Synopsis: A traveler named Kino goes from country to country, never staying in the same place for more than three days. Her only companion is a talking motorcycle named Hermes. Together they bear witness to the many facets of human nature and desire, only taking direct action when there's no other choice available. It is not their place to pass judgment, but merely to observe.
First Glance: Surrealistic fable from the director of Serial Experiments Lain? Sign me up!
Impression: Kino's Journey is surreal, yet filled with real human emotions, desires, and ideals. It's depressing at times, yet strangely uplifting. The world here is ugly and terrifying, yet exhilarating and often very beautiful. We are presented with different human philosophies and emotions in the form of various "countries" that each have something about them that is different from that last. Like the country that so strongly desires that to have their own unique culture that the purposefully make up new customs to try and entertain travels, not knowing that their practice of making new customs has itself become a custom. Or the land where war has been completely abolished, but where peace comes at a cost. Or a land where only "safe" books are allowed. The list goes on from there.
This is not a show that you watch to be entertained or in order to watch thrilling action, though it does offer some of that. No, this is a show you watch in order to take a peek into what makes humans human, not with the all excess baggage of one who has a vested interest but from the calm and detached view of one who merely wants to observe new things and new places.
The art style and music are the technical highlights of the show. The art style because it helps to give us so many new and different and fantastic places that we've never seen before, with each new country has its own personality. The backgrounds have an almost storybook quality to them, which goes along with the fable-like quality of many of the episodes. The music is also very well done and fits in very well, especially the haunting flute solo from episode two.
The animation in Kino's Journey is a bit limited in its range and there are very few scenes that show more than the movement of a few characters, making obvious the show's low budget. Nevertheless, it's not an action series where this kind of detailed and elaborate animation is needed and so the show does not suffer from this deficiency.
Conclusion: If Mushishi requires patience to get into, this requires you to be almost a saint. It's not standard anime fare by any means and if you're not hooked by episodes four, you probably won't ever be. However, if you can manage to stick with it that far and watch the show from the standpoint of desiring to watch something new and intelligent, it's hard to find a better series than Kino's Journey.
Score: 5/5
Specs: 13 episodes across four volumes and a thinkpak release.
Acquisition Difficulty Easy
Third-best anime ever after Lain and Haibane Renmei.
I'd put Kino's Journey above those two, but all three are great series that, for the most part, don't get a whole lot of love.
Eh, I think that Kino is a bit less believable than the other two, which is part of why I rank them higher... I mean some of the societies in Kino's Journey just are totally unbelievable, really. Some are, but others...
(Oh yeah, and there's also a Kino movie. Not sure if it had a US release though...)
The point isn't necessarily to show believable societies, but to show a different facet of human thinking.
There's actually two movie, but neither have been released here. You can find them on fansub though.
Two movies? Didn't know about the second one... and yeah, I didn't think that the movie had had a US release.
Quote:The point isn't necessarily to show believable societies, but to show a different facet of human thinking.
It achieves that goal, but at the cost of making some unbelievable people and cultures...
Like I said, that's not the point. Much in the same way that a fable uses anthropomorphised animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature in order to teach some kind of moral lesson, Kino's Journey sometimes uses unrealistic societies, situations, or people to convey insight into some aspect of human nature and thinking as well as to make the viewer think just a little bit about some of the things that we do.
Quote:Two movies? Didn't know about the second one... and yeah, I didn't think that the movie had had a US release.
Yeah, it came out in Japan in April and only within the past few weeks made it to fansub and it, like the first movie, is only thirty minutes long. There's also an episode 0 that's about 15 minutes long, which also hasn't been released here. I'm hoping that ADV will pick up those three and release them in some kind of packaged deal.
Quote:Like I said, that's not the point. Much in the same way that a fable uses anthropomorphised animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature in order to teach some kind of moral lesson, Kino's Journey sometimes uses unrealistic societies, situations, or people to convey insight into some aspect of human nature and thinking as well as to make the viewer think just a little bit about some of the things that we do.
Sure, but that doesn't make it any less annoying when the show does some of its more blatant "no human society would act this way" things, in my opinion.
A human society might not do some of those things, but there are probably people who think that way.
People... yeah. Societies... no.
(Most obvious example: last episode of the original show. No human society would do that, universally, by choice.)
Yet there are groups of people who do just that, or at least do something very similar.
Not universally or not without coercion, I think...
Look, you were dealing with a group of people whose entire world, everything that the had worked years for and everything that they had ever known, was just going to be completely wiped away in a matter of seconds. For them, that was the end of the world.
They could try to flee, but where? The world's dangerous and they've got kids and elderly people, so where do they turn to? Sure, they could leave and hope they don't get attacked along the way or starve or whatever. Or, as they decided, to let their fate be tied with that of their land.
Which brings up an interesting issue. Land, that is. Don't you think that it's a bit ridiculous that the Israelis and Palestinians continue to fight over a spit of land in the middle of nowhere? Of course, because it is irrational. But, it's their land, or at least, that's what they both believe. And they continue to fight and die, often willingly, to try and get it back. If people in the real world are so willing to throw their lives away for a little strip of land, is it really that hard to believe that a fantasy country would be willing to die along with the land that they worked so hard to cultivate?
