Welcome to Backlog Season!
Haibane Renmei 1
This is a strange show. I can't really pin down my feelings on it yet.
I like the first half of the episode a lot. There are some nice montages of the town, and I like how it dives into the hatching without really slowing down to introduce anything. Combined with the first scene, it left me with a lot of questions about the world while quickly making the basic conceit clear.
I was rather impressed with the speed at which it dove from placid introductory meeting to grotesque body horror, and then back. The scene where she sprouts her wings is really intense. It's one of the few points in the episode with music (there's a lot of total silence in this episode, which I'm not very used to nowadays), and the 'camera' feels like it's almost constantly in motion, which fit with Rekka's anxiety.
The episode is mostly very peaceful, but that sequence establishes that everything isn't lollipops and rainbows. Rekka's being transformed into something unknown, and losing her identity in the exchange. It's rough, and while her negative feelings will probably pass, they leave an impression on the viewer. I'm curious how much emphasis they'll put on the mystery behind the Haibane and the town they live in going forward.
The premise also reminds me of The End of the World in Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World (yet again!), but it's hard to tell at this point if that's just coincidence or not. I suspect a meaningful connection.