To me this episode feels like a farewell to the city and by extension the world of this anime. Like a last reprieve before the finale and a testament to the beauty of human connections they've made throughout the show no matter how small. 33:04 - that quick remark from Hyoko about how Midori was the one closest to Reki really enriches Midori's character with more nuance. 41:30 - As to why other main cast Haibanes dont talk straight to Reki, I feel like Hikari and Kana look up to Reki more as a senior mentor who "raised" them so they dont feel to be in a position to really advise Reki anything + Reki hides her inner struggles really well, so maybe they dont even suspect much. Next it would be Nemu who is closest to Reki but i think over the years their friendship formulated within well defined boundaries, and Nemu doesnt feel like a character that would cross these boundaries. Rakka's and Reki's connection on the other hand is way more intimate-personal, they saw each other reflected in their pain , i dont like the term but ... a bit of trauma bonding. Its actually interesting because Reki (one of the eldest) has been the most open with Rakka (the youngest) in a way that she never seems to be with others, she can allow herself to drop the mask with rakka even if its just for a moment or two. (plus Rakka is the main character so obviously it is her job to partake in this conflict 😁🙂🙃) We are so close to the finale, it was a fun journey.
So glad to see you almost at the end of this show! I'm trying to catch up on Oshi no Ko, still in season 1 on that. A few comments, as always. 6:46 The old kid's rhyme needs to be changed: "Sticks & stones... But words will devastate me." I can think of a few that still nag at me today, at 64 years. 7:48 The concern for other Haibane does seem to keep "elders" around, as Nemu keeps hanging around because of her concern for Reki. At 17:10 in the review: "Nemu wishes to see that you take the flight first". I think being guardians is a part of the Haibane "rules", one they are unaware of, and only affects some of them. 14:00 I think she was referring to the fever medicine, not the wing dye. 20:38 "Punishment" (Ha!). Absolutely a part of the Renmei goals, to help these kids onward. That job is an honor, but with incredible responsibility, which anyone other than Rakka might find burdensome. 25:15 The factory kids did say they couldn't "take care of the young ones". Perhaps it is the environment - imagine a kid falling from the very open architecture. They'd have to watch the little ones constantly -------------------- 28:24 The look on Rakka's face when Reki says "I'm alright". She wants to believe her but deep down "no, you're not". 32:28 The impact of that scene, Hyohko really did almost die, and in his case he intentionally violated the wall. BTW, there's an old joke that the anime body contains at least 10 gallons of blood. I find Hyohko's desire to hide what he is interesting; he's always hiding his halo and wings even while not in town. None of the other Haibane do that. It feels almost like he's ashamed. Maybe because of this experience with the wall? 35:57 The letters on that tag, Rakka got the Rosetta Stone effect from it - three letters, spelling "K-U-U". And once you associate the strokes with finger positions, the symbols everywhere, "man, it was right there in front of us!" On "can't forgive yourself"; receiving forgiveness from someone you hurt completes the process of forgiving yourself. Rakka recognized the bird as someone she had hurt by her actions, and forgiveness was given for those actions, providing a full circle (and allowing her to leave the circle of sin). Any doubt of the supernatural nature of the walls is gone when they start glowing. I think it also speaks of the protective nature, specifically towards the Haibane. The scene is very comforting, isn't it? The reconciliation between Reki and Midori is just wonderful. I think Midori was crying over all the time wasted staying angry and apart from her friend. Looking forward to episode 13! I'm not sure if you have seen the doujinshi Abe-sensei did way back when, I posted a 4-koma joke from those in the #haibane-renmei channel on discord. Now that episode 12 is past, there is a conversation between Reki and Nemu that I'll post, it fleshes out the Kuramori narrative a bit.
