Kino's Journey 

Young world-weary sharpshooter girl Kino and her talking inquisitive motorcycle Hermes travel around her unusual world, visiting various city-states for three days each to learn about their culture, history and ruling philosophy.

Stars:

Ai Maeda, Ryuji Aigase, Kelli Cousins

Cast

Series cast summary:
Ai Maeda	...	Kino 14 episodes, 2003
Ryuji Aigase	...	Hermes 14 episodes, 2003
Kelli Cousins	...	Kino 13 episodes, 2003
Cynthia Martinez	...	Hermes / ... 13 episodes, 2003
Patrick Givens	...	Additional Voices 11 episodes, 2003
Stacy Slanina	...	Additional Voices / ... 11 episodes, 2003
Jacob A. Gragard	...	Additional Voices / ... 10 episodes, 2003
Kyle Jones	...	Additional Voices / ... 10 episodes, 2003
Chris Nelson	...	Additional Voices / ... 10 episodes, 2003
Jay Hickman	...	Sixshooter / ... 9 episodes, 2003
Logan Haire	...	Additional Voices 8 episodes, 2003
Vic Mignogna	...	Comrade B / ... 8 episodes, 2003
Daniel Scruggs	...	Additional Voices 8 episodes, 2003
John Swasey	...	Additional Voices / ... 8 episodes, 2003
Rebecca Ayres	...	Boy B / ... 7 episodes, 2003
John Gremillion	...	Immigration Officer / ... 7 episodes, 2003
Dan Mackey	...	Guard Captain / ... 7 episodes, 2003
Ted Pfister	...	Additional Voices / ... 7 episodes, 2003
Monica Rial	...	Additional Voices / ... 7 episodes, 2003
Melissa Cybele Sparks	...	Miss Rose / ... 7 episodes, 2003
Chris Ayres	...	Bartender / ... 6 episodes, 2003
Clint Bickham	...	Shizu 6 episodes, 2003
David Born	...	Survivor / ... 6 episodes, 2003
Rick Burford	...	Comrade / ... 6 episodes, 2003
Luci Christian	...	Kid A / ... 6 episodes, 2003
Alyson Irene Edman	...	Bride / ... 6 episodes, 2003
Tejas Englesmith	...	Riku 6 episodes, 2003
Marty Fleck	...	Colonel / ... 6 episodes, 2003
Andrew Klimko	...	Assassin / ... 6 episodes, 2003
Andy McAvin	...	Porter Bot / ... 6 episodes, 2003
Amanda Nanawa	...	Woman A / ... 6 episodes, 2003
Eric Opella	...	Soldier C / ... 6 episodes, 2003
Hal Rawley	...	Old Man / ... 6 episodes, 2003
Gene Tognacci	...	Man B / ... 6 episodes, 2003

Storyline

Inspired by the ultimate selfless act of a friendly traveler, calm quiet introspective teenage marksman Kino travels around the world on her talking motorcycle and best friend Hermes, visiting different countries, that are all basically city-states. The duo has no particular goal in mind other than to learn about life, the world in general and themselves. They have only one rule - never stay in one place for more than three days. Some of the places they visit turn out to be beautiful, others disturbing. Many of the places have their own culture, social order and philosophy of living, so during her endless journey, Kino witnesses the darkest sides of humanity, but also occasional triumphs and many peculiar oddities. She sometimes protects, kills, saves, ignores or helps people, but also on occasion thinks about her past, questions her whole reality once and even becomes tempted to stay at one place for longer than three days at one point.

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Plot Keywords:

religious philosophy | insanity | attempted filicide | talking animal | dog | 

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Genres:

Animation | Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

2003 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Kino's Journey

Company Credits

Production Co:

A.C.G.T, Genco

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Featured in Troldspejlet: Episode #34.8 (2005)

User Reviews

Kino's Journey

Definitely a very slow paced anime, if you are looking for action you are at the wrong place.

However, if you are interested in experiencing the elevating joys, the wide arsenal of emotions and artistic features an anime can offer then you have just found what you are looking for.

This piece of art is coming at you with a mixture of sounds, pictures, and dialog like not much other anime out there. Every single episode is a rather complex assessment of the different systems that have existed and exist throughout human history and of the different element of human personality in general.

Our main hero, Kino is a traveler and as such it is not the end point, not the destiny of the journey that is important for her, but the experience she gather while being on the road. Many of the episodes have not much connections to each other, they could be separated from each other and still be meaningful, in other words there are a lots of episodes (in the literature sense).

It was created by the same crew as Serial Experiments Lain, so if you've seen that you should have a good idea what you are in for, however this one is taking a less theoretic approach to the different problems humanity as a whole and an individual is facing. Most importantly, each episode gives you a comprehensive example, that way getting the problem close to you and is looking for practical solutions. Still in the end the Kino takes no active part in the events and is just a bystander, who forms her opinion but does nothing more (maybe with exemption of 1-2 life-death problems she can't stand by).

Summing up, to truly understand this piece you have to do your own part, this show doesn't serve you answers on a silver plate, but rather questions.