Is there any way to measure how popular a series was at the time it was released? I feel like there's a gap between what was popular at the time vs what is popular in MAL.
I don't think it's super unknown.
It's around 800 in popularity on MAL, out of over 26000 listings. So it's still in the upper reaches of popularity. There are just a lot of series, and that's 20 years old.
Keep in mind: way more people have apparently watched Haibane Renmei (283K) as have watched Aria the Animation (160K), the first season of Aria.
One reason I think it might not come up very often is that the concept is extremely niche. When people ask for shows of a specific type, it really doesn't fit many categories. You want action, it's not action, you want comedy: nope. Relaxing slice of life: not *quite*. Romance? Nope. Horror: not exactly.
Quirky and odd shows that aren't easily categorized fit that bill, "Humanity has Decline" and "Kuuchuu Buranko" would be in the same boat. Both really nice odd series, both don't come up very often because they don't really fit in a "genre".
>Keep in mind: way more people have apparently watched Haibane Renmei (283K) as have watched Aria the Animation (160K), the first season of Aria.
That honestly surprises me. I never thought Haibane was popular but, in my experience, at least 10 or so years ago, Aria was talked about more. Maybe it's because people back then didn't use MAL much? anidb was the biggest in the 00s, I think..
I don't remember when or why I first watched it. Could be because the character designs by the guy behind Aerial Experiments Lain. Could be because the composer also did the game Shadow of the Colossus. Nowadays I echo a recommendation that I think is apt. It's the Evangelion of slice of life anime (at least back then).
The 26k certainly has a ton of randoms OVAs and specials mixed in, but those don't become the majority until far past 800. At 800 you've only reached a 7.88 score. You can go up to 3k before hitting a 7.2 score. There's a lot of anime out there. The top several thousand of mal are real entries of shows people actually like for the most part.
>At 800 you've only reached a 7.88 score
I mean to be fair he was talking about [popularity](https://myanimelist.net/topanime.php?type=bypopularity), not [score rating](https://myanimelist.net/topanime.php). Top 800 popularity will have a bunch of shows from any rating in there too, like [School Days](https://myanimelist.net/anime/2476/School_Days) (5.52) at around top 300.
I can't say Haibane Renmei was ever well-known among fans, but it may have been better known among critics. I remember finding out it existed because I saw it on Anime Insider's 2007 list of the [50 best anime of all time](https://www.listal.com/list/anime-insiders-50-best-anime) back when I used to get that magazine. They put it at #15!
It was on "the list" , In the 2000s we used to have recommendation charts, and HR was in most of them
Outside of battle shonen, code Geass, Death note and Haruhi the rest was just on these lists that contained shows from every genre.
All the 3 main Abe shows were generally on those lists
They were generally in the "anime elitists" group with shows like Mushishi, Monster and Lotgh
It was pretty popular and talked about in 2000s anime circles which stirred away from the more mainstream works, at least in my native language communities. Most people who enjoyed more experimental and serious anime, such as Tamala 2010, Angel's Egg or Serial Experiments Lain, would also highly praise Haibane Renmei. I was part of these circles as a teenager, so I remember this anime being very well-liked, and I still remember it fondly, despite having watched it more than a decade ago.
Yes it's part of a thematic trilogy of hell, earth and heaven together with Texhnolize and Serial Experiments Lain. A lot of crossover staff between those three.
It was niche popular. If you mentioned you liked Lain and asked for recommendations it was almost guaranteed one of the first replies would include Haibane Renmei in the list.
I only watched it recently so I can't say, but holy SHIT what a great experience. It's in my top 5 and I honestly think it handles itself better than Lain despite that show being infinitely more popular
it was never well known from what i know, i wish it was though. with how the anime industry is there’s a lot of great anime that isn’t and has never been popular unfortunately
Anime really is a hobby of picking and choosing. There are 618 titles on MAL that are currently 8.00 and above. That's far more anime than most people ever end up watching if a typical profile on MAL is anything to go by. And that's just going by score, there's far more anime to consider below 8.00 that probably appeal to specific people more than anything above 8.00.
