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magicalgirlelsa · 2 years ago

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Haibane Renmei: Sin-Bound theory

I felt like rewatching the series since last time I watched it, I was too young to really grasp some of the deeper concepts and metaphors.

I just finished episode 9 and was reflecting on what the Communicator said to Rakka about the Circle of Sin and what it means to be Sin-Bound: “Perhaps that is what it means to be bound by sin. To keep going around in the same circle looking to find where the sin lies... and at some point losing the sight of the way out.”

If I remember correctly, Reki said previously that a Haibane is considered Sin-Bound when they don’t remember the dream they had in their cocoon. But this makes me suspect there’s more to the story than that. Plus, if it was just about not remembering, Rakka should have been Sin-Bound from the beginning (like Reki was). One could make an argument that she was but she remembered “enough” of her dream that it wasn’t immediately apparent or something, but the timing seems suspect, so with that on top of the Communicator’s words I think there’s more to it.

“One who knows their sin has no sin.” Rakka coming to know her “sin” is about a lot more than remembering her dream. She remembers that in her past life, she had had one or more people who had cared about her and wanted her to live, but that she hadn’t realized it at the time. She had believed herself to be alone and wanted to disappear. The crow even tugged at her as she was falling, trying to pull her back up, and she had said, “No, you can’t.” Those who loved her were unable to stop her. (I am operating under the assumption that this is some sort of “purgatory” type situation and that Rakka died by... ah, if I say that word I think this won’t appear in the Haibane Renmei tag, so let’s just say, the cause that I think most people infer.)

When Kuu had her Day of Flight, the shoe was put on the other foot, so to speak. It’s a little different since the Day of Flight seems more akin to a “graduation” than a death for the Haibane in question, but with the way that they “never tell anyone” about it and are just suddenly, inexplicably gone, the experience for the Haibane left behind has obvious parallels to those who lose a loved one to the aforementioned cause of death.

It was a chance for Rakka to realize what she had put her loved ones through in her previous life, but -- in part because she couldn’t remember her dream -- she couldn’t put the pieces together. Instead, she started isolating herself, not taking care of herself, hurting herself (her feathers) to hide that anything was wrong, and believing once more than it would be better if she disappeared. It wasn’t just that she didn’t remember her dream; she was headed on a path to repeat the same “sin” she had while alive. (I use quotes because I have complicated feelings on the term “sin” as applied to this particular subject, but am using the term because it’s what the anime uses.)

Likewise, remembering her dream led her to realize that she hurt people with her decision in her previous life, and that she was once again not seeing that she had people around her who cared about her. She realized what she did wrong and learned from it. I believe it was one or both of those things that led her to no longer be Sin-Bound, rather than just remembering her dream in and of itself. (It may be that a Haibane who can’t remember their dream had a lesson in the dream they didn’t hear, which puts them at a greater risk of becoming Sin-Bound, but I don’t think I have enough information yet to fully theorize on why Reki says it’s due to not remembering their dreams if that is not the full story.)

As for Reki, I don’t remember all the details of her circumstances. I’ll have to re-evaluate this theory once I finish the series. However, so far I think there are hints supporting this theory in her situation as well.

Reki tends to take everything on alone. She’s even called out on this (gently) in the same episode where this is discussed (episode 9). She doesn’t isolate (nowadays) by withdrawing from everybody, but she more subtly keeps them at a distance by taking on everything by herself instead of asking for help. If she died in a similar manner to Rakka, this might pertain in some way to her not having learned the lesson that her cocoon dream was meant to teach her. I think it’s entirely possible she became Sin-Bound at some point between emerging, growing her wings, and cleaning her wings enough to see their color -- from what I remember, she got off to a difficult start in the world, which may have predisposed her to return to old coping strategies or something.

To tie all this back into the Communicator’s words, he describes being bound by sin as “to keep going around in the same circle” and “losing sight of the way out.” If they are in a purgatory and achieve their Day of Flight upon learning what they were meant to, then repeating their past mistakes (thus moving them further away from learning) making them Sin-Bound makes a lot of sense.

It may be that “one who knows their sin has no sin” because one who truly knows their “sin” and understands why it was wrong is likely to try to do differently moving forward, whereas if they don’t realize it (not remembering it and/or not realizing it was wrong/hurtful), they would be more likely to continue to repeat their same mistake.

Well, I’ll have to come back to this theory and see how it does or doesn’t fit after I finish the series!

