Haibane Renmei is a Japanese animated television series. It was directed by Tomokazu Tokoro, animated by the Japanese animation studio Radix, and produced by Yasuyuki Ueda. The episodes are based on the brief dōjinshi by Yoshitoshi ABe, expanding on the original concepts over thirteen episodes. ABe also wrote the screenplay for the anime. The plot of the episodes follows Rakka, a girl who hatches from a cocoon in a strange town with no memory of who she was before.
The episodes aired from October 10, 2002, to December 19, 2002, on Animax and Fuji Television. The first five ran two weeks apart, and the remaining eight were shown weekly in back-to-back pairs.[1]
Geneon, Haibane Renmeis Japanese distributor, also owned the license for the series' English release in the United States until it was acquired by Funimation in 2010.[2] [3] MVM Films owns distribution rights in the United Kingdom and Madman Entertainment owns them in Australia and New Zealand.
Two pieces of theme music are used for the episodes; one opening theme and one closing theme. The opening theme is "Free Bird" by Kow Otani and the closing theme is "Blue Flow" by Masumi Itō with Heart of Air. The soundtrack album, Hanenone, was released on December 30, 2002, in Japan[4] and August 5, 2003, in the United States.[5]
In Japan, Geneon released a total of 5 DVD compilations of Haibane Renmei between December 21, 2002, and April 25, 2003. Instead of being called "discs," these releases were labelled "COG.1," "COG.2," etc. A complete three-disc boxed set was released on November 21, 2004.
| Japanese releases | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Volume | Released | Discs | Episodes | |
| 1 | December 21, 2002[7] | 1 | 1 | |
| 2 | January 24, 2003[8] | 1 | 3 | |
| 3 | February 21, 2003[9] | 1 | 3 | |
| 4 | March 21, 2003[10] | 1 | 3 | |
| 5 | April 25, 2003[11] | 1 | 3 | |
| Box set | March 21, 2007[12] | 3 | 13 | |
In the United States, Geneon released 4 DVD compilations of Haibane Renmei, each with its own title, between August 26, 2003, and February 24, 2004. The first disc was available either on its own or with a storage box for the series; the four discs were released together as a box set on November 21, 2004. In 2012, Funimation re-released the series in a 2-disc set under their Anime Classics label.
| North American releases | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Volume | Title | Released | Discs | Episodes | |
| 1 | "New Feathers" | August 26, 2003[13] | 1 | 4 | |
| 2 | "Wings of Sorrow" | October 28, 2003[14] | 1 | 3 | |
| 3 | "Free Bird" | December 14, 2003[15] | 1 | 3 | |
| 4 | "Day of Flight" | February 24, 2004[16] | 1 | 3 | |
| Box set | October 18, 2005[17] | 4 | 13 | ||
| Anime Classics Set | September 4, 2012 | 2 | 13 | ||