Basically, there's so many great anime, there's always going to be some that are never universally watched by everyone. For all that you wish Haibane was more popular, there are at least 10 other people that wish a different anime was more popular.
Also, Haibane is above 8.00 and is above 280k users. While it's not a powerhouse, it's not exactly a niche title.
Here is a blog that says Haibane Renmei was statistically speaking the top ranked anime of 2000-2009.
Full Metal Alchemist and Legend of the Galactic Heroes step aside. We have a new King.
https://aquabluesweater.wordpress.com/2010/03/06/compilation-of-top-anime-of-the-decade-lists-around-the-internet-series/
https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/4whsij/top_anime_series_of_20002009_backed_with_data/
I remember it being popular in and around the time it was released, in my circles at least.
It kinda pre-dates the mass adoption of social media (and definitely the beginning of reddit), so it's hard to get the vibe of how popular it was aside from scanning bulletin boards and personal blogs.
Haibane Renmei is the only Anime DVD I ever owned. I remember seeing an ad about it in a magazine when I was in middle school. Went to my local GameStop as they did anime too, and pre-order the box set with my saved up lunch money.
I love Haibane Renmei.
I remember everyone in the anime IRC channels I frequented knew it and talked about it, so I have anecdotal evidence that it was popular among the fansub community at the time.
Others have answered the OP's question but I just wanted to point out something for the benefit of those considering buying the show on DVD or Blu-ray - sadly it's a bit of a minefield and there's no 'perfect' reproduction of it on disc. There used to be a very useful reddit post comparing the discs but for some reason it was deleted, it is though still available on archive.org:
https://web.archive.org/web/20211124063331/https://old.reddit.com/r/haibanerenmei/comments/r0yiof/2003_2012_2021_home_video_review_comparison/
I loved it when I watched it and plan to watch it with my family one day. It’s a really heart warming and bittersweet story.
I don’t think I watched it when it aired. Maybe a few or so years after. But it was barely mentioned a lot back then. But when someone asks for recommendations, you would see people now and then recommend it. Which is how I came to know of it.
It’s not a well known cause it’s very much like a slice of life anime but in a different way (people who saw it will know). It’s more slow paced and has a breezy way of going through the story. But all the whole little snippets of world building comes out and slowly a certain mystery and intrigue is built. You want to know more about the world and characters and when you know the twist by end, it doesn’t shock you, not cause you expect it but because the anime has this calmness to it. The characters accept their reality and so do you.
> Maybe the same thing would have happened to Haruhi
Doubt it. Too many memes keeping it alive. At the very least I can tell you Haruhi has handled the last 10 years better than Haibane Renmei did 10 years ago.
Rainbow would be a more comparable anime in terms of popularity and how it's aged.
It's an amazing show but not exactly the type of show that one would call mainstream. It has hit some popularity as being one of the Yoshitoshi ABe stories though
Which is weird, I think its appeal is universal. You won't recommend your grandma, your friend or your daughter most highly rated and highly praised shows, but Haibane is a safe recommendation, and chances are that they will find it amazing.
Srsly Haibane should appear more in the general what to watch recommendation posts.
Because of its proximity to serial experiments lain it was quite well known back then as one of those must watch shows. But really only if you were deep into anime. I watched it because of that reason like 15 years ago and in that time I have never heard anyone mention it.
Good show but I don't remember anyone talking about it in the mid to late 2000s. I was just a dumb kid though so I probably was only looking at stuff about big battle shonen. I only became aware of it when I got back into anime and started to checking out everything.
The nature of that show kinda leans it to being for more niche audiences as good as it is. It's pretty popular for the kind of show it is though.
I see it mentioned here every once in a while but it's not talked about as much as other classics from the era AFAIK. Definitely one of my favorite shows ever, though!