I don't think it is, but I guess I have a bit of pessimistic view from time to time.
Quote:They could try to flee, but where?
The top of the hill. Wait for it to end. Then rebuild on the same site. That's what any sane (or real) human society would do.
Of course, moving the town would probably be a better idea, but people seem to prefer to rebuild where they were, danger or no... but they don't just sit there and die. Do people who hear of hurricanes coming at their town decide to sit there and die en masse? Of course not, they evacuate, then come back and rebuild! You can't defend how ridiculous that episode was from a believability standpoint. Even in suicide cults some people try to get out of it...
Quote:Which brings up an interesting issue. Land, that is. Don't you think that it's a bit ridiculous that the Israelis and Palestinians continue to fight over a spit of land in the middle of nowhere? Of course, because it is irrational. But, it's their land, or at least, that's what they both believe. And they continue to fight and die, often willingly, to try and get it back. If people in the real world are so willing to throw their lives away for a little strip of land, is it really that hard to believe that a fantasy country would be willing to die along with the land that they worked so hard to cultivate?
It's not ridiculous. Land has meaning to people just like anything else does, and that land has great meaning to both groups... it's really too bad that this has led to so much war, but it is understandable given that two groups both want the same land, and for long-time reasons that are not new or going to change anytime soon.
You're looking at this from the mindset of an outsider looking in, they even admit themselves that it's a foolish thing to do. But lava doesn't just go away overnight. It takes years for the ground to actually be useful again, if it ever actually will be. The country wasn't just covered in ash, the whole valley was filled with magma. It actually would probably never be usuable again.
Not to mention that they don't have anywhere to live and they don't have any food. So where are they going to go? They might try to make it to another country, but what are the odds that they'll be welcomed? Probably not too good.
And we're not dealing with a portion of a wealthy country with cities near the disaster area that are ready and willing to take in hundreds or thousands of people on short notice. There's no National Guard to come in and help out, there's no Red Cross to bring in food and water. They'd have months and years of hardship and pain to look forward to if they left. It was their country, the only one they knew, so they decided to go along with it.
Quote:It's not ridiculous. Land has meaning to people just like anything else does, and that land has great meaning to both groups... it's really too bad that this has led to so much war, but it is understandable given that two groups both want the same land, and for long-time reasons that are not new or going to change anytime soon.
Of course its ridiculous. You have two sides that refuse to budge an inch and yet they keep fighting as if doing so will somehow eventually lead to some sort of surrender by the other side, not unlike any given debate on the internet. Neither side is willing to give up anything so neither of them have any peace.
Quote:Not to mention that they don't have anywhere to live and they don't have any food. So where are they going to go? They might try to make it to another country, but what are the odds that they'll be welcomed? Probably not too good.
First, you're likely right that the town might have to move a bit for a while, though that would depend a lot on whether the volcanism is a one-time thing or if there's going to be continuing activity in the area.
That's totally insane. Kino was standing on a ridge very near the town, where no lava went. Hmm, I wonder where they could go... erm, I have no idea! Let's just all kill ourselves!
It's really, really stupid.
Quote:And we're not dealing with a portion of a wealthy country with cities near the disaster area that are ready and willing to take in hundreds or thousands of people on short notice. There's no National Guard to come in and help out, there's no Red Cross to bring in food and water. They'd have months and years of hardship and pain to look forward to if they left. It was their country, the only one they knew, so they decided to go along with it.
These are not things that would stop a people from trying anyway. What you are defending is horrible and impossible to explain, sensibly or otherwise.
About the only case I can think of of a people who truly did give up and accept impending doom were the Japanese at the end of World War II... there the Japanese people saw that they were going to lose and many were prepared to die for that. But even there, many did not want to die, and did not want to only lose when many or most of their people were dead... unfortunately the Emperor was in the former group, so Japan did not surrender until America used nuclear weapons. But the fact remains, even in that extreme case it was nowhere near the ridiculous unanimity of that episode of Kino. Some surely would stay; some people do stupid things like that (like the people who stayed when Mt. St. Helens blew up, and died). But most or all? Absolutely not. Even some of the people in Jonestown had to be forced to drink the poisoned drink (that is, some were murdered and did not commit suicide)! And younger children were, of course, not given a choice. Killing your own children because of your own selfishness or foolishness... that is pretty much the ultimate in evil.
Fine, whatever. But there are people who do things like that or at least think in that way when faced with an extreme situation and THAT is the point.
People, but not societies.
The same applies to other episodes of the series too... as you said in the beginning, they pretty much take one type of person and make everyone in that town like that... like how in the first episode everyone just isolates themselves. Even considering why they are doing that (understandable) in a real culture I can think of plenty of ways how some people might want to do something to not have their people just totally die out... but Kino's Journey just has one character type per town. It makes things easier to write storywise, but less believable.
This isn't some History Channel special, it's philosophical journey through the human mind.
Believability should count either way... :)
"Why is this animal talking?! Stupid, Aesop! Everyone knows that animals can't talk."
Great Rumbler Wrote:"Why is this animal talking?! Stupid, Aesop! Everyone knows that animals can't talk."
Best comeback ever.
That's different... adding fantasy elements is more believable than changing human nature. :)
Just...forget it, man. I don't even care anymore.