PinkuBentoBox

As Nagi promised, the two of us sat down this weekend and watched through Haibane Renmei Episode 1. This should become a regular thing here, and we do intend to move on to Boogiepop Phantom once Haibane is done.

Episode 1: ~Cocoon * Dream of Falling From the Sky * Old Home~

It should be noted right off the bat that neither of us are experts or anything, and the bulk of this is opinion. Disagree with something? Drop us a line and let us know. We’d love these posts to spawn huge discussions.

NegativeZero
I think the very first shot is important - blackness, the sound is that of underwater, and there’s a bright light that seems to be filtered like ripples on the surface of water approaching the screen.

Nagi
Yeah. Definitely hints at the cocoon.

NegativeZero
we splash into it, and then we see a crow fly past, and Rakka is falling.

Nagi
Y’know, I heard a really interesting theory about the crows throughout the series. I want to re-watch more of the series before delving too far into it, though.

NegativeZero
Does your theory involve the Sin-bound Haibane?

Nagi
It involves more Rakka’s past, actually.

NegativeZero
Because I have a theory about the crows too… we’ll see.
Anyway, Rakka is falling. Notice that she’s dressed in a gown, in fact, she’ll be wearing that exact gown when she’s ‘born’ from the cocoon. Any significance?

Nagi
Actually, that does make me wonder about how the Haibane end up IN the cocoons in the first place.
I mean, we see the seed sprout in the OP, but then I really can’t see Rakka just forming inside over the months-ish it would take for that cocoon to grow from a seed. Never mind the fact I can’t see something like that going unnoticed for so long.

NegativeZero
The booklet that Geneon packaged with volume 1 with comments from I think the director makes mention of that gown, and that would indicate it’s probably deliberate. She’s wearing it in ABe’s original doujinshi too. Also, Old Home is pretty run-down, but we’ll get to that.

Nagi
Oh yeah, one of the floors IS pretty much abandoned, isn’t it?

NegativeZero
As Rakka is falling, a crow swoops in and grabs at her. it caws at her, and she opens her eyes

Nagi
The part where it grabs at her gown and tries to pull her up actually goes along heavily with my theory.

NegativeZero
She grabs at the crow and hugs it. “Where am I?” “I’m falling from the sky.” She’s remarkably calm about it, note. She actually comments on how calm she is - “Why am I not afraid?” and she asks the crow if it’s worried about her.

Nagi
And everything’s all grey. Something I just noticed about that a moment later when she suddenly snaps her eyes open and there’s wind. There’s also colour. I’m thinking that’s deliberate. There’s a scene shift there almost as if she’s gone into a completely different place from the grey of a second ago. I would say “passing into the light,” but the opening splash at the very beginning could also have been that.

NegativeZero
“Fluffy and warm, but I feel anxious inside.” She’s calm, she feels ‘fluffy and warm’ which sort of sounds like she feels safe, yet she’s anticipating something. We also get the first hint towards the whole ‘afterlife’ theory, one which I personally ascribe to - she says ‘my heart is cold’

Nagi
Her heart is cold. Taken literally, that could be a hint that she’s died.

NegativeZero
She uses Tsumetai: “cold (to the touch); chilly; icy; freezing; coldhearted” (the last definition doesn’t fit the context). You can see it’s a pretty strong type of cold she’s describing.

Nagi
So, definitely cold in the literal sense? The use of greys in the scene also help to give it a cold feel all around. Well, greys/greyish-blues.

NegativeZero
The crow flies up and tries to hold her up at this point. It quite clearly tries to save her, but she refuses. That’s where the colour appears in the sky around her. It goes from a blue-grey bleakness to the green-yellow we’re going to be associating with the sky from this point

Nagi
That part always gets me a little choked up for some reason (the first of MANY, I assure you). Also, notice the crow seems to disappear into a dark void.

NegativeZero
Yeah, but is that the crow disappearing, or is it her falling out of its reach?

