Forum - View topicKino's Journey: completely blows away expectations.
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frentymon
Forums Superstar
 Posts: 2362 Location: San Francisco |
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That was written on the spot. When I take from something I have already written, I usually quote myself. It took quite a while to type out all that, although not as long as some of the posts I've made (namely the Haruhi thread organizational stuff, which took about an hour and a half each).
In Kino's Journey, the fact that spoiler[Kino is actually a girl is revealed in Episode 4], whereas in Ouran High School Host Club, spoiler[It was revealed right at the end of the first episode]. I think that would make Kino's spoiler[real gender being spoiled slightly more of a deal, especially since Episode 4 is in the second DVD and not the first.]. Although I do agree that in Ouran Host Club spoiler[the ANN encyclopedia plot summary would be better off not outright revealing that Haruhi is female.] |
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P€|\||§_|\/|ast@
 Posts: 3498 Location: IN your nightmares |
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*Resists urge to read spoilers*
Although I take I'm guessing if I have seen up to ep 4 it's all right to read the first spoiler you listed frentymon (great "essay" btw). That's okay, Vol. 2 is on its way soon. Yeah I am glad there are so many people who also enjoyed and applaud Kino's Journey so much. When I listened to the wonderful opening song I didn't figure it out at first but it's the same vocalist who sings the amazing opening song to Full Metal Panic! I have got to get ahold of more of her music now. Miyashiro-san commented on Leiji Matsumoto being possible inspiration for this show with reference to Galaxy Express. I thought so too, but it was so subtle I thought I'd wait to see if someone else pointed it out. I'm glad I did. |
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ManOfRust
 Posts: 1935 Location: Seattle, WA |
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Hooray! A Kino's Journey thread. I'm a big fan of this show (my current avatar is from episode 4) and along with Haibane Renmei it's one of my 2 favorite series.
frentymon wrote such a great post (which I really enjoyed reading) that it's hard to find much more to say, but I don't want to pass up a chance to discuss one of my favorite shows.
I think the animation style is super important to the successful telling of Kino's story. The muted colors and sort of old fashioned look help to support the overall mood and atmosphere of the story. As Keonyn mentioned, it has a storybook feel to it. The first time I saw this, I thought something was screwy with my TV because of those faint lines that just barely appear in the background, giving the impression that you are watching on an antique television. Elements like that heighten the impression that the whole thing could easily have started out “once upon time there was a traveler named Kino”. This is one of those shows where the story, animation, and music blend together to effectively create a single package. It's hard for me to adequately explain what I'm trying to say, but I just felt like each of these aspects supported the other, creating a whole greater than the parts. In some series there is great animation, or a compelling story, or wonderful music, but it's not often that they all combine and can consistently, throughout the whole series, continue to work together to create a superior storytelling experience. It's not that the animation is necessarily always of the highest quality, but rather that it is always appropriate to the story and the way it is being told.
I love the fact that whatever point the author may have been wanting to make, we are not repeatedly hit over the head with it. Not every story is an exercise in subtlety, but we are never preached to or treated as if we are too stupid to be able to grasp things on our own. The stories just unfold for us to watch, usually with some insightful comments from Kino and Hermes, and then we are left to figure out our conclusions on our own. The absurdity of the people in some of the countries Kino visits can indeed be comical. Yet even with some of the most absurd characters, in some aspect of their behavior, I could find parallels to our own society and sometimes even to specific people I know and some of their views on the world. While the stories we see may be ridiculous and even humorous, they do point out many of the all too sober follies of our own world.