15:47 - "and reminded her that she's got her own issues": My interpretation of this is that Washi had planned this conversion with Reki since the moment at the border of the Western Wood when he gave Rakka his cane. 24:13 - "they can either serve as stepping stones": Please refer to this part of your reaction in your final analysis of this anime. :-) 28:20 - the paper on the wall behind Reki is the same we can see in episode 1 when she found Rakka's cocoon, and we also remember the barred window on the right side of the door. Looks like Reki came to pick up Rakka for breakfast - then again, in the 28:42 guest room Hikari is already clearing the breakfast dishes from the dining table when they arrive, and Reki can't have been there previously as Hikari 28:49 would then have complained about Reki's sloppy dress earlier. I wonder when exactly 28:27 Rakka picked up Reki's lighter from the table (where Reki had left it prior to talking to Nemu lying on the bed with a cold - was that more than one day ago? Nemu 28:42 still sits near the warm oven but seems to have recovered). But Reki 28:31 gives the lighter away - a "farewell gift" for Rakka, like Kuu's dress? Reki's halo doesn't look like fading though. 28:42 - "she's becoming a true housekeeper" (the Japanese wording is slightly more "backhanded"): Hikari's position in Old Home has changed, as 28:56 her reply indicates as well. 30:39 - Midori clinging to her boyfriend on a date? Does she actually understand the "temporary nature" of Glie? 31:02 - "I was an outsider": Hyouko doesn't think so: 31:48 "After that day, Reki became one of us." 31:12 - "Reki?" Unlike Rakka, Midori knows what this bell-nut is supposed to mean (and no, it _isn't_ 31:06 "apology"), and Reki kind of confirms: 31:15 "I may not see you again". Not exactly following "Haibane tradition" here. Both Midori and Hyouko (who had already asked Rakka about Reki possibly leaving during the Pea Soup Incident) "hear the alarm ringing" now. 32:10 - Hyouko actually "violated" the wall (while Rakka didn't, as Reki complained to Washi) - and fell (or was thrown down?) from the ladder, with 32:14 Reki sitting in his blood. Again, a thunderstorm, like on Kuu's DoF. 32:30 - Reki with Hyouko's blood on her hands. And yes, the boy was 32:04 an "idiot" back then... 32:36 - "Hyouko!!!" In your episode 9 reaction you suggested the Touga would go get a ladder to save Rakka. It is fascinating how you're producing so many correct jigsaw pieces ahead of time, allowing me to "play with them" and put them where they belong. ;-) 32:48 - this Wall is capable of defending itself. And Reki 32:50 tried to protect the unconscious Hyouko. 33:18 - "Reki is not the kind of person who _asks_ others for help" - Midori knows her former best friend quite well, and we've seen Hikari reacting to the same observation during Rakka's Wall Fever. And yet, Rakka 33:27 disagrees: "You just don't realize it!"
33:34 - Hyouko throws the white bell nut (the meaning of which 46:46 Midori later cites) high into the sky (thus symbolizing his 46:19 bright idea about how to respond to it later), 33:49 using his head in order to bypass the restriction placed on him by the Renmei, thus 33:52 surprising even "badmouthing Midori" here. (Interesting development, considering how Kana thought "they seem dumb" about Hyouko's apology note.) 33:59 - Hikari taking over ever more parts of Reki's role as "house mother". And she even got Kana, of all Haibane, 34:11 to help her (which is quite the achievement). 34:19 - this conversation between Nemu and Rakka is surprising to me. Of course they both know about Reki's situation (as Reki "warned" both of them separately) but when did they "join forces" and exchange their knowledge? Rakka had already decided to "save Reki", so she wouldn't have much of a reason to talk to Nemu about this. But if Nemu took the initiative here (after Reki telling her to greet Kuramori while Nemu had the cold), this would be so out of character for "Sleepy Nemu". Could this have been the very moment when Nemu overcame her own trial and started "meddling"? She did search for books explaining the Day of Flight five years ago but we don't know how much initiative in this case came from Sumika as we've seen Nemu sitting next to her senpai on the Windy Hills and crying, probably because Old Home was "falling apart" after Kuramori's DoF. 34:32 - Reki's last application of the dye. In manga 4 we see Washi handing the dye bottle to Reki, and Midori became less frightened of Reki after this, until her stains began to "break through" again, which made Hyouko try something more "sustainable" to help Reki. 35:00 - "where did I go wrong?" Well, Reki, you did ask for help twice, and in both cases (05:59 Kuramori and 32:53 Hyouko) the helper almost died. Then you opted against another chance, sitting all alone in your "well". 35:12 - Rakka almost seems to have become a "mobile unit of the Wall". And right when she needs support, 35:39 she gets a "slight push" from her "little senpai". 35:58 - the moment of enlightenment when those many jigsaw pieces that Rakka had collected during her "messenger jobs" finally just fall into place. 36:05 - one more of these "pantheon shots", announcing another "Glie religion sequence". Note how much 21:18 Rakka trusts Washi, not being afraid of doing something the Renmei might disapprove (such as "undermining their information monopoly"). And this trust is mutual - Washi has actually found a valuable helper, his "investment in Rakka" begins to "pay off".
