Cover of the first Kino no Tabi light novel

Anime in the United States has had an interesting history. By far, the most interesting period was the boom from the late 1990s to the mid 2000s. The explosive sales caused companies flush with money to expand their catalogues from sure-fire hits to shows with less mainstream appeal, hoping to spread their fanbase even wider. One such show was Kino's Journey.

Kino no Tabi as it is called in Japan, is a series of light novels by Keiichi Sigsawa with illustrations by Kouhaku Kuroboshi. It is the story of Kino, a traveller on a motorcycle. Kino travels to different countries, stays three days and leaves. Kino's motorcycle is a Brough Superior SS100 and is called Hermes. Kino talks to Hermes, and surprisingly, Hermes talks back. Each country they visit is a living parable about survival, belief, courage, servitude, the frightening power of poetry or any other number of philosophical issues. One of the more interesting features of Japanese is the lack of gender-specific pronouns. In the original novels, Kino's gender is never revealed. The anime does give Kino a gender in a story exploring the character's background, however, trying to write this without revealing that gender is a lot harder than it looks.

The shows are often slow-paced. In the first episode, Kino visits a country where there appears to be no people, just machines. Kino finally finds a man willing to talk. His country developed the ability to read each other's minds, thinking that understanding each other better would make it easier to live with each other. Instead, it turned into a living hell. Everyone now lives by themselves, out of range of each other's thoughts. And that's it. Kino travels to a town, listens to a story, and leaves. Each country has a story which Kino is more than happy to listen to. Some are humorous. Some are heart-breaking. Some are dramatic. Occasionally Kino becomes the subject of the story, such as when Kino finds a truck stuck in the snow with three starving traders in it. Although only wishing to observe the countries they travel through, Kino can sometimes become a participant,  such as entering a deadly martial arts tournament in order to gain citizenship and create a new law, or helping a young woman prove her invention of a flying machine will work.

The novels have an English subtitle: The Beautiful World. The irony is that the beautiful worlds Kino travels through often have a dark side, but without that dark side, no one would be able to appreciate the beauty. The color palette of the anime is subdued, full of greens and eath-tones and softly painted. The characters and the world they live in are vibrant, yet it's drawn in a superflat style reminiscent of Takashi Murakami, the artist who created the beautiful Louis Vuitton video set to Fantastic Plastic Mashine's "Different Colors", already featured in the video section of our website.

When ADV licensed the show in 2004, it was given ti Kyle Jones to produce the English dub. He did something very unusual by bringing in Kelli Cousins to voice Kino. Cousins has been a regular among ADV's roster of voice actors in Houston, playing the lead characters in several shows such as Steel Angel Kurumi, Chance Pop Sessions and Neo Ranga, as well as strong supporting roles in several other shows. However, she had moved to Chicago a year or two earlier. Jones believed in Cousins enough to convince the powers that be to let him fly her in over several sessions to give voice to the ambiguously gendered traveler. It was a success. Cousin's husky yet honey-smooth delivery fit Kino perfectly. She delivers the philosophically challenging dialogue as if she's speaking the lines as she thinks of them, with a naturalness that is refreshing. She also gives Kino a bit of whimsey, such as when Kino discovers a country that believes the world is going to end the next day and decides to go on a shopping spree.

Although it's called Kino's Journey, Kino is only half the story. Kino wouldn't go far without Hermes, the talking motorrad. Cynthia Martinez provides the voice of Hermes. Martinez has a naturally raspy voice, but a touch of effect was added to give her the right mechanical sound. Hermes' naturally jovial yet cynical outlook on life and constant mangling of common idioms is an ideal complement to Cousins' Kino. The two banter with the sort of chemistry that belies the fact that they recorded their lines separate from each other.

Since Kino and Hermes are the only constants in the show, Jones used all the episodic characters to call on a wide range of actors and really stretch them. Veterans are cast against type, unheralded actors are given lead roles, and new actors are given a spotlight. An example of the latter is Philip Lehl, an actor I had never heard of before. He voices a boatman in a very sad country. His narration is solemn and melancholy, like the country he lives in. It was a beautiful performance, and I've never heard him since. An example of the former is Chris Patton, one of the most prolific and talented actors in the business. Often cast as an angsty teenager, he's instead cast as another traveller, an intelligent and contemplative man who inspires Kino to take to a life of constant travel.

Of course, if you're going to import a niche title like this, giving it a beautiful, intriguing dub is pointless if no one buys the show. You have to let people know the show is out there and give them a reason to watch it. The history of the anime trailer is littered with abject failures. The most notorious is the trailer for Licensed by Royalty which did such a poor job of presenting the show, it actively turned fans away from it. Most trailers are simply scenes of the show set against the opening or ending theme music. But occasionally, a director will create a trailer so good, you not only want to watch the show, but are completely mesmerized by the trailer itself. This is one such trailer. It's a work of art that stands on it's own. I don't know who wrote the dialogue, but I suspect it was the ADR director Kyle Jones. Kelli Cousins narrates it, drawing the viewer in with that wonderful voice of hers. Enjoy the trailer below, and if you decide to hop on a motorcycle and explore the world yourself, at least drop us an email from time to time.