Great entertainment for all anime lovers out there

Written by fantasyfreak-1 on February 27, 2013 at 1:40 PM

Were these reviews done on twitter, the title would be my review. Alas, they are not. I´m not entirely sure how to describe this anime. It goes in so many directions, yet it doesn´t feel messy at all. Most likely thanks to how the story is framed. And calling it all one story is not quite accurate. In fact each episode has it´s complete own story( there´s only one two-parter in entire show that deviates from this) and the only constant is Kino traveling through all these strange countries. While alot is familiar there is also a lot that is different in these countries(countries that to me, look like they more are the size of a city, but that could be the subtitles mistake). Each country seems to have this one tiny quirk that define it, be it advanced technology, its history, it´s culture, or its political state. Yes you heard me, there is political commentary in this anime. But they present it in a way that it doesn´t feel out of place for the tone of the series. After the first few episodes when I realized the anthology style of the show, I was worried that there were some episodes that were going to be a little worse than the others, but the anime has an insanely consistent quality all throughout its 13 episodes. They manage to put in so much in every story, yet it doesnt feel rushed at all. The whole anime rather has a very calm pace to it, yet they know the perfect place to put a brief action scene when the story calls for it. It´s a very charming and strange world they have built here, and there are both tragic and happy places out there. What sticks out to me the most with it, is first of all Hermes. The fact that he could talk I got over after probably the second episode. But the fact that very few people in the show question it, puzzles me. Most of them are just like: hey, a talking motorcycle, nothing strange about that at all XD I guess I would have bought it more easily if there to be shown more talking motorcycles, but its seems like its the only one of its kind. The other thing that stood out to me, was that almost everybody made a huge deal about her being a traveler, almost as if it was a profession or something. We very rarely see other people travel between countries so I guess it is unusual in their world, but still, you´d think it wasn´t worth making that big of a fuzz about. Last but not least the animation is great. The environments look absolutely beautiful, and there is a lot of debt to it. The character designs are kind of basic sometimes, but they still fit the show very well. It also has this colour filter on it that gives it a somewhat retro feel, at least in my opinion. To round off this insanely long review I would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes anime. There is something in here for everybody. It might not be as action-packed as some animes are, but it doesn´t need to be either. You´ll still be drawn into it. Now I´m off to watch the two movies and the tv special. Here´s hoping they have the same quality writing as the show, with just as great animation.