This post is probably gonna be wordier+more disjointed than it needs to be but fUck editing it down.
I started re-watching Haibane Renmei w/ my mum the other day. I think she's enjoying it bc she asked me if I wanted to keep watching w/ her earlier (it's usually the other way around). If ppl can give me reccs for other stuff to watch with my mum that'd be nice—she likes Spirited Away, AnoHana and ERASED, and she watched all of Lain with me too (although idt she really knew what to think of it). She generally likes character drama and crime drama, but she isn't big on action stuff or mafia or lawyer stories, so steer clear of those.
Back on topic though, watching it back is reminding me just how motionless this show is at times. It's very clear that they were cutting a lot of corners on visual flare in favour of something more ideas centric, which I guess isn't all that surprising considering it's Yoshitoshi ABe+probably made on a pretty low budget, being a doujinshi adaptation and all. The backgrounds are gorgeous, albeit very muted—quintessentially ABe. I especially liked the artwork when the camera panned up to the face of the clock when Rakka and Kana were on the town clock's balcony in episode four—it was worn out and faded, but not to the point of being ugly or dysfunctonal. It wouldn't surprise me if this artwork was inspired by some of the photographs he takes when cycling around town late at night/early in the morning.
Considering this is one of his earlier works, it's interesting to see what he has carried forward from Lain in the character designs—his interpretation of hair's physics seems to be gelled in place, for instance. The main focus in character designs is much more oriented towards their main items of clothing than it is towards haristyle, facial design or additional clothing items, and it works thematically—haibane can only use things which have been discarded by humans, which in turn provides a convenient excuse for drawing attention to clothing choice as a means of character writing. Each character seems to have picked out something which matches their role and personality, with Reki's denim jacket and sukeban skirt probably being the most blatant example.
ABe has this spectacular ability to bring out the overall meaning in his artwork even when it isn't very technically strong or impressive, and I'm really interested to maybe try reading some of his doujinshi as well as looking at other anime he's worked on (NeiA 7 or Texhnolyze is probably next, and apparently he did the illustrations for the Welcome to the NHK novel too). There's apparently a lot of setting detail which didn't make it into the anime in his original Haibane Renmei doujinshi+the screenplay notes, so if I'm able to find a way of reading those it'd be pretty interesting.
Anyway, that's enough of my bullshit for one post. I might make a more overarching post about the show when I finish my rewatch, but for now that's all I have to say. Oh, and I guess listening to Blue Flow makes me want to revisit Scrapped Princess and Humanity Has Declined sometime, bc I love Masumi Itou's voice and music.
