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aya_honda wrote:

I especially liked the moment when spoiler[she comes across the "perfect book" and she discovers that it is empty. ] The French poet Mallarme (I'm not sure if he was the one) had this idea that spoiler[an empty book]may be considered the perfect creation, because it can't have flaws. (not that I really understood the modernits poets. )

That particular scene also reflects the Hermetic principle of
prima materia, which I think actually reinforces the existential themes of the series as well, given that prima materia refers to a person's mind in a absolute state of receptivity, much like the blank sheet of paper, and the existentialist principle that a person's existence precedes a person's purpose (i.e. life is what you make of it), which is a recurring theme in Kino's Journey.

Zalis116 wrote:

What a coincidence this has been...I received the first Kino's Journey novel in the mail on the day this post appeared,

I'm expecting my copy of the Kino no Tabi novel in the mail any day now. I hope the novels do fairly well; I'd like to see more novels like this get licensed in the future.

frentymon wrote:

It's often compared to Haibane Renmei, but I found in it a biting wit which I never noticed in Haibane Renmei.

I don't know who's comparing Kino's Journey to Haibane, but I don't agree with them at all. Haibane is my personal favorite, and Kino's Journey is my highest-regarded, but the only real similarity I see between the two is the overall tempo, and even then Kino's Journey speeds it up a tad with some action here and there.

Steve Berry wrote:

Mwah, ha ha!!! Our attempts at world Kino's Journey domination are coming to fruition!!! ::much evil wrining of hands insues::

Mm, yes! I really do think that Kino's Journey could become a sleeper/cult hit among fans; perhaps something of a Shawshank Redemption of anime. There's doesn't seem to be any lack of high praise for the series, and I even consider it to be the best work of fiction that I've encountered thus far (seems a bit excessive of me, yes, but whatever).

Anthony P wrote:

aya_honda wrote:

I especially liked the moment when spoiler[she comes across the "perfect book" and she discovers that it is empty. ] The French poet Mallarme (I'm not sure if he was the one) had this idea that spoiler[an empty book]may be considered the perfect creation, because it can't have flaws. (not that I really understood the modernits poets. )

That particular scene also reflects the Hermetic principle of
prima materia, which I think actually reinforces the existential themes of the series as well, given that prima materia refers to a person's mind in a absolute state of receptivity, much like the blank sheet of paper, and the existentialist principle that a person's existence precedes a person's purpose (i.e. life is what you make of it), which is a recurring theme in Kino's Journey.

Most definetly the existentialist philosophy predominates in this anime not only by what you have said (life is what you make of it) but also by their belief that existence is in the end something absurd. In many parts of the anime I got this impression, particularly when spoiler[there were those countries waiting the end of the world and one wanted to destroy the other; the other one would definetly the three men on the rails]. There's much philosophy in this anime. And to tell you the truth I didn't expect that.

Anthony P wrote:

Quote:

frentymon wrote:
It's often compared to Haibane Renmei, but I found in it a biting wit which I never noticed in Haibane Renmei.
I don't know who's comparing Kino's Journey to Haibane, but I don't agree with them at all. Haibane is my personal favorite, and Kino's Journey is my highest-regarded, but the only real similarity I see between the two is the overall tempo, and even then Kino's Journey speeds it up a tad with some action here and there.

I also liked very much Haibane Renmei but I don't see them particularly similar. They could be compared in value (they are both very interesting and compelling) but nonetheless I perceive them as being quite different.

I did something I don't normally do in order to watch life goes on. For those of you who haven't seen it, it isn't like the series in that it gives a lot of background information on Kino and how the journey started. For those of you who have seen it: spoiler[I only watched the dub of the series; in watching the sub, I was struck by a couple of things. First, Hermie's voice. I can understand, no matter which one you started with, not liking the other just because they are so different. Particularly, this:

frentymon wrote:

Hermes' voice was just right to produce a somewhat childish tone of speech while retaining some semblence of intelligence as well.

