Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World, Kaze no Na wa Amnesia Recommendations
Both "Kino's Journey" and "A Wind Named Amnesia" have traditional sci-fi elements in them, that one would expect to find in western movies and TV series. However neither would ever be done in the west, but their backdrops have been used multiple times. Both series are about 2 people (well one person and a motorcycle that speaks in "Kino's Journey", and trust me it's not as silly as it sounds), who are on a journey, and travel to many different places that are in contrast with each other, and our world. Both series are journeys in the literal sense, and journeys into the human mind.
They examine ways of thought, what it means to be human, the darker and lighter sides of humanty, and even get very psychological at times. In essence they are incredbly philosphical journeys, and very well thought out. The examine schools of thought, religion, morality, and other concepts incredbly well. They are both two very deep and just brilliant animes. Both series are not boring, but slow paced. They do feature action, and use it quite well, but neither are exiting, riveting, non-stop fighting kind of series. If you want non-stop robot fighting, look elsewhere. If you want intellegent thought provoking anime, these two meet that critera better then most anime I've seen. Also the english dubs on both are great, well worth a listen to even sub-only fans.
There are some slight differences. "Kino's Journey" has some fantasy elements, while those are lacking in "A Wind Named Amnesia". "Kino's Journy" being a 13 episode TV series is longer, and overall the stronger of the two. But to "Amnesia's" defense, it was first, and beat out "Kino" by 13 years. "Amnesia" should have been/could have been a very interesting 13-26 episode TV series, sadly it isn't it's just a movie. "Kino's Journey" has a more "simplistic" yet beautiful type of artwork, while "A Wind Named Amnesia" has a more standard high quality Madhouse look to it (which still looks great almost 20 years later), both which work well. Both also feature different styles of music. Also "Kino" is a little more preachy about what it's dealing with, while "Amnesia" leave the answers wide open. Kino in "Kino's Journey" is more of an observer, while Wataru in "A Wind Named Amnesia" interacts with, and attempts to change things at times.
read more
