"Grey Feather Alliance", produced in 2002, is a film that picks people to pick time and pick moods. The first rays of sunlight on the summer afternoon shine into the window sill, the room is open air conditioning, the air conditioning temperature is 20 degrees, such an environment, the most suitable for watching "Gray Feather Alliance".
The so-called gray feather, according to the official version, refers to a child who commits suicide in this world. Before they go through reincarnation, they must go to a place called Kurijo and wait for forgiveness and redemption. Once redeemed, they will leave Kurijo and enter a new cycle of reincarnation.
The gray feathers in Kurijo will forget everything in this world, and can only remember a vague dream, which is their only connection with this world.
An old house, a few girls with gray wings and a group of small children. A town that cannot be walked out, only birds can climb high walls.
The person known as Gray Feather was born out of his cocoon and will leave quietly one day without permission. During this time they lived in towns, along with other humans. Work, eat, smile, daze, worry, sadness, gratitude. Just don't say goodbye.
This is a story that cannot but be called bland, but it is sweet because of the aftertaste, and it is warm to the heart because of the touch.
God imagined drawing creatures that resembled Himself, but drawing too much of Himself was a failure. So, The god painted the wings gray, made a hole in the aura, named them gray feathers, and hid them in the corner of his mind. Later, God created a human being with neither wings nor aura, and this time it was very successful, and God was very satisfied, so he took a nap. The gray feathers that should have disappeared slipped out of the god's head, and when the god woke up, the gray feathers were already flying in the air. But because God is very lenient about failure, he let that small space and gray feathers stay in this world. In this way, the street is neither on the earth nor in the sea, and now floats lightly in the air.
The preface is Rakka and Mian's imagination of the beginning of the world in the library, and "What is the real gray feather, what is the world outside the wall", Rakka's question, which is also the question of everyone, until the end of the story, the author did not answer. The first problem Rakka faces when she emerges from the cocoon is the name, and she has a dream that has been falling, so she takes the name "Falling". Rakka's real name is Guoguo, which means intertwined fruit, and even though she has closed her mind, her connection with others has emerged like a seed sprouting. The real name of Reki is the crusher (that is, the last track of the story), and the re-transformation into gravel is the meaning of guidance and stepping stones.
"Gray feathers, oviparous, soon after birth, they have gray wings on their backs and beautiful halos on their heads, but their appearance and posture are no different from those of humans. They are neither angelic nor human beings. They live in a peaceful and warm Town surrounded by high walls, protected by the Grey Feather Alliance, and live an indisputable life with humans. ”
This is the story originally described by Abe Yoshitoshi in his fan's work オールドホームの灰羽達 (オーヱムの灰羽達) (オールドホームの灰羽達) (オームの灰羽達). In 2002, Abe Yoshitoshi, who had already begun to receive praise and widespread attention for "Lain", launched his own work, "Gray Feather Alliance". In this work, Abe Yoshitoshi single-handedly served as the original case, script, series composition, etc., and it can be said that he did his best to dye this work with the color that belonged to Abe.
Although the story in the original fandom only has about 1 episode of the anime, Abe has developed and extended it, and with a worldview setting that is not strict and complex, it is by no means flawed, and has set up a stage for the audience, although simple, but extremely expressive. At the same time, Otani's participation in music also coincided with Abe's ambition to impress people's hearts. For "Grey Feather League", which has a relaxed plot and is not in a hurry, the existence of music is stronger and more important than other works. Not only is the whole OST an unquestionable masterpiece, but the three most important pieces of this work - OP "Free bird", ED "Blue Flow", and the final song "Love will light the way", are not only very much in line with the tone of the work itself, but also excellent works that are not inferior even as a single. Especially at the end of the work, "Love will light the way", which appeared like a song, not only has a sense of soul, but also a female singer from the Philippines, Julianne, sings English songs, and even has a different flavor.
