r/haibanerenmei

I was speaking to a friend of mine before my second watch of the show and she was saying that Haibane Renmei in some way is about trans femcels. I called her a bullshitter and dumb (it had been years since the first watch and in that time, a lot has changed) but after re-watch, what she said resonated more.
I don't think that the Haibane are trancels necessarily (with the exception of Reki >:0) but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense that they're in some way meant to be queercoded. I've heard a lot of theories on this and was curios to hear what you all have to say.
Oh the fanbase being 90% transsexual women also helps with this interpretation ig >~>

i wanted to share my immediate thoughts after watching for the first time without reading other peoples opinions

i think it’s implied that Reki had no one to share her sorrow with in her previous life, so she ended her life. this is why she was born immediately as a “sin bound”, as suicide can be viewed as a sin. or, maybe her biggest sin was never reaching out for help.

Reki continued to push everyone away while also claiming that everyone leaves her. She wants to be close to those around her, but fears closeness due to the vulnerability. To her almost last moments, she pushed Rakka away with harsh words.

Reki sees herself as a young child, and I saw this as her inner child before her thoughts and experiences over time became twisted and distorted with shame and guilt. In her purest form, Young Reki represented the smallest part of her that had Hope. She knew Rakka wanted to help her, but she was scared. She knew she could ask for help, but “What if I ask for help from the bottom of my heart and nobody answers?” The pain of hurt, betrayal, and rejection of her soul and being scared her the point of no return.

As Reki rejected her every word, she crumbled apart. She even tried to hug herself, but without accepting help, there was nothing there. Reki fell into her fears.

I felt confused with Rakka trying to understand Rekis true intentions. But I think that, through her art and diary, Rekis words were a lie, another way to reject her hopeful feelings that existed that she hid from the world to protect herself. And I think through her diary, her happiness of Rakkas cocoon was a way of Reki “asking Rakka for help.”

I don’t know how Reki came to her senses tbh. But I think once her moment of vanishing was so near, her desperation was so strong and she finally asked for help.

I think that when Reki was cured, she forgave herself. Or, finally someone (Rakka) believed Reki shouldn’t vanish.

For Rakka, it seems she started pure and then developed her “sin-bound”, until she was able to witness ‘forgiveness’. But also, since she couldn’t remember part of her dream, I think she may have been sin bound from the start. Kuus “flight” seemed to have triggered her horrible feelings of wanting to disappear and maybe started the darkening of her wings. With her dream, there was a bird who was trying to save her or stop her from falling. I think that in her past life, she must’ve been drowning. Someone must’ve tried to save her, and drowned with her. Or, she fell and someone tried to catch her and fell with her. This can be seen as easier to forgive, since it could have been an accident. However, once, she told the bird, “you can’t stop me”, so I think its Rakka may have also had suicidal intentions since her dream was “falling.” In that case, the person who was hurt by her actions forgives her for them. Why? I’m not sure.

She needed to remember her dream which was the person who wanted to protect her, which she remembered through following the birds to the well. She remembers the crow who tries to save her. She says thank you, but you can’t. And she falls into the well. She says “it used to be underwater here for a long time.” I think that person one the only Rakka had in her past life, and they forgive her for her sin. It mustve been the lone crow in her dream who tried to stop her from falling.

It’s also how when Rakka is crying and wants to disappear, and says she should be erased, she hears the crow. A reminder that there was once someone, if even one person, who believed she shouldn’t be erased.

It looks like the “want to vanish” is the theme of sin-bound characters.”

There is so much more to unpack about religious and existential themes. I also loved how Kuu taking flight was her way of becoming a “role model”. The way they disappear without telling anyone also reminds me of how when cats are ill, they like to hide and aren’t vocal about it.

I was also thinking that the Renmei mask guy was sin bound but then he would’ve disappeared… How he knows so much idk.

https://preview.redd.it/qc8el9a3341h1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=b5fd5c9f7376feeb532c27e5305424f8222f3014

10/10