Hello everybody and welcome to the series review of Kino’s Journey the Beautiful World The Animation. In this spoiler-free review, I want to take a look back at the series as a whole.

What is Kino’s Journey The Beautiful World the Animation?

Kino’s Journey follows a teenaged androgynous girl named Kino who travels the world with Hermes, her traveling partner who just also happens to be a talking motorbike. Kino travels from country to country (in reality these ‘countries’ are more like walled towns) and she makes it a point to stay only 2 nights and 3 days in each one. You may hear this series referred to as ‘the Kino remake’, although this is not strictly true. Kino’s Journey is originally a series of light novels written by Keiichi Sigsawa and illustrated by Kouhaku Kuroboshi. The light novel began running in the year 2000 and is still running today. This is the second TV anime adaptation of the novels, as one was made back in 2003 and ran for 13 episodes. The new anime is not a remake of the first anime, as it has been adapted directly from the original light novels. Some of the episodes of the 2017 anime feature stories that did not appear in the 2003 one, and some episodes have a slightly different take on stories that some of you may be familiar with. If you are wondering ‘why didn’t they just adapt stories that were not in the 2003 version?’, well, there is a method to this madness. Each of the stories in the 2017 version are the stories that placed highest in a poll conducted amongst readers of the light novels.

I also want to make it clear at this point that, although I am now aware of the light novels and have seen a few episodes of the 2003 anime, I began watching this 2017 series as somebody completely new to Kino’s Journey, so my perspective may be very different to somebody who already has a lot of love for the novels or the 2003 series.

Casting

I have absolutely nothing bad to say about this and it was actually the reason I picked up this series in the first place. First, Aoi Yuki’s youthful yet slightly raspy voice was a perfect match for the cute yet cool Kino. Episode 11 fully showcases her skills, as she pulled off a young and innocent Kino not only in her speaking lines but in the singing part too. Another recurring character, Shizu, was played by Yuichiro Umehara, who is quite famous amongst fans for having one of the most gorgeous voices in the industry (I can’t help but instantly melt at the sound of his voice) Finally, I want to talk about Hermes. Wow. Soma Saito’s performance as Hermes was without a doubt the single greatest performance in the whole series. I listened a little to the Hermes of the 2003 series, which was fine, but I’m afraid Saito just blew him out of the water. It may be a little bit difficult to explain for those of you who cannot understand Japanese, but Hermes’ way of speaking is bright, yet dry. He is quite frank, yet talks in a friendly manner. Saito pulled it off perfectly, and I will definitely be remembering his performance for a long time.

Visuals

I would say the strongest point of Kino’s Journey is the visuals. Every single episode is animated beautifully and the experimental use of color in each episode is absolutely stunning. From the pretty use of overlays in the opening sequence to the cool and smooth character designs, the visuals do not disappoint. Except, maybe, for the CGI Kino and Hermes that sometimes appear. I have nothing against the use of CGI in anime, but unfortunately, the lower frame-rate of said CGI was a little bit awkward. Luckily it isn’t used very often.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of the anime is not all that memorable, and I probably won’t be purchasing it anytime soon. However, I really enjoyed the USE of the soundtrack. Kino’s Journey seems to have taken a big risk and does not bombard the viewer with an impactful soundtrack every other scene. Instead, the soundtrack is very subtle, and there is even a whole episode that has no background music for the entire first half. This subtlety matches very well with the world of Kino’s Journey, and is very refreshing.

Series Composition

I think one of the biggest turn-offs for potential viewers of Kino’s Journey may be the fact that the episodes are non-linear and even transcend genres. I personally find it very refreshing, but I can understand some people’s complaints. However, this is not only just the style of the source material but also one of the main charm points of the series.

There did seem to be a lot of complaints regarding the order of two episodes, ‘Country of Adults’ and ‘A Kind Country’. I won’t put any spoilers here, but the 2017 series shows these two episodes in the opposite order to the source material and the 2003 series. You can read more of my thoughts on this in the episode 11 review, and I’d love to know what fans of the previous series think.

Overall Thoughts

Pros

• Visually stunning from start to finish
• Perfect casting. Soma Saito’s performance as Hermes was especially wonderful
• The mix of different stories is very refreshing.

Cons

• Awkward use of CGI
• Would have preferred more episodes that told different stories to the 2003 series
• Some stories may be a little hard to follow due to the short timeframe and the fact that the series as a whole is not linear.

I really enjoyed watching Kino’s Journey every week. As I was new to the series, there were many stories where I really wanted to know what would happen next. Other than the obvious points, such as the beautiful visuals and the superb voice-acting, I really enjoyed the mish-mash of stories. We could have a serious and slightly disturbing story one episode and a silly one the next. However, this may also be the biggest turn-off for a lot of viewers, and I wouldn’t recommend this series for people who want a linear story that will grip them for 12 episodes.

Although I haven’t gone into much detail in this review, I could easily ramble on for pages on what made me enjoy it so much. Considering I wasn’t really considering watching this series in the first place, it says a lot that I will now consider reading one the novels and start my journey with Kino and Hermes all over again.