WARNING: THIS INTERPRETATION RELIES ON INFORMATION GATHERED FROM ALL 13 EPISODES OF THE SERIES. THEREFORE, THIS ESSAY CONTAINS SPOILERS. IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT YOU WATCH THE SERIES FIRST BEFORE READING THIS INTERPRETATION!
"What is Haibane?"
Let us first set the scene. Somewhere there exists a city called Guri, inhabited by humans and Haibane (hai-bahn-eh). The city itself is surrounded by high, ancient magical stone walls, ominous and imposing yet also safe and comforting.
Physically, a Haibane is almost indistinguishable from a human except for two key differences: a pair of charcoal-gray wings, and a halo. (In an interview, series creator Yoshitoshi Abe said that he needed a way to make the Haibane look different from the humans in Guri. He says he chose the wings and halo only because they looked "kawaii [cute]." They look like angels only because of the "kawaii factor", nothing more). Instead of being born, a Haibane hatches from a cocoon fully-grown (or nearly-full-grown, in which case they are called "Young Feathers" and are treated as children).
Initially, he or she has no memories save a dream from inside the cocoon. Due to this amnesia, a Haibane is named according to their dream; for example, a Haibane who dreamed of a bright shimmering light was named Hikari, meaning "light". On rare occasion, a Haibane is born who does not remember his or her cocoon dream in its entirety; such a Haibane develops black wings and is labeled "sinbound".
The Haibane live by a very simple set of laws, established generations before the action of the Anime. In return for their lodging and utilities, they are required to find work in Guri at a job that benefits the community. They cannot handle money; their transactions are recorded in a notebook, and their purchases are later paid for by others on their behalf. A Haibane is prohibited from buying anything that is new, save food and medicine; all clothing, accessories, and other items are second-hand. Lastly, like the humans in Guri, a Haibane is prohibited from touching the walls; leaving Guri is not an option.
The Haibane Renmei (Charcoal Feather Federation), an organization of monks who are sworn to secrecy and silence, serve as guarantors for the Haibane's expenses. Every time a Haibane gives a page of his/her notebook to a merchant, that merchant brings the page to the Renmei and is reimbursed with cash. The Renmei also underwrite the Haibane's living expenses and utilities at the two "Haibane nests" in Old Home and Abandoned Factory, provide the town with a police force, and serve as mediators for trade.
There comes a time in every Haibane's life for him or her to leave the nest, never to return. A Haibane who is ready to receive the walls' blessing (or permission to move beyond) takes the Day of Raising (or, in the English dub, Day of Flight. We shall use the latter term). If one were to look to the western woods in Guri at the exact moment a Haibane takes the Day of Flight, one would notice a stream of white light coming from the ground and heading to the sky. For those Haibane whom the walls deem unworthy, a life of servitude and silence awaits; their wings fall off, their halos crumble to dust, and they are forced to join the ranks of the Haibane Renmei as silent monks until they die. Either way, blessed or otherwise, a Haibane approaching this day of departure never speaks of it to the other Haibane, and he or she always departs when others are not watching.
It is now time to meet the players, all Haibane from the Old Home nest. We learn of Guri, its inhabitants, and the Haibane through a "newborn," the wistful yet optimistic Rakka (supposedly, "to fall"), whose name comes from her dream of falling from someplace very high. With her in the "nest" of Old Home, an abandoned dormitory, are five other Haibane: the traditional, depressed, sinbound Reki ("small stone"), who plays the role of Rakka's adoptive older sister; Kuu ("air"), a short Haibane the humans believe is actually male; the oft-napping Nemu ("sleep"), so named because she supposedly dreamed she was asleep; fiery Kana ("river fish"), an enthusiastic budding engineer; and the overly-optimistic Hikari ("light").