36:14 - Rakka repeats the letters "K - U - U" (whose presence 36:29 she felt), apparently three times, thus getting Washi's attention by showing how much interested she is in what Glie is all about, even beyond her own trial. When (in episode 11) Rakka reported Nemu's illness to the library boss, Sumika had told Rakka that the petrified book was found in the Western Woods (and jokingly suggested "magic effects" on it), and about the symbols in it "some say those are letters" (文字 = "letter of alphabet, character") and "they look like human hands". (So Sumika "gave Rakka the answer as a hint", much like Nemu did with her hint about her present for Sumika in episode 5.) And "Nerdy Rakka" connected all these dots when she heard Kuu's voice from this brightly shining plaque - she may just have looked for two consecutive uses of the same letter, following the idea that Kuu's name might be written somewhere on this plaque (which you already understood when reacting to Rakka's workplace in episode 10), and the "olde" reading order of Japanese is right-to-left with the columns being read top-down (which is how the Renmei wrote their announcements to Old Home in both episodes 2 and 10 - all other written text we saw is in "Western form", i. e. lines instead of columns), so she started on the upper right edge. (Given the large overlap of letters between "KUU" and "RAKKA" with its very characteristic sequence of letters of which Rakka now knows one already, then "REKI", "KANA", and "HIKARI" she might now be able to find all of these plaques inside the wall, and eventually even "NEMU". This is fanfiction territory though.) What's more, Kuu's plaque even contains an easter egg: A part of the author's name "ABE YOSHITOSHI"! And for the "tin-foil hat" faction, remember that Sumika is a "qualified Haibane employer" and thus may even be an "insider" of Glie religion, so one might wonder whether she gave Rakka a little push into the right direction here, with or without Washi's consent... 36:23 - these hand signs, named "hane" (= feathers/wings), are forming an "alphabet" in a Western (Roman/Cyrillic?) meaning - each symbol is a "letter" (not a syllable as the symbols of both hiragana or katakana, therefore this is a "foreign concept" for the Japanese audience). Each episode preview of the TV airing included one word being shown in Western letters together with the corresponding "hane" sequence, and creating a table with these letters from all episodes makes you aware of the system how the sequence of all letters is ordered, thus allowing to fill the remaining gaps (basically it is a binary code with 2^5 characters and each finger representing a "bit"). So the Touga's "hane" question inside the well has been decoded as: "D - O - SH - I - T - A" = どうした = "What happened?". And 20:49 the "hane" on Rakka's workwear are: "K - A - B - E" = 壁 = "wall". The visible markers inside the wall apparently don't provide additional information though; I'm not sure whether anyone tried to "translate" the petrified book, as there are left-handed and right-handed hane, and only the one sort Rakka uses is explained by the TV series previews.
36:35 - "But its letters do not mean the word "air" given by the Haibane": Washi refers to the kanji of Kuu's name tag. When we remember Kuu explaining her dream as "floating through the air", the translation "air" for Washi's words here seems in fact better than "sky" (or any of the other meanings of 空) even though pronouncing it "sora" limits the meaning to "sky, the Heavens" in the dictionary entry. These alternative meanings include "void", then pronounced "kara" (like in "kara-te" = "empty hand" or "kara-oke" = "empty orchestra"), being related to Chinese "kong" (same kanji) and Sanskrit "shunyata", the Buddhist concept of "no-self" - Kuu had an "empty cup" in her heart that needed to be filled in Glie. 36:40 - "it is another name carrying the same pronunciation": According to the Haibane Renmei Artbook, Kuu's true name is written as the kanji combination 空宇. The first character is the same as her Haibane name, and is pronounced "kuu" or "sora" (meaning "sky"). The second is pronounced "u" or "ie" and means "eaves, roof, house, heaven". No explanation about the combined meaning is given there though, so it's free for speculation. Kuu always attempted to reach the sky (acting mature resp. beyond her limits), ending up trying to be what she wasn't. But then she understood that transcending into heaven instead was a goal providing an even bigger challenge, and she changed her way of thinking from self-centered to caringly responsible, such as being the senpai for Rakka or pondering about the crows. The Kuu we see in this series comes quite close to what I'd consider an angel to be like (perhaps more so than Belldandy) - that's why Rakka has such a hard time when Kuu is gone. 36:50 - "the name on the tag hanging from the wall is changed to the true name": This is difficult to understand for me, as "hane" are letters and not kanji, i. e. they're almost equivalent to katakana (which is why all Haibane names in the ED credits and in written form during the story are shown in katakana) and don't contain any semantics. When Rakka's name changed from "fall downwards" to "involved nut" then the pronunciation remains unchanged. So what exactly would change on the wall? Maybe the other "hane" there (which Rakka wasn't able to read yet) provide the full description of the name's meaning, i. e. the equivalent of kanji semantics. If there _were_ kanji on these tags inside the wall (none of which we see in this series) then these kanji could be "overwritten locally" without changing the other information that might be stored there (some of which would then have to contain the sound pattern, like in the case of "K-U-U", which can't be derived from the kanji alone due to ambiguity of pronunciation for each kanji). For all of this to work you need both the pronunciation and the semantics of a name, and in Japanese they can't be derived from each other unambiguously. The same problem arose with the creation of Rakka's name tag already: Thrift Shop Guy didn't know the kanji of Rakka's name (who signed in katakana) and couldn't report this information to the Renmei - so who did they get it from? Then again, if Rakka's name tag inside the Wall would contain a description of her dream (which I doubt as this would require hundreds of "hane") then the Renmei would have had enough context to find the kanji that Reki was using for Rakka's name. And one more question: Was Reki actually "free to choose" Rakka's name? She opted against "Ochiru" which had been her first choice after seeing the ash from her cigarette falling to the ground - and Rakka wouldn't have become an "involved nut" when being named "Ochiru". Did the Wall decide on Rakka's name and "send" it to Reki's subconscious (via "frightening magic", in lack of an internet connection ;-)? Remember how 05:18 Reki herself _didn't_ get her name from a fellow Haibane.
