Kino's Journey Anime

[gandalf]

My wife bought this anime for me and it came as a little compressed
release form ADV. I figured it probably wasn't a big release as she said
it was $30-40 for the whole series.

I think I know what happened. This series is not for action mavens. If DBZ
is your lot, don't even bother reading this. This is a quite serious and
quite cool. It is rather amazing that it holds interest despite being
almost totally deadpan. It makes you think about yourself. It's almost a
series of poems. So far I'd recommend it for just about anyone over the
age of 14. Younger than that probably wouldn't be entertained by it and
wouldn't understand the upper stuff.

Kino is a traveler, visiting each country for 3 days (no more). Her
companion is a talking Motorcycle named Hermes. In this world it seems
common for machines to be able to talk. The two experience the world they
travel through and talk about it.

I checked a couple sites. One listed it as #66 in the top 100 anime of all
time. Another gave it 9.2 out of 10.

Violence: Can be very violent, but not very often and the violence is
generally discussed rationally between the characters.

Ecchi: The most provocative thing I've seen so far is the cover art for
the DVDs and that's actually very mild. If there is eventually something
ecchi, I'd expect it to be necessary to the story being told.

Drama: Lots of drama.

Action: Occasional bouts, generally related to violence. Other than that
this show should put you to sleep, but doesn't.

Cuteness: Not much here. Kino was kind of cute at 12 years old, but no
more so than other 12 year olds. The talking motorcycle even manages not
to be cute.

Horror: Why different from violence? Well it just is. There is a lot of
Horror here. There are lots of things that are nice and pleasant on the
surface, but dark and evil underneath. Hence the stories.

We were tired when we started watching it. We weren't tired when the disk
finished at 2AM, but we didn't dare crack the second disk.

[gandalf]

Well we've finished the series. I feel it was one of the best animes I've ever seen. My wife was a little surprised by this statement, but also enjoyed it very much. The ending was not a dramatic conclusion, but instead was a little more Japanese leaving the characters to go on in your head. Indeed they could have another season.

To me Kino's Journey is a Heroes journey, much like the ancient Greek writings. Kino travels from country to country observing the differences and thinking about what it all means. Almost all of the countries have something dark at the center that makes them the way they are.

Towards the middle of the series there is a two-episode story about a country that has a coliseum and gladiators of a fashion. It is rather violent and contains almost all of the action for the whole series, but not without much discussion involving the insane chaotic king.

Ok, here's a bit of an example story. Don't read if you don't want to.

In late winter Kino comes across three men huddled together in a tent starving to death next to a truck. They tell her that they got stuck early in the winter and some time ago had exhausted all the food they had with them. Kino tells them that she does not have enough rations to share with them, but that she will hunt for them until they can manage for themselves.

She manages to shoot rabbits emerging from hibernation and prepares rabbit stew for the men. She is very reverent towards the rabbits during this process and talks to her companion (the motorcycle) about the irony. She does not love or hate the rabbits. She does not love or hate the men. But yet she is killing the one to save the other. She says that killing game for herself to eat is different as it is the cost of her existence (she put this a little more eloquently than I remembered here). Her companion says that it is normal for her to protect her own kind at the cost of the rabbit’s lives, but she is not entirely satisfied by this.

I will not give away the ending of the story, but this sort of parable like telling is the norm throughout the series. Often there is evil, but generally it has a reason to be there (like in most anime). In one country there is a cruel yearly ritual that kills hundreds, but the presence of this ritual stopped centuries of war that had killed millions and well might have lead to the end of the world. The matriarch of the country says to Kino, "Yes it is cruel, and if you can come up with a better solution I am open to it."