"Some there are who have departed this life, not so bad as to
be deemed unworthy of mercy, nor so good as to be entitled to immediate
happiness..." - St. Augustine
We now come to the interpretation so many hold regarding this Anime, namely that Guri represents purgatory and that the Haibane are either the souls of suicides or the souls with very little time before being lifted up to heaven. Occasionally, this interpretation is interlaced with the notion that the Haibane of Old Home represent the seven deadly sins. This assumption omits the Shinto, Mahayana-Buddhist, and Pagan undertones that are obvious, even telegraphed, in this Anime; it would seem that those who believe in the purgatory interpretation do so while excluding Eastern and Pagan ideas, the former being dangerous when analyzing Anime and the latter close-minded. We shall deal with the seven deadly sins subpart first as it warrants immediate dismissal.
Aside from the plain observation that there are but six protagonists and seven deadly sins, the interpretation also fails in that the "sinful" nature of the protagonists exists without actual malice. Nemu's sloth, for example, does not stem from a hatred of working or a love of sleep; to the contrary, Nemu, as we learn midway through the series, works overtime to compensate for her naps. Kana's pride in her work is not excessive: she knows that she will never fix the clocktower in Old Home back to its old, pendulum-driven mode of operating since her skill level is not up to such a daunting task. Example after example can be given to show that while the characters do have flaws, they do not stem from malice nor from an intent to sin; they are simply human characteristics. They may seem to be blown out of proportion but this is only because they are the characteristics of the protagonists; they seem greater than they are because we do not see the flaws in other characters as often as those found in the Old Home Haibane. In short, the "sinful" characteristics seem greater than they are due to greater screen time.
Purgatory, a middle state for the departed who are too good for hell but not yet pure enough for heaven, is a concept foreign to a Japanese audience. The concept of purgatory is only present in the Catholic view of Christianity. According to the CIA World Fact Book, Japan is 84% Shinto/Mahayan-Buddhist, 15% "other", and only 1% Christian. Of that 1%, only 0.35% is Catholic. Ergo, the Catholic sense of purgatory would be a foreign concept to 99.65% of the Japanese population. So it is safe to assume that the purgatory interpretation is strictly a western one.
The idea that Guri might represent purgatory most probably stems from the Day of Flight's skyward light and the mention of sin and sinbound Haibane. Rakka grows depressed when Kuu receives the Day of Flight and her wings begin to grow black. Thinking that she heard Kuu's voice calling her to the western woods, where the walls' power is greatest, she goes deep into the woods and encounters a well surrounded by several crows. Remembering something about a crow in her dream, she climbs into the well, falls to the bottom, and finds the skeletal remains of a dead crow. Suddenly, she remembers that when she was falling in her dream, a crow tried to prevent her fall but she released the bird from its impossible attempt at assistance. Giving the skeleton a proper burial cures her of her sinbound nature.
Reki, on the other hand, was born sinbound. All that she can remember about her dream was that she was walking down a stone-laden path at night and that she saw a light moving towards her. Being an artist, she unsuccessfully attempts to relive her dream through her paintings. Rakka, having been told by the Renmei that Reki will soon be judged by the walls, takes it upon herself to make Reki worthy of the Day of Flight. She enters Reki's dream and realizes that the stone-laden path is actually a railroad track. At the last moment, Reki calls to Rakka to save her, and Rakka pushes Reki out of the train's path just in the nick of time. As the bird saved Rakka from being sinbound by completing Rakka's recollection of her dream, Rakka's action cures Reki of Reki's own sinbound status.
The two have both been given the same riddle by the Haibane Renmei Communicator, an emissary for the Renmei (i.e. the only member of the Renmei who is allowed to speak), namely "To recognize one's own sin is to have no sin." Rakka realizes that her sin was failing to thank the bird for trying to save her. By recognizing this sin, she could not help but correct it. Reki realizes, through Rakka's aid, that her own sin was being afraid to ask for help lest it never come. When she does ask, when she recognizes her sinful fear, she realizes that her fear is groundless as Rakka comes to save her and her sin is likewise erased.