37:11 - 絡果 = "involved nut": Finally we understand why Rakka "smelled like nuts" when awaking on the bed in the guest room in episode 1 (all of episode 1 feels different once you "learned the language" of this show). 絡 = "raku" = "entwine, coil around, get caught in"; 果 = "ka" = "fruit, reward, carry out, achieve, complete, end, finish, succeed", here translated as "nut" so that Rakka's explanation makes most sense. In the combination "raku-ka" the pronunciation of "u" will be suppressed, thus resulting in "Rak-ka". We have to wonder whether (and when!) Kuu received her "true name" from Washi in the same way. How far away from her DoF is Rakka now? The commercial break of episode 12 gives us time to think about this. 38:15 - "nobody is able to forgive oneself": Now what would happen if this line and the following one were both true: "If you can't forgive yourself then others can't either" (K-On / "Don't say lazy" lyrics). 38:27 - Rakka solving her riddle: We don't get a detailed explanation what her answer to this riddle is. My own take is the following: The meaning of "sin" is different in the two parts where it is used in this line, thus creating a "fake paradox" by using "overloaded operators". Let's replace "is without sin" by "is not a sinner" (in order to get both lines of the riddle semantically connected as Washi asked: "Are you a sinner?"), so that we end up with: "The one who recognizes one's own sin is not a sinner." My point here is: "The one who sinned" is a person who did so in the past (the "sin" is a factual event) whereas the "sinner" is a person who will do so in the future (the "sin" is an attitude). This would transform the riddle into: "The one who recognizes their own sin in the past, and accepts it as a sin, has changed their attitude in respect to committing sins in the future, and should thus not be considered a sinner any longer." If Rakka read it this way, then accepting her own wrongdoing as a sin but understanding it as requirement for becoming a better person would allow her to accept that she is worthy of forgiveness - but at the same time not entitled to ever forget her sin as she would then become a "potential sinner" again. This also explains why Washi gave the same riddle to both Reki and Rakka. 38:33 - The entire "getting out of the well" scene in episode 8 may be related to the riddle. It's almost the physical version of what Washi asked Rakka. She was trapped inside the well but able to ask for help because the bird made her aware she deserved to be saved. 38:40 - in my terminology, "guilt" is something similar to "debt" (the German language even has two related terms for it, "Schuld" and "Schulden"). If you have "incurred guilt", then it is towards someone whom you have to "make amends" with. You cannot forgive yourself for your own guilt (or else it would be meaningless, e.g. being guilty of committing a crime would have no consequences), but the other person can forgive you and thereby eliminate the guilt (like Midori here towards Reki). 38:43 - Washi's last ace to play. And he entrusts it to Rakka, thus "promoting" her to "Renmei ambassador" status. 38:52 - "go now". Washi pounding his cane to the ground, like he did at the Touga market in episode 2; Rakka "flutters away" like the crow did back then. And it's not the last time 44:25 we see her running in this episode. 39:12 - "Reki's true name"... the commercial break of this episode. And the continuation 39:20 will show a snowman with a cigarette in her mouth.
I was curious what you would think of the "You can't forgive yourself" thing. I'm still not sure how I feel about it myself, but taken in context with the rest of the show and its messages it makes sense. Still, it comes across as kind of cruel, and I think telling that to someone in Reki's situation would make things worse. I really like the concept of the bell nuts, and the Passing of the Year traditions in general. Sadly we don't get to know the exact meanings of all the colors. I'll be looking forward to the final video, but I'm also sad it's coming to an end! This has been a great way to revisit one of my favorite series!
Yep I definitely had to sit down and think through what the Communicator meant, exactly. Will cover it in the final video! Thanks for being here for the journey :)
Saying "no one's really talking straight to Reki" at the same time Hikari was explaining the bell nuts was quite funny! Take a shot every time the show introduces a way to communicate indirectly, huh. The new set of characters for Rakka's name are conventionally translated to "involved nut," but it could be "fruit" as in "fruit of one's labours" - I think it's used in Buddhism as well, for "enlightenment." Haibane Renmei has an interesting take on forgiveness, to be sure. Rakka had the bird to forgive her, so she didn't forgive herself. But also, it was a dead crow. It can't forgive anyone, really...? I hesitate to call it Lacanian, but it's something along those lines, the importance of the Other to conceptualising the Self, that kind of thing. It's messy and complicated. You used some very important words somewhere in here.
To me this episode feels like a farewell to the city and by extension the world of this anime. Like a last reprieve before the finale and a testament to the beauty of human connections they've made throughout the show no matter how small.