This makes more sense to me now after hearing the Japanese track since I never really got that impression from the dub. With regard to Kino and HER gender, i don't know who was doing the sub, but they did something very clever with it. When Kino uses the female "I" it was colored pink, and colored blue for the male. Again, when watching the dub of the show, all of this play with pronouns is completely lost. Finally, I have a question. It seemed like Teacher lied to Kino about the woman knowing that the woman would go crazy and Kino would be forced to kill her. It also seemed like Kino figured this out when she remembered the people asking Teacher for help. But, when the two meet at the end, I didn't get the sense that there was any understanding between the two, or any acknowledgement of what had happened. Can any of you clarify this for me?]

Not gonna read through all 4 pages of replies because I don't want to see spoilers, but I've got one question. Is Kino a guy or a girl? I've only seen one (or 2) episodes fansubbed and I just purchased all 4 dvds and box from TRSI yesterday in the bargain bin. I've seen some posts on this thread referring to him as a guy, but with the Thinpak set...the picture looks really effeminite on the front.

answers?

sykosteve wrote:

Not gonna read through all 4 pages of replies because I don't want to see spoilers, but I've got one question. Is Kino a guy or a girl? I've only seen one (or 2) episodes fansubbed and I just purchased all 4 dvds and box from TRSI yesterday in the bargain bin. I've seen some posts on this thread referring to him as a guy, but with the Thinpak set...the picture looks really effeminite on the front.

answers?

spoiler[Kino is a girl. I agree with you on the thinpak cover art, too; in retrospect, I think that cover art was what made me go into the series thinking Kino was a girl from the start, so I didn't get to experience the gender confusion thing.]

sykosteve wrote:

Not gonna read through all 4 pages of replies because I don't want to see spoilers, but I've got one question. Is Kino a guy or a girl? I've only seen one (or 2) episodes fansubbed and I just purchased all 4 dvds and box from TRSI yesterday in the bargain bin. I've seen some posts on this thread referring to him as a guy, but with the Thinpak set...the picture looks really effeminite on the front.

answers?

Well.... if you've seen one or two episodes and you can't figure it out, that's what we classify as a 'spoiler' isn't it? Wink

Either way, does it really matter in the end? spoiler[Actually, it kind of does, doesn't it? Laughing

]

I started watching Kino's Journey two days ago and yes it has blown away my expectations of it. The only reason I even decided to watch this series was because of this thread. The pychology in this series is thought provoking and is fun to think about. It examines aspects of are world that I have never really thought about. Kino as a character so far is really interesting and phylisophical her self. I am very pleased with the series so far and judging by the posts through out this thread I can probably expect it to get better

omar235 wrote:

I am very pleased with the series so far and judging by the posts through out this thread I can probably expect it to get better

Definetly it will get better. The stories develop as the intrigue takes new interesting turns. And Kino remains to me one of the most curious and fascinating characters.

It is a very interesting series that took me by surprise and I never expected to enjoy it so much. On the other hand recommending it so warm-heartidly makes me a suspect of being highly subjective. Wink

(which since I enjoyed the anime so much, I most probably am). Very Happy

I started writing this awhile ago, but got busy and abandoned it. I would have just left it altogether, but the dominance of threads [unnecessary incendiary comment omitted] pushed me to revisit it.

With regard to the episode involving the railroad men, it reminded me of The Myth of Sisyphus except that it is less concerned about the personal trial, and the inherent individualistic struggle that is characteristic of Existentialism, and focuses more on the way in which we all get trapped into these tedious endeavors by a shared willingness to accept them.

