Setting

Rakka wakes up from a mysterious dream, inside a huge 'cocoon', at Guri, a city surrounded by an impassable barrier. She is a Haibane, beings with wings and areolas (as in an angel). She can't remember anything about her life except parts of her dream. Now, she must learn how to live as a Haibane, trying to figure out why she exists, who are the people at town, and what's the meaning of her situation.

Pacing

Haibane Renmei focuses in several philosophical, existential and, in most part, religious topics. For Buddhists or Kardecists the plot will show a lot of allegories about such philosophies, but nothing to the extent to make people avert to these religions to watch the title. In fact, the anime does not have any pretension to teach or preach - it's only a beautiful story that, in part, is rooted in some religious concepts - well, something to expect from a title where the characters have areolas and wings.

It's an artistic and intelligent title, best suited for the most critic viewers.

Conclusion

With a nice art style, a touching sound track and a pleasant environment, Haibane is a nice call for all of those who want not only a good entertainment, but also those looking for something more, to some thought provoking plot. Certainly those that are too absorbed into their religious view will start to create useless polemic around Haibane universe, but who loose are those incapable to accept other views and get rid of their axiomatic dogmas, after all, what really matters are 'nice ideas', and not dogmas.

As any top-notch plot driven anime, watch Haibane full alert, since a lot of the ideas and plot details are subtle.

Unfortunately in some episodes the animation quality decays a lot, which can be annoying, but since the main aspect of this title is the plot, it will not be that big of a problem.