Plot: an androgynous, Colt-wielding girl travels across the country on her talking motorcycle while maintaining a neutral stance on philosophical issues.
That's probably the best summary I will ever write.
Kino's Journey is a 13-episode series that follows traveler Kino as she rides from isolated country to isolated country. She gets around on Hermes, her motorcycle, or motorrad. Hermes talks. Nobody seems to think that this is strange. Except for one two-parter, each episode stands apart from the others, and Kino and Hermes are really the only recurring characters. Chronologically, episode 4 takes place first, then 13. Some episodes contain several stories from her travels, such as "Three Men Along the Rails." This episodic approach means that there is no overarching plotline, no character arcs for Kino or any other characters. On one hand, you don't have to invest anything in wondering if the story will turn out all right, which could be a turn-off for some. On the other hand, you don't have to keep track of several subplots and dozens of characters. While retaining suspense within the episodes, it also gives a laid-back approach to the story that one doesn't see very often.
The animation is very easy on the eyes, with lush backgrounds and subdued colors reminiscent of sepia photographs. Lots of greens, greys, and browns abound here. The character designs are quite simplistic but do the job--they reminded me of the designs in Fantastic Children. I've never marked an anime down for having simple designs. The designs and color palette give a unique, antiquated, sketchbook-like look to the story that is very pleasant to watch and fits the themes. An more questionable visual look is the horizontal lines that run through the animation. The director chose this to add to the old-fashioned look. Whenever you get sucked into the story, you fail to notice them, but it wasn't the best choice overall to convey the mood. No points off, but unnecessary.
Kino's Journey gives us a full range of emotions, genres, and reactions, from sadness ("Land of Prophecy"), horror ("Land of Adults"), ironic humor ("Three Men Along the Rails"), action ("Colosseum"), science fiction ("Land of Visible Pain"), mind screw ("Land of Books"), joy ("Land of Wizards") and "Kino, you're AWESOME!" ("A Tale of Feeding Off Others"). Most genres get represented here. Heck, Kino's garb and guns are even reminiscent of Westerns. There's a story for every mood, capturing a full human experience. Life gives us melancholy, triumph, silence, laughter, terror, love, war, freedom, slavery, deserts, snow, rabbits, and things that make us go, "What the..." The subtitle for the series is "The Beautiful World," and the series admirably gives us the whole world, which is beautiful because we see many parts of it. Perhaps this is why Kino journeys: staying in one place would give her only a small piece of life, one outlook, which would constrict how she acts and thinks about the moral situations she finds herself in. For the utmost freedom of mind and body, she goes all over the place.
This is not a critique of the show, but a question I have: Where are we? Each country is isolated from the others by great distances; some are more technologically advanced than our society, and some doubt that human flight is possible. Are we in a parallel universe or on another planet? Are we in some odd future or past of Japan? Is Kino actually a time traveler, with each country situated in a different era? The series never even addresses or tries to answer this question, but it puzzles me more than the talking motorcycle. (Hmm...since Hermes never speaks before a certain character dies, I wonder if that person's soul went into the motorrad and is there to guide Kino.) The animation style sort of gives the impression that all this happened long ago, or maybe at some point in the future when our society has been forgotten and the world has started anew. I guess I'll never know.
Kino...I. Like. Kino. I completely believe that she can take care of herself and travel alone; none of what she does ever seems improbable, young though she may be. Her personality is done well. She doesn't want to kill if she can avoid it, but if she has to defend herself with no assistance, she has no problem putting bullets in others' heads. She dresses practically (and that duster coat is AWESOME), and for her protection, carries two guns and enough knives to be a dealer. She always keeps her cool, even when the situation looks bad. Her philosophical thoughts really bring this show into the mature category (I'll talk more about maturity in anime when I get to my Haibane Renmei review). Does a rabbit's life matter more or less than a human's? Does she even have a moral obligation to preserve human lives, and do they have an obligation to help her in return? She'd not just out to see the world, she wants to think about the world. She never judges anyone and never forces her opinions on others, which is both a benefit and detriment to the show, as I will discuss below.
