Rbastid

Marred by tragedy at a young age, the young wanderer decides to continue the path of her savior, knowing she has no home to return to.

Kino's Journey is an anime which i finished, enjoyed, but if asked why, I would have no idea.

Story - 6/10

On their own each episode is pretty enjoyable, following Kino and her motorcycle Hermes, whom she inherited though a friend, the same friend who's journey she now finishes.  Each episode has a theme, many of which revolve around a tyrannical leader or dumb set of laws that rule each city, which Kino poopoos from afar.  Worst than that is when they come out with some really off the wall scenarios for each country, such as one that has a yearly event where they team up with a former rival country in order to attack a third party country, since such an event created peace for those two attacking countries.

The only real bit of story telling has to do with Kino’s past, including why she is now traveling the world and how she came to acquire Hermes. Even some of that is left unanswered, as we hear about a woman who has trained Kino, and later her connection to one of the towns, but not much else, with that info instead left for an additional season/ movie. 

While some have praised Kino's theme of asking questions which are never answered as insightful and intelligent, as a former film history student I see it for what it really is, something you see in many student films, laziness. To always criticize without trying to help, which Kino admits to doing multiple times in the show, isn’t an honorable position, as you’re just attempting to stir up problems for people just because they don’t think as you do. In each episode they write a story that pretty much complains against every possible form of government, including the notion that people are just too dumb to choose for themselves and need to be ruled by an authoritarian, without ever trying to offer their idea of what makes the best society, so it really comes off as a holier than thou point of view from the creators.

Animation -7/10

I think the scenic animation was the best part of the show.  They pick a very nice color palette and stick with it throughout.  While it's not the most groundbreaking of design, it all fits with what seems like a realistic dream, where everything has that slight haze just blending the colors.

The characters are very crudely drawn, from Kino herself to every background person, they are made up of awkward shapes and proportions. As sort of simplistic as they are, like the backgrounds I think it works for this show, where really detailed or sharp drawing styles may have taken away from the overall feel.

Sound - 5/10

The music never really came right at you in the series, which was good, as again that fits the somewhat dreamscape of it all.  The songs, openings and closings, were all very pleasant and were a great accompaniment.

On the other hand the voices were a bit on the irritating side when it came to the two main characters.  Kino's voice did fit her personality well, as it was vanilla.  With a low tone and constant sound of calmness she did verge on annoying at times, though not as much as her polar opposite, the grating sound of Hemes' voice.  Yes as a motorcycle you wouldn't expect the voice to be completely humanlike, but listening to both versions you can see the English director made a choice to stray from just a normal voice over and it unfortunately failed.

Characters - 5/10

Due to the nature of each episode being a stand alone story it leaves you with many questions about our two main characters.  We learn where they came from and why they are traveling, but it seems as if Kino never actually grows from any experience, and those experiences never carry over to the next episode.

Sadly some of the single episode characters have much more growth than Kino herself does throughout the whole series.

Overall - 7/10

Again, despite my at times dismissive review of the show I did enjoy it.  They are interesting stories and can get you to think about the way countries are run, although as I said they basically state that every version of government is bad, (though they interestingly keep away from badmouthing the versions we know the be terrible, like communism), which leaves you feeling like the whole show was somewhat pointless. 

Being only 13 episodes also helped keep it a watchable series.  Without a strong story throughout and no real goal for Kino, anything more would have become repetitive and worn out quickly.