TITLE: Kino no Tabi: Byouki no Kuni -For You-
DIRECTOR: Nakamura Ryuutarou
WRITER: Sigsawa Keiichi (light novel)
STUDIO: Shaft
TAGLINE: "The world is not beautiful. That, in a way, lends it a sort of beauty."
VOICE CAST: Maeda Ai, Aigase Ryuuji

For every thing of beauty is an ugly side. This is never better played out than in the latest Kino no Tabi movie, titled "The Country of Illness" (second of three installments).

The movie follows Kino and her faithful talking motorbike, Hermes, into a highly advanced subterranean city where people live inside a sterile and sealed environment. By request of one of the city's more important citizens, Kino spends time with a sick girl and relates to her the tales of her many adventures.

This movie, as well as the original TV series, has no overarching plot. Every episode, every movie can pretty much stand on its own so that there is no need to get your hands on either the series or the first movie to make sense out of it. Because of this, the movie is very easy to watch -- what, with a straightforward plot and a rather puerile script. But I think that because of this sheer simplicity, the movie is able to evoke so much atmosphere it's hard to put in words.

Kino no Tabi does not have pretensions to depth. Indeed, it is not meant to be a very deep, psychological, mature piece of film. It is exactly what it appears to be: an anime about a traveling kid. Its genius lies in its ability to look through the eyes of its main character, Kino, and feel her sympathy without, however, getting involved. The resultant effect is a somber film that just hints at depth and melancholy but with a complete lack of irony.

It is something that is hard to achieve in an anime, especially an anime that uses the art and the style of Kino no Tabi. The simple yet effective lines, the use of cell-shading to add dimension to otherwise static-looking characters, and a powdery palette make this series look like a children's picture book. And complemented by the leisurely way the story unfolds itself, Kino no Tabi is a prime example of the slice-of-life genre where everything else is subdued to emphasize the least focused aspect of storytelling: the building of atmosphere.

Labels: adaptation, anime, futuristic, slice of life