ABe’s story (I mean, everything that he went through to get Haibane Renmei written) would probably inspire many who attempt the National Novel Writing Month.

Since we know the Touga and the Communicator are connected, as he’s the only one allowed to “speak” with them, then the birds summoned the Touga, and when they left they told the Communicator, who then went looking for Rakka.

A note on planning, as well. This series was written and aired in an extremely short period of time. ABe had started it as a doujinshi, and had wanted to do basically a stream-of-consciousness story. He didn’t have any over-all plot in mind when starting, he just wanted to see what would come out if he started and kept going.

He had two volumes of the doujinshi out when Ueda told him he should make it into an anime. Somehow Ueda was able to get Geneon (Pioneer at the time) to go along with the idea, despite no planned story and only about an episode and a half of material.

So the series was really just written and executed on the fly. ABe has said that he was always working under extreme deadline pressure to keep to the airing dates, and Ueda even threatened him with the last episode being a clip-show if he didn’t get the script finished in time.

Considering the Communicator’s surprise about Rakka’s situation, it’s unlikely he in any way knew what was going on when it happened, so he couldn’t have sent the Toga out ahead to help her.

Determining what the Toga and the Communicator were doing out there that night seems it can be a whole exercise in itself!

Whether it be true that ABe didn’t fully flesh out various ideas doesn’t matter with as well presented things are. It leaves plenty of room for wondering what the meaning of everyone and everything is in this world of haibane.

As for Toga, it’s also something dubious. Why have the pretension of trade in the artificial world, right? Maybe it’s just a design by committe kind of compromise, or a result of delegation of this part to Archangel Mikhail or something. Seriously though, it may be something that ABe did not think out in sufficient detail, although that explanation is no fun.

This essentially matches my theory I’m putting together to post after the final episode commentary. Great minds think alike, or fools follow fools? =P

“(e.g. Kana drowned, Nemu died in her sleep (CO poisoning perhaps), Rakka fell from a high place, etc.)”

I hadn’t considered CO poisoning, but having Kana drown, etc. fits the post I’m putting together, including some thoughts related to the young feathers. (I’d check and see how I’ve fit things in with the main characters, but that’s on my laptop, and I’m on my PC as I write this. I really need to figure some way to sync files between the two.)

“IMHO, this is not quite how it works. Sinners cannot forgive themselves (which is why the Circle of Sin exists). But Rakka had someone else to forgive her: the bird.”

Since I write these in advance of posting them, this might be something I’ve written in the next episode’s commentary. It can be troublesome writing these in advance before posting them…

“Are all Haibane sin-bound? IMHO, no. Only those who are ineffective in exploiting their second chance become sin-bound.”

And if a child is born sinbound? Reki’s case? Other than that, it does make sense for Rakka to become sinbound because she’s not making any progress in righting things for her soul. I have my own theories into why she became sinbound when she did, and that’s being woven into my planned after-commentaries posting.

If it doesn’t include spoilers, do fit the Toga into your view? Following the idea of Glie being an artificial world (not a theory I see myself going with, but an interesting one nonetheless), would you say the Toga exist to bring into Glie (via trade) the things which may be necessary for the people, but which they cannot produce within the town?

As for the Rakka being led to the wall, I’d have to re-watch it, but if I recall correctly (and I have a very bad memory), the Toga walk away from Rakka, into the dark of the forest. Rakka tries to follow after, but is injured, and cannot even hope to keep up as they disappear into the darkness, with only their lantern visible. That’s what she followed (maybe).

Glie is an artificial world, created by the God (a Japanese or universal God, not the Christian one), for the purpose of hosting haibane. Haibane are children who died while having some not yet solved life issues. Life in Glie gives them a second chance to tackle their problems. That’s all there is about it.

From this base, we can derive some things. For example, the meteor effect from the delivery of soul is just a side effect, perhaps the waste energy dissipating when the soul’s contents are inserted into the Glie’s space. The dream is the process of integration of the soul with haibane’s body. This mapping or reboot probably occurs memory by memory historically, which is why it ends with the child’s death (e.g. Kana drowned, Nemu died in her sleep (CO poisoning perhaps), Rakka fell from a high place, etc.). As for the wall’s effect may be just the enthropy of the outside world interfering with haibane’s bodies. Glie only resembles the Earth in order to provide souls a familiar environment in which to function while they deal with the problem. Anything else does not need to resemble our world. There may be any kind of effect at the boundary. It’s possible that if a haibane gets beyond the wall, he/she would simply dissolve like creations of Ocean in Lem’s Solaris. Now you see what consitutes ready too: when the second chance have been used to deal with issues.

Aside from Glie’s basics, a few more notes.

You’re saying that “by recognizing her sin, [Rakka] has atoned the best she possibly can.” IMHO, this is not quite how it works. Sinners cannot forgive themselves (which is why the Circle of Sin exists). But Rakka had someone else to forgive her: the bird.

Are all Haibane sin-bound? IMHO, no. Only those who are ineffective in exploiting their second chance become sin-bound. BTW, we never know just what issues Kana, Nemu, Hikari, Midori, Hyoko, and Kuu had that landed them into Glie. Well, Midori probably was angry like Donald Duck all the time :-) If Hinano died young, she’d be Midori for sure. :-) :-)

The note “it was their lantern Rakka followed which led her to the wall” seems to contradict my recollection. I think Rakka followed the bird, not the lantern.

I think that Reki might had not actually touched the wall, only observed someone who did. This is not really a spoiler, the anime is a bit vague on this. She might have as well. You’ll see it later.