they go to heaven and become angels

Well, I aint sure if they becomes angels, but yea, I think it's implied they go to heaven...btw ABe is a "he".

>>3
Ah ok, I wasnt sure if Abe was a he or not, since Ive seen some girls with that name too. ^_^ And I think the usual assumption is that they go to heaven, just wasnt sure if Abe had actually come out and said so or just left us in the dark.

At http://cff.ssw.net/forum/index.php you will find many discussions regarding Haibane Renmei...

This is not a Christian anime, except for the wings. Yasuyuki Ueda said so directly in the DVD interview. It should be interpreted more as Buddhist, since it's Japanese.

I was going to say something abouth whether or not christian angels actually have wings or not, but then I decided to do some research first, and my head exploded. Sorry.

Well heaven and hell do exist in Japanese religious beliefs, though they arent the exactly the same as western heaven and hell - the Japanese just dont have angels in their religious myths like westerners do (I believe). :)

As for angels having wings... in the bible Im not sure they actually say that angels have wings, the only one who are written as having them are the seraphim - so I guess they just expanded on the idea and said angels do too. ^_^

heh, this is the last pic (i think) in my Haibane Renmei artbook... XD

btw, his first name is Yoshitoshi, a male name. ABe is his last/family name. An honest mistake though, since by Japanese addressing, his name would be "ABe Yoshitoshi". (first name last, last name first, for those who didn't know.)

And some of us prefer to call him by what in Japanese, as you pointed out, is considered to be his *first* name (i.e., some of us prefer to call him ABe and not Yoshitoshi because of the fact that, for all intents and purposes, ABe *is* his first name in Japanese culture).

Also according to Japanese culture, if you were to call him by his first name (ie Yoshitoshi), youd be considered impolite... In fact, I believe that its more proper to call artists and authors and the like sensei. :)

It's only a pen name anyway.

(His real name is Yoshiwara Abe)

Erm never thougth about his pen name and what would be his first or last. In general I refer to him as "ABe" because thats the handle he used early on on bbs and on his site. Before all this lain business and what not he was part of a EARLY CG group. Quite accessable to. Sadly shortly after the PSX release of lain the site stopped getting regular updates and much of the work was removed due to request from poineer. -_-;' If memeory serves His name was listed as Yoshitoshi ABe so go figure if that JP style or ENG style. lol Either way I loved his style then and still do.

early CG? like this?

There's been a set of his older artwork floating around on WinNY forever... I don't think it's remotely comprehensive, but here's a sample, anyhow.

I *really* like that picture.

Abe, the one time I caught him at a con said that it was largely a personal story for him and that it wasn't intended to evoke any particular religion at all. it was about something that happened in his own life that he couched in some metaphors.