Kino’s Journey Volume 2

As far as philosophical anime go, you would be hard pushed to find a more thoughtful and symbolic series than Kino’s Journey. And depending on which side of the fence you stand, you will find this series either very intelligent or just downright pretentious. I’m still really enjoying this, thrilled by the sheer unpredictably of our protagonist as her personality violently differs from gentle pacifist to unforgiving mercenary. It’s rare to find an anime that is so upfront with its intentions, presenting a myriad of heavy moral quandaries without feeling the need to lighten the tension with a moment of comedy or stupid fan-service. I respect Kino’s Journey as much as I find it fascinating and original.

Kino’s Journey #2 continues the travelling trend set by the first volume, with the curious Kino and her motorrad Hermes happening across another couple of strange foreign lands and their increasingly suspect inhabitants. Along the way, we meet a group of old men who have been manually cleaning, dismantling and rebuilding a lonely railway track for upwards of 50 years- simply because they were never told to stop!
As Kino’s Journey often does, this will immediately lead to comparisons being made with our own society; full of people who dedicate their lives to working a pointless job just because that is what they were taught to do. During these scenes, I couldn’t help but feel a real sense of despair for these old men, wasting the majority of their lives carrying out repetitive nothings just so their wages could help support their families at home.

So after these brief stop-offs, Kino arrives in a city much like ancient Rome, where the politics of the city are being dominated by a corrupt and insane young King.
As a rule of being a newcomer, Kino is forced to enter this city’s local ‘games’- basically a modern version of Rome’s blood-stained gladiatorial coliseum. This is a life or death competition, where the eventual winner earns a seat amongst the upper-class aristocracy as well as the privilege of adding one new rule to this land’s law.
Naturally, Kino agrees to enter and the ‘death’ games get underway.

Being spread across two episodes, I enjoyed these coliseum episodes a lot. Benefiting from the extra time to develop the personalities of Kino’s opponents, you can feel the tension sweeping throughout each of these short but sweet battles.
Of course, it was no surprise to discover Kino is something of a combat genius, but since many of these fights are often underpinned by the personalities of her opponents and their desperate reasons for competing- one can’t help but be captivated none the less.

In Summary

Judging this against the superlative first volume, I didn’t find Kino’s Journey #2 quite as engrossing. Perhaps due to a lack of personal revelations about Kino’s odd personality and a focus on different characters in each episode, I just didn’t feel the same emotional impact, but given there are only three episodes on this volume (compared to the previous volumes four)- this isn’t really surprising.
Indeed, I’m hankering to learn more about Kino and her past, especially since there are vague references made to her mysterious (martial arts?) ‘Master’ towards to conclusion of the coliseum arc.
Really though, these are merely minor grumbles. For me, Kino’s Journey is far and away one of the most intelligent and compelling anime I have seen for a long time and the more I watch, the more I realize I still have so much to learn.