Skip to main content

I Love Haibane Renmei

A dialogue taken from the last episode of Haibane Renmei:

REKI
Everytime I trusted someone, I always ended up being betrayed, so at some point, I stopped trusting everybody. So that I wouldn't have to get hurt, I became a stone.

Ironic, isn't it? If only I close my heart and pretend to be nice, everyone says I'm a good Haibane. They just don't know how dark and impure my heart is.

RAKKA
That's not true! You were always kind! I believe in you!

REKI
Rakka. You never realized, did you? How jealous I was of you.

RAKKA
You weren't . . .

REKI
Both of us were sin-bound, but you were forgiven. Everyone leaves me. When Kuu took the Dayof Flight, some part of me was jealous of her, and I absolutely despised myself for that.

RAKKA
That's not true! You came to look for me when I fell into the well! You took care of me and went to get the medicine for me! When I was in pain, you were always there for me!

REKI
That's right! And why do you think I did that?! I was only looking for salvation! Only when I was being useful to someone, only then could I forget about my sin! And the only thing I was thinking was that maybe God would come and forgive me someday!

RAKKA
Stop it! Stop it!

REKI
Rakka, to me, it didn't have to be you.

RAKKA
STOP IT!!

REKI
When I found your cocoon, I made a bet. I forced myself to believe that if this Haibane trusted me, I would be forgiven. That's why I acted so kind. It didn't matter who was born in the cocoon. It was all a lie. I didn't care about anything as long as I was forgiven. It was a mistake for you to trust me. Now you know, so get out! Get out!!

This is insane drama. This one scene alone reverberates with perhaps all of the action you'd ever see in the series, but for the minute or so that it lasts, the two main charcoal feathers, the young Rakka and Reki the painter, you see the extremes of the rock Reki (her name means the small pebble) has built around herself, and the gradual breaking of the meeker, trusting Rakka. This is the prelude to the climactic push where Rakka fulfills the ultimate meaning of her true name (the meddling nut), and breaks the older charcoal feather out of the deadly circle of sin (The one who recognizes his sin has no sin).

This is, truly, a magnificent show for meditation.

Popular posts from this blog

Maynilad Water Chronicles: The Clusterf$%#, Part 2

This is the third post in our Maynilad Water chronicles. This time, we will talk about just how inept their record keeping skills are in the face of a massive overhaul in a given area. This involves a technique used by Meralco in high-risk areas called clustering, and is efficient – if utilized correctly. Needless to say, Maynilad has yet to be able to do this.
Post a Comment
Read more

Maynilad Water Chronicles: The Curious Case of the Disappearing Meter

One of the biggest problems I’ve encountered these past few weeks is the inexplicable inefficiency of Maynilad Water. I don’t even know where to begin; this is how impossible the situation is. So I’ll go and separate things into multiple stories. This is the first case in this series.
Post a Comment
Read more

The Parables of Juan Flavier

I remember my grade 4 Language professor fondly, because of many things. Firstly, because his first name—Henry—was such an oddity for a ten-year old Pinoy who mostly read American books but was surrounded with names like Jose Luis, Robertino, and other such remnants of our Spanish forefathers. Secondly because he was such a strict man who liked reading a lot. In hindsight, perhaps he wasn’t really as strict as I made him out to be. I was, quite possibly, just a child who had too much respect for authority back then, and would quail from the sight of a teacher who raised his voice even by just a bit. But the most memorable thing about Mr. Avecilla (that was his last name) was that one of his weekly projects for the class was the collection of Senator Juan Flavier’s—then DOH secretary— weekly parables. I forget which paper it was his stories appeared in, but Mr. Avecilla’s demands had us children scrambling for clippings of Senator Flavier’s stories around every Friday, I think it was....
Post a Comment
Read more