"Camus presents Sisyphus's ceaseless and pointless toil as a metaphor for modern lives spent working at futile jobs in factories and offices. "The workman of today works every day in his life at the same tasks, and this fate is no less absurd. But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes conscious."'-- From Wikipedia

spoiler[Kino tells the first two men about a place where people don’t have to work, but they do anyway as method of distributing wealth. Once she finds out the truth about the men’s work however, she decides not to tell the third. I tried to go through her thought process, and came up with this: it would be futile to tell the man about the futile work of others in the face of his own futile work. She just didn’t want to be a part of the cycle, but having said that... These men are not presented as being completely oblivious to their situation; it is in what they do not know that the show is making its point. We do not form our chains by doing the work; if people suffer this kind of job, it is usually for a noble cause such as supporting a family as is the case with these men. The true absurdity is that we have created and continue to facilitate a world in which it is necessary for people to live such a mundane existence. And worse, in doing this work for whatever reason, it contributes to making such work acceptable in our society. This assures that such work will continue. That is why the men never discover that each of them is actually creating work for the next, and so on, and so on, down the railroad line.

It is also interesting that the episode doesn’t actually end there. Rather, Kino next journeys to a place where the population has voted itself into oblivion. The two parts are related in that they are depicting negative aspects of our modern capitalistic, democratic nations due to the people trapping themselves in unnecessary situations (as opposed to a tyrant’s will which the show had already discussed).] As I’ve said before, the show doesn’t really offer solutions, it is more interested in presenting the problem to get the viewer to recognize and think about them.

varmintx wrote:

I started writing this awhile ago, but got busy and abandoned it. I would have just left it altogether, but the dominance of threads [unnecessary incendiary comment omitted] pushed me to revisit it.

With regard to the episode involving the railroad men, it reminded me of The Myth of Sisyphus except that it is less concerned about the personal trial, and the inherent individualistic struggle that is characteristic of Existentialism, and focuses more on the way in which we all get trapped into these tedious endeavors by a shared willingness to accept them.

"Camus presents Sisyphus's ceaseless and pointless toil as a metaphor for modern lives spent working at futile jobs in factories and offices. "The workman of today works every day in his life at the same tasks, and this fate is no less absurd. But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes conscious."'-- From Wikipedia

Camus was interested in developing metaphors for a world that at that time seemed to crumble under his very eyes. He didn't take only the myth of Sisyphus and transformed it but also the plague for example as a metaphor of the rise of the fascism. It was the fault of the new era: to be trapped in all the things that we ceaseless continue to do for the simple fact that we are required, that we aren't accepted otherwise and so on and so forth. There are many reasons for the modern man to continue in doing something that he doesn't like for the sake of total different reasons other than the ones that are closely related to him.

You are right. That particular episode that seems to have triggered the strongest discussion may also be talking about the spoiler[futile things that we continue to do rather than their importance. Just like Sisyphus who continued to push the rock, the three men were bound by a useless purpose of their job. Other than the one to support their families. But what is that anyway? They haven't seen their families for whom they work so hard for almost all their lives. Isn't that just sad? Isn't that just tragic? Just like the modern man nowadays neglects his children by working hard, completely forgetting about the fact that the children need also love not just material goods. ]

varmintix wrote:

Quote:

As I’ve said before, the show doesn’t really offer solutions, it is more interested in presenting the problem to get the viewer to recognize and think about them.

Most definetly the show has a subtle way of showing all the problems without giving solutions or saying that something is plain wrong. I was particularly fascinated by this show due to its reinterpretations of the modern myths: spoiler[the end of the world myth (not modern in its own nature but definetly a modern obsession), the obsession of working hard, the obsession of having unlimited powers (like the ones that wanted to read minds), relations between parents and children (like the episodes regarding Kino and also the town in which she wanted to stay for the very first time).... ]It's one of the anime that actually challenged me mentally and I enjoyed that quite a lot.

And talking about the modern man.... One more thing: I also see the
spoiler[the obsession of the modern man to reinvent himself every time. For example it remained in my mind that episode when Kino visited the city where people were continuously reinventing their traditions just for the sake of attracting tourists. I have seen this quite often in my journeys. From year to year something slightly was changing in order for the tourists to be pleased an that was plain sad.]

