Rakka
| Kanji | 落下 |
| Meaning | Falling |
| Cocoon dream | Falling out of the sky, crow in formation |
| Haibane age | 6 months (end of series) |
| Biological age | ~14 |
| True name | 絡果 |
| Meaning | Meddling nut |
Contents
Name
Rakka as in falling was chosen as her name in the first episode. The Wall's tag system updated her story, probably in the ninth episode, which was revealed in the twelvth episode when the Communicator gave her her new Rakka-as-in-meddling-nut name tag. She noted that in the first episode, her hatching robe smelled of nuts, but it is not clear whether this is the normal smell of the robe or related to her true name.
Character
Rakka is the main character, and it is rare for a camera far from her to reveal anything significant. She's always reluctant to trouble others for her own benefit, except in situations as desperate as when she fell into the well in the eighth episode. Conversely, she is quick to get involved in helping others, from Reki, her major case, to Dai and Sumika. Consistent with her first name, she is capable of hitting the ground at great speeds with little to no injury, but is otherwise in poor athletic shape. Her red hair tends to be unkempt, although much of this seems to result from a pastry-contaminated halo. She tends to get emotional, mourning at length the loss of her friend Kuu in the sixth episode, the crow (who appears to be a close friend or relative of her precursor) in the eighth episode, and the pending Day of Flight (or otherwise) of her best friend Reki. Strangely, she gets the relatively lonely job of cleaning the tags in the moat space inside the Wall, a job which she gets after touching it in the ninth episode. Speaking of which, touching the Wall is a rare and serious crime, resulting in a catastrophic illness and potentially long-lasting repurcussions for the offender and others in the community. Rakka escaped such via more luck than skill, and because her offense wasn't so deliberate.
Precursor
Many theories abound about Rakka's precursor, but the most memorable is probably that of Reflections, an anime music video done for the 2006 AKROSS Convention's AMV contest in Russia. In it, she is also Haruka Suzumiya of Kimi ga Nozomu Eien also known as Rumbling Hearts. Haruka is caught in a car crash while waiting to meet her boyfriend, and remains in a coma for three years. Her appearances in the AMV are reskinned as Rakka, as though she is the only character, mourning the loss of her boyfriend to another woman while imprisoned in Glie. (While they have different seiyu in the Japanese mother tongue, Carrie Savage voices both characters in their English dubs.)
Future in Glie
Little is known of fan fiction which explores Rakka's life as a haibane after Haibane Renmei ends. (Feel free to add yours if you have one.) While not a featured character, Rakka is one of the most memorable haibane in FHD Remix: Three Worlds In One, where she lives for 48 years, meddling with hundreds of haibane and aging into a sweet old lady. Her last protege was Menmo, who knew her for eight months before Rakka's Day of Flight. She did get to learn of who tried to steal her boat in the eleventh episode of Haibane Renmei, creatures known in FHD Remix as "brats" or in Doom 3 officially as "cherubs". She also met other enemy types and inflicted several kills and injuries using the boat's punt. She was also Communicator for quite some time, even as a full-fledged haibane (as opposed to "normal" Communicators, which are haibane with their wings lost. This is apparent in Haibane Renmei, but demystified to a much greater extent in the FHD Remix trilogy.) She was succeeded by a normal Communicator, and, after a vacancy of just over five years, haibane Tatakai became the new tag cleaner. Haibane Menmo succeeded her as "meddler" in haibane emotional problems.
