Kino’s Journey is a show that tries to answer this philosophical question and it does it in a philosophical way:“The world is not beautiful, but that in a way lends it a sort of beauty.”StoryThe show is based on a series of novels written by Keiichi Sigsawa (9 books have been published to date as far as I know). The story is about a young girl, Kino, who travels in her fantasy world with her talking motorcycle who is called Hermes. She visits one country after another and always stays for 3 days in each country, no more and no less. She has often said that her dream is to continue travelling forever which is why she never stays more than 3 days in every country she visits; she doesn’t want to emotionally attach herself to any land because she might stay there for the rest of her life if that were to happen.The story in Kino’s Journey is of episodic nature. Each episode is about Kino visiting one or more countries on his journey’s path. That means that there are new characters in every episode who will never appear in other episodes.Now Kino is one weird show. The show is extremely philosophical in nature and it can even be surreal at times. Unlike many other philosophical shows however, the wisdom each episode tries to deliver is pretty straight forward. The show never tries to go around in circles. I guess the show can’t afford to go around in circles since each episode is a stand alone story.Kino is more than inept at using fire arms and she always carries a pistol and persuader with her for self defence. I should point out though that she has used it many times and yes, there were fatalities as a result. In fact, many people die throughout the show for various reasons and their deaths can often be of violent nature so if this is not your cup of tea then don’t watch it.In a way, Kino’s Journey reminds a lot of the voyages of Sinbad the sailor from the Arabian Nights except Kino’s story takes place in a semi European setting. Just like Sinbad, the fantasy world of Kino tends to manifest itself in an extreme and exaggerated manner (the land of books and the land of adults for example) but that also helps to highlight the ideas of the story better.The show deals with many concepts like war and peace, censorship, value of work, revenge, democracy and forms of government, war between classes and religious beliefs.I should say that the conclusion of the story is satisfying. I will not reveal any details but I will only say that it is one of the most memorable conclusions that I’ve ever seen.The details of the time Kino spent with the woman she calls “master” are not shown in the TV series. Instead, they are revealed in the movie Life Goes On which is just an extra episode.Characters & Voice ActingBecause of the episodic nature of the show, the only recurring character throughout the show is Kino and his motorcycle Hermes.Kino has developed quite a different personality from her original one after the time she spent with “master”. Her new personality is that of a calm cold girl who doesn’t seem to have a sense of fear and who has forsaken all for the sole purpose of continuing her journey. This personality has helped to confuse many viewers and lead them to believe that Kino is a boy. Indeed, Kino has rarely shown any signs of feminine behaviour throughout the show. She is a girl who is not afraid to use a gun to defend herself and has indeed used it many times. That definitely gives her a scary image but that is not the whole picture. She would often just observe the lifestyle of the people of each country she visited without interfering in any way but there were instances where she decided to interfere for her own reasons. Her reasons for interfering can sometimes be for moral reasons and sometimes for pure curiosity. This brings up another philosophical debate as to whether outsiders are allowed to interfere in a foreign culture even if just for pure ethical reasons. The debate still continues in our real world to this day.Hermes, being a motorcycle, doesn’t play a big role in the events of every episode apart from providing transportation for Kino. He has an interesting sense of humour though and his comments can be quite cheeky at times. His attitude and comments whenever Kino is captured by an enemy tend to be sarcastic and that has puzzled me a lot; I still don’t know whether he doesn’t care what happens to Kino or whether he is more than confident Kino will manage to escape danger quickly and defeat her opponents!Out of all the remaining characters, two were more memorable than the others: Nimya who appeared in episode 8 (land of magic) and Sakura who appeared in the last episode. Nimya was a clever girl full of energy who worked very hard to build a flying machine. She came across many hurdles (including financial and personal) but her optimistic nature always managed to overcome them and carry on with her life. Sakura was a sweet young girl who helped her parents run an inn. She was also full of energy and had a cute voice and appearance. In other words, she was the epitome of innocence.I think what made those two characters more memorable than others is the fact that they were the main characters in the episodes in which they appeared in while Kino took a back seat in those episodes. I consider episodes 8 and 13 to be my favourite episodes.I have no complaints whatsoever about the voice acting as every character had a voice suitable to his / her personality. Kino’s voice actress, Maeda Ai, also performed the ending song for both the TV series and the movie. Her voice for Kino was calm and cool and it was more of a boy’s than a girl’s voice to be honest which further increased the confusion regarding Kino’s gender.MusicI love both the opening and ending music. The opening has exciting tunes and vocals while the ending is more on the sad side. The background music is very sparse but what there is of it is quite pleasant. Most of the background music uses a flute like instrument (which kind of reminds me of zampona music) and that was to my liking.The opening song was performed by Shimokawa Mikuni who is more famous in the anime world for performing the openings and endings for the hit series Full Metal Panic and its sequels.Animation & ArtThe animation studio that did this, Studio Wombat, doesn’t have a long history like other animation studios in Japan but it managed to provide consistent animation quality throughout the show. I didn’t notice any drop in animation quality as far as I can remember. The background scenes in particular were beautifully done and this applied to both the TV series and movie. Even the opening and ending animation were a real visual treat.Character DesignsThe character designs are very simplistic and there is a heavy emphasis on using rectangular lines to draw many of the character’s faces. I can’t say that I like them but in a way, I think they suit the abstract nature of the story. An interesting point I should mention is the character design of Kino herself. Because of the boyish nature of Kino’s design, I had a difficult time convincing my self that she is actually a girl. It doesn’t help when her name is more of a boy’s name and she also carries a gun!! For those people who haven’t watched the show yet and are unfamiliar with the novels, rest assured that the hero you are watching is a girl.And there you have it. The show has been licensed by ADV Films. If you like philosophical shows that make you think then by all means watch this. You can also find a lot of extra information (and images) about the show and the related novels in this website.
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