Novel/Anime: Kino no Tabi originally began as a series of light novels, authored by Keichii Sigsawa and illustrated by Kouhaku Kuroboshi. Installments began running in MediaWorks' magazine Dengeki hp in March 2000, and it is still running, currently with ten compiled volumes available. Tokyopop has licensed the light novels Stateside, and the first volume was released in October of 2006.
The anime itself was done by Studio Wombat, which did the animation for the End of Evangelion movie, and directed by Ryutaro Nakamura, who also directed REC and Serial Experiment Lain. It ran from April 8th, 2003 to July 8th, 2003 in Japan. ADV Films licensed it Stateside and ran it under the title Kino's Journey; the fourth and final volume was released Stateside June 29th, 2004.
Story: Kino no Tabi focuses on Kino, her talking motorcycle named Hermes, and their travels together. Kino has only two real rules about her travels; one, she never gets involved with anything going on in the countries she visits, and two, she never stays for more than three days.
This is a really neat series. None of the episodes really connect to each other; they're more like one-shots, with the only real thing linking them being the fact that they're stops on Kino's journey. But each one of these stops provides some kind of insight on human nature, or on Kino herself. And the plot for each episode is exquisite, some of the best writing I've seen in a while.
You end up bonding with Kino and Hermes, too, as the episodes go on, which is vital for the series' sucess; if you hadn't been able to feel with them, the series wouldn't have had nearly as much impact as it did.
There is a laundry list of things that appear in every single episodes; however, these end up being more endearing than grating.
Also, there is some blood in this series; nothing over the top, but if you don't like blood, it'll be more than enough.
Pilot Episode: Kino no Tabi's 12-minute pilot episode, The Tower Country, provides a good basis for what the rest of the series was like, and introduced some of the mainstays of every episode. It's not the best story, but it's a strong story, nonetheless.
Art: The art style is a bit simpler than I've seen in other series, a bit more linear than it is smooth, similar to the style seen in Fantastic Children. However, it's still beautiful, and fits this series perfectly.
Music: This series barely even needs background music, but when it does use it, it's absolutely beautiful, and calming. The same goes for the OP and ED for this series. I went to find this OST, and I've actually been using it to help me sleep lately; trust me, this is a good thing.
Seiyuu: There's nothing I can find wrong with this series, with regards to seiyuu. There are only two real main seiyuu, the ones for Hermes and Kino. They do sound similar, but I kind of like that. I'm not really sure why, either. ^^;
Dub: N/A, because I've never seen it. ^^;
Length: This is the one area where the series suffers.
First off, there's the fact of episode placement. Because all of these episodes are one-shots, there's no real order they have to go in (except for the last episode, really, which can't be moved). I found the placement of some episodes to be poor, because some of the weaker episodes, story-wise, came after some really strong ones, and I didn't like them as much as I might have, were they placed somewhere else in the series.
This series gives you just a short dip into this world; these thirteen episodes leave you wanting more. And they have yet to announce a second season, though one movie has been released, and a second one is slated to be released this April. The source material is on-going, and the anime itself only covered a fraction of the original story, so they don't have too much of an excuse for making it as short as it was.
Overall: An excellently-written, if slightly short and kind of poorly-planned series, with characters you bond with, and beautiful art and music.
Story: 10/10
Pilot Episode: 9/10
Art: 9/10
Music: 9/10
Seiyuu: 9/10
Length: 8/10
Overall: 54/60; 90% (A)
