Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World

Kino, a 15-year-old traveler, forms a bond with Hermes, a talking motorcycle. Together, they wander the lands and venture through various countries and places, despite having no clear idea of what to expect. After all, life is a journey filled with the unknown.

Throughout their journeys, they encounter different kinds of customs, from the morally gray to tragic and fascinating. They also meet many people: some who live to work, some who live to make others happy, and some who live to chase their dreams. Thus, in every country they visit, there is always something to learn from the way people carry out their lives.

It is not up to Kino or Hermes to decide whether these asserted values are wrong or right, as they merely assume the roles of observers within this small world. They do not attempt to change or influence the places they visit, despite how absurd these values would appear. That's because in one way or another, they believe things are fine as they are, and that "the world is not beautiful; therefore, it is."

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kino Main

Maeda, Ai Japanese

Hermes Main

Aigase, Ryuji Japanese

Kino (original) Supporting

Inoue, Kazuhiko Japanese

Riku Supporting

Ootsuka, Houchuu Japanese

Shizu Supporting

Irie, Takashi Japanese

Sakura Supporting

Yuuki, Aoi Japanese

Shishou Supporting

Midori, Junko Japanese

Tchuhachkova, Nimya Supporting

Kobayashi, Ai Japanese

Inspector Supporting

Nakagi, Ryuuji Japanese

Poet's Daughter Supporting

Saitou, Chiwa Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Abe, Shoujirou Producer

Nakamura, Ryuutarou Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Tsuruoka, Youta Sound Director

Reviews

May 30, 2024

Koizoomer115

Recommended

This is an anime that I have a weird history with. I started and finished it in quote the time gap. But anyway, this anime is great. It has a very eerie, mysterious, yet comforting vibe to it. It has interesting ideas and concepts, each country feels unique. I really love the touch of philosophy it has too. The only complaints I’d kinda have is that some people can find it hard to follow, or even find it boring...

It’s a unique anime that you won’t find anywhere else.
I love the art style too. It’s so comfy and fits the world and theme perfectly.
Kino was a ... loveable and rather interesting protagonist—they have an air of mystery that wants you to learn more about them.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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May 31, 2024

No_following247

Recommended

This is kind of the worst anime to talk about in a review because there's just not much to say about it. That's not to say that this show is bad or has nothing to offer. No, it's rather the exact opposite. In fact, I'd go as far to say that this is one of my personal favorite anime ever, it truly is a hidden gem that I hear nobody talking about. It's about a kid named Kino who travels around from place to place with his talking motorcycle Hermes (Yeah, the motorcycle talks) and each place is different from the next, and after they're ... done with one place, they travel to the next random place with seemingly no ending destination in sight. And that's basically the whole show in a nutshell without giving any specific details. I first went into this show knowing nothing about it and I think that's the best way to experience it. It made me completely immersed in the world of this show and I found myself just going along with the journey. Kino is such an interesting character to me and the interactions between Kino and Hermes are very entertaining to watch. Their conversations can get kind of philosophical and emotional at times.

The show just has such a relaxing vibe to it and a sense of adventure which I love. Watching this show feels like you're on a road trip yourself. I mean there are emotional scenes and moments that are meant to be exciting and they all hit quite hard but for the most part this show is very lowkey and I like that. The places they visit are all very unique and the show leaves many things up to interpretation without becoming too ambiguous, leading to stupid plot holes. And the show doesn’t really follow a three-act structure either. Like the show just kinda starts, and then it just kinda ends. I guess one complaint I could give this show is that I kind of wanted to see more from it. The show is very short, it's only 13 episodes long and if you were to watch it all in one sitting like I did, it would take about 5 hours. But I still think you get a lot out of it even with a short runtime.

I don't really have any logical or well-thought out reasons as to why I love this show. I just find it very cozy. This show is like a warm blanket that you wanna snuggle in forever, and that's fine by me. Now I do know there is a remake of this show, which I haven't seen, but I'm just going to bet that the remake is not going to give me the same kind of feelings and emotions that the OG version gave me.

ORIGINALLY REVIEWED ON 03/05/2023

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Jun 22, 2023

Halalex

Mixed Feelings

Episodic anthology series like Kino’s Journey have a tendency to be kind of a double-edged sword. On one hand, you can completely skip the episodes that aren’t to your liking without really missing anything. But on the other hand, if you’re a completionist, such as myself, you’ll watch every episode, no matter what. In this case, that mindset severely worsened my enjoyment of the show as a whole, seeing as I sat through episodes that I found completely uninteresting, while also knowing that they don’t matter in the larger scope of the show. Don’t get me wrong, a handful of the episodes are exceptionally intriguing, ... but overall I didn’t really get into this show as much as I had hoped to (probably because of modern internet brain-rot or something).

Having said that, there were some aspects that I found consistently great, and I really appreciate the story for the concepts that it brings up. But jesus christ, this got real dark in some episodes, surprisingly so. Kino herself, for example, is absolutely ruthless when the situation calls for it, a surprising characteristic that enhanced many scenes that otherwise would’ve been resolved in much more cliché and uninteresting ways. And while I can’t say that I particularly vibed with all the stylistic visual choices, the music fits the bill perfectly and gives the whole show an almost ethereal, otherwordly feeling.

6 / 10, the first few episodes are the honeymoon period, most of the rest fell kinda flat when I knew what to expect. Unfortunately hasn’t aged particularly well either.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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