Forum - View topicANN Book Club -- Kino's Journey.
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JacobC
ANN Past Staff
 Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Kino’s Journey Book Club discussion thread!
Over the course of four weeks, we’ll be watching and discussing Kino’s Journey together, a watercolor montage of worldviews that pulls the verisimilitude of human nature out of the most bizarre tales. Kino’s Journey is about a demure traveler who rides with her talking motorrad over the expanse of a fantastical world, running across cities, towns, encampments and hermit dwellings to pursue value in her own life. She never stays longer than three days in one place, wishing to carry all that a country can give her in her heart without giving herself to any one worldview. With all the lessons that face her, Kino is wise beyond her years, but for as many civilizations caution her (and the viewer) on the ills of human history, surely there must be one that beckons her to settle down and find a place to call home…or maybe not… Apart from normal forum rules, there will be only two additional rules for the book club threads: 1. Should you feel so compelled, you can skip ahead of schedule, (I wouldn’t advise it as I tried to plan each break around well-defined arcs,) but please don’t discuss episodes ahead of time in this thread. If the week’s schedule says we’ll be talking about episodes 1-4, don’t talk about what happens in episode 5. Don’t even use spoiler tags as an excuse. You can slightly foreshadow if you like, saying, “Remember what happens in that scene, it will be important in episode 5,” but no spoilage. Zip. Zilch. Nada. 2. Don’t be afraid to speak up about anything and everything you notice in the show, so long as you find it interesting or meaningful. I don’t have to worry about people being noobish much on ANN, so I want to address the opposite problem. Your opinion and participation are what will make this thread memorable and hopefully spark new life for old series for a while here on the ANN forums, so speak your mind! Kino’s Journey is especially conducive to multiple interpretations, as well as Haibane Renmei and Lain, so multiple perspectives are greatly appreciated! Again, bring up whatever comes to your mind when watching this series, but here’s some general things I have to note about this show, for better understanding: Try not to view any characters other than Kino (and another Kino you will meet) as very real people, because they really aren’t. With few exceptions, all of these societies are going to be extreme, and the people within them are rutted in one very flat mindset, whereas Kino takes in many. I didn’t call this show concept-based, because there isn’t any one strong idea being brought forth, but there are BUNCHES, so don’t be afraid to watch an episode more than once. In cases where an episode has several two-five minute stories smushed together, look for connections. They’re not going to be obvious, but once you pick up on them, a slightly random-feeling episode will make a LOT more sense. So, drink in every line of dialogue and every frozen image. This show is very minimalist and gently paced, so, unlike many other series where such an approach becomes a bad idea, (NGE) remember that every little detail here means something. INDEX July 1st-July 7th discussion July 8th-July 14th discussion July 15th-July 21st discussion July 22nd-July 28th discussion Thoughts on the series as a whole/Random ideas Last edited by JacobC on Tue Jul 15, 2008 2:42 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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JacobC
ANN Past Staff
Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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Anyway, HERE’S the schedule of episodes for July 1st-July 7th:
Episode 1—Land of Visible Pain (I See You) Episode 2—A Tale of Feeding Off Others (I Want to Live) Episode 3—Land of Prophecies (We No the Future) This arc is a nice introduction to some of the ideas that Kino has a peculiar take on. Does she make more sense to you than these people? By the way, I think episode 2 is my favorite, although it has close competition with the last two episodes. POSSIBLE DISCUSSION IDEAS—(Spoiler-free discussion, pleeze, and ruminate on whatever beyond these, although these are good places to start.) (Whoa...there are a LOT for Kino's Journey. It's just that kind of show.)
Happy travels! Don’t hurt any fluffy bunnies! 
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Randall Miyashiro
 Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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This is the third time I'm watching this series. There are so many things to talk about that I don't know where to start. This time through I'm particularly trying to pay attention to when the events in specific episodes occur.
