Haibane Renmei- The Complete Series DVD Review
“Haibane Renmei” is an intriguing artsy anime series.
In this 13 episode anime series, the story primarily revolves around a girl named Rakka who is brought into a place surrounded by young and old winged and halo sporting beings known as the Haibane. Rakka soon learns that she is in a place called Old Home that is near a walled town called Gile. Old Home seems like a fairly normal place in which all of the residents work a job. Slowly, but surely, Rakka becomes acquainted with the other Haibane that include Reki (the leader), Kana, Nemu, Hikari, and Kuu. Throughout much of the series, the story delves into what the Haibane are, what Old Town is, the meaning of character’s dreams, as well as other mysteries. Other key subplots and stories involve an abandoned factory, the Communicator, the disappearance of Kuu, a crow, a librarian named Sumika, character’s pasts, and sins.
Despite the religious themes and undertones, “Haibane Renmei” is never preachy nor is it overly religious. It’s a spiritual show to be sure, but it never beats you over the head with ideas. It’s the type of atmospheric series that presents heady ideas and wants you to think about them. As a result of this more intellectual storytelling approach, ‘Renmei’ isn’t exactly action-packed. In fact, there’s really not much action at all (which accounts for the slow pacing). Instead, the series is more focused on character development (especially Rakka and Reki) and establishing the world these characters inhabit. If you have the patience for this type of drama, you just might find yourself drawn into this artistic anime series.
One of the things that may frustrate some viewers is that the show constantly feels like it’s building to something. Whether or not it does, however, is really up to you. It’s a more open ended show that isn’t very concerned with events or traditional storytelling. While I would have preferred more involved subplots or even some action to move the story forward more, I applaud the writers for trying something different.
Summary: “Haibane Renmei” isn’t perfect, but it’s certainly more rewarding than mindless drivel like “Freezing.”
Video/Audio:
The series, which is presented in widescreen, certainly shows its age as it’s been 10 years since its release. The main issue is that the colors are noticeably a bit faded here. Perhaps it’s time for a hi-def upgrade for this show?
This set contains English and Japanese Stereo tracks. Both the English dub and the Japanese track work well here. You can’t go wrong with either one.
Extras:
* Trailers for “King Of Thorn,” “Texhnolyze,” “Spice and Wolf,” “Fafner,” “Steins;Gate,” “Serial Experiments Lain,” “Shangri-La,” “Shakugan no Shana,” and Funimation.com.
* 13 episode previews.
* Textless opening and closing songs.
* 2 TV commercials, a new program commercial, a special artistic end credits, and a promo trailer for “Haibane Renmei.”
* Interviews with Yasuyuki Ueda and Yoshitoshi Abe. The two chat about the anime industry, designs, fantasy stories, etc.
* “Hane Haeterun”- A 12 second “Got Wings?” clip. Don’t ask me what this is about.
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Robert Ham
dmanderson
Andrea
nicklyons1
DVD Corner 
The colors are not noticeably faded as your review indicates! It was the intention of the animators to use a watercolor palette! Unlike the bright over saturated palette of the typical anime. Have you seen the original doujinshi it was based? Since the author is the of the doujinshi, Yoshitoshi Abe, is the character designer for this anime series, he kept the same color scheme he used in his original illustrations!
If you don’t believe me, just Google image search “Haibane Renmei” and you’ll see what I mean.
Besides, this was a digital video animation when it was produced in 2002. It was never shot on film or transferred to or from film. Digital is a lossless production format,, meaning a digital copy will not degrade or fade over time. I seriously doubt you actually compared this release to the 2002-2003 DVD release to make such an assertion.
Thank you for the clarification. In terms of the age of the series, I was referring to the animation style looking a bit dated in comparison to more recent anime series (obviously). I do think Haibane Renmei is in need of a hi-def upgrade as I’m sure fans would prefer that to another re-release.
Then say what you mean. It’s OK to say “The animation style looks dated” if that’s what you think, but you wrote “The main issue is that the colors are noticeably a bit faded here.” Faded compared to what? The original print (or in this case the DVD)? The original DVD’s color scheme looks exactly the same as the current version. It was meant to look that way.
I agree it would be nice to have a high-def master release, but that would mean actually remaking the animation for Hi-Definition, since this digital animation was produced for Standard Def at a time when Hi-Def was just a glimmer in someone’s eye. An HD Upconvert would only make the flaws in the animation seem worse. Since this wasn’t shot on film, it seems unlikely, prohibitively expensive or just pain impossible that anyone would be able to do that.