Haibane Renmei

The day of flight

May 7, 2006

Quorlox emails with a very cogent observation about the Day of Flight. Since it’s all spoilers, I’ll put it below the fold.

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lechers

April 30, 2006

Steven mentions how the series Azumanga Daioh was utterly ruined by the presence of Kimura, a middle-aged male characer whose sole function is to be the resident lecher. I haven’t seen the series and given the negative reaction Steven had to it (and the negative comments by others), probably won’t bother. But what is interesting [...]

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Circles: The Wall

April 17, 2006

To continue my discussion of circle symbolism in Haibane Renmei, the next circle of importance is the physical Wall that surrounds Glie.

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Haibane fanart

April 14, 2006

While I am sure there is an infinite supply of this sort of thing out there under the dot-jp domain, this particular Haibane fanart gallery happened to be indexed by google. There are of course the usual obsessions with swimsuits, but what I found much more interesting were the concept art of scenes we never [...]

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Circles: Glie

April 13, 2006

Of all the recurring symbolism in Haibane Renmei, that of the circle is the most intriguing. This will be a series of posts. Thefirst of these is teh circle of Glie itself – or rather, the existence of the Haibane. The circle of Glie is not a physical one that appears on screen, but is [...]

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Sinbound

April 9, 2006

Why was Reki sin-bound from the beginning? I have no answer. Neither does anyone else, it seems.. UPDATE: There’s an extensive discussion on this topic at the Old Home Bulletin Board that is useful as a primer.

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opening credits

April 6, 2006

via Shamus, here’s the opening credits for Haibane Renmei on YouTube: The momentary glimpses of each character really give you a sense of their styles and personalities, especially Reki. And the music accompaniment is enchanting – the theme stays with you. I am also very fond of the opener to Sugar now, though in contrast [...]

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true names of the Haibane

April 2, 2006

I am very intrigued by the way “true name” are handled in Haibane Renmei. It seems to differ from the usual name/true name duality found in fiction and myth, the as in Wizard of Earthsea (to take one particularly well-known example). In HR, there is only a root name from which the Haibane’s name is [...]

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The story of Reki

March 30, 2006

Steven has a spoiler-laden discussion of Reki’s name that has some excellent screen grabs. When Rakka gives Reki the box containing her true name, Reki opens it and finds a note from the Washii that tells of two stories, one for each name. The first story seemed to be of her pre-cocoon existence, whereas the [...]

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Which Haibane Renmei character am I?

March 29, 2006

You are Reki! Reki is pretty angsty, but not in an annoying way. Reki’s a really practical and supportive person to everyone else, but she could really benefit from her own advice sometimes. Reki is also very artistic. Take this quiz! Heh. Figures It was going to be either her or Rakka. I probably subconciously [...]

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