Kino’s Journey: The Beautiful World—The Animated Series: The Complete Series

A quest-oriented book franchise by pseudonymous light-novel writer "Keiichi Sigsawa" (his surname a tribute to the gun manufacturer SIG Sauer) was adapted for this anime series that blends lyricism, bloody violence, and a fable-like episodic narrative. Kino is a girl, disguised throughout as a boy, who ventures into an unspecified land via "motorrad"—a talking motorcycle called Hermes (which is taken in stride by everyone and never clearly defined either as a computer or a magical artifact). The pair are "travelers" who visit different settled communities ("countries") in each episode, weighing whether to remain or continue onwards. Some countries are outright dystopias; others seem idyllic but conceal strange or twisted cultures. Kino finds one that is a giant, nomadic cylinder (shades of Howl’s Moving Castle), where public mayhem is falsely blamed on mind-control radio waves; another in which childhood is surgically removed at age 12; and more than one seemingly friendly locale where the folkways permit murder. Kino’s own backstory is not exactly what it seems and is threaded throughout in flashbacks. Compiling all 12 episodes from 2017 in a dual-language Blu-ray edition, rated TV-14, extras include an interview with Sigsawa. A thoughtful series, this is recommended. (C. Cassady)