Another thing I love about Kino is that she looks ambiguously sexed and acts ambiguously gendered. (EDUCATIONAL ASIDE For those who didn't know there was a difference: sex refers to the genatalia, gender is a cultural construction that assigns various activities and characteristics to people based on their sex END ASIDE) She doesn't dress like a boy because she wants to be a boy--she dresses that way because it's safer and practical. And for the record, she doesn't like to be called "boy." She uses the typically Japanese masculine pronoun "boku" instead of "watashi" to refer to herself because she thinks that "Boku wa Kino" sounds better than "Watashi wa Kino." Also, the Kino whom she named herself after was a man and would have said "Boku wa Kino." She doesn't care about gender roles and what girls and boys are supposed to do. She does things because she wants to do them or because it's advantageous to do them. Instead of carrying guns because she wants to be a man and men tend to carry guns more than women, she carries guns and practices with them to protect herself. (And boy, when she pulls out her guns, she's AWESOME!)
This is a fantastic message to convey, one that I'm not even sure the series meant to convey, but which nevertheless is appreciated. In my experience, I've always felt that human beings are far too complex of creatures to categorize based on sex, especially since masculine and feminine ideals change from place to place and time to time. Up until about a hundred years ago, pink was a masculine color, as pink is a mixture of red, a masculine color, and white (this is why Kitty is very daring by wearing a pink dress to the ball in Anna Karenina). Now, pink is feminine. Wristwatches used to be feminine until WWI hit and officers found that wearing a wristwatch was more convenient than carrying a pocket watch on the field. In Ancient Rome, women were seen as extremely lustful creatures who needed sex all the time while men could control their sexual urges; in the Victorian era, it was practically the opposite. Seeing Kino as a successful embodiment of gender neutrality is an excellent message. Kino is not labeled by the show. She's not treated any differently because she's a girl or given certain treatment because some may think her to be a boy. It would make absolutely no difference to the show if she were a boy. No one cares whether she's a girl or a boy. She's a person, plain and simple. And I love that.
Now on to the only real detriment of the show. Kino never judges and always maintains her neutral stance, even in extreme situations, like war zones. She stays in the same place for just three days so that she can learn about the country while not wanting to become a part of it. She's a traveler and doesn't want to get into taking sides. This characteristic is double-edged for us viewers. On one hand, it gives us a completely neutral stance on everything we see (something I felt was lacking in Earth Maiden Arjuna). We're never forced to take sides and are encouraged to see everything as it is, rather than a simple explanation wrought by one person. On the other hand, as a result of her impartiality, Kino often appears as too stoic and emotionally distant from the extreme events she witnesses. Very few events get a physical reaction from her, episode 13 being one of those times. She doesn't grow as a character--she's a round character, but a static one. There is no destination for her. You've heard it said that the fun is in the journey and anticipation, not the destination. Kino's Journey is this phrase incarnate. As a result, this show lacks the emotional resonance and character arcs that give other shows like Haibane Renmei such profound effectiveness. The journey is just as important as a destination, but without a destination, then what's the point of a journey? The show could have made up for this deficiency if Kino had deliberated on this very topic more. She may have asked herself, if she has no destination, then why journey? What will happen when she's had enough? and the tried to answer. That route would have given her some very welcome character development. I know that I sort of gave an answer in an earlier paragraph, but that explanation doesn't seem enough to encompass the entire reason for Kino's travels.
However, this deficiency does not interfere with the enjoyment that this series offers. It is much more intellectually satisfying than most shows out there and deserves a viewing by all anime fans (and those who typically don't watch anime). In addition to this show, there are two 30 minute movies of Kino's Journey. One lays out her backstory; the other is an excursion to yet another country. If you like this show, I encourage you to check out these movies. I don't think they're on DVD yet, but I saw them online, so that should work for you too. There is also a series of light novels on which the series is based, but as I haven't read them, I won't comment on them.
Final comment: seeing little Kino pointing a revolver at a tall man's face and calmly telling him to surrender is AWESOME!
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