well. Somehow she knows it was a person who loved her in her past life, who then became a bird to pass over the wall and let her know she was not alone. Finding closure and forgiveness for her sins, her guilt is relieved and her wings turn gray again. However, she also learns that Reki's time is running out, and Rakka turns her focus towards helping her friend find her way.
Rakka works to get another group of Haibane from the other side of the city to forgive Reki for a long past transgression in which she tried to pass over the wall which resulted in her friend being nearly killed and severely punished for damaging it. However, Reki is resigned to her fate; she refuses to trust anyone for fear of betrayal, and will not ask for or accept help. Her dream is revealed to her as a gift from the Haibane Renmei, but its destructive nature only serves to drive her into a self-loathing frenzy. As Rakka tries to shake her out of it, Reki reveals to Rakka that she never really cared for her, and was just taking care of her as a final effort to save herself.
Rakka leaves her, crushed, but finds and reads Reki's diary. From it, and from the forgotten memories it reveals, Rakka discovers that Reki spent so long performing good deeds for forgiveness that it has become her identity, even if she cannot see it. Realising that Reki truly did care and wanted someone to trust, Rakka's belief in Reki is restored, and she returns to save her friend from the dark fate of a sin-bound.
The Haibane are a race of people who resemble angels in that they have wings and haloes. However, their wings are short, not functional, and rather than white they are charcoal grey. Furthermore, their haloes are forged for them by the Haibane Renmei, although it is likely the case that they can still only be worn by a Haibane.
Haibane are born from cocoons that grow from small seeds that appear in places such as Old Home (in all the depicted cases they in fact grow in uninhabited rooms). In the introduction sequence to the anime the seed of Rakka is seen falling from the sky, so it is possible that all the cocoon seeds fall from the sky this way. Once in Old Home they dig into the floor and grow at a tremendous rate to a very large size much bigger than a person (although Kana indicates that Rakka's cocoon is bigger than Kuu's. Presumably, therefore, the size of the cocoon is indeed linked to the size of the Haibane inside). Veins/roots grow out of the cocoon into the surrounding surfaces to support it. The cocoon is filled with liquid but the Haibane inside can breath it.
Inside the cocoon a Haibane exists- fully formed and human in appearance (and also dressed in a plain white robe). It is unknown whether the person in the cocoon grows with it until they reach their correct size, or if they only appear when the cocoon is big enough to hold them. While in the cocoon the Haibane sleeps and has a dream- many fans speculate that the dream reflects the reason they "become" Haibane, and relates to some kind of inner problem they have to resolve in order to ascend on their Day of Flight. When they wake up from the dream they must dig their way out of the cocoon (it is a Haibane tradition; it is believed if they cannot break free themselves, rather than having their cocoon broken open, they will not be strong).
All Haibane are born as children or teenagers. Haibane have no memory of their lives before being in the cocoon (even though all are sure that they had lives before that), although Rakka manages to remember some details of her emotions in her previous life.
Haibane are traditionally named after their cocoon dreams (although younger Haibane have less respect for this tradition and often choose a different name for themselves).
After a Haibane "hatches" they are given a halo which is put over their head. The halos are solid, made of a special metal-like substance. They glow brightly. They hover over the Haibane's head like a repelled magnet, although they exert a physical force on the Haibane (as sometimes Haibane can be pulled around by their halo). The halo is not always fixed very well when first applied to a Haibane. In the Rakka's case she had to connect hers to a headband with wire so that it wouldn't fall off at first, but before long it became fixed. When a Haibane's Day of Flight approaches their halo flickers and dims.
A little while after a Haibane "hatches" (about a day, at the most) they start to grow their wings- which first form as lumps on their backs before their wings painfully break through. Their wings must be cleaned of blood and fluid, otherwise they will stain. It's a very long procedure to clean them thoroughly, and another Haibane must perform is as the newly born Haibane are too weak after the wings grow through. At first the wings are delicate and very hard to control, as well as being prone to exhaustion, but eventually are strengthened with use, and Haibane learns to control them like any other part of their body.
