Suffering Isn't Purpose

Painful and useless wings within a walled city; is the unfairness of life something we must come to terms with for salvation?

Haibane Renmei, an anime from the same character designer as Serial Experiments Lain (Yoshitoshi Abe), tells a much different story than the latter. In a walled city called Glie, the Haibane, angel like creatures, are born from cocoons into a world of limitation, where they must never leave and survive on what the humans discard. In this unfair situation, stressed by their painful and pointless wings, they can easily find suffering, as both Reki and Rakka, the main characters, do. Reki spends her days taking care of everyone else, mainly Rakka, because she believes she is meant to be alone (due to being sin bound), and makes this tragedy her purpose in life, hoping that by suffering in loneliness of others, she’ll achieve salvation. However, Reki’s mindset only worsens her suffering where it must not be, and so she never finds the satisfaction which leads to salvation, while also hurting others from doing so much. Rakka, becoming sin bound like her mentor, falls into a similar cycle of self hate, eventually being saved by analyzing “the circle of sin,” the paradox of a good person being unable to see themself as good. Through togetherness and understanding, she’s able to help reach a state of salvation once more, escaping from her sin. While Haibane Renmei may be a somewhat forgotten and odd anime about angels, this video essay will dive into its core themes, profiling and discussing its main characters to explain what can be learned from both.

A video essay explaining and analyzing the themes of the Haibane Renmei anime, like its “circle of sin.”

0:00 Part 1
38:58 Part 2

A video essay explaining and analyzing the themes of the Haibane Renmei anime, like its “circle of sin.”

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