It’s entirely likely I will end up liking Haibane Renmei, but until that moment, every synapse in my body rebels against it, like Lucifer plummeting through the shadows of pre-Creation, howling and cursing. Nevertheless, I always keep my word, so at 1:29 CST I am beginning the HR. Beneath the cut lies twitter-blog.
First Episode:
Birds are SYMBOLIC!
Hug the bird! Hug it good!
Hey, it’s like Goldeneye… But not as awesome.
This is all Isaac Newton’s fault. Fucking Zaibach empire.
They’re all dead, this is purgatory, can I go home now?
Dear god, KAA is shit at encoding shows. I can never fucking PAUSE anything I get from them.
Stork-ball, ACTIVATE!
A fucking stork-ball, bitch, that’s what it is!
>>Not a womb metaphor, just move along<<
Mm, placenta.
“That’s a lot of nuts!”
So, when does this show introduce an actual conflict, aside from TEH AWKWARD?”
“Shit, what do I do? I looked at her back, and I think she’s the destroyer of worlds.”
This whole Haibane thing is pretty shit, isn’t it?
Oh wait, yeah, they’re going over that now. Oops.
Wow, Dead Like Me did the exposition so much better than this.
Yeah, that’s creepy.
Van Fanel powers, activate!
She’s bitching, whiny, and irritating. Yup, her Van Fanel powers have activated.
Color is SYMBOLIC too. I wonder what grey means? It couldn’t possibly be about being between two poles!
Okay, that static cling is pretty funny, at least.
No, they’re just drawn on.
Significant detail: Reki didn’t tell what her name refers to.
Oh good, a shitty ED, likely with too-significant lyrics.
Break:
Shit, I watched the first episode at some point, according to MAL. Well, this time I’m bound to it.
Thought: this show is my fucking albatross.
Episode two:
Montages of the characters only work to introduce a show if I care about them [the characters, not the montages] in some way. Though mopeds are always quality.
Rakka looks like a monk. Free association: I bought Anathem recently. It’ll be better than this.
New girl gets the burlap sack, everyone else gets… well… indie-kid-librarian clothes, but still, better than burlap sacks.
I will get so sick of these kids, won’t I?
This is like Confederacy of Dunces, but at least that was funny.
Mm, blind adherance to tradition.
Haven’t you figured this out? Rakka wants whatever the people around her want, because she’s a typical anime protagonist. At some point this may change, but for now, the status quo is hope (despite rumors you might have heard regarding Fan Hyulick).
Now I see where Piro got all the angels and windmills for that side story he did a few years ago. Super.
I think Piro did this better.
The music has been interesting so far, at least (regarding this piece that sounds like harmonica and guitar). It’s nice and rompy.
Do these children grow up, ever? Or are they blights on the land forever and ever?
Are there any roughly-adult males among the Haibane? Or is it a land of females and sexually-immature boy-children?
Of course she’s wearing a sailor uniform, because Japan doesn’t do anything halfway.
Shit, this is a socio-political allegory. Shit. Shit-cakes. Fuck monkeys. I hate allegories. Fucking winged proletariats.
How are wings ever socially bad? Japan, seriously, tell me: why do you keep making them the downtrodden?
You know what would make this show better? mecha-motorcycles.
Yes, birds are creepy. I guess. Also old men.
Hey, fuck you, bitch. Crows are awesome, they clean up after your littering ass, go to hell.
Okay, better idea. To improve this show, apply fire.
Look, I know how setting works, all right. I see what you’re doing here, you’re trying to sell yourself on an intriguing setting and fish-out-of-water characters who work like the viewers to experience a sense of wonder and/or sublimity at the craziness. However, you have to actually interact with the setting, not have coffee and buy clothes in it! Weird religious organizations aren’t exactly new to us, they don’t qualify as strange setting elmements. Where are your fucking nova, Haibane Renmei? I cite Suvin.
Break:
This is going to end me, I know it. My roommates will find me here, hunched over a pot of tea and this orange, weeping like a schoolchild confronted with death.
Episode three:
Could she maybe run into Pyramid Head up here? That would be interesting. That would be, you know, conflict.
Define “real one,” bint.
“It’s really messy” translates to “I painted nude pictures of you last night, but it’s probably a little too creepy for you.”
For someone who’s supposed to be narcoleptic, you’re sure talking a lot.
Rakka.. cover your heart!
Kali maaaa. Kali maaaaaa!
Mm, bakery. I should bake some more bread tomorrow…
Yes! Crush them with your frying pan of power!
Haibane-tachi, free yourselves from the shackles of oppression!
You eat them with your mouth. Jesus, is this difficult? Use your face-hole to consume the fucking vegetables!
Yes, smell the new girl.
