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「歴史のある国」 (Rekishi no Aru Kuni)
“Historic Country”
Apologies again for the delay for the latest Kino no Tabi. Went on a journey of my own over the weekend and came back with great memories and an emptier wallet. As another nice segue, Episode 07 was also a fun diversion from the main journey by shifting the perspective towards Kino’s fearsome mentor, Shishou (Lynn). It was funny to see how Kino dreads the thought of encountering her, knowing how clever and skilled she is at sharpshooting and stealth. In the novels, there are multiple side-stories about her travels alongside a student where they cause a ruckus, but this story in particular gives us a good look at who the two are, and why Kino both admires and fears her.
The clash between different versions of Shishou’s trip to the Historic Country adds a fun set of layers to the story. Kino’s telling of the story is in line with what her master suggested was real, aligning with the idea that Shishou broke her student out of prison to hold a three day siege where they sniped the officers in their kneecaps and shot rocket launchers until they called for a truce. The old man’s retelling of the events to Kino makes it even funnier by making it seem as if instead of the stand-off, it was a revolt the two started to shift the government away from corruption, and he definitely doesn’t skip every other step because he was one of the officers that were shot in the knee. That’d be ridiculous!
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「電波の国」 (Denpa no Kuni)
“Country of Radio Waves”
In this one, we have another episode where Shizu visits a town only to cause a ruckus, only this time he’s got Ti and Riku to join him on his trip. It was neat to see how he handled the Country of Radio Waves considering that it was a similar level of disarray to the ship country, only in this case, it’s not 100% in pieces after Shizu interfered in matters. I did see it coming that they wouldn’t believe Shizu for a second after hearing about the truth behind their radio towers, but it seems Shizu projected this as well given their clever improvisation to avoid a hairier situation of potential imprisonment.
The true star of this episode was Ti, who made her return as a no-nonsense partner to Shizu who loves blowing things up with grenades as much as she loves CGI pizza. And then, there’s the cute tail-end of the episode where she bonds with Riku as he briefly watches over her. Ep. 8 went by so quickly, but it was nice to see how far Ti has come in growing fonder of Shizu and Riku, synergizing with them well and working along with them to give them the upper hand on the angry mobs and obstacles they face. The bond really makes it touching to see how all it took for her to be able to shake off the bitterness she carried with her were a group of friends and a supportive figure to lift her spirits. I do miss Kino, but at the same time, the party of Shizu, Riku, and Ti are interesting and fun to follow in their travels.
About episode 8.
The idea behind it is interesting. It relates to the famous “denpa incident” right? But the execution as always with this new series is so… Soulless direction, no style or mood, boring and unfiting musics, what a shame. Makes me lost the interest in thinking more about the consequences of the end of the episode.
Anyway this episode was better because the idea was better than the previous ones.
Episode 7 however is an aberration.
This is such an underrated series. I really feel like this need more attention than what it gets right now.
Perhaps it could be because this Series so far, put the spot on the “dark side” of Humanity
Killing people to save others, killing an King and left the country in a chaos, corruption, greedy and so on.. as if someone are displaying the “7 Sins of Humanity”
it has to little “light side” moments. they are silent
Old Kino anime also had a lot of “dark side”, it just wasn’t so superficial with this flat delivering.
I like this show, but “…and then she shot everyone in the leg” isn’t exactly grade-A writing.
The next episode made up for this when Ti threatened to blow up a baby with a grenade, though.
I like episodes like this. It’s nice how the series shows a different side, highlighting other characters other than Kino and Hermes. Seeing Shizu and co. interact really brings a breath of fresh air. Master will always be who she is. I can’t help but think of her as a cross between Nami and Izumi Curtis due their respective personalities.
Seeing Ti eat the pizza was kind of adorable, even if the pizza was CGI.