Agenda of Kino's Journey, What Kino's Journey is, What Kino's Journey meant, Analysis of Kino's Journey - Part 1

I hope you are all having a great time through October. As Puja vacation already made us aloof with proper enjoyment and a little enchantment of happiness, the morbid times of late corona lit up with the everchanging earth and its power to overcome a dire plague. With times to come, we will accommodate our living style as it fits this post Pandemic situation.

So without losing any more time on unnecessary words, I am going straight into the declaration of this month's topic. Early alert for the book enthusiasts as I am not continuing my book reviews this time, so sorry for that. But, it is a happy hour for those who were long anticipating and waiting for my insights. Yes, this time, it is going to be an Anime Review by the critic itself. I know it is a long wait. But it is difficult for me to create one. Remember presenting a good insight always takes a great time and a lot of work. I had to be aware of maintaining the balance between the audience's needs and the quality altogether. Often, the judgment made on particular shows can be contradictory. So, the negative comments from the audience became fatal for our time that we used to work hard. So I stayed refrained from doing these long projects. But what can you say, see I came right back from where I had started my journey. This month I am doing deep research on the show Kino's Journey(2003). It will become a 2 part blog, one consisting of the first half of episodes and its overview, and the other containing the remaining part. Nice to be back on my field. I hope you guys will enjoy this one.

Here it starts~

At first glance, this anime would appear to be a travel anime. But if you sit down and judge those episodes with a rather questioning eye, it will buckle up all the philosophical thoughts that each one of them tries to convey. If I put it in simple terms, what I did was also a skeptical judgment of the show, and the result became as clear as the morning dew. I am presenting it before you. As you go along with my blog post, you will unfold it one by one.

The story follows a traveler named Kino and her motorcycle named Hermes. They explore countries with unique customs and people around a mysterious world, only spending three days at each location. Those locations will reveal to us the clear ideas and ideals of our world. So sit tight and enjoy my interpretation of the mesmerizing journey of Kino and his companion. And I bet it will be a rather breathtaking journey of your own.

Episode 0: The Tower Country-Freelance -

Plot -

Traveler Kino and Talking motorcycle Hermes ride into a city featuring a tower that reaches up in the sky. There, Kino meets a boy who doesn't want to spend all his life building that tower. They were doing it continuously for 230 years. It is the sole obsessive activity of the population, although nobody seems to know why. One day the tower begins to crack and crumbles to the ground. Rather than being disappointed, the people rejoice at being able to see it fall. They immediately commence building a new one, this time with engravings.

My Insights -

Here are my thoughts. The tower is, in general, our deep-rooted social norms and beliefs. We engraved them so deep in our minds that we cannot shake them off. Our day-to-day life goes on with them with the same monotony of judgments. No change primarily occurs, but our human minds seek change. And it is engraved in their DNAs. So many rebellions had happened in the past to break those dogmatic views, but nothing solidifies in any finality.

And like that boy, in our society, many people do not want to live by those commanding norms. It is the prime time to change, to spice up our livings and break the social chains. But only a selected class of society or people cannot shake off their jobs that come interwoven with these social norms. In this episode, it is the making of the tower. They do it, as one cannot decline his origin. But what one can do is to add individuality and creativity to it. So inwardly, it will be present as a specimen of their generation's capability. The engravings on the tower now show how it is different from the other towers that their ancestors have built. The whole of Mankind dies to prove their existence, and by their work, they prove it. Like this way, every generation will add something new to our civilization. And that is how we move forward.

Episode 1: Land of Visible Pain-I See You -

Plot -

Kino and Hermes find themselves in a country that seems to be inhabited only by servile machines. After exploring the country for one day, Kino notices a strange thing. That people are living alone in cottages on the outskirts of the country. Kino befriends a lonely man there. He tells her that the entire human population drank a special liquid that enabled them to understand each other's thoughts to create harmony across the country. However, being able to read each other's minds only brought disharmony to society, through being aware of the unfiltered thoughts of every other person, even between the lonely man and his wife. The only solution for the population was for everyone to live a short distance from each other. The lonely man askes Kino to stay, but she declines and continues on her way, passing by the cottage of his wife living nearby.