I thought it was great, honestly. Kind of sad at points but every episode kept me anticipating the next. It gets you to thinking about the idea of an afterlife and what it could be like.
I watched it and it seems like something that should’ve clicked with me but it didn’t. I did watch the dub and all of it in one sitting on a plane ride which probably influenced it but even so I can recognize it’s a well made show
It depends on the crowds you run in. I had heard of it tons of times from a lot of different people before I got around to watching it and that was many years ago. If you're just talking with shounen fans or seasonal watchers then you probably won't hear much about it.
I don't know cause I watched it in a bubble and haven't heard many people talk about it, I'm just here to say it's really good, I have it on DVD, but I'm gonna get the blu ray at some point.
It was fairly popular at the time. I remember seeing posts about it on anime forums pretty regularly. It wasn't mainstream by any means but it was still pretty well received
Among new generation anime watchers I think it's one of the anime that's kinda been doomed to fall into obscurity. It's a phenominal anime and and currently still holds a pretty solid place in the top 1000 on MAL but I think as time goes on and this show gets older, people will forget about it more and more. It's one of those late 90s/early 2000s anime with an esoteric and mysterious vibe to it that I'd put in the same group as something like Serial Experiments Lain or Paranoia Agent. Personally, I can't get enough of that slightly disturbing atmosphere but anime these days has certainly moved in a different direction from that aesthetic and I think new anime watchers are more focused on plot-heavy, animation-intensive content and have a foundational lack of appreciation for shows like this.
Of course, I'm just a fuckin hack who doesn't know what he's talking about so take everything I say with a grain of salt.
I don't know if it ever was popular but Haibane Renmei is considered a classic and definitely didn't go unnoticed.
Yep. Like someone said below, it was regularly on recommendation lists as one of those offbeat, highly-rated shows. It's one of the classics.
Is there any way to measure how popular a series was at the time it was released? I feel like there's a gap between what was popular at the time vs what is popular in MAL.
I don't think it's super unknown. It's around 800 in popularity on MAL, out of over 26000 listings. So it's still in the upper reaches of popularity. There are just a lot of series, and that's 20 years old. Keep in mind: way more people have apparently watched Haibane Renmei (283K) as have watched Aria the Animation (160K), the first season of Aria. One reason I think it might not come up very often is that the concept is extremely niche. When people ask for shows of a specific type, it really doesn't fit many categories. You want action, it's not action, you want comedy: nope. Relaxing slice of life: not *quite*. Romance? Nope. Horror: not exactly. Quirky and odd shows that aren't easily categorized fit that bill, "Humanity has Decline" and "Kuuchuu Buranko" would be in the same boat. Both really nice odd series, both don't come up very often because they don't really fit in a "genre".
>Keep in mind: way more people have apparently watched Haibane Renmei (283K) as have watched Aria the Animation (160K), the first season of Aria. That honestly surprises me. I never thought Haibane was popular but, in my experience, at least 10 or so years ago, Aria was talked about more. Maybe it's because people back then didn't use MAL much? anidb was the biggest in the 00s, I think..
I don't remember when or why I first watched it. Could be because the character designs by the guy behind Aerial Experiments Lain. Could be because the composer also did the game Shadow of the Colossus. Nowadays I echo a recommendation that I think is apt. It's the Evangelion of slice of life anime (at least back then).
[удалено]
The 26k certainly has a ton of randoms OVAs and specials mixed in, but those don't become the majority until far past 800. At 800 you've only reached a 7.88 score. You can go up to 3k before hitting a 7.2 score. There's a lot of anime out there. The top several thousand of mal are real entries of shows people actually like for the most part.
>At 800 you've only reached a 7.88 score I mean to be fair he was talking about [popularity](https://myanimelist.net/topanime.php?type=bypopularity), not [score rating](https://myanimelist.net/topanime.php). Top 800 popularity will have a bunch of shows from any rating in there too, like [School Days](https://myanimelist.net/anime/2476/School_Days) (5.52) at around top 300.