This is all well and good but for one thing: according to Catholicism, in purgatory, as on earth, only God can forgive the sins of another. The problem here lies in the fact that the Japanese counterpart for the English word "sin" does not carry the religious overtones that sin does. The Japanese counterpart conveys misdeed, incorrect action, or mistake. A more literal translation would be, "To recognize one's mistake is to have made no mistake." The solution to this riddle is obvious: by recognizing what one has done wrong, one can make steps to set things right. This is not the case with sin - undoing a sinful deed does not erase the fact that one has sinned. One last note: a soul in purgatory cannot sin so, if Guri is purgatory, then there can be no new sins committed.
Let us move past the "cycle of sin" riddle and examine the purgatory interpretation from the vantage point of a soul in purgatory. All texts on the subject are in agreement: a soul in purgatory would be fully cognizant of the fact that they are indeed in purgatory. Haibane, on the other hand, are born completely ignorant of their world and have to piece it together bit by precious bit, much like a newborn human child.
According to Catholic doctrines, a soul in purgatory would not only hear the prayers of the living directed at him or her, he or she would also take solace in them. Purgatory is described quite literally as a purging or cleansing fire, more painful than anything on earth, used to burn away venial sins. A soul in purgatory would be constantly exposed to such purifying flames and would be granted no reprieve save when that soul is admitted into heaven.
Throughout the series, the Old Home Haibane hear no prayers directed at them and have no external source of solace or comfort save the company of other Haibane and the friendly, relaxing atmosphere of Old Home. Proponents of the purgatory interpretation argue that the Haibane's jobs are the purifying flames of purgatory. This fails quite miserably since the Haibane clearly enjoy their jobs. As for the constant exposure to the purification process, Haibane work regular hours and have Sundays off.
Obviously, a soul in purgatory is that of an already dead person. Being dead, the soul knows no fear and purgatory becomes a painful place but the soul remains optimistic due to the knowledge that, one day, the soul will leave purgatory and ascend to heaven and that prayers offered will make purgatory less painful. A Haibane, on the other hand, knows fear. Rakka, for example, is afraid, terrified even, of heights. Haibane can get sick (as Rakka does twice and Nemu does once), and they can even die. Souls in purgatory are the souls of those already dead and therefore those souls cannot die.
To carry this further, it is a tenet of virtually all religions that the soul is immortal. Since Haibane can die and souls cannot, a Haibane, logically, cannot *be* a soul. Since a Haibane cannot be a soul, a Haibane cannot be in purgatory. Lastly, since Haibane are only found in Guri, Guri cannot be purgatory. QED.
"Pretty wings. Not white, not black, but beautiful charcoal
gray feathers."
At last, with the purgatory interpretation dead and buried (pardon the pun), we can discuss my own interpretation of the series. Rather than relying on strictly Western concepts such as deadly sins and purgatory, my interpretation is derived from a mix of existential philosophy, Shinto/Mahayana-Buddhist beliefs, and Paganism.
The Old Home Haibane are modeled after the central ideals of Mahayana Buddhism. They achieve enlightenment (the Day of Flight) through a normal life with (in Kuu and Rakka's case) or without (in Kana, Nemu, Hikari, and Reki's case) spirituality. Rakka is concerned about making sure Reki receives the blessing of the Day of Flight and Nemu wishes to see Reki receive that blessing before she does, an example of the ideal of helping others reach Nirvana before trying to obtain it for oneself. They all prize compassion above all other virtues; Reki is always acting as the benevolent older sister to all the other Haibane of Old Home, even working as a teacher for the Young Feathers. It goes without saying that they all work in the real world to benefit the community, a central Mahayana value. Lastly, the early texts of Guri are written in an obscure language almost no one can understand (much like the early texts of Buddhism are written in Sanskrit, a language very few truly understand in our own world).
There is also very Buddhist undertones to the rules of the Haibane regarding material goods. They are not allowed to buy new items or clothing so that they do not become obsessed with material possessions. They are not allowed to handle money so that they do not have an impetus to steal, gamble, cheat, swindle, horde or become overly concerned with the amassing of wealth. They buy only what they need where food is concerned lest they become gluttonous. And there is the sense that the Haibane have had past lives, supported by the notion that Rakka and Reki are reincarnated suicides (Reki's dream of throwing herself in front of a train and Rakka's dream of falling off a very high cliff or building are both, in my opinion, artifacts of how their past respective lives ended). This Buddhist outlook upon material matters also explains why Reki must quit smoking as the first step toward the Day of Flight: it is a base, un-Buddhist pleasure.