Nagi
Again, the expression “come into the light.” If Rakka’s going to light, then she’s coming away from darkness. Perhaps the crow (or whoever the crow represents) is being pulled back away from the light. She’s gone too far to be reached, and the crow is probably being pulled upwards.

NegativeZero
we briefly see a mottled pattern just after the colour comes in corresponding to the cocoon, and suddenly Rakka is falling. Actually falling, and you can see she’s scared now. I personally think this is where her actual ‘cocoon dream’ starts. Notice that later on she never makes any reference to the crow when she talks about her dream. I think that what she remembers is the point where her eyes snap open onwards.

Nagi
There’s a VERY quick shot just before her eyes snap open. Looks like a horizon of some sort, like she’s overlooking…almost a planet, perhaps? Like she’s not just falling, but quite literally plunging into a new world. She actually enters the world that Glié’s in and solidly leaves the…I guess one she was previously in? Or whatever void connects the two?

NegativeZero
It’s also interesting that it’s at this point that she’s suddenly scared because she’s falling towards the ground. Before, she said she wasn’t afraid at all.
Also, going back to the ‘cold’ thing - she said first she was ‘fluffy and warm’ then a few seconds later her ‘heart is cold’. Seems kind of like it doesn’t follow doesn’t it?

Nagi
Good point. Actually, what she’s specifically referring to as being “fluffy and warm” isn’t specifically stated, whereas she distinctly points out it’s her heart that’s cold. The fluffy/warm might reference something else. The air around her or something.

NegativeZero
Is she ‘fluffy and warm’ because she’s in the cocoon? or is she fluffy and warm because she’s dying in a hospital bed?

Nagi
Perhaps both?

NegativeZero
Okay, so, Rakka’s dream finishes and we get the title card, then we’re treated to a slow panning shot of the sky. Why is the sky green? It’s not the first time I’ve seen an anime where the sky is green instead of blue. I’m told it’s quite possible depending on the composition of the atmosphere etc. In this case though, this isn’t SF. Is it just to show that this isn’t the ‘real’ world?

Nagi
The inside of the cocoon is also a greenish.

NegativeZero
Do you think it could be something purely aesthetic? It does look nice - the human eye is more sensitive to green. Is the sky always green? I seem to remember it was a lot of the time, but was it always?

Nagi
Maybe. The sky when Kana & Hikari were riding to Old Home was also green. Maybe it’s just that Glié’s a cloudy place? An overcast sky vs. a sunny one would lend more towards the overall mood of the show. The general colour palette for the outdoor scenery lends itself almost entirely to earth tones; greens & browns. Near the horizon it gets to be a pale yellow, almost white, so it’s not completely green, either. Only the higher portions away from the ground. Maybe the sky and the inside of the cocoon are meant to go together? Again, the inside of the cocoon looks like this. Maybe Glié is something of a “macro-cocoon” of sorts for everything to transpire in.

NegativeZero
So, our first look at Old Home. Interesting name, isn’t it? Old Home has clearly been there for quite a while, the structure looks pretty old.

Nagi
Looks like an old school house to me. The tiling on the lower part of the wall just feels more modern in my opinion. I wonder why the room Reki walked into had a barred window? Detention office?

NegativeZero
It’s probably a storeroom or something. A note about Reki, by the way… the Haibane are never given first-hand goods. It has to be used, second-hand stuff or stuff they find. How does she feed her nicotine addiction? She’s always smoking. I can’t see her bumming cigarettes off people. Even if she rolls her own, and cultivates her own tobacco somewhere (which would be amusing) I somehow doubt she makes her own papers.

Nagi
Hm…I forget, do the second group of Haibane in the series follow the same rules regarding used goods? Maybe she has some setup where she trades stuff with them for a carton every so often?

NegativeZero
Well, we never really see much of the Factory Haibane, but even so, Reki avoids them so I doubt she’d trade with them. Reki’s job involves looking after the kids right? Perhaps part of her pay is in cigarettes. Her cigarettes pretty clearly have filters, like commercial ones. You can see that one end is separated from the other.

