Glance Through: Kino's Journey

Kino has been traveling the world, for lord knows how long, with no companion other than her motorad, Hermes, a sentient, talking (but not free moving) motorcycle. She isn't on any sort of quest, rather she just wants to see as many countries as she can, learning about how the people of each carry on their lives. And no matter how pleasant a country may seem, she will never stay in each nation more than three days.

Each country Kino visits is a different parable displaying the best, worst, and strangest facets of humanity (from a country in search of new traditions to a country where the tradition is to work even though there's no longer a need). Kino herself, however, never reacts very strongly to anything she sees,unless she must to get herself out of danger, so the burden rests with the viewer to decide what he or she thinks about this or that way of life. This approach risks being alienating, because one begins to wonder what's wrong with Kino. One might suspect that she would seem bland. However, this distance is essential to making Kino an interesting character (Painting her as someone who has more questions than answers), and to allowing this series to remain interesting. There is so much tacit philosophy, so many questions, in every moment of this series that to fully analyze it would mean several Looking Deeper segments per episode, and that is only true because Kino doesn't spoon-feed you with opinions.

The art is more cartoony than one might be used to, but this helps the series stand out. I'm not sure whether the art has supplemented Kino's distance by creating a sense of un-reality, or brought child-like identification. People do look like individuals, and that's nice to see, considering the artisits didn't have to bother (we will never see any of those extras again. Ever.)

The sound here is very nice. Both sub and dub are a solid listen. Both actresses lend Kino an absolutely necessary warmth. Hermes is good in both as well, containing expressiveness in both despite a somewhat metallic filter in the english (which may actually be a plus). The English dub has a slightly annoying tendency to not translate all the japanese words on the screen, but often these titles are not particularly important. The opening and ender are very pretty and have a sense of adventure to them.

I will absolutely be watching more of this. It's a beautifully put together, thought provoking series.

Note: This opinion is based off only five episodes, which, while more than I tend to do for these, is still less than a full series. That's why it's a glance.


I'm pretty sure a later review will look well nigh identical to the glance... weird structure is weird.