For this post on the Anime Discussion series, I’m writting about Kino no Tabi (Kino’s Journey).

The Anime Discussion series aims to cover more serious animes with content for adults (not necessarily violent or erotic content).
Not only to let people know about those titles, but also to dismiss the prejudice we often find people who never watched anime has, saying it’s “for kids only”.

Kino no Tabi is probably something completely different from all other animes you ever watched.
It is, as far as I know, the only anime that has stories built as parables.

In short, parables are succinct stories that tries to close up with moral lessons, and they usually lead to further reflections outside the story itself.

Kino is a traveler from this mythical world that is divided in countries very different from each other.
Accompanied by talking motorcycle Hermes, Kino has a rule of never staying on the same country for more than three days as it’s supposedly enough to know it.

The scenario of the cities is a mix of historic European villages, with technology varying between historical stuff (like phonographs) to modern robots… it’s more or less Steampunk like, but less urban.

Kino no Tabi started as a light novel, was then released in a 13 chapters anime, and had other 2 movies so far. One of them is about Kino’s past, and it also reveals one of the curious misteries about the character… is Kino a he or a she? xD
It’s another interesting thing about the series… it really doesn’t matter or interfere not knowing that.

Opening:

Each country has a different theme, culture and some very atypical aspect… for instance: A country were everyone can read each other’s mind, a country that is ruled solely by the people, a country with no children, a country of books, etc.

There’s a prologue to the series, the episode zero, called “Country of Towers” which is a nice introduction of what you’ll find in the series… unfortunately, the good quality videos where all removed, but I found one that is ok (at least ’till it’s also removed). Enjoy:

Prologue pt 1:

Prologue pt 2:

Oh yeah, I also wrote a long time ago about a Kino figure… anyways, hope you enjoyed this one!