33:04 - that quick remark from Hyoko about how Midori was the one closest to Reki really enriches Midori's character with more nuance.
41:30 - As to why other main cast Haibanes dont talk straight to Reki, I feel like Hikari and Kana look up to Reki more as a senior mentor who "raised" them so they dont feel to be in a position to really advise Reki anything + Reki hides her inner struggles really well, so maybe they dont even suspect much. Next it would be Nemu who is closest to Reki but i think over the years their friendship formulated within well defined boundaries, and Nemu doesnt feel like a character that would cross these boundaries. Rakka's and Reki's connection on the other hand is way more intimate-personal, they saw each other reflected in their pain , i dont like the term but ... a bit of trauma bonding. Its actually interesting because Reki (one of the eldest) has been the most open with Rakka (the youngest) in a way that she never seems to be with others, she can allow herself to drop the mask with rakka even if its just for a moment or two. (plus Rakka is the main character so obviously it is her job to partake in this conflict 😁🙂🙃)
We are so close to the finale, it was a fun journey.
So glad to see you almost at the end of this show! I'm trying to catch up on Oshi no Ko, still in season 1 on that.
A few comments, as always.
6:46
The old kid's rhyme needs to be changed: "Sticks & stones... But words will devastate me."
I can think of a few that still nag at me today, at 64 years.
7:48
The concern for other Haibane does seem to keep "elders" around, as Nemu keeps hanging around because of her concern for Reki. At 17:10 in the review: "Nemu wishes to see that you take the flight first". I think being guardians is a part of the Haibane "rules", one they are unaware of, and only affects some of them.
14:00
I think she was referring to the fever medicine, not the wing dye.
20:38
"Punishment" (Ha!). Absolutely a part of the Renmei goals, to help these kids onward.
That job is an honor, but with incredible responsibility, which anyone other than Rakka might find burdensome.
25:15
The factory kids did say they couldn't "take care of the young ones". Perhaps it is the environment - imagine a kid falling from the very open architecture. They'd have to watch the little ones constantly
--------------------
28:24
The look on Rakka's face when Reki says "I'm alright". She wants to believe her but deep down "no, you're not".
32:28
The impact of that scene, Hyohko really did almost die, and in his case he intentionally violated the wall.
BTW, there's an old joke that the anime body contains at least 10 gallons of blood.
I find Hyohko's desire to hide what he is interesting; he's always hiding his halo and wings even while not in town. None of the other Haibane do that. It feels almost like he's ashamed. Maybe because of this experience with the wall?
35:57
The letters on that tag, Rakka got the Rosetta Stone effect from it - three letters, spelling "K-U-U". And once you associate the strokes with finger positions, the symbols everywhere, "man, it was right there in front of us!"
On "can't forgive yourself"; receiving forgiveness from someone you hurt completes the process of forgiving yourself. Rakka recognized the bird as someone she had hurt by her actions, and forgiveness was given for those actions, providing a full circle (and allowing her to leave the circle of sin).
Any doubt of the supernatural nature of the walls is gone when they start glowing. I think it also speaks of the protective nature, specifically towards the Haibane. The scene is very comforting, isn't it?
The reconciliation between Reki and Midori is just wonderful. I think Midori was crying over all the time wasted staying angry and apart from her friend.
Looking forward to episode 13!
I'm not sure if you have seen the doujinshi Abe-sensei did way back when, I posted a 4-koma joke from those in the #haibane-renmei channel on discord. Now that episode 12 is past, there is a conversation between Reki and Nemu that I'll post, it fleshes out the Kuramori narrative a bit.
Its always great to hear your thoughts and analysis on each episodes. Looking forward to the next one!
Oh you dropped this? Finally!
Final Wall Text delivery:
15:47 - "and reminded her that she's got her own issues": My interpretation of this is that Washi had planned this conversion with Reki since the moment at the border of the Western Wood when he gave Rakka his cane.
24:13 - "they can either serve as stepping stones": Please refer to this part of your reaction in your final analysis of this anime. :-)
28:20 - the paper on the wall behind Reki is the same we can see in episode 1 when she found Rakka's cocoon, and we also remember the barred window on the right side of the door. Looks like Reki came to pick up Rakka for breakfast - then again, in the 28:42 guest room Hikari is already clearing the breakfast dishes from the dining table when they arrive, and Reki can't have been there previously as Hikari 28:49 would then have complained about Reki's sloppy dress earlier. I wonder when exactly 28:27 Rakka picked up Reki's lighter from the table (where Reki had left it prior to talking to Nemu lying on the bed with a cold - was that more than one day ago? Nemu 28:42 still sits near the warm oven but seems to have recovered). But Reki 28:31 gives the lighter away - a "farewell gift" for Rakka, like Kuu's dress? Reki's halo doesn't look like fading though.