In the intro of the first episode it would appear that Kino and Hermes have just managed to flee from their master, but the rest of the episode takes place much later. I believe Kino has the .22 Woodsman (A real gun, which I will assume the Japanese meant with "Forest Person" although ADV didn't seem to know this) in all three episodes main stories. Am I missing any other clues besides the possession of this gun which can help place the episodes in chronological order? All three episodes interesting enough have flashbacks. The third has both the tale of the ousted king and the poet. I wouldn't be surprised if the name Kino was an intentional play on the word for yesterday. I really find the video filters a bit distracting. The desaturated look does help give it an old film look, but the horizontal bands just make it look like a poor transfer. I'm looking forward to the Lain discussions since the director for it is also the director of Kino. |
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JacobC
ANN Past Staff
Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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Yeah, Chiaki J. Konaka is an underrated talent, I think. Give him props for creativity anyway, as most anything he's involved with looks like a cliche story on the outside but has some mildly disturbing but fascinating spark he adds to keep it interesting. If you look him up in the encyclopedia, you'll see what I mean.
Hellsing, The Big O, Lain, Tex, Bubblegum Crisis, Kino, Mononoke, and even Digimon Tamers (it really is pretty different from its average kids' fodder brethren) carry his quirrrrrky flavor. |
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LL Kuze DC17
Posts: 22 |
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Ah good I appear to be on time!
Sadly, I don't have the DVDs anymore. I only barrowed them from a friend, I'll see if I can get them back though because I think it's a really good series. I wanna get the book to show some others that aren't really into anime stuff. I didn't see it in a while so I don't remember much sadly. I do remember the basic idea of the episodes though. I really liked how the show had the "a beautiful world" line put on it. I think one of the things is the imperfection of somehting (the world) making it beautiful in its own strange way. The fact that everything was so different is what makes it beautiful. I guess it's kind of like the show. The show (in my opinion anyway) is so good because of its euniqueness and its way of telling a story. In the same way, the world is beautiful because of its flaws and achievements due to humans and nature together. I found episode 3 quite sad... not because the city was sad, but because of that poem and how it made everyone extremly depressed. But what made it worse was the other city attacking it simply because they thought the poem was some kind of bible. I agree with Kina when she asks why everything someone says has to be interpreted. There have been times when I'd say something completely off the walls just to throw someone off and then they're sitting there tryiing to figure it out. In the end, the key is NOT to think about it too much. There are some things that may need decifering but still. I think the people who figured that that poem was some kind of prphesy should've did a bit more research to see where it came from... or maybe they couldn't find out because of something, that part I don't recall... I'll see if I can get this set of DVDs back. I'd go and look now but I just ordered another DVD set. (Ah my goddess) Sooo... yeah. I'll comment on what I remember though. |
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LL Kuze DC17
Posts: 22 |
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Just remembered something else.
It's really ironic in Ep1 how they made it super easy to communicate and understand each other but in doing that, they made it so that privacy is pretty much gone. In sort of the same way, Cell phones and wireless technology including the Internet make it so that anyone can have contact with virtually anyone anywhere in the world within seconds (or minutes), yet now that we have all this text messaging and Skype and stuff... no one has much to say.... so it's kind of ironic, but for somewhat a different reason. The thing with the birds kind of cross referances the meaning of the birds in Haibane... I think that's the full name of the show but can't remember). The relivance in that show was that the birds could fly so they were free to go where they wanted and it was mentioned that they weren't to settle down in one place, but to keep moving. Like that, in Kino's Journey, the birds reprisented freedom and no boundaries. Kino didn't want to stay in one place because she was afraid that she'd get too used to it and would stop traveling. For some people that would be ok if they didn't want to go anywhere, but it seems that for her (or any adventureis who is willing to try and learn new things) that is not going to work because they feel that they must continue. This aspect can also be applied in life as well. It kind of goes with the idea of learning new things and continously educating one's self. You're never done learning and exploring new things, even after you get out of high school or college. Life itself is a journey, and to sit somewhere and do nothing or to continue doing the same thing day in and day out will not do much for you. Inshort, learning new things and being well rounded is a good way to put it.... ok, I'm done. Sorry for the double post. 
