Ranked #254

Kino's Journey: Life Goes On

Title: Kino no Tabi: In Order to Do Something -Life Goes On-

Anime: The Kino no Tabi movie was released on February 19th, 2005 in Japan, and was directed by Takashi Watanabe, who also directed Ikki Tousen. It has yet to be licensed or released Stateside.

Story: The movie is a prequel of sorts, focusing on Kino when she was younger and living with Shishou, who was mentioned in passing in the series. We see her learning to protect herself with guns, and learning how to ride Hermes, which makes for some nice laughs. It also focuses on her guilt over a death that she caused, and her first journey to the country of the one she killed, to tell that person's family what happened.

This is a really nice continuation of one of the episodes in the series, not to mention an expansion on another person mentioned in passing in the series, and a great origin story in general. We get to see how Kino became... well, Kino.

Again, as in the series, there is some blood; nothing too significant, but it's still there.

Art: No different from what we saw in the series; see my review of Kino no Tabi for my opinions on that.

Music: Again, no different from what we saw in the series, except for the ED. The new ED was sweet, but I like the series' ED better.

Seiyuu: Once again, no change from what we saw in the series. It was nice, hearing more of Shishou's seiyuu, because we heard so little of her in the series. She was exactly what I expected her to be: warm, comforting, motherly in general.

Length: I'm not real happy with this, as it clocked in at just under a half-hour. I was expecting something a bit longer than the typical episode length, and there was so much more that they could've done. It was nice, but still...

Let's just hope that the second movie is actually full-length, and not this short.

Overall: An excellently written, if slightly short, origin story, with many similarities to the series.

Story: 8/10
Art: 8/10
Music: 7/10
Seiyuu: 8/10
Length: 8/10

Overall: 39/50; 78% (C) read more

Kino's Journey can pretty much be divided into two shows, one that is an entirely episodic travel anime with light philosophic content and a second that has a much stronger emphasis on philosophy and underlying whispers of a overreaching storyline. Kino's Journey: Life Goes On falls pretty solidly into the second category and does a good job of representing exactly what I liked about the main series.

Story 10: This is the story I wanted to hear since about episode 3 of the show, and it never disappointed. The plotline of "Life Goes On" does a wonderful job of showing how Kino's writers are able to seamlessly integrate Lain-style philosophy into a story without interfering with its pacing. That being said, it contains a similar level of spoilers as watching any prequel before the main series, I would certainly suggest watching the show first.

Art 9: Just about the same as Kino's Journey, along with the subtly annoying horizontal lines throughout. I really liked the darker moments of this OVA, the art in those parts were a very welcome supplement to the already established art style. And what can I say? I just love Kino's character design <3

Sound 9: I really enjoyed the voice-acting in the show and in this OVA it was maybe even better. Still don't really care for the OP or ED though, but neither are like gratingly bad. The BGM isn't spectacular or anything but contributes well to the pace and feel.

Character 10: A surprising amount of character development in this OVA, without messing up the series's, which was awesome to see. Also, many of the side-characters in "Life Goes On" were fairly unique, which was nice coming from a series where one of my few complaints was their reuse of stock characters.

Enjoyment 10: A very stellar OVA, if you liked Kino's Journey but always wanted to know more about Kino's past this is perfect for you. Even if that wasn't really the draw of the series for you, I personally believe some of the series's best moments are in this OVA so I'd check it out anyway.

Overall 10: If you didn't like Kino, this probably won't change your mind. If you liked Kino but didn't like its ending (as in- what ending?) this OVA could fix your opinion of the show, as it did mine. I find myself wishing this were the canonical last episode, because I fear some people will miss it. Please don't let yourself be one of those people! If you finished Kino's Journey promptly go watch this OVA. read more