The animation is acceptable, nothing fancy but enough to keep your attention. The music adequate, servicing the tale with audial emotion. The direction satisfactory, a worthy adaptation that has faith in the source material.
Where this anime shines is in the story which is undoubtedly the most important factor of any moving picture with a narrative. Kino's Journey has masterful storytelling at its core, each episode is like a fairy tale, a myth, a legend, a lesson. Its not groundbreaking, its simply universal.
Each country in this tale has its own philosophy to life, its own distinctive customs, and the anime repeatedly asks how far can you respect a country's customs and at what point do you make a stand for your own beliefs.
The people Kino meets, the situations she finds herself in, the difficult choices she has to make, the way she deals with them and the lessons she learns make this anime entertaining and thoughtful. Two traits that a lot of anime shows are hard pressed to find and attain.