In addition to the Buddhist angle, several Shinto philosophical elements are present. Reki is a strict traditionalist, knowing and pointing out every rite the Haibane have. All the Old Home Haibane act as an adoptive family and are very protective of each other, loving to the point that they are reminiscent of six sisters sharing a house together. The series itself is full of breathtaking landscapes that show that all the residents of Guri have a deep and personal respect for nature. Physical cleanliness is highly important to the Haibane; Reki many times advises Rakka to "keep your wings clean," Rakka is born into a room that the other five Haibane cleaned for her arrival, and half of an entire episode is devoted to taking out the trash. Strong emphasis is placed on honoring the departed when Rakka mourns Kuu's departure during the middle part of the series. And, lastly, the morality of the Old Home Haibane is based upon that which is beneficial to the group. All of these are examples of Shinto philosophy at work.
But there are also Pagan elements at work, making this a universal, rather than a strictly-Eastern, system. The walls choose which Haibane to accept as ready for judgment for the Day of Flight. This judgment seems to stem from whether a Haibane has learned his or her life lesson or whether a Haibane has accomplished his or her life task. For Kuu, it was to learn to be herself, to accept that she will never be taller than she is, and to stop trying to emulate the other Old Home Haibane. For Reki, it was to learn that it is okay to ask for help, that even if no one answers, it is better to ask than to be torn asunder by life's trials. Kana, it seems, must convert the Old Home clocktower to run on electricity before she will take the Day of Flight. This is in keeping with the very Pagan notion that we are informed of which lessons we need to learn and that we are reincarnated so as to learn those lessons.
The reverence of nature is not just a Shinto belief; it is also, for Rakka, a religious system. She is, by far, the most spiritual of them all and it seems that she is very Pagan. She observes the seasons as if they were religious occasions. She attempts to commune with the animals (in this case, the crows). And she is fascinated by the magic of the walls, as we learn from her job, cleaning the inside of the walls where the walls magically absorb the dreams of the humans and Haibane of Guri. Her quest for knowledge, her love of nature and the seasons, her desire to commune with the animals, and her fascination with the magic of Guri all combine to make her a very Pagan character.
Lest I be thought a fluffy-bunny, the role of death and life is central to Haibane Renmei. The Haibane themselves are mortal. Those the walls deem unworthy loose their wings and join the unspeaking Renmei. For all intents and purposes, they become dead to the outside world as their faces are hidden behind masks; no one will ever see their faces or hear their voices again. The Toga, merchants from outside Guri who are the only "people" allowed to enter and leave Guri, wear masks similar to the Renmei and communicate silently through the Renmei Communicator. They bring items and books from the beyond, representing inspiration from the collective unconscious (both from the present collective unconscious and from "genetic memory").
The walls separate Guri, the land of the living, from that which is outside, that which is beyond. Early in the series, Kana explains that if one were to leave Guri and return, "no one would recognize you." To move beyond the walls is to die; to come from beyond the walls alive, either as a Haibane in a cocoon or to be born to a human mother, is to be reincarnated as a different living being, one that cannot be recognized as the former living self. The Toga and the Renmei cannot speak because they are both metaphors - they cannot speak because the dead cannot speak; you would not be allowed to speak to them because they would not hear you. The Day of Flight, therefore, is a death with one's life lesson learned or one's life task accomplished.
The crows (the only birds we see) are popular symbols of death in Eastern and Western film and literature; birds are the only creatures (aside from the Toga) allowed to leave Guri and are said to carry "our lost items" ("things we forgot when we entered the cocoon"). So Rakka's ability to learn from the crows may well be her ability to hear the dead speaking to her; this is especially so in the well when she has a one-way-audible conversation with the dead crow.