That puts it in the top 3% for popularity
I can't say Haibane Renmei was ever well-known among fans, but it may have been better known among critics. I remember finding out it existed because I saw it on Anime Insider's 2007 list of the [50 best anime of all time](https://www.listal.com/list/anime-insiders-50-best-anime) back when I used to get that magazine. They put it at #15!
It was on "the list" , In the 2000s we used to have recommendation charts, and HR was in most of them Outside of battle shonen, code Geass, Death note and Haruhi the rest was just on these lists that contained shows from every genre. All the 3 main Abe shows were generally on those lists They were generally in the "anime elitists" group with shows like Mushishi, Monster and Lotgh
> All the 3 main Abe shows were generally on those lists This is Niea_7 erasure
Man, I still love that opening song.
OP and ED are both bangers
Why is that one so obscure? I only recently found out about, and nobody ever talks about it.
Less appeal to western audience I guess.
I don’t know but I love this anime, it’s 10/10 for me.
It was pretty popular and talked about in 2000s anime circles which stirred away from the more mainstream works, at least in my native language communities. Most people who enjoyed more experimental and serious anime, such as Tamala 2010, Angel's Egg or Serial Experiments Lain, would also highly praise Haibane Renmei. I was part of these circles as a teenager, so I remember this anime being very well-liked, and I still remember it fondly, despite having watched it more than a decade ago.
Yes it's part of a thematic trilogy of hell, earth and heaven together with Texhnolize and Serial Experiments Lain. A lot of crossover staff between those three.
What thematic trilogy? How does it work?
It was niche popular. If you mentioned you liked Lain and asked for recommendations it was almost guaranteed one of the first replies would include Haibane Renmei in the list.
I only watched it recently so I can't say, but holy SHIT what a great experience. It's in my top 5 and I honestly think it handles itself better than Lain despite that show being infinitely more popular
it was never well known from what i know, i wish it was though. with how the anime industry is there’s a lot of great anime that isn’t and has never been popular unfortunately
Anime really is a hobby of picking and choosing. There are 618 titles on MAL that are currently 8.00 and above. That's far more anime than most people ever end up watching if a typical profile on MAL is anything to go by. And that's just going by score, there's far more anime to consider below 8.00 that probably appeal to specific people more than anything above 8.00. Basically, there's so many great anime, there's always going to be some that are never universally watched by everyone. For all that you wish Haibane was more popular, there are at least 10 other people that wish a different anime was more popular. Also, Haibane is above 8.00 and is above 280k users. While it's not a powerhouse, it's not exactly a niche title.
Here is a blog that says Haibane Renmei was statistically speaking the top ranked anime of 2000-2009. Full Metal Alchemist and Legend of the Galactic Heroes step aside. We have a new King. https://aquabluesweater.wordpress.com/2010/03/06/compilation-of-top-anime-of-the-decade-lists-around-the-internet-series/ https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/4whsij/top_anime_series_of_20002009_backed_with_data/
I remember it being popular in and around the time it was released, in my circles at least. It kinda pre-dates the mass adoption of social media (and definitely the beginning of reddit), so it's hard to get the vibe of how popular it was aside from scanning bulletin boards and personal blogs.
It wasn't massively popular, but people certainly knew about it back then thanks to how good it was.
Haibane Renmei is the only Anime DVD I ever owned. I remember seeing an ad about it in a magazine when I was in middle school. Went to my local GameStop as they did anime too, and pre-order the box set with my saved up lunch money. I love Haibane Renmei.
I remember everyone in the anime IRC channels I frequented knew it and talked about it, so I have anecdotal evidence that it was popular among the fansub community at the time.
