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What an excellent episode. Parallels reality all too well, in frightening ways.

I absolutely loved the ending scene, with the massacred people being EXACTLY like their killers. They need an outlet, anyone, to torture and kill simply for the purpose of feeling avenged.

It's a vicious cycle, that doesn't end. There's so much truth in this episode that it stings.

Once again, Kino no Tabi delivers poignancy and reality with as blunt an instrument as cinema can allow.

11/10, and unfortunately onto the next and LAST episode! :(

What a bunch of cowards.

Do they not fear retribution?

Vietnam war was the first thing that came to my mind, although as someone pointed out already, Cold War in general was the target of the satire. Not that this kind of thinking would be completely in the past even now, from military support and arms trade to clear alliances.

So they transformed war over a territory into some sort of killing-fest sport competition just to justify their needs to kill?

Call me stupid, but this solution doesn't make sense at all in both reality and satire sense. Is it possible? Yes, but it would take 2 countries full of mentally deranged individuals to make it happen, which is very unlikely in BOTH fictional and today's world logically speaking.

Let's go through this logic step by step using (fictional) real world example:

1. USA goes to war with Russia because they both want unoccupied land called Spain
2. They fought for many years until they're out of resources to fight each other
3. They both do not want to lose their loved ones any more, so they decided to talk/make deal
4. Common sense logic would dictate that they both ceasefire, make peace treaty and divide Spain equally to end the war
5. But the logic this anime used is very flawed. IN ADDITION to ceasefire, USA and Russia both proposed that they have a killing competition against a defenseless country (aka France) annually JUST TO VENT their feeling of competitiveness, hostility, and cruelty (in which all human possess) that they have towards each other. (strong wtf logic)

The problem I have with this is why would they use the word 'WAR' instead of 'Competition'. Now I understand that USA and Russia still hate each other and ready to kill at any given moment, BUT WHY resort to killing the innocents WHILE acting like they're BEST FRIENDS? They should be ripping each other's throat apart instead of they're not mentally challenged.

A more simplified example:

1. Bob kills your wife
2. You found out Bob was the culprit
3. You go and kill Bob's wife in revenge
4. You don't want to lose your son, so you call Bob and have a talk
5. Both you and Bob agreed to not kill each other's son and daughter
6. Both also agreed not to kill each other because they want their raise their children
6. As years passed, both you and Bob still can't get over the fact that their wife were killed by the other
7. Both you and Bob felt the need to vent and still hates each other
8. So, you and Bob had another heart-to-heart chat to come up with a solution
9. You and Bob then decided to have a yearly competition where you both goes to a defenseless small town of poverty and see whoever can kill the most people in a given time. The loser has to buy the winner a bottle of whiskey.
10. What the fuck kind of logic is that?

TLDR; Don't get me wrong, I'm completely fine with all other messages/satires the anime was trying to convey. I just have a problem with the logic they used for this ONE part.

I agree that this episode was messed up.. but it truly does point out how human nature works... to find peace or to settle a difference a lot of times its taken out on the weaker party, in order to keep the peace, and that in turn causes the weaker party to take their anger out on those weaker than them... hatred gives rise to more hatred, a cycle that will never truely end. It's sad to think that people cant coexist peacefully without someone looking for a reason for conflict, but thats how human nature is.

I’m glad I finally found an episode of the series I really love. This episode brought up two important ideas that concern war and conflict. The first is that war must be brought to its natural conclusion for peace to emerge, and the second is that one of the greatest sins in International Relations is to be weak.

For a war to truly end, someone must win. The Cold War would still be going on if the Soviet Union still existed. It is extremely fortunate for the world that the Communism practiced by the Soviet Union was an unsustainable practice and lead to their own internal collapse. However, the Cold War was never truly a war because the two sides never directly fought. It was peace, but it was a toxic. The only way for those two countries in the show to ever find true peace would require the destruction of one of the countries.

“The strong do what they will, and the weak suffer what they must.” It is unfair about what happened to the indigenous people in that show, but that is how life works. Powerful countries exploit weaker countries even to this day. It is cleaner now; the age of colonization is over so now exploitation is more economical.

It is a popular position to take in this world to state that war is an unnecessary evil that must be stop wherever it is found. Unfortunately, that view tends to forget that war has been one of the major sources of social change in human history. An example would be that democracy was born through war. The only people who would truly benefit the most form the end of war would be the people who are already well off right now, which I assume would be most of the people who visit this site.

Those people at the end... their logic was terrible. LOL

I agree, but it's not just the music: the bridge, the trees, the eye superimposed over it at the end, it's totally Apocalypse Now!

In fact I feel like it was very intentional as both this episode and Apocalypse Now are about the way humans interact with humans who are fundamentally different from themselves.

Also, as for everyone who said that Kino should have intervened in the situation, this is clearly meant as a reflection of our own world and the way in which the western USA centric world interacts with the more indigenous populations of the earth, specifically the middle east in contemporary (the people at the end essentially rationalized a reason for turning to terrorism like acts.) No matter what side you find yourself on (though I'm willing to bet that if you have time to discuss anime, and obviously I count myself among that group, you will fall in with the previous group) the conflict is a closed system and far to large and elaborate for one individual to do affect in anyway.

However, we did just all watch this episode of Kino's Journey and we could all see how truly horrible the world presented to us was...

All this people above me actually (!) trying to prove what is shown in the episode is wrong and illogical is pathetic. That is not what you should extract from the episode, or should I say, you people trying to prove (to who) something that obvious is futile. You have to seek for the message within it.

There were so many things to take from this episode, but the biggest one for me was how humans pass on pain and hatred. When one person wrongs another, they cause that person pain which gives birth to hatred. That person then passes it on to another person who has nothing to do with the sources of their suffering and continues a vicious and nearly endless cycle.

I've always loved how this series makes me ponder on and question reality, there's so much to learn from each episode.

Well that was different than I first thought what would happen, that concept sure is hmm rather disturbing...

It was an interesting concept but yea quite wrong and disturbing...
Good episode though but I don't really know how I should feel about this...

kino should have just suggested like lazertag or a stun gun like in ender's game

I disagree, they were constantly getting slaughtered in a so-called "war", so they needed someone that they could vent their frustration and hatred against, even if they weren't apart of that country. They messed up choosing Kino, though.

One of the best episodes of the series so far for me. Her logic was correct, but disturbing.

Great episode

This episode was so sad.

They treated war like some kind of game. It was horrible seeing them kill innocent people accompanied with music and end the war by seeing which country had the most points.