Last year, in November, I made myself a little list of worthwhile-looking 13-episode series, as a means of systematically catching up to the ones that I hadn’t seen yet at that point. I’ve been gradually working down that list for the past year, as some of you might have already noticed. Some series turned out too bad to continue (Aquarian Age and Gun Frontier, for example, and Kokoro Library was just too boring), but there also were some true gems among these anime. And I’m glad to say that today, I finally managed to finish the list! There’s a reason why I chose Haibane Renmei to go last, as I’ve heard nothing but positive reviews and raves from it.

And boy, does it deliver! Haibane Renmei truly is one of the best slice-of-life series I have ever seen! It first takes four episodes of building up, introducing its unique setting and its characters, and then it waltzes the viewer down with one of the most amazing storylines, perfectly fitted for 13 episodes.

The thing is, that I’m having a lot of trouble finding anything bad to say about this series. Most series have obvious flaws, like dragging on too much, spending little time on their settings, making no sense, but Haibane seems to have done everything right. The only thing you should note is that you need to get through the first four episodes, which are nice to watch, but nowhere near as emotional as the rest of the series.

The character-designs look realistic and down-to-earth, just like the rest of the series. You won’t see any blue-haired moe-bait Konatas here. One of the biggest things to note, though, is that the soundtrack is a masterpiece. It comes from Kou Outani, the same guy who did soundtracks for among others Ayakashi Ayashi, Popolocrois Monogatari 1998 and Deltora Quest, and this may be one of his best works yet.

I see no reason why not to recommend Haibane Renmei. Not only does it keep delivering after it gets really started, I also didn’t cry as much at a final episode apart from Noein. This definitely is a memorable series, and it couldn’t have been a better way to close off my attempt to catch up with the 13-episode series.

Interestingly enough, Aiko only gets one episode for herself, compared to the four episodes that were between Kirie’s selection and death. What’s more, it seems that her role was more to build up for Kanji’s case. Now that Takami has been selected as the next pilot, t becomes clear that Kanji and Jun will be the special pilots, and they’ll probably be the ones who get some extra attention.

In fact, Aiko could have been the one along with Takashi who got the least amount of development for her case. While the people in the middle got an entire episode for themselves, this episode is not only about Aiko. Kanji, Jun and even Koemushi get developed. Tanaka and Jun finally have a talk between the two of them. I couldn’t pick up whether Jun already knew that Tanaka was his mother, but Tanaka was definitely trying to help him without trying to sound too suspicious (and failing horribly, of course. ^^;).

Kanji, meanwhile, gets into an interesting love-relationship with Aiko, right before she dies. She’s indeed really been stressed out, but it’s not only because f the fact that she’s a pilot. Her father has also been cheating on her mother, her mother kept drinking after she found out, and now that the situation of Zearth has become public, she keeps getting bothered by reporters, looking for a scoop. For her, Kanji looked like a huge beacon in the night, and something tells me she fancied him already.

We also learn something interesting about Koemushi: the one he’s been talking to is Yoko, and not his assigner like I originally thought. He’s also already decided the order of the pilots: Yoshikawa - Takami - Jun - Tanaka. Of course, this doesn’t turn out to be true when Kanji provokes him, and he lets the guy live for even longer by selecting Takami. I think that the rest of the order will match up pretty well, though. Something tells me that Koemushi has been planning to let Ushiro go last of the children, for some reason. It’s also interesting that Tanaka will indeed be piloting, if everything goes to Koemushi’s plan, at least. I really wonder how the director is planning to end this one, and save the children without the use of magic.

Another thing that makes me wonder: why were there only four lights burning on Zearth when Aiko was still alive, when there were supposed to be five more pilots?