Kino’s Journey -the Beautiful World- the Animated Series is a twelve-episode anime adaptation of Keiichi Sigsawa’s light novel series, Kino’s Journey: the Beautiful World. It is actually the second time the novel has been adapted into anime series, though no prior knowledge is required to experience it.
The 2017 anime is the focus here, which was directed by Tomohisa Taguchi and written by Yukie Sugawara. The studio that produced it was Lerche.
Kino’s Journey -the Beautful World- the Animated Series aired during the autumn 2017 season of anime, and is available on Crunchyroll.
The plot of Kino’s Journey is simple: the show follows a traveller named Kino as they make their way from country to country. Their mode of transportation is a talking motorrad named Hermes.
Kino and Hermes
Kino has one rule when it comes to staying at a country: they stay for only three days before moving on to the next place.
Each episode is a self-contained story (or stories in at least one case), focusing on whatever country Kino arrives at.
However, though the show my be called Kino’s Journey, there are more than a few occasions where Kino either plays little or no role in the story.
It isn’t just Kino’s journey we experience
This anime tends to jump between different groups of characters from episode to episode. Of course, there are Kino and Hermes themselves, but there is also another recurring group of travellers.
This other group aren’t exactly the most compelling of characters, yet we see them on multiple occasions. Other times, the show reveals the history of a country Kino may be passing through, focusing on characters who lived there.
All this makes Kino’s Journey feel like it is all over the place. There’s no overarching plot to keep everything connected together, and you can’t be sure what the next episode will bring on a first viewing. Well, that’s unless you are familiar with the light novel.
Episode 9 may just be the worst offender, showing us ‘Various Countries’ (that’s the episode title), and just jumping about all over the place. It more or less gives the entire Kino’s Journey experience in one episode, for better or for worse.
There are some genuinely interesting ideas scattered throughout here and there – mostly when Kino is actually involved. It is just that the execution tends to be lacking. Kino’s Journey -the Beautiful World- the Animated Series isn’t really something easily recommended, and it is probably argued reading the original light novel series is the best way to experience Kino’s Journey.
Score: 5/10
There are some genuinely interesting concepts to be found in Kino’s Journey -the Beautiful World- the Animated Series, which can lead to a few enjoyable episodes. However, it also happens to be inconsistent throughout, which can often make it a chore to get through. All things considered, everything comes together for a relatively average experience.
Rory Muses 
i personally quite enjoyed it. The final episode was a bit…odd. But I really enjoyed the structure to the show. Not everything has to have an overarching plot to be a great experience. Each story provided some interesting reveals. The big reveal caught my brother very off guard, but I already heard about it, so it was no surprise.
I would very much like another season~
I agree that this has ended up being a pretty average viewing experience. I hadn’t heard of the original but didn’t mind the first two episodes of this and was expecting to really enjoy this series. However, week after week it just kind of didn’t deliver anything more than average. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it.