28:42 - "she's becoming a true housekeeper" (the Japanese wording is slightly more "backhanded"): Hikari's position in Old Home has changed, as 28:56 her reply indicates as well.
30:39 - Midori clinging to her boyfriend on a date? Does she actually understand the "temporary nature" of Glie?
31:02 - "I was an outsider": Hyouko doesn't think so: 31:48 "After that day, Reki became one of us."
31:12 - "Reki?" Unlike Rakka, Midori knows what this bell-nut is supposed to mean (and no, it _isn't_ 31:06 "apology"), and Reki kind of confirms: 31:15 "I may not see you again". Not exactly following "Haibane tradition" here. Both Midori and Hyouko (who had already asked Rakka about Reki possibly leaving during the Pea Soup Incident) "hear the alarm ringing" now.
32:10 - Hyouko actually "violated" the wall (while Rakka didn't, as Reki complained to Washi) - and fell (or was thrown down?) from the ladder, with 32:14 Reki sitting in his blood. Again, a thunderstorm, like on Kuu's DoF.
32:30 - Reki with Hyouko's blood on her hands. And yes, the boy was 32:04 an "idiot" back then...
32:36 - "Hyouko!!!" In your episode 9 reaction you suggested the Touga would go get a ladder to save Rakka. It is fascinating how you're producing so many correct jigsaw pieces ahead of time, allowing me to "play with them" and put them where they belong. ;-)
32:48 - this Wall is capable of defending itself. And Reki 32:50 tried to protect the unconscious Hyouko.
33:18 - "Reki is not the kind of person who _asks_ others for help" - Midori knows her former best friend quite well, and we've seen Hikari reacting to the same observation during Rakka's Wall Fever. And yet, Rakka 33:27 disagrees: "You just don't realize it!"
33:34 - Hyouko throws the white bell nut (the meaning of which 46:46 Midori later cites) high into the sky (thus symbolizing his 46:19 bright idea about how to respond to it later), 33:49 using his head in order to bypass the restriction placed on him by the Renmei, thus 33:52 surprising even "badmouthing Midori" here. (Interesting development, considering how Kana thought "they seem dumb" about Hyouko's apology note.)
33:59 - Hikari taking over ever more parts of Reki's role as "house mother". And she even got Kana, of all Haibane, 34:11 to help her (which is quite the achievement).
34:19 - this conversation between Nemu and Rakka is surprising to me. Of course they both know about Reki's situation (as Reki "warned" both of them separately) but when did they "join forces" and exchange their knowledge? Rakka had already decided to "save Reki", so she wouldn't have much of a reason to talk to Nemu about this. But if Nemu took the initiative here (after Reki telling her to greet Kuramori while Nemu had the cold), this would be so out of character for "Sleepy Nemu". Could this have been the very moment when Nemu overcame her own trial and started "meddling"? She did search for books explaining the Day of Flight five years ago but we don't know how much initiative in this case came from Sumika as we've seen Nemu sitting next to her senpai on the Windy Hills and crying, probably because Old Home was "falling apart" after Kuramori's DoF.
34:32 - Reki's last application of the dye. In manga 4 we see Washi handing the dye bottle to Reki, and Midori became less frightened of Reki after this, until her stains began to "break through" again, which made Hyouko try something more "sustainable" to help Reki.
35:00 - "where did I go wrong?" Well, Reki, you did ask for help twice, and in both cases (05:59 Kuramori and 32:53 Hyouko) the helper almost died. Then you opted against another chance, sitting all alone in your "well".
35:12 - Rakka almost seems to have become a "mobile unit of the Wall". And right when she needs support, 35:39 she gets a "slight push" from her "little senpai".
35:58 - the moment of enlightenment when those many jigsaw pieces that Rakka had collected during her "messenger jobs" finally just fall into place.
36:05 - one more of these "pantheon shots", announcing another "Glie religion sequence". Note how much 21:18 Rakka trusts Washi, not being afraid of doing something the Renmei might disapprove (such as "undermining their information monopoly"). And this trust is mutual - Washi has actually found a valuable helper, his "investment in Rakka" begins to "pay off".
