Is anybody here watching the new Kino's Journey?
I'm sure I'll be writing reviews soon for the shows I've watched recently. But I just need to rant a bit about this new adaptation of the classic, "Kino's Journey".
First, let me say that I'm glad that Kino was considered for the new anime season because Kino's world had a lot of potential to tell more stories. I like seeing Kino and her travelling companion -- the talking motorbike motorrad, Hermes -- visit all kinds of places. I also like seeing old characters return for more action. This new Kino is shinier and has a more modern aesthetic, and that's pretty cool, too (though Kino is much more girly-looking to the point that anyone should be able to tell she's a girl, even though her gender wasn't immediately apparent in the old version, which was kind of an important point).
But that's where the good news ends. The new series has a bad habit of using Hermes to infodump key points of the episode, while the old series would take the time to let the viewer see everything. (Has this new writer never heard of "Show, Don't Tell" in his writing career?) So far, every single episode has ended in a gunfight. Granted, Kino is no pushover, and she can use that gun if she needs to. But ONLY if she NEEDS to. Also, one of the biggest focuses of the old show was that Kino would go to a country for three days -- long enough to see what it's like but not get too attached. There were very few times that Kino interfered with matters in the countries she visited. In this new version, all of that goes out the window.
It changes the character completely. It changes the tone of the show completely. And I'm not a fan. Because the new show just tells you everything, it feels like a cheap cop-out compared to the contemplative atmosphere of the original. The satirical humor of the old version is gone, too.
I think I'm going to stick to the classic Kino. What are your thoughts?