In general, this work is very well matched in all aspects, neither redundant nor missing, which is a superior masterpiece. Although it is not possible to praise in a vain way with words such as "God's work", it is by no means unaffordable to recommend and praise. For this work, if the storyline is extended, the introduction is not important, but the worldview that gradually unfolds as the story progresses, and the resulting promotion of people's thinking and feelings to the viewer, is worthy of a big book.
Gray Feather is neither an angel nor a human being, some speculate that they are dead children on earth, and Gray Feather with the mark of "sin" is a child of suicide; Another explanation is that Gray Feather is a child who has disappeared or is unconscious in the human world, and once they are redeemed and leave the nest, they will return to this world. At the same time, their names are related to their dreams, which are means of suicide, such as Rakka is a falling building, Kana is drowning, Nemu died of sleeping pills, etc.
At the beginning of the anime, we thought it was just a warm healing system, chestnut town, and everyone in the old home lived peacefully until the sixth empty nest. And all the cruelty of this film is really presented. Rakka has a deep fear and reluctance to leave the air, but she sees that the others do not act as a natural sadness, she is sad and confused, what is "leaving the nest" and "what is Gray Feather?" Such a question surfaced again after the warmth of 5 words. And what is even more frightening is that the curse of sin begins, and ink spots appear on Rakka's gray wings... The departure of emptiness causes Rakka to begin to doubt herself, unable to find the direction of life, inferiority and negative self-denial to the extreme, and all the repression ends in the sentence "Gray feather ya! lucky!” The next explosion exploded. And in the dry well of the West Forest, at the call of the bird and relieved, Rakka's sins were redeemed, "Although it is the remains of the bird, I feel that he is someone I have known before, thank you." ”
The Grey Feathers did not always exist in Chestnut City, and if Grey Feathers could not leave the nest, their result was not to stay in Chestnut Castle forever, but to disappear, which humans call "death". And when she came out of the cocoon, she was burdened with the gravel of sin, no matter how strong she was on the outside, and she cared and helped others all the time, but when she finally revealed her heart to Rakka, she said that I was not from the heart at all, those were just the means by which I wanted to get salvation. You know Rakka, when you showed up, I really thought this was my last chance to be redeemed. She never believed anyone, because what if the call from her heart to "save me" was not answered? At that time the sky had a red moon, a roaring train, on the gravel tracks, waiting alone for the drowned Reki.
Gravel, my favorite gray feather, the leader of the old home gray feathers, female, has been a gray feather for 7 years, loves to smoke and ride a motorcycle. Deep down, Gravel hopes to be redeemed by helping others become a good gray feather, but thinks that he cannot be redeemed, so he falls into a psychological circle.
In this life, Gravel commits suicide because of loneliness. No relatives, no friends, just died alone. And in Kurijo, she has people who love her, Dark Forest, Ice Lake, Sleep, and Gray Feathers. The initial gravel was willful, because of her willfulness, the ice lake almost died, and Dark Sen also suffered from a serious cold. In the later period, he thought of getting forgiveness by helping others, but hated himself who used helping others as a means, and always felt that he could not be redeemed.
Alone, but never asking for help from others, afraid of despair after being rejected. Gravel's idea also seems to be somewhat similar to some people's. There seems to be such a person among my friends, a person who is burdened with a task that many people can complete, but never asks for help from others, and lives very tired and hard.
Later, Gravel was relieved and left Kurijo. Falling held out his hand to her and told her that you were not alone.
As mentioned earlier, the birth of the gray feathers is because of "sin", so the day of leaving the nest may be the "atonement" period set for the gray feathers according to the severity of the "sin", so it will have the setting that the gray feathers who cannot leave the nest day will end up alone.
The wings of the grey feathers are the gray of tranquility, not the innocence of white, nor the black of depravity. However, when the gray feathers further deviate from the self-knowledge and begin to deny themselves more intensely, they will contract a disease that makes the feathers black. After leaving the nest empty, the sudden birth and sudden departure of gray feathers made Luo Luo briefly confused about the meaning of his existence. Thinking that "even if I am gone, it will not affect anyone", the walls of the town become cages for falling, so her wings begin to turn black, almost becoming a month of sin. Gravel, on the other hand, is a felon, born with contaminated wings, unable to see his dreams in a cocoon, and far more evasive of himself.