Nagi
Perhaps. Papers, though, could be easily enough scraped together from somewhere. And thus Ernest Hemingway becomes Joe Camel. Some brands just have a line to indicate where the filter is. Usually chick brands, though I can’t see Reki with Newports.

NegativeZero
Not being a smoker, I wouldn’t know much about this. Anyway, moving on… the cocoon. It’s pretty bloody huge.

Nagi
Plenty of room for Rakka to swim around in.

NegativeZero
It’s knocked a table out of the way, and as you mentioned earlier, it must have sprung up pretty fast Also, is there any significance do you think to the fact that it’s Reki who finds it?

Nagi
Our two most central characters, both ultimately Sin-bound, and arguably the closest two out of our main lot. I find it funny how she gets to the bottom of the stairs and remembers to go back and stomp out the cigarette.

NegativeZero
I always loved Reki’s reaction. Oh, and the building can’t be that old actually - halogen lights. Also, as an aside - Haibane is one of Madman’s worst ever PAL conversions. Ghosted frames EVERYWHERE. If I watched the series more often I’d replace my copies with the R1s

Nagi
You’e got a great opportunity coming up later this month.

NegativeZero
From the outside though, Old Home looks… Old. It looks European (much like Glié itself). Arches, bell tower, creeper vines. A *pump* for water.

Nagi
A pump, but there are also faucets inside, so there’s definitely indoor plumbing, as well. The lighting was probably a late renovation made not long before the Haibane came to inhabit the place.

NegativeZero
we get a shot of a whole pile of name tags hanging on hooks. Reki, Kana, Nemu, Hikari and Kuu - The red are Kana and Hikari. Also note all the ones below

Nagi
New Feathers.

NegativeZero
we see Hikari and Kana approaching on bike, and in the background are the windmills

Nagi
Hm…this probably means nothing, but might there be a significance in the way Reki draws herself in that warning to the New Feathers? Halo + horns. Horns = Sin-bound?

NegativeZero> I doubt it. More like “I’ll fucking eat you >:(”It’s interesting to note that all the Haibane in Old Home, not counting the New Feathers (do they count as Haibane?) are girls, though I have a strong suspicion this is purely aesthetic.

Nagi
Wasn’t it mentioned later in the series that male Haibane were forbidden in Old Home after Reki’s hijinks with that Factory one? I seem to remember that. New Feathers are probably exempt because Old Home’s a better place to raise them than the Factory.

NegativeZero
The other thing that’s worth noting is that we’re getting a good look at their wings at this point. They’re clearly not white, but they don’t ever look grey to me either… well, maybe.

Nagi
“Charcoal” is a step much, but “ash” I can see. Some types of ash are that light grey. Some volcanic ash, for example.
This may sound weird, but Kana always reminds me of Tomo for some reason.

NegativeZero
Similar character, though less insane for obvious reasons.

Nagi
If you over-exaggerated Kana’s personality to its uttermost breaking point (aggressive, laid back, etc.) you might just get Tomo.

NegativeZero
Notice that when Kana enters the room, she kicks up dust? The cocoon could have been in there for ages before Reki found it.

Nagi
Perhaps.

NegativeZero
Side notes here: I personally can’t stand Kuu. Also, I am required to mention how awesome Fumiko Orikasa is.

Nagi
Wow, I’m not the only one that dislikes her.
Right before Kuu says “It’s huge!” there’s a shot of the floor. One of the roots is still pushing up tile. Interesting how Kuu’s wings reflect her character. Twitchy & energetic, while the others’ barely move.

NegativeZero
They’re all really taken back by Rakka’s cocoon… It surely isn’t the first they’ve seen - at the very least, they’ve seen Kuu’s, but they all comment how big it is. I don’t think there’s much in that though. Hikari says that the cocoon started as big as a dandelion puff

Nagi
I imagine New Feathers’ cocoons are smaller,s eeing that they’re born as children. If they even come from cocoons.

NegativeZero
It does beg an interesting question though - can the Haibane have children?

