Haibane Renmei is a hidden gem and should not be missed. It deals with a lot of subjects and gives important messages. However it doesn't force them on you, it delivers them subtlety and without being preachy about it. It has lovable characters that grow on you during the series and in the end, they feel like a family, like you have known them for years and you want to learn more about them. One thing I often see that people dislike the first 5-6 episodes because they are slow and boring. I'd say that they are important, there is world building, foreshadowing and exposition going on that all matter in the bigger picture. I recently rewatched Haibane Renmei, and now I love it even more than I did the first time; there were things that I didn't notice the first time around. I just wish that it would've been longer, to flesh out the characters and the world more. But nevertheless, what we got was still great.

This might be my most favorite anime ever. The combination of stellar worldbuilding, this constant mature atmosphere and excellent writing create such great viewing experiences. It's this kind of sophisticated anime we need more in this medium. Btw, there is a book called _Set Apart_ by Daniel Cronquist which analyzes Christian themes and symbolism (even if it was unintended) in detail. I can recommend it as long as you're interested in studying _Haibane Renmei_ further.

Haibane Renmei is one of the few animes that actually made me cry

The anime doesn't explain mysteries. I think it was good.I tell some very clear facts for Japanese that difficult for foreigners to understand. Their name clearly suggests "a method of suicide".Japanese language is specialized for reading and writing. Different meaning with the same sound. Same meaning with different sound. We have used them according to the situation, we express diverse emotions.Rakka and Reki, they had a lot of meanings, however, their names sound always has had including "method of suicide".There is a clear moment, that When a girl called "kuramori" came to. Other names have the sound of the nickname. The author avoided real names of Japanese. Because the content of the drama is so tragic. But "Kuramori" sounds like a real name. Why did the artist use real Japanese name?Probably it is due to lack of variations of suicide. "Kuramori" remind Us one of a famous "suicide" dark forest."kuramori" is different sound from other names. No nickname, sound like real name. Still artist chose that name. He wanted to clearly suggests suicide.And the names of small children, it means the future dreams that didn`t never come. They for care the children who were not able to fulfill their dreams.I cried.Sorry my poor Eng. I hope you understand what I said. "Under the Radar" In Japan too. Thank you, this masterpiece`s great review.

After watching it again last year, it has become one of my favorite anime.

The artstyle is beautiful! Haibane Renmei doesn't need pretty colors to be a masterpiece!

This is without a doubt my favorite anime of all time. Thanks for making this video so that more people might give it a chance.

When my sister died back in 2019 i decided to watch it. My sister had reminded Renki and it always will remind me of how dark it felt

Reading Haruki Murakami's book Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World offers great insight into Haibane. There are tons of differences between the two, but it did serve as ABe's inspiration. He's one of my favorite authors in general, and Hard-Boiled is in my mind one of his best.

I never watched a show, anime or not, that made me feel as good at the end as Haibane Renmei. It's really a masterpiece that is under appreciated. It's sad that more people do not know about it.

One of my favourite anime series. I bought it based on the advertising graphic of Rakka {close to full size), so it proves that (good) advertising works. One thing not mentioned was the soundtrack, which was. I think. fantastic. I still listen to it and used one of the songs (Ailes Grise) as my ringtone for many years. I've just recently delved into Serial Experiments Lain, which is also a fantastic anime, again one that needs a lot of thought.

I just watched two episodes based off this, and it hasn't disappointed! The sound track is really lovely too.

This was the show that years ago really broadened my tastes in terms of anime. Having mostly just been sticking to mecha and pure action shows, admittedly the muted colour choice and slow, but deliberate, pace did seem very jaring at first. But the combination of the presentation and story really made for one of the most deceptively engrosing shows I've watched. The urge too know, and experience more of this world stayed with me even after the finale, but still managed enough closer to statisfy me in a way that even with so much left un-touched, anything more would be excessive.

Yessssss! Haibane Renmei is great! Bought both this and Texhnolyze on DVD before watching it and it was a great decision. Still working my way through Texhnolyze though. Although its just advertisement for the manga, you should check out Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou if you haven't already. It has a very similiar feel to the first half of Haibane Renmei and only 4 episodes.

Thank you. I thought your review was spot on. Haibane Renmei really is a masterpiece, and one that's often overlooked. And lest we forget, the soundtrack is superb.

You nailed it, perfect review of a brilliant show.

After reading a interesting comment in another video about Haibane Renmei, I started thinking about something I once heard saying about Pink Floyd's song "Wish you were Here" (I think from one of the band members himself...) Basically Wish you were here isn't, as many think, a song dedicated to the loss of their band mate and friend Syd Barrett, but a song about longing and loss for something/someone, made so universal as to be "usable" on every situation which involves that kind of emotion. Well, then what? I think in a way Haibane Renmei is the Whish you were Here of anime, its setting, the directing, the narrative, the portrayal of feelings is made in a way that we can read its symbols and moments in a vast array of ways, from a literal allegory of Purgatory to various kind of situation of emotional "limbo" etc. It's a interesting show and a interesting experiment, I'd say a exemplary child of that kind of 90s-00s experimentation we don't really see anymore in anime. We still see people adapting unhortodox and peculiar things and even a feeeew original productions, but I've never seen again this kind of exploration of pure feelings, like you can see in Haibane Renmei or for example in Yokohama Shopping Log

I fucking love Haibane Renmei. I call it the better Angel Beats. It's so absolutely unique, like all ABe shows. But it is also so different to the other 2. I recommend anyone who has patience to watch it.

One of the best for sure. My only real complaint with the show is that it's pacing was rather slow which can feel boring at times but the atmosphere, characters and mature presentation easily made up for it. Great review man, keep up the good work.