My Insights -

Before giving my thoughts, I would like to point out Kino's words. "She didn't take a companion with her on her journey and said she would rather do her traveling alone." Isn't it interesting how we are traveling with her, discovering a lot of things? Doesn't it convey that we, ourselves are Kino? Rather say Kino is the spirit in us who enjoys exploring and wondering solely.

Now let us come to the story. This one is precisely an irony to the real world, how science is proceeding to its success day by day. The sole reason for any scientific invention is for the benefit of humankind. But it never works out that way. Every time we invent something, we forget to judge the pretext of the consequences that the invention might bring in the future. Firstly, see how we created dynamite. We have in our mind the greats of its explosive power. But ultimately see, how it had turned out to be the bud of all destructive forces. Here also, the liquid that reads another's mind was created for making a harmony of souls. But in the end, it only creates a further commotion. I like to say it is rather evident. How can there be harmony when the fragments of your thoughts would expose before others?

For example, in our world, the growth of science brought up social media, where we sometimes expose ourselves exponentially. Thus difference prevails, and conflicts start in us. When the very elements of necessary mysticism break before us and when we will have nothing to question in this world anymore, there will come an era of conflict. Human beings understand each other with emotions and empathy, not by any reading, but by understanding them with our beings. Differences arise, but moreover, a mutual understanding also formed that helped us gradually.

Like that in this episode, the wife was listening to the music which the man loves. And the man was mending flowers that the wife loves. So it was what it meant to be. That is how mutual understandings are born, and it is the actual harmony that we should seek rather than any forced reading of another's soul. More to say, a mystery should be left to discover, as you can't invent a discovery. You cannot feel one another's pain. But the reason we can empathize with each other is that we try to understand their pains.

Episode 2: A Tale of Feeding off Others-I want to live -

Plot -

Towards the end of winter, Kino comes across three starving traders. In the snow, their truck trapped them inside it. She offers to hunt food for them until they recover, killing and cooking rabbits, although she has misgivings about valuing the lives of the men over those of the rabbits. As the snow begins to thaw, Kino uses Hermes to help extract their truck. However, the traders draw guns on her. They re-introduced themselves as human traffickers and mentioned that she would be of great value to them. When they are distracted by falling snow, Kino manages to attack and kill two of them before executing the third. Inside their truck, she finds the remains of human cargo that they ate to stay alive through the winter. While riding, Hermes asks Kino if she would make the same choice again.

My Insights -

Now, as it seems, the time has come to get serious. It is more significant and philosophical than before. I will execute my thoughts one by one this time.

At first, let us focus on the snow. The line at the beginning of this episode clearly says snow will cover everything like it always does. Throughout the episode, you will notice it is snow that is playing the provider's role. For the rabbits, it is the end of winter. So they came out of their hibernation to survive but instead got killed. It also covered the truck of men who will generally die if it isn't for Kino. Even in the end, men were distracted by the snow, incidentally saving Kino's Life.

Now think positively; who is responsible for the unrest?

-Yes, it is Kino who disturbed the rest and justice of that place, in a word, the whole natural circle of that place. As long as we consider Kino's word, we find Kino saying in the end, 'we did this as we are only humans.' Humans are the only creatures who meddle with the affairs of nature, and by deceit, they disturb it. At first, they pose the role of innocence like the rabbits. But at the end, eventually of the wolves, as they said by their actions.

So this episode poised before us a rudimentary view of humankind, as we betray the sole provider of our beings for the chance of mere profit. And as for Kino, he is the representative of the viewers. He did everything one mere human would do in that circumstances. Like so, he even has the regrets and doubts of a mortal being. Same as him, we also rely on sole logicism and reasoning. Even when sentiments and feelings are all we need to trust, we prefer the rustic materialism of our choices.