Nagi
Something to ponder later on: why do a select few hatch as adults or teenagers, while the majority are little kids?

NegativeZero
Well, I suspect the answer to that is tied with the purpose of the whole setup, but we’ll discuss it in a later episode I think

Nagi
The fact that so many are clearly under the 10-12 range has always made the “they’re all suicides” theory hard to swallow for me.

NegativeZero
I don’t buy the suicide theory

Nagi
There are some forms that I’ve seen that could work, but the common one (i.e., they’re ALL suicides) I don’t by in the least.

NegativeZero
It’s probably best to talk about that later, once we’ve gone over more of the series. Nemu points out that the cocoon is turning charcoal grey and it has - when Reki found it, it was bluish

Nagi
It’s definitely the first cocoon Kuu’s seen of any kind. Also, I find it interesting that the New Feather’s exclaim “monster!” Probably just the first time they’ve seen a cocoon, but you’d think if they were born of one they’d have been told about it.

NegativeZero
Something that Reki says here is interesting. Kana suggests smashing the cocoon open. Reki says that they can’t open the cocoon, you have to do it yourself or else you won’t be ’strong’. Interestingly, this is the case with a butterfly leaving its cocoon. The butterfly has to struggle for hours to get itself out. If you help it, then it will be bloated with fluid, incomplete and its wings won’t develop properly and it will die. On some level though, this must mean that in order to get out of the cocoon you have to *want* to get out

Nagi
Interesting how they seem surprised by the mass of liquid erupting out. At least a couple of them have certainly seen their share of hatchings, and yet they still stand so close? Also of note, apparently enough time has passed for the police tape to come down and a sign to come up on the door. Though that could have been ten minutes.

NegativeZero
Yeah. I wonder if they all were filled with liquid. Probably, but maybe not. We’ll have to see.

Nagi
Maybe the force of the hatching, in conjunction with the size, is a rarity.

NegativeZero
Rakka wakes up in bed. Notice that she’s been changed into a different gown - this one has ties on the back to allow for her wings

Nagi
I love those doors that open onto the balcony.

NegativeZero
Notice the strange light on the ceiling? What is that? It looks like reflection of water, but the way it’s moving indicates the water is being disturbed slightly - still water would give a still reflection

Nagi
Though I wonder if that’s just the animators trying to mimic reflection from a liquid source (pot of water on the stove?) or light from outside being interrupted by branches.

NegativeZero
Rakka notices that her gown feels ‘rough’. She commented that the old one was ‘fluffy’

Nagi
Maybe she was given a change of clothes because her old gown was soaked through? I find it interesting how Reki’s the apparent “leader” here. I remember from the last time I saw the series that Nemu used to watch over Reki.

NegativeZero
I think, as I mentioned before, that they’ve changed her gown so her wings can come through without her having to be naked. Reki seems to have taken it upon herself to help the new feathers

Nagi
Actually that does tie in big with something near the end of the series, but none of that right now. Tangent: I love Reki’s lighter.

NegativeZero
“It was a dream about falling straight down from somewhere very high up” No mention of the crow at all. Does she not mention it, or does she not remember it? Also, each of the girls mentions their dream being about something. I’ll talk about this in a second

Nagi
Hm, notice when all the Haibane are naming themselves and describing their dreams, Reki is the only one not to. Foreshadowing. Interesting how she doesn’t even realise she can’t remember her own name until Reki calls her Rakka.

NegativeZero
Kuu says hers was about flying around in the air. Hikari was surrounded by a bright light. Kana was drifting in a river. Nemu was sleeping. Now, personally I think each of these corresponds to something about how they died. In Reki’s case we know it definitely does.

Nagi
Kuu’s I’m not sure about, but I can see the other three corresponding to a grisly death of sorts.

NegativeZero
If you get hold of the original trailer for the series, there’s a big sequence of images in it and it’s quite easy to see that each one of them corresponds to one of the girls. Hikari’s, for example, is two bright headlights. Surrounded by bright light -> roadkill. Kuu clearly fell from somewhere high up. Kana drowned. Nemu is a hard one, perhaps she died in her sleep?