So the process of the two of them opening their hearts has become the focus of the "Grey Feather Alliance".
So, how does Gray Feather atone for his sins? Their use of the old is not torture and trial, but a necessary state of life as a redeemer. To borrow what the narrator said about the fall in the forest:
"The convict is not guilty".
As long as you know what your sin is, and you can face it squarely and face it, then you are naturally free from sin. Just as in the blazing sun, the shadows will not spread, and if you just run away or even close your eyes, then it is naturally dark in front of you. In reality, the various shackles we put on ourselves out of thin air, in fact, we must be able to recognize the reason for its face and take the step of haze, and it will not be too difficult.
Therefore, the atonement of the grey feathers does not require much pain and suffering to accumulate, and there is no need to obtain any spiritual salvation by abusing themselves. What they follow is a bland and gentle quasi-religious rule, and it is enough to just break out of the knot. Therefore, as an organizational framework, the Grey Feather Alliance is not so much a manager and a regulator as a spectator and a helper.
There is no "standard" beauty design with a sharp chin and a slender body, no background that is complex and difficult enough to be examined for too long, no jingo iron saber lightsaber shadow, no life and death love and hate, no heart-rending lungs, no pain and itching, no mutual forget-it-all, no bridge section that you can think of that can be called a gimmick, and even no impassioned "great man-style speech".
All in all, the work does not have any elements of noise and noise, does not satisfy the fantasy of princes and princesses, heroes and beauties, salvation, and even the fantasy itself, which is stingy in order to convey meaning other than "true mood". The entire work is shrouded in only a hazy and warm gray, enveloping the viewer in a cocoon filled with water, vaguely listening to the sounds of the outside world and thinking about himself in solitude.
In 2002, when "Grey Feather Alliance" was produced, internet life had not yet spread to the entire era, and the torrent of information had not yet caused a catastrophe. The cute attribute has not yet achieved mass production, and the single-handedness of a single work is still the mainstream of the times. At that time, elementary school students could not hang mobile phones around their necks; Middle school students will not worry about how to create their own blog or space literarily; College students don't necessarily know what the meaning of the house is, and they don't think about how many beautiful fandom sites they will update on Twitter in the future. Therefore, the lack of choice at that time became the reason for collapsing the heart. A DVD can be spent for a whole weekend, or even a month of free time.
"Grey Feather Alliance", which is watched in this state of mind and spirit, can reflect its true meaning. The Grey Feather Alliance does not have the function of filling the tired spirit that has been squeezed by the weight of reality, its purpose is to seek an outlet for the misguided mind.
Although this work is often classified as a healing department, it is not satisfied with smoothing the wound with a smile full of sunshine, but tends to clean up the rotten flesh of the wound little by little in the form of stripping away the cocoon, in the form of letting the audience experience it with the people in the play. Therefore, being able to follow the pace of the characters in the work and adjust their mood bit by bit has become a suitable viewing angle for this work.
In fact, we are just forced forward by a huge amount of information, and if we stand still, we will find that life is not as hasty and crowded as imagined. If you don't even have time to heal your own mind, then watch out if you're in prison in a cold wonderland. Gray Feather's redemption is inevitably accompanied by painful and bloody rebirth, and whether you can find your own direction to take off after that is exactly what this Grey Feather Alliance wants to help you.
When did you start falling in love with healing films? When you are physically and mentally exhausted, gently click on it to relax your mood without too much tension and thinking. And the music of this film is really worth recommending, the theme song freebird has long become a famous song in the anime industry, and the ost in it is also ethereal and good, with the plot just right, not like Yuki Oura. Although "Grey Feather Alliance" is also an old film, I believe that there are many friends who have not yet been involved. Hot summer, warm and cool healing system, are you ready?