Haibane Renmei.
It's difficult to explain the ending, because of how overwhelming it is.
The series paces itself along a patient path with a few abstract themes, but nothing too heavy -- and certainly not intrusive -- as it delights in showing you characters functioning in a kind of utopia; a paradise with several underlying mysteries that -- and to my appreciation -- do not explain themselves, even in the end. So when the drama comes, it really does lay on you, because of how infrequent it is, and how well it's executed.
sort of SPOILER ALERT
You really do feel as though you're discovering this small town and it's surrounding countryside with Rakka (the main character), so when she does have that fallout with her older-sister figure, and reality breaks through a dark psychological barrier (again, this isn't a dark drama), you're just astounded.
I was literally tearing at it's execution, "how did a Japanese drama just match some of the best film-endings from the west?" There are only just a few that come to mind that hold such emotional gravity.
Anyways, that's my two cents.
It's difficult to explain the ending, because of how overwhelming it is.
The series paces itself along a patient path with a few abstract themes, but nothing too heavy -- and certainly not intrusive -- as it delights in showing you characters functioning in a kind of utopia; a paradise with several underlying mysteries that -- and to my appreciation -- do not explain themselves, even in the end. So when the drama comes, it really does lay on you, because of how infrequent it is, and how well it's executed.
sort of SPOILER ALERT
You really do feel as though you're discovering this small town and it's surrounding countryside with Rakka (the main character), so when she does have that fallout with her older-sister figure, and reality breaks through a dark psychological barrier (again, this isn't a dark drama), you're just astounded.
I was literally tearing at it's execution, "how did a Japanese drama just match some of the best film-endings from the west?" There are only just a few that come to mind that hold such emotional gravity.
Anyways, that's my two cents.