Piro speaks:
Boy, it sure is hard creating an enviroment, tone, giving enough info to do what is needed and all in a page. Short stories are the most challenging, even when you have some existing concepts and ideas in readers minds to use either wholecloth or to contrast with.

Those aren't by chance inspired by the Somerset, PA Windmill Power Generators near the PA Turnpike?

Piro speaks:
Actually, yes, i love that particular set of turbines - the largest set i've seen, really. They are kind of unworldly, aren't they?
On one particular trip to Baltimore, Sarah and i got off the highway and drove around the area to try to get a closer look. I have a lot of pictures from that excursion. The crazy thing is - it was really hard to find out any information about that particular windfarm.
I've seen quite a few other turbines as well, there's one in toronoto, there's several in europe, and the most unusual sighting for me was looking down from the airplane on our way from Dublin to Gatwick, London and seeing the HUGE turbines out in sea off of dublin. You could see the darn things from the plane at altitude :)
Yes, i have a bizzare fascination with wind turbines, and i had it before seeing haibane renmei too :P I've often joked with sarah that if i became fabulously rich off of stuff, i wouldn't be buying fancy sports cars and $9,000 watches - i'd put up a wind turbine somewhere. :P
anyways, just a small side interest of mine that has more to do with thier asthetics than thier enviromental issues. I don't know what it would be like to really live near one, if the fascination would wear off... also, as a bird lover there are issues with bird kills on these things, so while they are hardly bad, they aren't innocent...

Seems similar to Haruki Murakami's "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World".

Piro speaks:
Funny you should mention that, because its quite clear that Abe was inspired by Hard Boiled, so much so that Guri is really lifted right out of that book. Even the maps of the town are the same and have the same features.
It's very curious if you read Hard Boiled after watching Haibane, and think about the way they might relate. Of course, this will also give you a splitting headache and make you fear for what little stability there might be in the temporal world. :)

Piro speaks:
its actually quite interesting read and an unusual counterpoint to Haibane renmai. its quite different, in fact, it reminds me of a William Gibson novel, and the significance of similarities, and differences (there are no girls with wings and halos in Hard Boiled Wonderland, for instance) give a interestingly complete picture and way at looking at each of the works.