36:14 - Rakka repeats the letters "K - U - U" (whose presence 36:29 she felt), apparently three times, thus getting Washi's attention by showing how much interested she is in what Glie is all about, even beyond her own trial. When (in episode 11) Rakka reported Nemu's illness to the library boss, Sumika had told Rakka that the petrified book was found in the Western Woods (and jokingly suggested "magic effects" on it), and about the symbols in it "some say those are letters" (文字 = "letter of alphabet, character") and "they look like human hands". (So Sumika "gave Rakka the answer as a hint", much like Nemu did with her hint about her present for Sumika in episode 5.) And "Nerdy Rakka" connected all these dots when she heard Kuu's voice from this brightly shining plaque - she may just have looked for two consecutive uses of the same letter, following the idea that Kuu's name might be written somewhere on this plaque (which you already understood when reacting to Rakka's workplace in episode 10), and the "olde" reading order of Japanese is right-to-left with the columns being read top-down (which is how the Renmei wrote their announcements to Old Home in both episodes 2 and 10 - all other written text we saw is in "Western form", i. e. lines instead of columns), so she started on the upper right edge. (Given the large overlap of letters between "KUU" and "RAKKA" with its very characteristic sequence of letters of which Rakka now knows one already, then "REKI", "KANA", and "HIKARI" she might now be able to find all of these plaques inside the wall, and eventually even "NEMU". This is fanfiction territory though.) What's more, Kuu's plaque even contains an easter egg: A part of the author's name "ABE YOSHITOSHI"! And for the "tin-foil hat" faction, remember that Sumika is a "qualified Haibane employer" and thus may even be an "insider" of Glie religion, so one might wonder whether she gave Rakka a little push into the right direction here, with or without Washi's consent...
36:23 - these hand signs, named "hane" (= feathers/wings), are forming an "alphabet" in a Western (Roman/Cyrillic?) meaning - each symbol is a "letter" (not a syllable as the symbols of both hiragana or katakana, therefore this is a "foreign concept" for the Japanese audience). Each episode preview of the TV airing included one word being shown in Western letters together with the corresponding "hane" sequence, and creating a table with these letters from all episodes makes you aware of the system how the sequence of all letters is ordered, thus allowing to fill the remaining gaps (basically it is a binary code with 2^5 characters and each finger representing a "bit"). So the Touga's "hane" question inside the well has been decoded as: "D - O - SH - I - T - A" = どうした = "What happened?". And 20:49 the "hane" on Rakka's workwear are: "K - A - B - E" = 壁 = "wall". The visible markers inside the wall apparently don't provide additional information though; I'm not sure whether anyone tried to "translate" the petrified book, as there are left-handed and right-handed hane, and only the one sort Rakka uses is explained by the TV series previews.
36:35 - "But its letters do not mean the word "air" given by the Haibane": Washi refers to the kanji of Kuu's name tag. When we remember Kuu explaining her dream as "floating through the air", the translation "air" for Washi's words here seems in fact better than "sky" (or any of the other meanings of 空) even though pronouncing it "sora" limits the meaning to "sky, the Heavens" in the dictionary entry. These alternative meanings include "void", then pronounced "kara" (like in "kara-te" = "empty hand" or "kara-oke" = "empty orchestra"), being related to Chinese "kong" (same kanji) and Sanskrit "shunyata", the Buddhist concept of "no-self" - Kuu had an "empty cup" in her heart that needed to be filled in Glie.
36:40 - "it is another name carrying the same pronunciation": According to the Haibane Renmei Artbook, Kuu's true name is written as the kanji combination 空宇. The first character is the same as her Haibane name, and is pronounced "kuu" or "sora" (meaning "sky"). The second is pronounced "u" or "ie" and means "eaves, roof, house, heaven". No explanation about the combined meaning is given there though, so it's free for speculation. Kuu always attempted to reach the sky (acting mature resp. beyond her limits), ending up trying to be what she wasn't. But then she understood that transcending into heaven instead was a goal providing an even bigger challenge, and she changed her way of thinking from self-centered to caringly responsible, such as being the senpai for Rakka or pondering about the crows. The Kuu we see in this series comes quite close to what I'd consider an angel to be like (perhaps more so than Belldandy) - that's why Rakka has such a hard time when Kuu is gone.
36:50 - "the name on the tag hanging from the wall is changed to the true name": This is difficult to understand for me, as "hane" are letters and not kanji, i. e. they're almost equivalent to katakana (which is why all Haibane names in the ED credits and in written form during the story are shown in katakana) and don't contain any semantics. When Rakka's name changed from "fall downwards" to "involved nut" then the pronunciation remains unchanged. So what exactly would change on the wall? Maybe the other "hane" there (which Rakka wasn't able to read yet) provide the full description of the name's meaning, i. e. the equivalent of kanji semantics. If there _were_ kanji on these tags inside the wall (none of which we see in this series) then these kanji could be "overwritten locally" without changing the other information that might be stored there (some of which would then have to contain the sound pattern, like in the case of "K-U-U", which can't be derived from the kanji alone due to ambiguity of pronunciation for each kanji). For all of this to work you need both the pronunciation and the semantics of a name, and in Japanese they can't be derived from each other unambiguously. The same problem arose with the creation of Rakka's name tag already: Thrift Shop Guy didn't know the kanji of Rakka's name (who signed in katakana) and couldn't report this information to the Renmei - so who did they get it from? Then again, if Rakka's name tag inside the Wall would contain a description of her dream (which I doubt as this would require hundreds of "hane") then the Renmei would have had enough context to find the kanji that Reki was using for Rakka's name. And one more question: Was Reki actually "free to choose" Rakka's name? She opted against "Ochiru" which had been her first choice after seeing the ash from her cigarette falling to the ground - and Rakka wouldn't have become an "involved nut" when being named "Ochiru". Did the Wall decide on Rakka's name and "send" it to Reki's subconscious (via "frightening magic", in lack of an internet connection ;-)? Remember how 05:18 Reki herself _didn't_ get her name from a fellow Haibane.
