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| Ah the land of books! I liked how this episodes delved into the work of a critic. What is a critic? How do they decide was is good or bad? And right or wrong? Where does their power come from? Very thought-provoking as a critic myself. "All people live in a fantasy in which they are the main character". Beautiful quote. And most of the time, it's true, right? |
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| This is the only episode of Kino that I disliked so far. |
| This episode was rather nonsensical and boring for the most part. |
| Overall, I give this one a 3/5 |
| This episodes remind me to separate reality to fiction but thanks no thanks.. I will still live in fiction :D |
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| Not as good as some of the previous episodes, but still wonderful. Some of the twists were a bit predictable. Was it just me, or did the SFX in this episode sound a lot like Morrowind's book sound effects? |
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| Okay, this is the fifth bland, unoriginal episode in a row... I went back and rewatched the first episode to remind myself this show isn't always 100% predictable. The sense of mystery and philosophical undertones that were around for the first couple episodes have been replaced with generic dialogue and even more generic plotlines. Not that it's not still about society, but the society we were shown in ep.1 was way more poignant and thought-provoking than these blatantly repressive, no nuance societies that have been the subject of the past few episodes. The way the brainwashed library dude explained the situation to Kino AND the way the resistance group was portrayed were both just so robotic and uninteresting; it's like we're just getting a lazy high-schooler's summary of Fahrenheit 451. Starting to feel this show is overrated, gonna take a break from it before hitting the last four episodes. |
LordQuazJan 5, 2020 11:51 AM
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| Books and stories this time, great ! |
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LordQuaz said: Okay, this is the fifth bland, unoriginal episode in a row... I went back and rewatched the first episode to remind myself this show isn't always 100% predictable. The sense of mystery and philosophical undertones that were around for the first couple episodes have been replaced with generic dialogue and even more generic plotlines. Not that it's not still about society, but the society we were shown in ep.1 was way more poignant and thought-provoking than these blatantly repressive, no nuance societies that have been the subject of the past few episodes. The way the brainwashed library dude explained the situation to Kino AND the way the resistance group was portrayed were both just so robotic and uninteresting; it's like we're just getting a lazy high-schooler's summary of Fahrenheit 451. Starting to feel this show is overrated, gonna take a break from it before hitting the last four episodes. My feeling exactly. I thought the first episode was really an interesting critique of a society that values interconnection and lack of privacy. But man all the episodes past 1 feels like babby's first philosophy |
| Critics are the worst people. This anime is a blessing |
| "This emotion is mine alone. It is for Madoka alone." - Homura or how I would descripe Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica. |
| There were a lot of crazy things going on in this episode, but I feel like the craziest was that Kino lugged Hermes down and then up that huge flight of stairs where the resistance people were. |
| Oh, dear, it's an animated adaptation of a book about books that loses the edge that comes from that formal trickery. Adding page-turning animations doesn't chance the fact that this is a motion picture with color, motion, and voices. It's not a book. |
| Probably one of the best episodes just because of how many layers there is to the message, and because of the fact it constantly keeps the viewer engaged with the subverted expectations. I'm as confused as everyone else here, but here are some of my interpretations. The Tank Story; The tank wants to destroy another tank with stripes on it. It doesn't release that they are this tank. This is referring to projection and how a lot of the time we will point to trying to "destroy" or "blame" one thing when it is truly within ourselves. This loosely relates to the theme of the story, where I believe it's a reflection of the way the critics were trying to destroy the books and banish it from evil, classifying people as "infected" when they themselves had a repressed obsession with the books, as seen by the Minister. Now, you could argue that the Minister being book crazy as well as just a coincidence, but seeing how grandiose her role is in the Castle, her liking books is pretty hypocritical and corroborates the beginning of the episode. It's not a coincidence this scene repeats later on. This "projection" follows onto my next point. The Critics; The meaning of these characters are twofold. They represent how a lot of the time bigwigs will decide what is good and what is bad based off of their own personal interpretations, often saying a specific work or property is to blame for a horrific event when in reality it is the person with the evil intentions are the ones who have always had this intention. This relates to how a lot of the time people see themselves as main characters not only in real life, but in the books they read, wanting to mimic what these characters do, and even acting them out. The Critics separation from the rest of society symbolizes how real critics' train of thought is often drastically different from those of the masses, and so they are often out of touch with what many might think. They're seen as "authority" over the quality of a book also, but at the same time, their often pretentious demeanor is alienating and also separates them from what it means to be human due to their haughty nature, which seeks for higher meaning and elegance in a piece of work, higher than what is natural. That's why there's a difference between critics and everyday people anyway, no