Kino's Journey (Kino No Tabi)

KINO'S JOURNEY

A 13 part series, also known as Kino No Tabi in Japanese, based on a series of light novels. 

OVERVIEW -Kino's journey is a fantasy "slice of life"/"journey of exploration" type anime, taken from the light novel series of the same name. set in a world filled with "countries", most normally equating to about the size of a village or a town, each country has its own unique quirks, customs and beliefs. The story follows a traveller called Kino, who along with her talking motorbike, or "motorrad" to use the in-series term, travels between these countries, spending three days, two nights, in each of them they encounter.

REVIEW - Kino's journey was a reccomendation to me by a friend, So it wasnt one i probably would have found by myself. Thats not to say it wasnt to my liking however. 

The Kino of the Title is a young woman, not that its easily shown that she is, and one would easily assume her androgynous appearance is intentional given the harshness of the areas between countries, appearing as a man would likely invite less trouble, attacks and attempted robberies etc, than appearing as a woman. Kino however is skilled in defending herself, with many knives and two guns, with which she practises daily. She also travels with a Motorrad, a type of talking motorbike, and apparently quite a common thing in the world they inhabit. The Motorrad is called "Hermes" but when pronounced, the "H" is silent. The two discuss their lives, their world and the journey they are on, as well as the events of the episode as it happens. In a way Hermes is a writing tool used to allow for easy exposition via dialogue, in much the same way as the gravedigger in hamlet, or Robin does for Batman. The interaction between the two is also quite amusing, with them bickering often like an old married couple. 

The world they travel through isnt exactly a "magical" world, though it has its quirks, such as areas where the land changes itself, Hermes and other Motorrads and the massive differences between each of the "countries" in spite of the apparently small distances and common language and currency among them. Most of the countries make use of technology to some extent, some more than others.

Kino herself is somewhat of a mystery, even with the episode that deals with how she came to be called Kino, and to be a traveller along with Hermes. Her real name forgotten, where she learnt her skills is never really shown, how she earns money to pay for food, fuel and ammo is also never shown, and as the different episodes, even the sections that cover each country, are non-sequential and mostly unrelated its difficult to get a grasp of how Kino is having the journey. The why is often discussed between Kino and Hermes, and the truth is never really gotten to, its possible Kino herself doesnt know why she's travelling. She is shown as being a highly skilled marksman, combatant and survivalist, being able to live off the land, defeat multiple opponants, create her own ammo, outwit professional assasins and think on her feet yet rarely shows any kind of emotion, except around Hermes occasionally. 

In many ways, this killed the entire series for me. Kino shows no remorse for killing people on many occasions, yet ponders over the ethics of taking the lives of three rabbits to feed starving men. She assinates the king of a country and throws the entire society into chaos yet carries herself off with the same empassive look, not caring in the slightest for what she'd done. at times she laughs, smiles or appears to care or worry for others, but its almost like watching some kind of sociopath at times. Her backstory and upbringing could very well explain some of it, coupled with the apparent harsh life that the travellers all seem to face against bandits and unwelcoming countries, but the feeling of a lack of emotional response, or care, really did detract from the anime for me. 

The countries, as i mentioned before, all have their quirks. In most cases its something they've done to save their own citisens, to protect the country or something along those lines. However they are nearly always fairly "dark" by most standards, such as the country that operates on all its 12yr olds to turn them into "perfect adults" who will alway smile and be pleasant while working, even if they hate the job, or the country where no-one has to work, but people choose to because otherwise they loose the will to live. One features two warring countries who settle their wars by killing a less advanced people in the lands between their countries, with the winner decided by who kills the most. Its from these oddities, the strange contradictions in what people will accept for a peaceful life, ease and happiness that vaires from each country that the "tagline" for the series is likely taken, that line being "the world is not beautiful, therefore it is", which really does sum up the overal feel of the show, that of a series of morality tales taken from the point of view of an outside observer. Kino performs that role perfectly, never really taking a side (there's one exception to this when she assasinates a king) and never judging or becoming involved unless she has to.

Overal, the series has a wonderful feel to it, almost fairy-tale like but in the original, dark/harsh realities of life type over the saccarine-sweet lies created by the "disney style" fairy tales. The non-sequential order of the individual tales is hard to follow at times, and the final episode really throws a curve into things. The light novels themselves contain much more, expanding on Kino's personal tale and the world itself and I feel the anime series could well do with another season or two to further explore this, because as it stands, the 13 episodes are simply not enough.

SUMMARY - 

Story - Taken as an overal story, Kino's Journey isnt that great, there's no real advancement to the characters, even with being shown Kino's begining, we simply see who she used to be in contrast to who she is now. With Kino and Hermes being the only characters who you see repeatedly, there's also no-one else to see any growth in. The individual segments are exceptionally well written however, with Kino's arrival nearly always causing or co-inciding with major events in each country, or the revelation of a secret etc. Its hard to give this an overal rating, as its such a contradiction, so I shall break it down into to part, giving a 5/5 for the story as it appears for each individual section, but a 2/5 for the overal arch, as it really doesnt go anywhere at all. 7/10

Production -  Created in 2003, Kino's journey is all hand-drawn, with no CGI used, allowing it to escape from the periods CGI related issues. Its exceptionally well done, its washed-out pastel colours enhancing the fairy tale feel to the storytelling and makes great use of cinematic techniques for framing the scenes too. it also never falls into the "blurry" shortcuts often used, and has consistancy in how the characters are drawn too, in short, while nothing exceptional or groundbreaking in its presentation, it does what it does nearly perfectly. 9/10

 

Music -Kino's Journey really doesnt have a standout score, with the fairly normal types of dramatic or mood music present. while not doing anything wrong, its not really anything memorably either. 5/10

 

Accessability -Set in an entirely different world, which resembles Europe more than Japan, Kino's journey also doesnt really have any of the cultural stereotypes either. Its worth noting however that the translation between Japanese and English caused some strangeness. As I always watch the subtitled versions of shows, I was forced to watch a dubbed episode on one occasion as the subtitle version didnt work. This not only re-enforced why i dislike the American dubs (really awful voice acting, so cheesy and "saturday morning cartoon" style) but showed some of the differences caused in translation. I would reccomend the subtitled versions, as they tend to keep in the language-based referances and feel less forced than the dubs. 9/10

Overall Impression -A great production, an interesting premise and a wonderfully odd world, the big drawbacks for me with Kino's Journey was the apparent lack of any emotional response from Kino or Hermes, the disjointed feel of the various sections and the lack of an overal arc, or even point to the series. Taken as a series of observations on morality and how it can be very subjective, it performs that role well, but without a well defined begining or end its very hard to get in to the series, and as it ends after only 13 episodes it really does leave you hanging, wondering why Kino was travelling, what the point of it all actually was and with so many other questions. The story does have the light novels i've mentioned before, a couple of OVA's and two movies that answer some of those, and allow you to explore the world more, but as this is a review for the series as it is, i'm sadly going to have to score it low. 4/10

Final Score - 34/50