Anime Discussion Thread - Page 160

word of god saying Lelouch died?

For me, the only tone shift happens at the end of episode 6/beginning of episode 7. Yes there's a separation between the Rakka and Reki story arcs, but there's no separation in the overall tone guiding both of them - that of despair and finally salvation.

I think the darkness is definitely not hidden, especially by the end of the show. Episodes 1-5 are definitely light and fluffy, and you don't get the sense that anything is wrong - You're still trying to get your bearings in this new world. By episode 6 though, you know something is wrong.

As for your suicide theory, I don't think it properly fits with some other elements in the show. For example, I honestly can't think of a way you can figure out how Kuu died (floating in the air?) or Hikari (surrounded by light?), not to mention the countless number of children in the story (how would they have killed themselves?). Not only that, but look at the other people that we know of. Hyohko (ice lake) could be construed to drowning in the winter or something like that, but Midori (greenery) and Kuramori (dark forest) are hard to guess. Oh by the way, for Rakka, I think falling from a cliff or something for that would be more appropriate because she wasn't surrounded by darkness.

In any case, I think that Glie is basically purgatory. However, it's not the Catholic purgatory. It's where one where those who have not ultimately understood life go. I can't really phrase it well, but think of it as a commentary on the human condition. The reason why you see primarily children as Haibane is because they are completely innocent and have not experienced the life they should have experienced (remember that the forms the Haibane take may not be the ones they had in their human life. An example would be that other Reki in a white dress at the end). Notice how Haibanes are supposed to live in Glie. They are to work, but not for money, but the right to live as they want. They do not work for material possessions, but rather for life experience. The cocoons serve as the means through which they are reborn from the end of their human lives to their Haibane lives. The dreams are a representation of their final moments in life. Not necessarily from suicide, but from natural death. It's still hard to find an EXACT death to match each one, but that's a minor point of the anime.

The major point is to emphasize what Abe thinks is important to human nature - understanding, compassion, and friendship. Those who have lost their way or have completely denied human connection become Sin-Bound. Reki stays a Sin-Bound because she rejects help from other Haibane, and Rakka rejects the world around her and its compassion towards her. And her actions in the previous life (rejecting human compassion and quite possibly killing herself) caused her to be born a Sin-Bound.

lulu never died! he was driving the carriage at the end

I never understood why people want him to be alive. In his position, it is much better to be dead than alive. Thematically, it makes little sense to keep him alive either. So why insist that he is the one driving the carriage when we've had interviews saying that he is dead?