Nagi
Popular theory is sleeping pills, but it could also be a coma perhaps.

NegativeZero
Sleeping pills would indicate she was a suicide, but her feathers aren’t black…
This is, of course, assuming that they all are people who have died in the ‘real’ world, which we both agree on.

Nagi
I had always figured Hikari died in a fire, taking the specific word “surrounded” into account.

NegativeZero
Well, fire is different to bright light. Generally, if you’re in a house fire for example you’re more likely to die from the smoke. Plus, there’s a clear shot of two headlights on a car or truck in that trailer, and I don’t think it’s accidental

Nagi
Hm…the trailer I have doesn’t have headlights, but rather a blurry, green-tinted shot of a car rounding a corner.

NegativeZero
I’m certain I recall headlights. Might have just been one headlight

Nagi
Two shots of bright light before it. I can’t make out shapes in them.

NegativeZero
Perhaps a car accident?

Nagi
And before the lights, there are feet standing in a puddle of blood. Interesting. Though the feet & blood might correspond to a later image of Rakka from the back, new wings bleeding & all.

NegativeZero
This is all speculation though.

NegativeZero
Rakka says that “there might have been something else” in her dream but she can’t remember. They replay from the bit where she’s falling towards the ground, so it’s quite clear that the crow bit has been forgotten like I suggested earlier.
It’s interesting that they’ve got no memory of who they were before, only the dream. My personal theory is that they’re people who have died with some kind of regret or tie to their life. Something important left unfinished.
Something that had hurt them somehow, I think, that they needed to come to terms with but were denied the chance (or denied it of themselves, as we will see is the case with Reki) yet whatever that was, it was strong enough that they wanted to forget it. Running away from it, if you will.
I don’t think any of them have truly forgotten, I think they don’t want to remember

Nagi
This is actually where my version of the suicide theory comes into play. For the most part, Haibane are simply deaths with regret or deaths without fulfillment. But perhaps Sin-bound Haibane are those that actively take their own life. Reki’s dream is pretty clearly suicide. And now that I think about it, Rakka & Kuu do pretty much go the same way, so the intent must’ve differed.

NegativeZero
That was always my take on it. It also ties in a bit with the way Rakka’s wings begin to change later in the series. More discussion on that when we get to that episode

Nagi
“No one knows who you are anymore.” Can’t help but get Morpheus vibes from Reki at that point.

NegativeZero.
What the hell do they make the halo out of anyway? I don’t know if you’ve ever seen molten gold being poured, but it has a similar colour to that.

Nagi
I understand it’s a metallic substance only the Renmei are privy to. I think it has something to do with Rakka’s job later on, where she’s in that halfway Acguy cosplay doing Wall maintenance. What I find interesting is that the substance actively vanishes. It doesn’t simply dissolve or burn out (though the trailer DOES show Rakka holding what appears to be a burnt-out halo). Perhaps failed Sin-bound simply have their halo fizzle out and drop to the ground?

NegativeZero
Traditionally, drawing a character with wings and a halo like this, at least in western drawings, would indicate they had died. It’s angel stuff, but the wings are small and not white. There’s a strong hint of purgatory going on here, though it’s not too much like the catholic description of it. Personally, I think that the halo is just ABe being artistic, rather than serving any real meaning like the wings.

Nagi
It’s almost like a sorority halfway-house type of Purgatory. If my theory with the halo of a Sin-bound not disappearing is true, the halo MIGHT represent whatever burden the Haibane carries. If they overcome it, the halo vanishes. Their burden is conquered. If they don’t, it drops on their head like a lead weight and doesn’t go away.

NegativeZero
Does that mean that Rakka has no real burden then, because her halo falls off

Nagi
Maybe the halo not fixing straight away is a natural thing, though? Reki seems to indicate it is.