Not only does Hermes provide a companion and occasional foil to Kino's views on the world they are passing through, I thought they did a very nice job with the point of view from which Hermes approaches things. Hermes is a machine, and as such, you would not necessarily expect him (it?) to view the world the same way a person would. I noticed on several occasions that Hermes has a pointedly non-human centric view of things. If Kino is an observer that views the strange activities of the countries visited with an outsider's perspective, Hermes is seeing things from even one more step back by being both an outsider to the country and to the humans that inhabit it. Sometimes this different viewpoint is subtle, and maybe I am reading more into it than is really there, but I thought this part of the show was quite well done. Overall, I love the fact that Kino's Journey gives you a lot of things to consider, but does not really come across as a show that's trying too hard to make some kind of point. It's not deliberately vague. It doesn't try too hard to be "meaningful" or "philosophical". It doesn't try to convince you that it's deep by being so confusing you start thinking there must be some grand meaning buried in there somewhere. If you don't like to ponder the social commentary being made, you can just enjoy the story at face value, but there's so much more there that I think it would be a shame to ignore it. Every time I watch this show, I seem to pick up on something new. Along with the thoughtful side of the show, it can also occasionally deliver an emotional impact. Some of the stories, or at least elements of the stories are quite touching without trying too hard to be. Reaction to the events unfolding is very natural, and rarely does the plot sink into obviously deliberate attempts to elicit a response just for the sake of pushing the viewer’s buttons. I have a couple of co-workers that I trade DVDs back and forth with. Mostly we loan each other movies, and while we have different tastes in general we all enjoy the opportunity to try titles the others like but that we would not otherwise have picked up on our own. Kino's Journey has been a big hit among these non-anime fans, and has led them to ask me for more anime titles. While they were not so much interested in the show for it being animated in and of itself, they really liked the imaginative, insightful, and well told story. I also think that this show being an anime allows it to tell the story so effectively. I can't imagine some of the episodes coming off as anything but cheesy looking if this was a live action show. Hermes is a wonderful character, but I would think a talking motorcycle would be awfully difficult to take seriously if this wasn't an animated work. One last comment about the music. I'm really disappointed that apparently no soundtrack was ever released for the anime. The OP and ED are available in Japan, as is some kind of music collection from a Kino's Journey video game, but I have not yet been able to find an actual KJ anime soundtrack that has the OP, ED, and the background music all in one place. I sure hope the movies make their way to a R1 DVD release someday. While more of a series is not always a good thing, I think there is still plenty they could do with this story without ruining it, and I would sure love to see what else has been done. Past, I'm really glad you are enjoying Kino's Journey. I don't think the rest of the episodes will disappoint you. I definitely like some better than others, but this is one of those unusual series that truly is consistently good from start to finish. |
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6900 Location: Kazune City |
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What a coincidence this has been...I received the first Kino's Journey novel in the mail on the day this post appeared, and reading the replies finally motivated me to watch the movie and "Episode 00," which I'd had sitting on the HD for ages, even before getting the DVDs. I'd picked up the series back in December after everyone was saying, "The KJ DVDs don't have very many extras, thinpack ftw," then marathoned through it one weekend near the end of July. I wonder why I waited so long (in favor of things like Sister Princess, no less)--from all the forum posts and My Anime comments from people around here, my expectations were very high, and I have to say that Kino's Journey met them all.
As long as slow pacing doesn't bother you, it's hard to find very much wrong with KJ--I've always liked episodic anime ever since picking up Sentimental Journey on a whim, and the lack of a continuous plot allows Kino to go from place to place with no dramatic concerns for time or distance. I'm not sure how best to describe it, but I loved the overall mood that KJ set--it felt like 1960s sci-fi short stories in many places, which I've always liked. Much like a journey, you never really knew what would be coming up, and while some episodes' storylines could be predicted, some were truly surprising. The philosophy presented was great as well--aside from Kino's mindset about the meaning and purpose of travelling, most of the episodes contained an "idea taken too far" about science, government, war, economics, emotions, or other concepts. In essence, it's a cautionary tale on the "it seemed like a good idea at the time" syndrome. And I agree, the ending is quite powerful, even though it's not truly an "ending," perhaps because one doesn't expect it from an episodic anime. Amongst all the anime I've seen, KJ's ending really does stick in my mind, and even one certain line stands out: spoiler["You can have these back. I won't be needing them anymore.] Curiously enough, the spoiler[gender issue] that everyone's been careful around is addressed right off the bat in the novel, as the Prologue contains the events that they put into episode 4 of the anime.
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Iritscen
 Subscriber Posts: 796 |
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Although I was surprised at first to read what you just wrote, that spoiler[the gender thing] is addressed right off the bat in the novel, that actually makes sense when you think about trying to write a story about someone without spoiler[using he, his, him, etc]. It would get tiring really quick.