But just as death plays a central role in Haibane Renmei, life also has an equal share of importance. Haibane are born at approximately the same rate as others take the Day of Flight (which, in my opinion, represents a death with the life lesson learned or the life task completed). A newborn Haibane is born with a blank slate memory (save the cocoon dream), just like a human infant. That a newborn Haibane is born fully grown (or near it) with memory of how to ride a bike, talk, cook, etc. just serves to advance the story faster. It is a convenient way of making a newborn a contributing character instantly, that's all. There also seems to be an almost magical balancing number of adult Haibane a nest can support: the series begins with 6 Haibane in Old Home but Kuu and Reki take the Day of Flight. In the epilogue, Rakka observes not one, but two cocoons forming, meaning that very soon, Old Home will have 6 total adult Haibane again. This is in keeping with the idea that nature finds a way to balance things out in the long run.
"We're all asking why."
So what does it all mean?
There are three groups of characters in this series: the Haibane of Old Home, the humans, and the Haibane of Abandoned Factory. They represent, respectively, Us as We Should Be, Us as We Are, and Us as We Should Not Be.
The Old Home Haibane possess all of the qualities, on an implicit and explicit level, that we should strive to make our own. They live to be helpful, they are compassionate, they are hard workers, they are spiritual, they are mutually supportive, they are realistic yet hopeful. But in addition to this, they are also forgiving. And they form a caring, loving, nurturing family for mutual benefit and happiness.
The humans represent Us as We Are. The clockmaker, for example, is a workaholic who pushes his employees to the edge. The bakers in Guri's bakery are kind, gentle people who work their fingers to the bone for their pay. The house mother at Old Home, a human who teaches the Young Feathers, is reminiscent of the taskmaster, the strict schoolteacher. And the man at the thrift shop, who is kind to the Haibane but always limits them to one piece of clothing each, represents a stingy merchant since the Haibane do not provide immediate profit; their notebook pages require extra effort to be turned into money and he, on some level, resents them for the additional work their rules create. They are all shown as people who have melded with their jobs in such a way that it is impossible to see where the job stops and the human beings begin.
The Abandoned Factory Haibane exemplify Us as We Should Not Be on many levels. Hyouko, a male Haibane who once, with Reki's help, tried to drive a wedge into the wall (and almost died as a result), hides his halo beneath a baseball cap and hides his wings inside a backpack. He is clearly an example of people who hide behind masks because they are ashamed of what they really are. Midori, Hyouko's love, is petty, mean (especially towards Rakka and Reki), jealous of Reki's past relationship with Hyouko, and spiteful. If Hyouko represents internal negative characteristics, Midori is an example of external, interpersonal negative traits.
The purpose of being a Haibane is the same as that of being a human being. Just as we are all upon this earth to accomplish certain tasks or to learn certain lessons, so too is this the case for the Haibane. When this lesson is about to be learned, or this task is about to be completed, the walls begin to judge a Haibane for worthiness for the Day of Flight; completing the task or learning the lesson in the time the walls allow (they seem to be very fair in allotting this time) equals taking the Day of Flight (dying as a successful Haibane), while failure means a slow, living-dead state and eventual death due to bodily decay.
But the meaning of being a Haibane is existential, and so is the answer. Rakka learns this lesson slowly, as it is a hard one to accomplish. Her purpose is simple. But her raison d'etre, like all Haibane, is to create her own meaning of life. In short, being a Haibane is having an opportunity to use life's gifts to solve the complex problem a Haibane is born to solve. Along the way, a Haibane must find his or her own meaning to help with this sometimes daunting task. Those that complete their lives' mission go to their deaths happy that they have done all that they were born to do; those that fail live on in a quiet, lonely un-life.
In short, a Haibane is like any one of us, set upon an enclosed world (Earth or Guri are interchangeable - both are separated from the beyond by the walls of death) to accomplish certain tasks or to learn certain lessons. We are both born with a blank slate. In other words, we are identical. Except, of course, for the pretty wings - not white, not black, but beautiful charcoal gray feathers - and the halo.
Andrew Pernick
December 29, 2004