37:11 - 絡果 = "involved nut": Finally we understand why Rakka "smelled like nuts" when awaking on the bed in the guest room in episode 1 (all of episode 1 feels different once you "learned the language" of this show). 絡 = "raku" = "entwine, coil around, get caught in"; 果 = "ka" = "fruit, reward, carry out, achieve, complete, end, finish, succeed", here translated as "nut" so that Rakka's explanation makes most sense. In the combination "raku-ka" the pronunciation of "u" will be suppressed, thus resulting in "Rak-ka". We have to wonder whether (and when!) Kuu received her "true name" from Washi in the same way. How far away from her DoF is Rakka now? The commercial break of episode 12 gives us time to think about this.
38:15 - "nobody is able to forgive oneself": Now what would happen if this line and the following one were both true: "If you can't forgive yourself then others can't either" (K-On / "Don't say lazy" lyrics).
38:27 - Rakka solving her riddle: We don't get a detailed explanation what her answer to this riddle is. My own take is the following: The meaning of "sin" is different in the two parts where it is used in this line, thus creating a "fake paradox" by using "overloaded operators". Let's replace "is without sin" by "is not a sinner" (in order to get both lines of the riddle semantically connected as Washi asked: "Are you a sinner?"), so that we end up with: "The one who recognizes one's own sin is not a sinner." My point here is: "The one who sinned" is a person who did so in the past (the "sin" is a factual event) whereas the "sinner" is a person who will do so in the future (the "sin" is an attitude). This would transform the riddle into: "The one who recognizes their own sin in the past, and accepts it as a sin, has changed their attitude in respect to committing sins in the future, and should thus not be considered a sinner any longer." If Rakka read it this way, then accepting her own wrongdoing as a sin but understanding it as requirement for becoming a better person would allow her to accept that she is worthy of forgiveness - but at the same time not entitled to ever forget her sin as she would then become a "potential sinner" again. This also explains why Washi gave the same riddle to both Reki and Rakka.
38:33 - The entire "getting out of the well" scene in episode 8 may be related to the riddle. It's almost the physical version of what Washi asked Rakka. She was trapped inside the well but able to ask for help because the bird made her aware she deserved to be saved.
38:40 - in my terminology, "guilt" is something similar to "debt" (the German language even has two related terms for it, "Schuld" and "Schulden"). If you have "incurred guilt", then it is towards someone whom you have to "make amends" with. You cannot forgive yourself for your own guilt (or else it would be meaningless, e.g. being guilty of committing a crime would have no consequences), but the other person can forgive you and thereby eliminate the guilt (like Midori here towards Reki).
38:43 - Washi's last ace to play. And he entrusts it to Rakka, thus "promoting" her to "Renmei ambassador" status.
38:52 - "go now". Washi pounding his cane to the ground, like he did at the Touga market in episode 2; Rakka "flutters away" like the crow did back then. And it's not the last time 44:25 we see her running in this episode.
39:12 - "Reki's true name"... the commercial break of this episode. And the continuation 39:20 will show a snowman with a cigarette in her mouth.
I was curious what you would think of the "You can't forgive yourself" thing. I'm still not sure how I feel about it myself, but taken in context with the rest of the show and its messages it makes sense. Still, it comes across as kind of cruel, and I think telling that to someone in Reki's situation would make things worse.
I really like the concept of the bell nuts, and the Passing of the Year traditions in general. Sadly we don't get to know the exact meanings of all the colors.
I'll be looking forward to the final video, but I'm also sad it's coming to an end! This has been a great way to revisit one of my favorite series!
Yep I definitely had to sit down and think through what the Communicator meant, exactly. Will cover it in the final video!
Thanks for being here for the journey :)
LETS GOOOOOOO
Saying "no one's really talking straight to Reki" at the same time Hikari was explaining the bell nuts was quite funny! Take a shot every time the show introduces a way to communicate indirectly, huh.
The new set of characters for Rakka's name are conventionally translated to "involved nut," but it could be "fruit" as in "fruit of one's labours" - I think it's used in Buddhism as well, for "enlightenment."
Haibane Renmei has an interesting take on forgiveness, to be sure. Rakka had the bird to forgive her, so she didn't forgive herself. But also, it was a dead crow. It can't forgive anyone, really...? I hesitate to call it Lacanian, but it's something along those lines, the importance of the Other to conceptualising the Self, that kind of thing. It's messy and complicated.
You used some very important words somewhere in here.
hello, will you see the 2nd season of Made in Abyss?
Yes, eventually!