Destroy them with your old woman powers. Do it!
NOM NOM NOM!
Oh my god, WHAT IS THIS SHOW ABOUT?? Other than doujinshi material for wing-fetishists…
Stop fucking with the crows, damn it.
Yes, because all Haibane know each other… Oh wait, that’s true.
Donuts. Yes, that’s a fucking revolutionary idea.
They aren’t lessons, they’re lunch. There is a difference. Promise.
I guess they’re more like bagels than donuts.
Session one end:
It’s time to do thesis work. I had to take a long break between two and three to read a short story for class. God, it was so awesome… Actual characters, with motivation, involved in a plot connected to their motivations… Mm, delicious fiction. Right, away to try to replicate those good things in my own fiction.
Pontifus
kaiserpingvin
cuchlann
Shance
TheKittymeister
OGT
/ 6 February 2009Okay, you can stop project now.
Not sure for whose sanity I beseech this of, though.
Cuchlann
/ 6 February 2009Oh no no. It’s on, now. I’ll break this show over my knee. Or really like it. You know, whichever.
[That is, I don't hate it quite as much as I make it sound, but I can't think of much to do except make fun of it. I mock because I love.]
Pontifus
/ 6 February 2009Haha…oh man. This is pretty funny.
While it’s true that Haibane takes its setting from Haruki Murakami almost to the point of ridiculousness, and that it doesn’t seem to have much point until things tie together toward the end, you should give it a chance anyway. I liked it, though my impression was always that it would’ve been better as a novel.
Cuchlann
/ 6 February 2009Well, as I said, I am sticking with it this time until the end, through bloody-mindedness if nothing else. I’m actually assuming it will make sense of everything eventually, but I constitutionally loathe things like that — it’s my problem with some fantasy series, that the first book makes no sense without the others. You have to hook the readers, and that requires something to actually cogitate on, not promises of sense to come.
If I hadn’t made the agreement, if I had just run on this show as it was airing, I would have dropped it after two episodes, that I can nearly guarantee. But we’ll see what happens.
Also, I’m glad someone finds my suffering amusing. :D
Pontifus
/ 6 February 2009I agree 99% of the time, though a few things inspire me to make exceptions. Haibane Renmei was one of them, though I couldn’t tell you why…I’ve been meaning to re-watch it for about a year now, actually, and just haven’t gotten around to it.
Also, I like the very idea of taking advantage of the ability to update a post to do something like this. I always wondered why more blogs didn’t have dynamically-updated posts.
Cuchlann
/ 6 February 2009Probably to assure comments. New posts show up on sites and readers, whereas old, updated posts don’t. I was meaning (for basically the same reason) to do a new post with the next twitter-blog. But I’m up for anything. You think I should add more to this one? I like the idea of everything being on one page once it’s done.
Pontifus
/ 6 February 2009It’s your call. If you pimp the shit out of it, you may be able to get a few people to sit on this post and refresh for a while, and it might be convenient for those people, and for people who want to just check back every once in a while, to not have to jump around. On the other hand, if you do a new post for every few episodes, you will basically have your way with Nano.
TheBigN
/ 6 February 2009Well, the hook for me was Rakka exploring the new world that she’s in. Though that varies from person to person.
ubiquitial
/ 6 February 2009Meh. I always thought of Haibane as near-pointless, but intentionally so.
Perhaps that adds to it’s uniqueness.
TheBigN
/ 6 February 2009The way you approach it by this post, you come at the show as if you’re going to hate it already before you even really started with it (even though you’ve said that you’ll probably come to like it, which I hope), which is an approach I disagree with, to put it mildly. :P
Cuchlann
/ 7 February 2009I haven’t set out to dislike it. Remember, it turned out I saw the first episode a few years ago, and didn’t continue it. And anyway, I make posts like this about shows I definitely like, such as Kannagi. I just don’t see the point of this show yet — I don’t enjoy slice-of-life if it isn’t funny, it’s just not my thing.
TheBigN
/ 7 February 2009That I can understand. :P
Cuchlann
/ 7 February 2009You should check out the newer posts, though, they’re not as angry. :D
Marmoset
/ 7 February 2009It’s hard to describe what initially drew me into this series but it certainly wasn’t the ‘symbolism’ (urgh), the drama in the second half is what really sticks in my mind when I think of Haibane Renmei so it’ll probably pick up for you. I watched it early in my anime viewing life so I think at that point I didn’t consider it a slice of life series (still don’t if I’m honest) and I seem to take a different view on slice of life to you, I find most comedic slice of life shows boring and not very funny (I dropped Kannagi after 2 episodes).
It strikes me that you’re focussing too much on the allegories and such but I guess I’m a Biology undergrad, not an English one.