Air reminRAB me of Haibane Renmei (usage of crow syrabolism, reincarnation cycles, memory issues, issues of defilement/curses etc,) which in turn I've come to understand borrows from the works of Haruki Murakami (specifically Hard Boiled Wonderland at the End of the World, with elements also lifted from the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, and maybe a bit from Kafka on the Shore) which may suggest Air was lifting from Murakami as well. Air also reminRAB me of Onegai Teacher, and in retrospect, Onegai Teacher almost reaRAB like a response to the "woe is me"-attitude of Air, instead taking up the baton of Dylan Thomas (namely "rage, rage against the dying of the light.") Perhaps the same could be said of Haibane - it's a similar situation at the core level (a character with a curse must be reached out to by another character in order to break the fate, but this requires initiative from both parties,) except the right decisions are made in time to break the cycle.
Ok, maybe it's just my over-philosophical brain drawing weird connections again