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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I knew spoiler[Kino was a girl]the first time I saw a trailer for it. I thought spoiler[Noir's Kirika goes Easy Rider.]
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Steve Berry
Posts: 522 Location: San Francisco Bay Area, CA |
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Reading all of these posts has also made me remember one of my favorite "early" eps, the one where Kino skins the rabbits. I absolutely loved this ep-- it has all the things I like about the show in it: most notably the complete lack of "taking the easy way out". The creators provide some very interesting views of society, but just as much, I thought Kino was a very interesting character as well-- when she needs to be, she's very ruthless. That sort of attitude really endeared me to the show though-- it doesn't tend to look away from some of the harder facts, regarding how people sometimes really work.
Ahhhh, I should watch this show again. 
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Iritscen
Subscriber Posts: 796 |
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spoiler[Gender again]!
, why even bother tagging spoilers at this point, if someone hasn't seen the show and reads this much about it they have to expect some spoilers.
One (or more) of the DVDs has an extended mix of Kino BGM in its credits screen, I think. I ripped it to my computer. It's about 4 minutes long, and is the closest we will possibly ever come to owning the OST. Sad, but it is a really good four minutes. Somewhere else there's 1:00 to 1:30 or so of more music (menu?). |
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adonais
Posts: 302 |
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But spoiler[she uses the "boku" pronoun for herself several times, which is normally only used by male speakers.] |
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P€|\||§_|\/|ast@
Posts: 3498 Location: IN your nightmares |
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Heh, even after watching the trailer several times and being interested in seeing the show for quite a while I always thought Kino spoiler[was a boy]. Actually I never really gave much thought to Kino's gender, then I read about it in the Favorite Character thread and then realized that little detail.
So now I've watched it (just vol. 1) and I went into the show knowing Kino's gender but I enjoyed how the story develops by really playing off either your doubts or initial assumption that Kino spoiler[is male], which most people would have. Especially in ep 2. That was rather cool how the ADV trailer didn't spoil it for you by always referring to Kino as just "Kino" in the narration. And I think it is appropriate for Kino to use boku since it is used by both males and females, just much more commonly by boys, and is not an entirely gender exclusive pronoun like atashi is. |
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Bruce Lee
 Posts: 715 Location: Seattle, Washington |
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It's funny to see this thread, as I just finished watching the first disc of this show. I like to think of myself as a pretty patient guy - I mean I stuck wtih Zettai Shounen - but this has to be the most boring freaking show I've ever seen. I try to stay away from the shows with androgenous men, but this is probably just as bad.
I don't like her or hermes' monotone voices. I don't like the traveling for no reason storyline. I have the 2nd disc here - does it get better? Should I continue watching it? |
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Mohawk52
Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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P€|\||§_|\/|ast@
Posts: 3498 Location: IN your nightmares |
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Oh boy. I'm perfectly fine with that there are many people who were disappointed with this show, or flat out hate it. After all SaiKano is a favorite anime for many members like SakechanBD and Zalis116 but I admitted my dislike for it. That is perfectly normal that everyone likes different things. I just found it funny that you didn't like Kino's Journey, especially for one of the reasons you gave. It's because its a little ironic since Tsukasa from Ichigo 100% looks like a boy (the person in Bruce's avatar) - I thought she was at first but I got interested the series because I thought her boyish look and haircut was cute. She's just as androgynous-looking as Kino is. |
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Bruce Lee
Posts: 715 Location: Seattle, Washington |
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I just found it funny that you didn't like Kino's Journey, especially for one of the reasons you gave. It's because its a little ironic since Tsukasa from Ichigo 100% looks like a boy (the person in Bruce's avatar) - I thought she was at first but I got interested the series because I thought her boyish look and haircut was cute. She's just as androgynous-looking as Kino is.[/quote]
LOL no way - Tsukasa is super turbo cute! Kino looks like a dude I went to Junior High with 
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frentymon
Forums Superstar
Posts: 2362 Location: San Francisco |
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The series remains pretty much the same all the way through, with slight variations in terms of emotional impact, action, irony, etc. If you really didn't like the first disc, I wouldn't bother with the rest of the series, as you'll just be boring yourself half to death.
Word. |
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