Haibane Renmei Anime Manga, Volume 1 Book

In a long-forgotten walled town, humans coexist with the Haibane, angelic beings of unknown origin. Rakka becomes the newest Haibane after she awakens from a strange dream and finds herself hatching from a massive cocoon. With no memories of her previous life, Rakka struggles to adjust to her new surrounding, however burning questions remain in the back of her mind. What are Haibane and what is their purpose? What lies beyond the town walls? Thus Rakka begins her wistful journey of self-discovery and wonderment.

The Haibane Renmei anime manga is a full-color adaptation of Yoshitoshi Abe's fantastic anime series, presented in the "non-westernized" manga format for a fun, Japanese-style reading experience!

Library Journal

This wonderful anime series written by Abe (creator of the excellent Serial Experiments Lain) concerns the Haibane, a race of angel-like people (though they cannot fly) who live alongside humans in a walled city and have no knowledge of the outside world. The story follows Rakka, a Haibane who emerges from a cocoon with no memory of her previous life. She makes friends with fellow Haibane in their dormitory and learns the rules, such as using only things that humans have discarded. This book is a "photo-novel," which takes as illustrations stills from the anime's first five episodes, with word balloons added for the text. These books are never as important for libraries as the original anime, but this could have been a nice souvenir of the show-except for the abridgement of the stories, numerous editing errors, and the often out-of-focus reproduction of the art. The four-DVD anime set from Geneon is highly recommended for viewers teen and up-but this book is not.-S.R. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.