Haibane Renmei ep 1 – Not White, Not Black, but Beautiful Charcoal Grey

I was not and am not planning to blog haibane Renmei episodically – I don’t think. I was originally just going to watch the show, but then I thought I might post after each DVD… and then I watched the first ep and found enough things that I wanted to do a post about it. However, it won’t be as stupidly insanely long as my Paranoia Agent and Boogiepop Phantom ones (I hope)

For now, I’m not even going to talk about this show’s art and animation. You may know I’m a HUGE Yoshitoshi ABe fanboy, and I own 3 of his artbooks and two doujins. There are other episodes I will likely use to fanboy the art. However, for now I will mention how use of color brings out a very humble feel in the locations, being very old and washed-looking with lots of quiet brown and grey tones.

I also won’t dive into what happens in this episode. For one reason or another, I have seen this particular episode I believe 5 times now, and know it like the back of my hand, which also means that I talk about it as if the events within are fresh in the viewer’s mind. So unless you know this show pretty well or decide to watch it along with me, this post will most likely go over your head.

One of the first things I noticed in this ep was ‘holy shit, I know Rakka’s voice’ – I only started seiyuu fanboying a few months ago so it’s no surprise I’m just picking up on this. Her seiyuu, Ryou Hirohashi, has played 2 of my alltime favorite characters, Alice Carroll and Kawazoe Tamaki, though in every roll of hers she has to grow on me again. I always start off feeling a little awkward listening to her, but she ingrains her voice into the character’s personality until you really get it. The dialog was pretty dispersed among characters in this episode, but Reki’s voice is instantly excellent, being Junko Noda in top form (a role she 100% reprises in Dennou Coil as obasan.)

Anyway, Haibane Renmei has an excellent first episode even though next to nothing happens. It pointedly does not show very much are total, almost taking place entirely in 2 rooms, despite the rich world that the show takes place in which other episodes try to explore. It’s easy to pick out a reason for this – you aren’t supposed to know what’s going on yet. Much like marimite, haibane does a lot to put you into the shoes and mindset of the main character, Rakka, who at this time has seen none of the world (she just arrived!) and for you to understand her emotions, it’s best if things aren’t known to you either.

We also see a lot of characters in this episode, which means that rather than any one of them being forefronted, we will get sparse dialog by all. This also gives the air of a ‘first impression’ – we know about as much as Rakka does about any of them except the way they act on the outside and maybe a couple hints of how they react to one another. We do, like Rakka, see a bit more of Reki, who caretakes her at first.

When Rakka wakes up, she is confused and frustrated, but not overly so. This is believable because she has no memories – it’s understandable to be confused at the lack thereof, but without a proper recollection of what the world is to you normally, it’s a little difficult to be too shocked by the new world you discover. Rakka doesn’t have time for very much to be explained, as her wings start to emerge only hours or so after waking.

The scene where Rakka’s wings emerge is fucking awesome, just to get that out of the way. It’s a painful, bloody experience that only lasts a moment but with such tension that it feels much longer. Afterward, Reki cleans her wings, which is a very important scene. Rakka realizes that Reki is a good and reliable person, and that she won’t need to worry with her around. When she has woken up, she seems entirely less frightened and anxious, as she has developed a srtong trust for Reki. We can see this expressed when Rakka asks if Reki kept cleaning the wings after she was asleep and her expression when she  hears that it happened.

There was a line in the episode that immediately struck me, as it is an important foundation of the series, and probably one of the things ABe really wanted to make sure was noted. Reki says that the wings are ‘not white, not black, but beautiful charcoal grey.’ That is to express that they are not pure, angelic wings, nor black, devilish wings, but just…. I would say ‘human’ grey wings. They are nothing special, but that in itself is their beauty. This does a lot to support the theory by many that the world of Haibane Renmei is ‘purgatory.’

Anyway, great first episode that I’ve seen way too many goddamn times. There were a lot of excellent pieces from the OST. The Haibane Ranmei OST by Ko Ootani is considered by MANY to be one of the greatest anime OST ever but I have always found it kind of boring – it’s grown on my with a lot of listens, though. Very pretty. I like ‘Love Will Light The Way’, which is an incredibly Yoko Kanno sounding track (with necessary blues bass) though I have no idea where it shows up in the series. The song that plays when Rakka’s wings grow is one of my favorites with it’s very mysterious emotion. I think Ailes Grises was playing when Rakka fell from teh sky, which is another great track.

That’ll be all.