This show is pretty good. I wonder why ABes shows never got as much attention as Lain did. They were all just as good and it's not like Lain was more accessible or anything. You didn't really talk about the music in the show though but I really liked the kind of music it used it wasn't typical of many slice of life shows. It was done by Ko Otani who also did the music for Shadow of the Colossus which is a game that has a very similar atmosphere, color pallet, and even similar world building to Haibane Renmei albeit with a lot more violence of course.

"Unique" is the word. So much so that I wouldn't use it as an introduction to anime, despite being one of my favorite stories in any medium. It stands on its own.

I agree. This is a clasic.

Just started this anime and I can't stop watching 🤔

this may be one of the best review of haibane renmei ive ever find. no spoiler review and still yet managed to narrate the beauty of the show comprehensibly. thank you for making this video. this anime deserves more recognition

The video was great and you really managed to explain what you liked in the show. I personally got nothing out of this show but I can't say I regret watching it.

This is my favorite anime of all time. I’m cosplaying Rakka at a convention this year.

this is very different from Lain or Texhnolyze but it is still amazing

Loved to hear you gush about this show.

A true masterpiece.

One of my top 30 anime ever. Just some of the most amazing work by Abe ever. I at times thought it was like a Ghibli film.

still love your review, i come back to watch it from time to time because i feel like you're one of the few that "get" this show as much as i do. if you even go back to re-review it, maybe also comment on the sound design. the incorporation of small musical moments without turning into a sweeping background theme is really effective in it's minimalist storytelling. also, there are tons of well-placed sound effects in minimalist moments. nothing but a broom hitting the floor with a clunk. footsteps moving from left to right as the sound of a waterfountain in the background sweeps in and out, with almost no animation at all. the only other anime i know that pulls off minimalist storytelling like this is mushishi, but haibane renmei feels more "sound oriented" to me. it's just a rare thing to focus on, an uncommon focus for storytelling.

One of my favorite stories ever, in any medium. Watch it twice, at least, because (as I always say) things you don't notice at all on first viewing glow with meaning on the second. One thing you missed: the extraordinary soundtrack, so far from the usual j-pop. As to the color palette: ABe has said in an interview that when everything is brightly colored, you don't know what to look at. Here, so often, colors mean things. There's a shot early on where the usually greenish/yellowish sky is reflected in a puddle, and behold! It's the blue we expect in our world.

Love this one.

I've been intending to give this a watch for months. Thank you for reviewing this, now I definitely have to check it out.

Just watched it and it was awesome!

It was one of the most melancholic anime ive seen

Really one of the best Anime

灰羽連盟には、その作者が大きな影響を受けたと言われる、村上春樹 著の「世界の終りとハードボイルド・ワンダーランド」という1985年の小説があるので、読んでみると面白いかもしれません。

Holy shit bro you cover all my favorite anime. Do the Phoenix anime it's awesome.

Thanks man

Some parts in Haibane Renmei Were really well animated, also, Ping pong has an objectively excellent animation quality, the fact is that the art style is (For an artistic reason) very raw and not very rafined-- Just wanted to point it out, but good video, man

An interesting take on the ending you gave. It's something GRarkada clearly didn't get. This is one of the best anime for sure. It has a similar sort of ethereal atmosphere to Team Ico's games.

thanks for the video

TNX

What are your thoughts on Anime reviewer Glass Reflection?

There's a difference between animation and directing, and it is in the latter that most shows stand out. ABe's series generally have fantastic animation (as does the referenced Ping Pong) whereas plenty of shows with high production values have really uninspired, dull, or utilitarian direction (something like Parasyte let's say).

You should cover Shin Sekai Yori or Now and Then, Here and There.

I've shown the series to a number of people Who claim to Hate anime, Every last one of them was Desperate to see the next episode all the way to the end

Subscribed!

I don't agree animation quality doesn't matter. It certainly depends on the show. For instance, I would say my enjoyment of Kiki's Delivery Service was dependent on how lively it was animated. Same with Little Witch Academia. To say "animation quality means nothing", I dare you to watch any anime with the inbetweens removed and see how distracting it can be.

It's 13 episods tho...

I can't stand many anime because of the one dimensional characters and world (Not saying I don't like anime) many have great consepts have the problems I mentioned. This was an amazing show and definitely one of my favorites of all time

What's the backround music

mhm i loved Heibane Renmei. Anime tells stories through being the whole art medium. Animation Quality is a part of storie telling. But i agree when you say in most cases it doesnt matter. Ofc it could be much better with better animation Quality, but the piece is already realy good without it. Fate zero is a good example. The animation Quality may be regarded high. But i dont realy see how it tells its own storie together with the art and the directing so it does not realy do much for me. On the other hand Type moons The garden of sinners wouldnt be able to build a thick atmosphere without the animation quality.

I don't fully agree, that a story like this would still be a good story, if the animation quality was much worse. It does have to fulfil some standards, I guess. It needs to be clear, what is presented. If you had the same story, but without animations of the landscape and the places inbetween, which don't seem important, it would probably be a totally different feeling. Or if everyone just had the same face and no expressions, or something like that.

i thought haibane renmei was kind of boring. it was probably because of how i was feeling. i should revisit haibane renmei not half asleep then i might like it.

What happened to Hanashi?

hey dude what the hell do you mean by "animation quality"? fate/stay stuff is objectively worse animation quality wise than ping pong.

cant really agree with the character part the side characters were really underdeveloped but reki was just perf

The last episodes felt weird, the show suddenly started being about the uninteresting problems of the characters, and Rakka wasn't the same anymore. This review only applies to the first 10 episodes.

Having fallen in love with Haibane Renmei, I'm against most of the things you said. Particularly since you attached few reasoning or critique to anything stated.

Ping pong actually did have good animation. The art is the one that is inconsistent. This show just looks low quality and dull.