Episode 3: Land of Prophecies-We No The Future -

Plot -

Kino and Hermes arrive in a country where Everyone believes that the world will end the next day. According to their Book of Prophecy, as interpreted by the southern priest. But the northern priest declares that his interpretation predicts that the event will occur in thirty years. Kino then passes by a country where travelers rarely visit. After she leaves, the populaces begin to think of different traditions to entice the next traveler to stay. When Kino arrives in the Sad Land, she learns from a boatman about a poet. The king commissioned the poet to write a sad poem. But when he finished writing that poem, his wife committed suicide. Ten years after the poet died, society arranged for a chosen girl to recite it every day. Before Kino leaves, a male examiner tells her that the poem finished, a nearby country acquired it, calling it the Book of Prophecy. Camped overnight under the stars, Kino is interrupted by an army from the Land of Prophecies invading the Sad Land. A soldier informs Kino that a new interpretation of the Book of Prophecy came out. It indicated that the following country is responsible for their world coming to an end.

My Insights -

Here it has three separate plots, different but all connected in one.

• Let us come to the first plot - The Land of Prophecy. Everyone was living happily by knowing that their end was near and pre-determined. But when that end never came, they became restless. We all live by our sudden beliefs, and throughout our whole life, we defend them like reality. Day by day, they become the reason for our existence. But when it gets shattered by different beliefs, long-prolonged conflicts establish between us. Kino said thoughtfully he did not believe in any prophecy. For him, it does not justify being true until it has happened in real life. And we could reason with his thought. We live happily, remembering that our beliefs are safe and no one can alter them. But the very nausea of having proven your beliefs wrong or baseless turns our lives upside down. The same thing has happened with the people of the Land of Prophecy. They are troubled only when their beliefs are proven wrong.
• Now come to the second plot, where they acquire certain traditions to please the traveler. It is the mirror image of our world. Here everyone follows their different ones as they please. They find their happiness in it. But the problem arises when we compel others to follow our tradition. We try to prove superior to others by the influence of our choice. Sometimes we indulge in various ones to please others. But in the process of attaining them, we lose our very origin. From the tradition we are born, from that tradition, we share our joys and sorrows. In this story, they banished their king. Now they are free from the confinement of the king's selected tradition but still obliged to create a new one but not a unique one. Instead, they focus on adopting it rather than the purpose of having it. Like that, also our tradition had turned into a platform of conflict. Through posing superiority where it had a long history of miseries.
• For the third and last part (my favorite). Oh! How happy is the poet in his creations of happiness? He composes poetry after poetry in the medium of joys. As it is true to his soul, his creativity comes to fly. But when the king forced him to write a poem of sorrows, he has lost his mind. He is unable to do it. Someone can not do something that is not true to themselves. Though later, as his wife died, he was able to compose it. And it passes through generations after generations like a prophecy. Think here carefully, what disturbed their happiness, the force to sustain lies; lies to his soul which is sorrows. The land finally suffers changes. And the army answered Kino that they attacked the land of prophecy. Here, we get our answers all at once. We acquired our happiness from the beginning of civilization. But we doubt our states and feelings. We, clearly by excuses, turn to violence, and that causes infinite sorrows. But once we have started, it follows through generations after generations, and the chain of violence never stops. What is it then? - is it not prophecy? Once sorrow enters the stage, we will perish. But the thing is clear - it is us who draws the final blow, doubting that if we do not, then someone else will blow it first instead of us. And that causes wars.

In the end, Kino also became doubtful by seeing these. She knows she cannot say that prophecies are not liable. We also cannot say that until we do just like her. We pretend to know our future, where we know it is for us to decide.

Part one of this blog ends here. As you can see this is becoming too long to be posted in one solicited post. So don't trouble yourself with the rest of the story. Stay connected and be sure, cause the next part is coming soon. Be assured to get it in the following month. Hope you are all doing well, take my love and blessings. Until then, Goodbye!