English Dub Review: Kino’s Journey -the Beautiful World- “Country of Liars”

Sometimes, a lie can be love, too.

Overview (Spoilers)

For today’s trip through the countries, we have two stories for you. In the first, Kino visits a country with a wealth of pride in its first president. He was a traveler like Kino, who fell in love with the country after a short while of visiting there. He helped overthrow their dictatorial king and establish a new government. They are so grateful to him, that after he passed on, they made a museum of his house, enshrining his belongings as relics. He also rode a talking motorcycle, so thankfully, the house was designed to have them rolled throughout it easily. They reach a room filled with gear the president used during his travels. The “historians” however have everything wrong. Kino and Hermes have seen or used during their travels. A trowel for making field latrines passed off as proof he traveled around planting flowers. A cheap souvenir dagger is attributed to a huge history. Then, they are taken to see his motorcycle. Even though this old guy is constantly maintained, he hasn’t talked since his master died. Once the tour guide leaves, however, the motorcycle begs a favor: either ride him out of that museum or smash him to pieces. Life is hell for a motorcycle that doesn’t get to drive. On her way out of the country, the son of the owners of the inn she stayed at asks her about how he can be a traveler. She advises him to ask the president’s motorcycle the same question. We are then left to imagine that the boy would go on to steal the motorcycle, and have adventures of his own.

In the second country, Kino meets a young man who apparently has been waiting for his love, who is off on travels and has yet to return. He seems generally unwell. In her talks with the townspeople, she discovers his story. He was a police officer who was instrumental in the country’s revolution. Just before the final attack, he broke it off with his girlfriend. To his horror, when he blows up the royal car, he discovers the corpse of his girlfriend. She was the princess the whole time! The man is traumatized, and to help him cope, the entire town concocts a lie that she left to travel, and would be back anytime. As she heads out, Kino runs into the housekeeper of the young man, who admits secretly that she was the girlfriend. Though as the princess, she had been sent to spy on him, she fell in love. When her body double was killed in the attack, she returned to the country as a nomad and got a job as his housekeeper. Even though he doesn’t know who she is, she gets to spend her life with the man she loves. Well, that’s sweet. Kino leaves out the gate, only to be stopped by the young man to give us one more Shamaylan twist. He knows his housekeeper is the princess. He knows everyone is lying to him. But that lie binds everyone together, happily and with love. And, he gets to live with the woman he loves. It’s a country full of liars.

Our Take

This episode was a bunch of exposition, with not much actually happening. That’s fine because what is actually important is the stories being told. It’s one of the advantages of series like this. It can jump out of its stable of characters and tell completely separate stories. If done well, this can deepen the universe and lore, while foreshadowing more in the future of the series. We do get the latter here in a small amount. When asked about how she became an adventurer, Kino mentions that her beginnings were violent, but refuses to get into them. The second half of the episode is little more than a nice story, from the perspective of the larger plot. That being said, I found it to be a satisfying parable. While the first twist with the housekeeper was expected, I was pleased to see the second one pop up. However, I feel like it brings in a logical flaw. He can tell his housekeeper he knows who she is, and in not telling anyone else, they can live happily ever after.

The animation of this episode has returned to the quality I had been hoping for, leveraging its CG models of Kino and Hermes against the traditional animation and backgrounds. We get to see the CG Kino do a bit more in this episode than she normally does, which reassures me that they don’t simply have one scene of her that they replay from different camera angles. She walks around corners, mounts and dismounts Hermes, holds a conversation. All that, and you can really only tell she’s CG if you are looking for it. They represented shots that happened in the past by using a simplified style that silhouetted characters and environments, which goes well with the theme of the episode.

The voice acting was superb throughout. The first instance I noticed was with the president’s motorcycle, who was played by David Wald. He gave the voice a ton of grit, which not only made him sound old, but also gave a feel of a motorcycle engine. The housekeeper (Mallorie Rodak) and “longing man” (Kyle Phillips) gave their characters a great sense of life, portraying a good depth of emotion. The dialogue of this episode was well written, allowing you plenty of opportunities to smell what the writers are cooking,