Visions: Haibane Renmai

Haibane Renmai, 灰羽連盟 (Ash Feather Council; Charcoal Feather Federation). A close friend I've told about Featherwing Love said it reminded him of this old anime, three days ago. Yoshitoshi ABe (安倍 吉俊 ; ABe, 安倍 is the surname) made as a self-published manga in late 2001, which wasn't finished because it was picked up as an anime and broadcast in late 2002.


I have a character (the name is too tentative to blog), who watches it in Featherwing Love II, the sequel I'm already scripting for...it means so much to him that I actually called my local HMV store to buy it.


First a few details I had worked out about this character before I had even heard of Haibane Renmai:


His family is massacred when he is a baby; he is spared. Few details are available about how or why this happened. His family was part of the Featherwing Brotherhood; who was forced to hide to prevent the compromise of the featherwing secrets. He was adopted by two loving human parents, who had no idea that he was a featherwing. As part of the original Featherwing Love story, it becomes apparent to the Brotherhood that "featherwing love" can occur separate from the featherwings themselves. They speculate that a featherwing child might fledge if he were raised by featherwing love, but not featherwing parents.


When the character fledges, his parents deny it; tell him to put his wings away forever, but it eats at him inside. He's not really human. He doesn't know anything about how his wings work, and he, nor his parents know of the existence of the Featherwing Brotherhood. In his ignorance, he does something horrible which brings him into contact with the Brotherhood; it was extremely difficult to write, it may be one of the hardest things to draw. The Brotherhood actually arrests him for FWL II's initial incident. The following scene from Haibane Renmai, roughly the middle of the first episode, is something which he watched before the incident until he memorized it. After the incident, it means something completely different to him, and he collapses in front of his television. I don't know why the story wants me to blog it today.


First, some differences between Haibane (灰羽) and Featherwing (羽音) creatures...well lots of differences really, they have almost nothing in common:


Overview of Haibane: Haibane is spelt ashes-feather. Their wings are grey (with some exceptions). They inhabit the city of Glie (グリ) a fictional city in a totally fictional world. The vast majority of the inhabitants of the city are human, and the Haibane are poorly understood, for the most part confined to a small community called Old Home (オールドホーム). Nobody, not even the humans, are allowed to leave the city, only the Tooga (トーガ pronounced with a long-o) can enter and leave freely, and they briefly visit to trade items. Only the highest council members are allowed to talk to them; these nomads never show their faces within Glie's walls. The Haibane are not allowed to use real money, but instead spend the pages from their timecard books directly. They are only allowed to own second-hand clothing and equipment, never anything new. Their wings, while real, having flesh, bone, and nerve, are not functional; Haibane can't fly, nor can they furl, or put their wings away, like Featherwings can. They wear halos, forged from a special material, which magically hover over their heads. They're reason for existing appears to be to cleanse their souls and achieve a Day of Flight (巣立ちの日, literally "Day of leaving nest")


Overview of Featherwing: Almost the diametric opposite of a Haibane. Featherwings have large, powerful wings which they can use to fly. They draw their power from the love the Featherwing has for others, and even more so, the love that others bestow upon the Featherwing. They can furl their wings, that is, make them disappear. They live secretly among humans in a realistic world, and very much unlike the Haibane, tend to be on the leading edge of technology. Unlike the simple existence of the Haibane, a Featherwing has a great deal of responsibility to come with the power of the wings. They do not have halos, although in one scene in the original FWL, snow falls atop the invisible down of one of the characters, apparently suspended above her hair, like a halo.


Rakka (落下; falling): "Uh, well, where am I ... and what's a 'Haibane'?"


Reki (礫; pebble) flaps her wings to show Rakka that they are real


Rakka: "Are those real?"


Reki: "Yours are going to grow soon, too. ... Feeling any discomfort in your back?"


Rakka: "A bit ... I thought it was from sleeping funny."


Reki: "Let me see it."

Reki opens Rakkas gown to find two huge raised contusions on her shoulder blades: "I'll go get some ice."


Rakka: "Huh?"


Reki: "Stay right there. I just need to get ready for it."


While Reki gathers the ice, Rakka rapidly develops a fever. When she returns, she says,


Reki: "I'm sorry, your wings are growing much faster than I expected. I wanted to explain things before the fever broke out, but there wasn't any time. Does it hurt?"


Rakka: "Not really, it feels like pulling; like a bad cramp."


Reki: "It'll sting when the wingtips break the skin, and then you'll run a high fever, but it should be gone by tomorrow."


Rakka: "A mirror?"


Reki: "Bad idea. It's worse if you can see it."

Rakka: "I see. ... Are we not human?"

Reki: "Nobody knows what we are."

A sad score by 大谷幸 (Koo Ootani; long 'o' sounds; his surname is first in the Japanese spelling) begins at this point. We see Glie from the outside, the wall has a considerable breach in the northeast sector. The city is powered by rusty wind turbines. Night falls.

Reki: "We need a name, so we call ourselves Haibane."

Rakka whines, "I want to go home."

Reki: "Haibane are not allowed outside this town. Besides, even if your family exists in this world, they wouldn't recognize you if they saw you now."

Rakka: "Why not?"

Reki: "Just like you can't remember where you come from, this world does not remember you. That's just the way it is."

Rakka (in pain): "Why me? I'm sure I was nothing special, just a normal girl."

Reki: "I wonder too. Nobody remembers why."

Rakka wings go into spasm under the skin, and start to break through. Rakka bleeds as Reki panics, "It's starting!" She runs into the kitchen and pulls the first aid kit from on top of the pantry, wiping out in the process. She retrieves the gauze and wraps her own thumb as she rushes back to Rakka's room.

Rakka: "It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!"

Reki: "Bite on this! Save your tongue" Rakka chomps on Reki's wrapped thumb.

A spurt of blood hits Reki in the eye, and she falls over. The wings deploy from Rakka's back in a bloody mess. Rakka screams, then loses consciousness.

Rakka awakes to find Reki cleaning her wings, it is morning. She complains, "My limbs are cold and heavy. Everytime my wings twitch, pain shoots through my shoulders and sides. I feel my wings becoming part of my body. I'm afraid my body is being transformed into something else. Sweat stings my eyes...I can't see."

Reki continues to wash her wings, Rakka asks, "Reki, are you there?"

Reki utters a soft confirmation.

Rakka asks, "What are you doing?"

Reki: "Cleaning your wings?"

Rakka: "A long time?"

Reki: "It takes time. They get stained unless you get them completely free of blood and grease."

Rakka, concerned about the thumb she clamped down on during the deployment, "How's your hand?"

Reki, bruised, confirms happily, "Oh, this? Nothing. Worry about yourself for now."

Rakka: "My head is hot."

Reki: "You'll feel better by tomorrow. Like magic, you'll feel fine." Rakka sighs as Reki describes, "Such pretty wings. Neither white, nor black, beautiful ash grey."

While my main character watches this scene, Kisure, a character appearing early in the original Featherwing Love (I have a drawing of him on Flickr), uses this scene to explain the consequences of FWL II's initial incident. I'd post those words here if it wasn't a dead giveaway.