Haibane are not allowed to use money, and instead are given a notebook by the Haibane Renmei, leaving notes (similar to cheques) to pay for things, which are presumably exchanged for legal tender with the Haibane Renmei or the Haibane's employer. Haibane can only have second hand things or things they make themselves, it is a rule for them to use things that humans no longer need. Haibane must find employment, although they are only allowed to work in a few places. As mentioned above, they cannot handle money, but their work presumably pays for what they need.
After a certain amount of time (when they are fully prepared) a Haibane will become drawn towards the Western Woods for their "Day of Flight", when they pass over the wall in a beam of light. Most fans speculate that this implies their ascent, perhaps to Heaven or their next life. Their halo is left behind, and it no longer glows.
Some Haibane do not remember their cocoon dream properly and are called "sin-bound". These Haibane can be recognized by the black splotches that grow on their wings. Fans conjecture that these Haibane committed suicide in their past lives — this would definitely appear to be the case with Reki, and her complete dream seems to indicate this. Not all sin-bound Haibane are born that way. For example, Rakka became sin-bound only during her depression after Kuu's departure.
Sin-bound Haibane cannot have their "day of flight" until they are no-longer sin-bound. If they do not achieve this within a certain amount of time, they cease to be Haibane. As the Haibane Renmei communicator tells Rakka, these Haibane loose their wings and halos, and are required to live apart from humans and Haibane. (The camera at this point focusses on the false wings that are a part of the communicator's uniform, perhaps indicating that the Haibane Renmei are these "fallen Haibane". It's also possible that these former Haibane are the Toga, the only people who can leave the city of Glie. The Toga never speak, save for communicating in sign language to the Haibane Renmei, and they never reveal their faces.) Despite this, Reki believed that when her time was up, she would simply vanish.
Sin-bound Haibane usually feel guilty about something they have done in their previous life, and until they can overcome this they cannot become a normal Haibane.
Some fans have made the conjecture that the Haibane are, actually, children who committed
Suicide and were reborn into Glie world to atone for their sin. Suicide is a particularly high-profile issue in Japanese society, and some facts could support this hypothesis, like Reki's hallucination in the last episode, or an interpretation of the characters names ("Sleep", sleeping pills or coma; "Light", died in a fire; "Ice Lake", frozen; "River fish", drowning; "Falling", suicide by jumping). ABe disagrees with this interpertation, but he encourages readers and viewers to come to their own conclusions.
A common variation of the above interpretation is the idea that all Haibane were simply children who died before their time; in this case, their names may simply represent the cause of death. Reki and Rakka's black wings and the Washu's reference to their sins are then assumed to be ways of showing that they committed suicide in their past lives. Some proof of this was the trouble both Reki and Rakka had in remembering details of their cocoon dreams. None of the other Haibane mentioned similar troubles.
Both interpretations suggest that the Haibane exist in a world between
Heaven and
Hell , although other interpretations involving non-Christian concepts are fully possible. Though they bear wings and halos as per occidental angels, the wings are vestigial and turn black if the owner becomes overly depressed. Since Haibane live comparably short "lives" it's possible the truth of how and why their wings might change color is never developed among the Haibane, and the inflicted individuals think it's because of their personal faults or sins. The time between arrival and departure suggests that they are not ready to proceed to their destination due to something they have not learned, experienced, or atoned for. It is superficially similar to the Catholic concept of
Purgatory , although unlike it, Haibane stay there permanently if they fail to resolve their issues before the Day of Flight.
In an interview in the magazine
Animerica , ABe stated that the series was inspired by
Haruki Murakami 's novel ''
Hard-Boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World '', half of which takes place in a walled city with no apparent outside. Some fans believe the series contains influence from another Murakami novel, ''
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle '', in which the main character spends a large amount of time at the bottom of a well.
