Kino no Tabi Review - 87/100
Another case-based anime, how could I ignore it ^^
And indeed, if you like stories, you definitely should put this on your watch list. It’s a collection of short stories, all centred around Kino, as she travels an alternative world, which consists out of a large number of small countries. During her travels, she meets people, who tell her their stories. If you combine these stories with each other, the results becomes an interesting view of human behaviour, culture and rituals.
These stories really are meant to make you think. Some toy with ethics, others show the flaws in modern society, and in the end, there wasn’t even one story which didn’t make me think about its themes and topics. Kino herself also is a very interesting character. As she has travelled the world for a long while, she’s had many experiences, and this shows. She perfectly prepares herself for the journeys she’s making on her talking motorbike, called Hermes, she knows exactly what to say in order to keep people from getting offended at and involved with her at the same time. This turned her personality into a unique one. Still, there’s surprisingly one very simple which never gets answered. How does Kino get money? It’s strange, as this anime is a solid piece of work, and such a trivial matter is ignored.
In terms of sound and graphics, Kino no Tabi also delivers. Especially its graphical style looks like no other anime, while the background music accompanies this with some interesting background tunes. I also must give the creators credit for the scenes whenever we saw a gun or other fire missile fired. I’m not exactly sure what they did, but these moments were just full of tension and surprise.
While this is a great series to watch, the fact does remain that Kino no Tabi could have been better. Similar shows like Mushishi and Hi no Tori had a much greater impact on me. While Kino no Tabi was an interesting watch, half of its episodes seemed to somehow lack an atmosphere, dragged on a bit, or weren’t as interesting as the others. It’s also a bit of a shame to see that this anime doesn’t really have that great of an ending. It’s just the thing you’d expect from a series like this.