HAIBANE-RENMEI #4: DAY OF FLIGHT - DVD review

"Haibane Renmei" (Charcoal Feather Federation) is a thirteen-episode TV series created by Yoshitoshi ABe (spelled correctly). I consider him to be pretty gifted, and have greatly enjoyed some of his other series, most notably "NieA under 7". Like many other anime series, "Haibane" started life as a manga (Japanese comic books). Unlike most manga, "Haibane" was a self-published manga from Yoshitoshi ABe that he started writing, decided to redo the story and so restarted under a similar name, then decided that "Haibane" should really be an animated feature, published a final issue to explain such, then made one last issue with some of the back-story. The resulting series is a wonderful mix of weirdness and warmth. This second volume contains three episodes- "Parting- Darkness in the Heart- Irreplaceable Thing", "Bell Nuts- Passing of the Year Festival- Reconciliation", and "Reki's World- Prayor- Epilogue".

The series began with a girl falling through the sky, head down and eyes shut. A crow flies up to her and caws, waking her. She notes that, although she isn't afraid, her heart is cold. The crow seems desperate to stop her fall, cawing at her and trying to halt her decent by grabbing the hem of her dress. "It's useless," she says. "But thank you." With one last caw, the crow lets go, tumbling up into the sky. The girl continues to fall.

The girl awakes, thinking she was dreaming, but finds herself inside a cocoon. After breaking free, she finds herself in an old house, surrounded by five other women (teenage and older), each with small wings and a halo. For lack of any other name, the winged people call themselves Haibane. They have named themselves individually after the dreams they had while in their own cocoons. She can only vaguely remember falling, so they name her Rakka. The rest are Reki, who takes care of the young Haibane; Kuu, the youngest of the "adult" Haibane; Nemu, who works in the town's library; Kana, who works in the town's clock tower; and Hikari, who works in the town's bakery.

Rakka continues to try to understand what the Day of Flight means, now that her friend, Kuu, is gone. Reki faces an even more uncertain fate- still Bound by Sin, she can't go to her Day of Flight, and she's out of time as a Haibane. If she isn't able to move on, Reki is liable for a fate worse than death, never knowing forgiveness.

The only Haibane that seems to see any of this is Rakka, and she pushes herself to find answers from the Haibane Renmei, Reki, Nemu, and the Haibane of the Abandoned Factory. It's heartbreaking to watch her desperately try to help a friend that has long since given up on herself.

My only real regret with this series is that it's only thirteen episodes long. "Haibane Renmei" has such a rich world set up for character study pieces, but only really went into two of them. If the writing could continue as gripping as it had been for these thirteen episodes, I would have kept watching gladly.

Video:
The video aspect ratio is 1.78:1 (full-screen on 16:9 monitors). The colors are fairly plain, with lots of greens and browns. Everything the Haibane wear and use are used, so their possessions are all pretty shabby. The character design is signature ABe, with emphasis on realistic-looking people. The town, clothing, and artifacts all blend together to make a believable, internally-consistent society.

Audio:
You can watch the show in either Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo Japanese or DD 2.0 stereo English. There is an option for English subtitles for either just signs or everything. I chose to watch the show in Japanese DD 2.0 with full English subtitles. I especially like the music. Since I'm hardly a music expert, I'm going to describe the music as folksy, and just hope that's a real word. It nicely reflects the rustic world of "Haibane Renmei".

Extras:
For some reason, the previews for the next episode that usually come at the end of an episode or in Extras, and not part of the main feature. There is also a short spot entitle "Hane Haeterun" (Got Wings?). The Special Ending shows sketched artwork of settings from the series, presumably by Reki, as well as a new song, in English. It's about five minutes long, so I'm not really sure where it came from- that's much longer than the usual 1.5 minutes.

Creators' Interview features creator and artist yoshitoshi ABe, and producer Yasuyuki Ueda. The two have worked together on several other projects, and they play off each other really well in the interview. It runs about eleven minutes.

The Art Gallery feature has forty images that proceed at the viewer's pace. There are design sketches of the Haiabane and various objects and settings used in the series. I'm not sure why the Cover Art Gallery is so named, since it doesn't show any DVD covers. There are thirteen images, as many as there are episodes, but beyond that I don't know.

--Miscellaneous--
There is a single-page, fold out colored insert with chapter listings on the back. The DVD cover is reversible.

Film Value:
So, the end of another series. Movies are so much easier to walk away from, with their shorter run times and typically fewer developed characters. "Haibane Renmei" saves its greatest emotional punch for the end, letting Rakka read the last page in Reki's diary. Even the ending of this series is magnificent.