matter how elitist it is. It's ironic how some critics will become an elitist of thought, often trying to ascend above others and their "petty enjoyment" of things, but in the desperate attempt to find superiority, they're separated from reality and how to be a normal person in this pursuit. The episode's negative fixation on critics seems to support this, as even the Minister realizes how dumb their authority is. Whether you have the title of critic or not, nothing can truly be objectively bad, so feeling superior by being a critic is nonsense, and the authority of critics are just a facade constructed by the rest of society too afraid to challenge their thoughts, often wrapped in verbose languages and long-winded analyses. These are a few of my interpretations. Overall, it's saying not to try and act superior to one another, because there is no true main character, and we often want to destroy whatever represents our darkest core. |
| I didn't feel the episode was incomplete like some of the other people here said. Of course, it's the people who are the "best" literary critics (those in academy today) who end up banning books, rather than the stereotypical illiterate types who are portrayed as doing so (the generic "Footlose" type parent banging on the school library doors). But there are plenty of layers to the story other than that. |
mikyikey177Aug 31, 2021 6:45 PM
| Dang, seeing how this episode represents Twitter as a whole when it comes to differentiating reality and fiction makes this my most favorite episode of the series so far. This episode for me shows how people often blames the media for their crimes and mistakes instead of their own consciousness as it's more pragmatic and will simply make them be able to easily justify their own actions, and it also shows that going far on either side of the spectrum of whether (1) you want to indulge yourself on nothing else but the world of fiction or (2) restricting the freedom of expression and deciding what is bad and good just from your own POV are both very bad things on its own. About the plotline and pacing of the show, i agree it's kinda confusing but thank god i'm already used to that kind of things so it didn't really bother me that much. |
faktor_skalaMay 20, 2021 8:08 PM
 test, does this work?oh nice it does |
| The significance of the critics' influence/power was allegorical. Rather than literally proscribing books of which they were critical, contemporary "real" critics effectively preclude works from entering the public consciousness through their censure-ship (as opposed to censorship). Their relation to the works is transcendent; they often receive them first (as shown in the episode), and their personal reception itself is given preeminence. They engender a sort of discursive aristocracy, and those who find fault with the discourse are tempted to take part in this hierarchical structure and exercise influence themselves. |
| It's genuinely remarkable just how much of this episode's discussions about censorship and how people interact with media remains pertinent to this very day, almost 20 years after this series aired. The mystery of just how much of this episode's events was real and how much was merely a fantasy from the world of books only adds to the intrigue, and that implication that Kino herself could be living a lie in some sort of VR world was one of the absolute darkest moments in the entire show. |
| wow i have no idea what happened lmao |
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| Why did Kino wonder if she was still in a book? Did her world really get destroyed and shes in a simulation of a book or has she gone crazy too? |
| i've been thinking this throughout the entirety of my re-watch, but Nakamura's work as a director is really to die for. especially when the new Kino's Journey adaptation give us an idea of how bland the whole thing can be if you simply make a point A to point B adaptation. makes me wonder if his best work is really Lain..... but it probably is funnily enough, i don't remember Ghost Hound being on this level, even though it shares the same scriptwritter as Lain and, well, Nakamura himself |
| i think it was about soft subjectivism that people can obsess over what is good writing or bad righting objectively real vs objectively fiction observer vs actor and that there is no hard objective answer to any of that, but to fly into complete whimsy over it is silly too because in the end those books burned as a result of sticking to hard interpretations of the above dichotomies notice how the episode started out sort of fanciful and dreamlike, then became grounded, and then returned full circle at the end? i think it's challenging our strict adherence to certain views rather than saying x is bad or y is good or believe this or that. and it certainly wasn't about censorship being bad because both sides were portrayed as overly obsessed, nuts, and devout |
StateofOhayoFeb 3, 2022 7:55 PM
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m0k0 said: Why did Kino wonder if she was still in a book? Did her world really get destroyed and shes in a simulation of a book or has she gone crazy too? see my answer above, don't know if it's the "correct" answer but just how i walked away from it feeling |
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| Why do I feel like the author was talking directly to the show's otaku audience when he emphasized how fiction isn't real |
| Interesting theme with "who watches the watcher" or "who criticizes the critics"? This episode seems more in line with the first ones before the Colosseum arc in that it depicts dark aspects of humans by over-exaggerating issues But still quite the beautiful messages with how everyone is the main character in their respective life and the cliché'd pun about how Kino is in the end just part of a book/story herself is something that has been quite expectable, lol I've only wished they'd shown more the side on how the critics became critics and added more time for that episode instead of dragging out the Colosseum arc in 2 episodes |
| You wouldn't think an episode about books would go to hell so fast. |
  ｲ乇刀乇乃尺ﾑ乇 ㊎   ㊰☽ Shaded Horizon ☾ |
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