EDIT: I just started episode 10 and a couple things I’ve noticed... First of all Reki definitely got a rough start to say the least. Waking up all alone and even growing her wings all alone. We saw from Rakka how incredibly painful that process was. It also looks to me like as we see time elapsing and she allows Kuramori to care for her, the amount of black in her wings appears to be receding... Though I don’t know if it’s fair to say she “isolated herself” or “didn’t ask for help” when she was literally trapped, so we’ll see how things fit together.

EDIT2: I’ve just finished episode 13 and I absolutely believe I was right about this. We can reasonably infer that Reki’s “sin” in her previous life was not asking for help. She waited and waited, and when it didn’t come and things remained unbearable, she died, unable to ask for help until the very end.

As I speculated to be related, in Old Home, she continued to not ask for help, taking everything on by herself and not trusting anyone enough to let them know that she was struggling. This, I believe, is why she became Sin-Bound.

Taking it a step further, I think we can now connect this to the day she emerged from her cocoon. Obviously, there was nobody around to ask for help in the first place. We don’t know if she tried calling for help and nobody came, or if she didn’t try asking for help. However, I think more to the point is that whether or not she asks for help is also representative of her trust in others. She’s very clear in the final episode that her difficulty asking for help stems from a lack of trust, believing that even if she asks for help she will be abandoned and not wanting to face this pain again. When she emerged, she (theoretically) could have thought, “I’m sure someone will come for me eventually,” or (as I would consider most likely, based on not only what we know of Reki but also that she knew nothing about the world she had suddenly been born into) she could have thought, “I’m completely alone; no one is ever going to come save me.”

That she ends up “punished” for this is, of course, deeply unfair. It isn’t punishment in the sense of anybody actively inflicting it upon her, however (at least not as far as we know...), so there’s nothing that can really be done about it. I believe this is why the Communicator seems to make special exceptions for her, and by extension Rakka. That she would struggle to trust when she awoke in a strange world all alone and was forced to go through horrible pain in complete isolation and confusion seems sort of inevitable... and yet, that was outside of her control, and it’s unfair she should have to bear the repercussions of it.

Likewise, it may be that with Kuramori she asked for help in small ways, or it may simply be that asking for help was -- for Reki -- symbolic of trust and her trust in Kuramori made her Sin-Bound condition begin to abate.

Also, it’s made very clear that Reki remembering her dream isn’t enough for redemption. It isn’t until she finally asks for help that things begin to change. Thus supporting my theory that it’s about repeating vs. changing one’s past wrongs, with the Day of Flight symbolizing having overcome their hurdle... which the Communicator spells out, so I don’t need to elaborate any further on that one.

Now, another thing that the final couple of episodes evidenced is that there is a community component to redemption. I don’t think it’s coincidence either that both Reki and Rakka’s “sins” involved turning away from others. Most likely, it has to be bridged by both sides reaching out. (In Rakka’s case, the crow died reaching out to her. This is, I believe, what the Communicator meant about the crow forgiving her.)

I also see the possibility, which isn’t necessarily mutually exclusive with the above, that being Sin-Bound is not specifically about repeating one’s mistakes -- it’s about turning away from others. For Reki and Rakka, the two are one and the same, so in the absence of other Sin-Bound Haibane, we can’t really say which one was the relevant factor or if it was both.

Given that the humans are said to be meant to help the Haibane as well as the Communicator’s role, Glie is set up in such a way that there can reliably be someone reaching out to each Haibane -- not every moment, but eventually -- and they simply must reach back.

Many people believe that a person can’t achieve their full potential in isolation. Of course particularly when we’re young this is a fact; we need somebody to teach us how to be. How to show kindness, how to evaluate what went wrong so as to learn from our mistakes, and so on; we aren’t born knowing those things. And even as adults, as the saying goes, “we don’t know what we don’t know.” In isolation, it’s difficult for someone to realize what they’re doing wrong and how to change it. Hence getting caught up going in circles and becoming Sin-Bound; as the Circle of Sin implies through its inverse, if they don’t know what they are doing wrong, they cannot break free.

As such, my hypothesis is that is is about specifically repeating your past mistakes -- but that in the supportive environment of Glie, so long as someone does not turn away from others, they are less likely to be stuck repeating their past mistakes. Many people believe that humans have an innate capacity toward growth, and if this is a philosophy underlying Haibane Renmei, it would make sense that all they need to achieve their growth in Glie is some support and guidance. If they turn away from that support and guidance, they don’t get the influences needed to change... and thus they will repeat their mistakes.

That’s my conclusion.

#haibane renmei

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