Terribly sorry for the long post. Embarassed

I absolutely LOVED this anime. I bought the complete collection pretty randomly one day when I couldn't find what I was looking for. I had read about it and it had some really good reviews and comments but I wasn't sure if it was one I wanted. What really pushed me to buy it that day was when I remembered that I had read something somewhere that it was similar to Mushishi, which was my all time favorite anime.

I brought this home started watching it and didn't stop. This anime completely blew my mind. It didn't even come close to my expectations it was 5 trillion times better then what I thought it would be. Everything about it made me think. It was like when I read short stories or like some one said earlier Greek myths and aesops fables. I was sucked into Kino's. After I watched that I went on to watch the movies immediately and then I bought the graphic novel and read it.

This is probably my second favorite anime ever Mushishi still comes first. I would recommend this everyone who enjoyed Kino's Journey. It's pretty episodic but it makes you think like Kino's. It's one of those things that you either love or hate so give it a try.

varmintx wrote:

[spoiler]Kino tells the first two men about a place where people don’t have to work, but they do anyway as method of distributing wealth. Once she finds out the truth about the men’s work however, she decides not to tell the third. I tried to go through her thought process, and came up with this: it would be futile to tell the man about the futile work of others in the face of his own futile work. She just didn’t want to be a part of the cycle, but having said that... These men are not presented as being completely oblivious to their situation; it is in what they do not know that the show is making its point. We do not form our chains by doing the work; if people suffer this kind of job, it is usually for a noble cause such as supporting a family as is the case with these men. The true absurdity is that we have created and continue to facilitate a world in which it is necessary for people to live such a mundane existence. And worse, in doing this work for whatever reason, it contributes to making such work acceptable in our society. This assures that such work will continue. That is why the men never discover that each of them is actually creating work for the next, and so on, and so on, down the railroad line.

Here's the thing, though; the men's work is only futile if one holds it to be futile. One of the best things about Kino's Journey is that most of the events and character's behavior is presented (for the most part) in an unbiased manner, leaving the audience to decide what is meaningful and what is futile. I think that is the true theme of the series: the only meaning that anything holds is that which you ascribe to it.
So I'm not disagreeing with you; rather, that you (I as well, for that matter) saw the men's work as futile, instead of the series presenting the men's work as being futile.

Quote:

As I’ve said before, the show doesn’t really offer solutions, it is more interested in presenting the problem to get the viewer to recognize and think about them.

I agree. That's another thing the series leaves for the audience to decide.

Supermario wrote:

This is probably my second favorite anime ever Mushishi still comes first. I would recommend this everyone who enjoyed Kino's Journey. It's pretty episodic but it makes you think like Kino's. It's one of those things that you either love or hate so give it a try.

reminded me of mushishi, as well (both awesome shows, too).

I got the novel, but I have not started reading it yet (waiting to finish monte cristo). I know it's not a big deal because having it is better than not, but I would of preferred if tokyopop kept the chapters in thier original order.

Anthony P wrote:

Quote:

As I’ve said before, the show doesn’t really offer solutions, it is more interested in presenting the problem to get the viewer to recognize and think about them.

I agree. That's another thing the series leaves for the audience to decide.

Indeed, and that is part of the very essence of the show I would say. It is not an observer's place to make pass judgement after all.

Oh yes, I've been continuing to watch this series and I should be getting volume 4 very soon. I was actually slightly disappointed with volume 3 but the last episode on the disk more than made up for it. I really like how the show has a different plot each episode that doesn't offer much closure but instead forces you to think and reflect on what you've just watched. It is definitely an inspirational feeling.

Oh also I was going to comment on this earlier but I forgot about it: Last Thanksgiving I was watching a documentary at my friend's house about the historical landmarks that are documented in the Bible and they referenced an old Islamic proverb that's very similar to Kino's 3-day stay rule:

Everybody goes by the rule to treat all visitors like your own family for the 1st and 2nd day, but after the 3rd day that same visitor is as welcomed as a venemous snake.

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