Last edited by LL Kuze DC17 on Mon Jun 30, 2008 12:54 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Dorcas_Aurelia
 Posts: 5344 Location: Philly |
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Are we going to discuss the episode about the Country of Tower at some point? I would have thought if we did it would be at the start rather than the end, as it is somewhat of a preview for the series.
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LL Kuze DC17
Posts: 22 |
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I'm pretty sure we might but if that's beyond 3 then not right now we won't.... Uh.... Hmm I don't know if I remember that one.
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Dorcas_Aurelia
Posts: 5344 Location: Philly |
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The encyclopedia lists it as episode number 0, and I believe it's half-length.
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LL Kuze DC17
Posts: 22 |
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Really? Is that even on the DVD? I don't remember seeing that one at all.
I know there's a movie or something as well but I don't know how much that has to do with this. |
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JacobC
ANN Past Staff
Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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Yeeeeah, there are two "movies," both more like TV specials, and they're fairly good. (One acts as a prequel, while another just acts as a longer episode.)
You can (and would've had to if you watched the TV broadcast, which came before the movies, I believe) be able to appreciate the series all on its own, because the movies were never released domestically, so discussing them here becomes...problematic. I will make the option of viewing them once the series discussion is over as part of the "wrap-up" weeks, but I balked at trying to integrate them into the schedule for the couple stated reasons. |
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BrothersElric
 Posts: 1996 |
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So this episode 0, is it one of those said TV specials then? I suppose I could just go and watch it right now, since I wasn't planning on starting up until tomorrow sometime, but I don't know, it might just be best to watch it/them when the discussion is over. I don't know though, I'm also kind of considering just watching the dang first episode today.
 We'll see though. If there's 3 episodes this week then it might be a good idea to do so.
Sounds like an interesting series from the descriptions here so far though. I've actually come to be quite fond of odd little series like this, so I think I'm definitely going to like it. You'll have to be patient with me though of course, this is my first time viewing it and I can be known to be confused with complex stuff like this sometimes. 
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JacobC
ANN Past Staff
Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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Episode 0 is different. I haven't seen it, and I assume it was packaged as an extra on the Japanese DVDs, because I believe it was one of the many left-out concepts from the series, (which was based on light novels, I think.) As far as viewing, same idea as the movies. Maybe at the end. By the way, Kino's Journey, complex? No. It's simple enough for a 5th grader to understand completely, (I have 5th grader evidence in my sister,) but as far as diving deeper into it, yeah, you can get more out of it every time you see it. But you shouldn't have any problems "understanding" it the first time. (Same concept as Fullmetal Alchemist, if you want an example. That was never a confusing show, every little story point was plain and simple, but there's a lot to be gotten out of it if you pay even closer attention or revisit it.) |
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HellKorn
Posts: 1669 Location: Columbus, OH |
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It is included as an extra with the Kino's Journey -life goes on- short movie. (Also, the recent Kino movie from 2007 is only available with the corresponding novel, if I recall correctly.) Kino's Journey is definitely straightforward (and some of its views are a bit crude, arguably becoming problematic at times), but it's also one of the best anime series out there. Looking forward to re-watching this one. |
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BrothersElric
Posts: 1996 |
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Well yeah, but you see that's just the problem; paying close enough attention that I get all of that from it. I remember it was the same thing with Fullmetal; there was a whole lot more I picked up on the second time around that I somehow missed the first time. Of course I didn't have to worry about this with FMA like I do now, but I guess basically I'm just worried as to whether or not I'll be able to participate much in discussions if I don't pick up on what everyone else does. Basically, simply put, I'm just not all that observant a person. I guess it doesn't really matter though because like I said in the Lain thread, we'll have other people discussing in this thread that actually have seen these certain things in it that'll make it easier for me to see them.
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