English Dub Review: Kino’s Journey -the Beautiful World- “A Country Where People Can Kill Others”

What is legal, what is permitted, and what is right. These are rarely found in the same place.

Overview (Spoilers)

Kino is a young girl travelling the world on the back of her talking motorcycle, Hermes. Knight Rider this is not, for her purposes are not to right wrongs and fight evil, but to experience the world in all its messy beauty. Her travels takes her to a country where she was told everyone was polite. She runs across a rather rude traveler on the road, and the two talk about the place. He’s headed there because it is apparently a place where murder is legal. He even heard that a notorious murderer, Reygal, took refuge there. He’s headed to the town because there, he feels, he can live his life how he wants to. Kino heads in. For safety, she keeps her guns properly tuned up and practices her quickdraw, but there isn’t much of a need. Despite the legality of murder, it’s peaceful there. No rampant robbing, raping, or any of that nonsense. There are a group of old folks who are polite with her, and one invites her to tea the next day to hear her stories. He invites her to stay in their town, as he feel she would fit in. She declines. After all, it is her policy to stay in a place no longer than three days. As she gets onto Hermes to leave, the rude traveller from before arrives. He has become a citizen of the town, and tells her to put her belongings on the ground. Otherwise, he’ll kill her. To this, again, she declines. Instead of drawing her weapons, she flips over Hermes to use the bike as a shield. As soon as the stranger reaches out to fire, however, a crossbow bolt zings into his arm. The entire town surrounds him. He’s confused. He thought murder was legal. The old man explains. Even though it is legal, the townspeople decided as a group that anyone with the intent to kill could not be permitted. As such, anyone instigating violence would be killed. Since Kino took a peaceful solution, she’s safe. This stranger, however, gets run through by the old man. He introduces himself as Reygal in the stranger’s last moments. Kino’s journey continues, and she runs into another traveler. This man heard that the country was a safe place to be. His home was a terrible place, filled with violence. He just wants to find a peaceful place where he never has to fight again. Seems like The Country Where People Kill Others is a perfect place for him.

This episode has an interesting commentary on the nature of law and government, as well as how people react to it. If a community cannot rely on the government to protect them from a threat, they will work together to deal with it. Here, the people band together to remove threats to the community, using the legality of murder as an excuse. They all just “happened to choose” to murder the jerk. This is similar to some communities in cities, places where the police won’t go. There, the gangs are law. They eliminate threats to the people. At the same time, we get to see different reactions to things being legal or not. Just because you are allowed to do something doesn’t mean it is right. Keep on doing something wrong simply because it is allowed, and you are going to be in a world of hurt.

Our Take

I remember the original series of Kino’s Journey, back in my early days as a bonafide otaku watching subtitled anime in a college auditorium. It was a peaceful anime, with mystery hiding under a morning haze of discovery and beautiful environs. This remake is faithful to that core principle. The writing of the episode maintains the mystery by keeping you firmly rooted in Kino’s viewpoint. We see what she sees, and nothing else. Because of this, we only get a few snapshots of the town during her three-day stay. It’s enough to give us an idea for the dynamic of the town, but not enough to confirm our suspicion that murder may not be as easy to get away with as we are lead to believe. To those of you who analyze what the writer is doing when you watch a show, looking for clues, you’ll pick up right away that the rude dude is gonna get the ax, and probably at the hands of this Reygal guy, he admires so much. You may even pick up that the old man is Reygal. I expected someone to come to Kino’s defense. What I didn’t expect was for the entire town to teach us a new meaning to the phrase “mass murder”. I like being surprised by a show, as long as it isn’t out of left field.

The animation and art in this show is gorgeous! It does utilize CG, but only for long shots of Kino on Hermes. This way, they don’t have to draw all the moving bits of this motorcycle. This little cheat is well performed. I had to look really close to tell when they were using CG because they crafted those models and filters just right to make it look like how they were animating it. I also noticed a fun shot where Kino is going down the road beside a wall. Since we have a top-down view, we’re looking down the wall. The shape of the wall allowed them to break it into three pieces, and slide them separately for a parallax effect. It’s a simple and oft-used technique but was used here for a subtle and realistic payoff. If you aren’t looking to analyze the art and animation, you’ll miss it. As far as the voice acting goes, I liked the energy that Derick Snow brought to Hermes. He’s skeptical, and a bit lazy, but there is a positivity in his voice and a snark in his spark plugs that makes me smile.