NegativeZero
Those bruises where Rakka’s wings are coming through look like they hurt like a bitch. Also, this is the start of what is in my opinion one of the greatest scenes in the whole series, and it was what hooked me

Nagi
As I mentioned before, this show manages to get me all choked up/moved to tears…probably more times than any other show I’ve seen. The growing wings is just one more to that list.

NegativeZero
Reki says that even if Rakka could meet her family, they wouldn’t recognize her, which is interesting, sort of like saying that if her family was there, they’d have already died and would also have lost their memory.

Nagi
If this isn’t the real world, but rather some pseudo-Purgatory…who are the townspeople?

NegativeZero
it’s a really good question isn’t it? I could never figure it out either. The townspeople don’t fit in. They seem very protective towards the Haibane though

Nagi
Hm…might just be word choice in the subs, but Reki says “nobody in THIS world recognizes you.” Or “remembers,” rather than “recognizes.” Why would the people of Glié remember her if she was never there to begin with?

NegativeZero
“even if your family was somewhere in this world, they wouldn’t recognize you when they saw you now.” Her family wouldn’t recognize her in that she’d appear to be the same age as she was when she died, which was a long time before… plus she’d have wings.
Rakka’s unfolding wings moving around in her back like that… it looks extremely painful. This scene really is powerful. It’s interesting to notice how big those wings seem when they pop out.

Nagi
I’m wondering if that wasn’t an animation goof getting the scale off. Or perhaps it was deliberate dramatic effect?

NegativeZero
probably deliberate. She says that she ‘feels the wings becoming part of her body’ implying that they weren’t part of her before

Nagi
She didn’t even know she had any until Reki pointed it out.

NegativeZero
later on, we’ll find out that Reki had to suffer through that whole thing by herself, I wonder if that isn’t part of the reason she seems to want to help Rakka through it. Rakka also expresses that she feels like her body is changing into something else.

Nagi
Probably like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon. The wings having to take form and the veins becoming sturdier. Only here it perhaps involves growth of the internal wing mechanisms. And no doubt a solidifying of the halo to the head.

NegativeZero
Reki seems to be slightly jealous, almost. “Pretty wings, not white, not black. Beautiful charcoal grey” Her expression when she says that is quite sad. I don’t want to talk too much about Reki now though, she’ll have her moment later

Nagi
I imagine having all of that “o hay ur a Haibane” dropped in her lap in one day and having it sink in might give Rakka the feeling of changing emotionally.
Halo static cling. Probably the cutest moment in the entire series.

NegativeZero
Agreed. Rakka is herself extremely cute. <3

Nagi
I like how the animators remembered Reki’s bruises on her thumb.

NegativeZero
Yeah, looks like it stings

Nagi
It’s gotten more purple since last night.

NegativeZero
The ED is interesting. The lyrics to it are important, I think.

Nagi
As soon as the line “Why do you want to forget?” came up I was JUST about to comment on that.

NegativeZero
Well, I’m not sure how important they are given that they weren’t written by anyone in the core creative staff, but it ties in with my opinion that they haven’t forgotten, they don’t want to remember
And that ends episode one. Probably one of the best episodes of them all. Certainly had me hooked.

Nagi
Probably one of the best SERIES of them all. It;s good to be reminded why I always rank this one as one of my top two favourite shows like, EVER, just barely losing out to Boogiepop Phantom by mere INCHES…though with the way Phantom’s animation quality turns regrettably ASS at times, I can actually see it more equal with Renmei’s superior visuals.

NegativeZero
Personally, Haibane is my favourite by far

Nagi
I used to say Haibane was my favourite. I may go back to that (Phantom winning out mostly for being more recent in my mind, probably) 1 or 2, either way, they’re both up there in some order.

And that ends our discussion of the first episode of Haibane Renmei. If all goes well, we’ll go through episode two next weekend. Feel free to fire off as many comments about this as you want, either here or in the forums. We’d love to discuss things further. Also, we conducted this chat over IRC (#pinkubentobox on pinkubentobox.com:7777) so it should be quite possible for us to extend the discussion so that others can join in as well.