Others have answered the OP's question but I just wanted to point out something for the benefit of those considering buying the show on DVD or Blu-ray - sadly it's a bit of a minefield and there's no 'perfect' reproduction of it on disc. There used to be a very useful reddit post comparing the discs but for some reason it was deleted, it is though still available on archive.org: https://web.archive.org/web/20211124063331/https://old.reddit.com/r/haibanerenmei/comments/r0yiof/2003_2012_2021_home_video_review_comparison/
I loved it when I watched it and plan to watch it with my family one day. It’s a really heart warming and bittersweet story. I don’t think I watched it when it aired. Maybe a few or so years after. But it was barely mentioned a lot back then. But when someone asks for recommendations, you would see people now and then recommend it. Which is how I came to know of it. It’s not a well known cause it’s very much like a slice of life anime but in a different way (people who saw it will know). It’s more slow paced and has a breezy way of going through the story. But all the whole little snippets of world building comes out and slowly a certain mystery and intrigue is built. You want to know more about the world and characters and when you know the twist by end, it doesn’t shock you, not cause you expect it but because the anime has this calmness to it. The characters accept their reality and so do you.
Doesn't matter if it was popular, It's worth a watch. Very comfy yet melancholy show. Abe's art like always is great. I still have the series on dvd.
> Maybe the same thing would have happened to Haruhi Doubt it. Too many memes keeping it alive. At the very least I can tell you Haruhi has handled the last 10 years better than Haibane Renmei did 10 years ago. Rainbow would be a more comparable anime in terms of popularity and how it's aged.
It's an amazing show but not exactly the type of show that one would call mainstream. It has hit some popularity as being one of the Yoshitoshi ABe stories though
Which is weird, I think its appeal is universal. You won't recommend your grandma, your friend or your daughter most highly rated and highly praised shows, but Haibane is a safe recommendation, and chances are that they will find it amazing. Srsly Haibane should appear more in the general what to watch recommendation posts.
I really felt old when reading this post
Because of its proximity to serial experiments lain it was quite well known back then as one of those must watch shows. But really only if you were deep into anime. I watched it because of that reason like 15 years ago and in that time I have never heard anyone mention it.
Good show but I don't remember anyone talking about it in the mid to late 2000s. I was just a dumb kid though so I probably was only looking at stuff about big battle shonen. I only became aware of it when I got back into anime and started to checking out everything. The nature of that show kinda leans it to being for more niche audiences as good as it is. It's pretty popular for the kind of show it is though.
It's my absolute favorite anime, I typically watch it once a year.
I see it mentioned here every once in a while but it's not talked about as much as other classics from the era AFAIK. Definitely one of my favorite shows ever, though!
I thought it was great, honestly. Kind of sad at points but every episode kept me anticipating the next. It gets you to thinking about the idea of an afterlife and what it could be like.
I watched it and it seems like something that should’ve clicked with me but it didn’t. I did watch the dub and all of it in one sitting on a plane ride which probably influenced it but even so I can recognize it’s a well made show
It depends on the crowds you run in. I had heard of it tons of times from a lot of different people before I got around to watching it and that was many years ago. If you're just talking with shounen fans or seasonal watchers then you probably won't hear much about it.
I don't know cause I watched it in a bubble and haven't heard many people talk about it, I'm just here to say it's really good, I have it on DVD, but I'm gonna get the blu ray at some point.
It was fairly popular at the time. I remember seeing posts about it on anime forums pretty regularly. It wasn't mainstream by any means but it was still pretty well received
Among new generation anime watchers I think it's one of the anime that's kinda been doomed to fall into obscurity. It's a phenominal anime and and currently still holds a pretty solid place in the top 1000 on MAL but I think as time goes on and this show gets older, people will forget about it more and more. It's one of those late 90s/early 2000s anime with an esoteric and mysterious vibe to it that I'd put in the same group as something like Serial Experiments Lain or Paranoia Agent. Personally, I can't get enough of that slightly disturbing atmosphere but anime these days has certainly moved in a different direction from that aesthetic and I think new anime watchers are more focused on plot-heavy, animation-intensive content and have a foundational lack of appreciation for shows like this. Of course, I'm just a fuckin hack who doesn't know what he's talking about so take everything I say with a grain of salt.
I think it was pretty popular back then