#Kino No Tabi

[lemorgo]

[placeant]

A sketch card of Kino riding Hermes (3.5 x 2.5" on illustration board)

Screenshot referenced:

[wiredphonez]

watched kinos journey recently, it was really good

[coolart403]

[mangacapsaicin]

keiichi sigsawa & kouhaku kuroboshi’s kino’s journey || 時雨沢恵一と黒星紅白の『キノの旅』

[dailyfigures]

Kino ; Kino's Journey: The Beautiful World ☆ Good Smile Company

[wormgumz]

2008

[panipancakes]

The world is not beautiful, therefore it is.

[doyouknowthisanime]

Do You Know This Anime?

[epicfranb]

Rewatching Kino's Journey and I'm like Kino is so non-binary coded. But then episode 4 comes around and it's such major honest to god non-binary coding, I'm not even sure if it's unintentional anymore. So here's my little essay about it, ig.

Fair warning for potential spoilers under the cut! Before reading, I highly suggest watching this anime (it's really good) or just the episode in question. You don't really need any context for this, other than the basic premise of the show: Kino travels with a sentient motorcycle called Hermes. As for where to watch it, I always watch on aniwave.to. Again, this is episode 4, so go watch it!!

Since this is about the non-binary coding, I'm gonna keep the summaries short and to the point. The backstory starts with Kino saying she doesn't remember her past name anymore, but expresses the only thing she remembers about it being the bullying. This moment in itself doesn't have an obvious meaning, it is purely symbolic. The episode starts with her in a field of the flowers she was named after, long after she forgot her name; she is there later as a child, starting a new life with a new name; and it ends with her as an adult, which is the moment that leads to the scene in the beginning, nicely looping back in this circle-like narrative. This has more to do with the general ideas of freedom that the show has, rather than specifically to the topic of this essay. I just thought it was interesting how it explicitly shown that she did not like her birth name.

To avoid confusion from this point on, I'm going to refer to Kino the main character as "this girl". This is because she meets a traveler named Kino. The two spend a lot of time together, and the girl explains to the traveler the tradition of this country. This is that when children turn 12, they get an operation to "become an adult". Children are free to do whatever they like, while adults must work and nothing else, and, since this is such a big burden, they get an operation to always be happy despite it.

The girl asks if Kino has a job, and Kino says that traveling is his job. The girl then asks, "Do you hate your job?" and Kino says "No, I like it." and the girl says "Then it's not a job."

Kino realizes this is kind of fucked up and is visibly conflicted on whether he should leave the place as is, or help this girl he's made friends with somehow. He talks to this girl about the tradition, and this exchange happens:

In a world with such a clear distinction between a child and adult, it is unthinkable to the girl that someone could just be neither. This man is grown up, but he does what he likes. And he doesn't even have an answer for "what" he is. He's just "a man named Kino, that's all. And I'm on a journey."

"Doing what you like to do?" The girl asks.

"That's right, I like traveling." Kino says.

He asks the girl what she likes to do. She says she loves singing! He suggests she then should become a singer. She says she can't, because she has to grow up and take over her family's business. But it's fine, because it's about to be her operation and day and she "will be happy, even if she has to work at the inn".

The next day, the girl is conflicted. She asks her parents if it is necessary to have the operation. "Is there no other way that I can become an adult by just being myself?" Her parents are terrified and very mad at her, and the whole street gathers up to tell her off, calling her a "failure", "defective", "a waste of a girl", which are also common attitudes towards queer people in our world. They realize it was the traveler that planted the ideas in her head. The traveler agrees that each country has its own customs, and the people allow him to leave peacefully... Except the girl will be killed, for "defying her elders". Her father charges at her with a knife, but Kino shields her and dies. at this point, Hermes, the motorcycle, starts speaking to her.

This exhange continues the theme of "the secret third thing" and the freedom of choice outside of defined norms. Within the norms, it becomes clear in this scene that you either become "an adult" or you die; but, just like the traveler Kino was "a secret third thing", the girl can also run away and continue being herself. That is the third choice she gets here. And she takes it.

She rides away, Hermes giving her instructions on how to ride properly, she breaks the country gates and escapes to the grand outside. She stops and falls over on a field of flowers, the ones she was named after. She looks back and whispers "Kino..." but Hermes assumes it was her introducing herself to him. Surprised he referes to her as Kino, she throws away the last part of her past she had on her and accepts her new name.

Now that we're done with the summary, let's dissect this.

First off, Kino in her childhood looks very feminine. She has long hair, wears a pink dress and a pink headband with a cute bow. And, s we know her from the future, she looks very androgynous, her hair is short, her voice is much lower, she wears masculine clothing and an oversized coat that she got from the traveler.

She changes her looks, she changes her name, from one that she did not like to one that reflected her better, which is something that many trans and non-binary people go through. Here, I want to mention that even the traveler she met also looks sort of androgynous, which is also coding in itself, imo.

In the country where she used to live, there were two ways to live: being a child and being an adult. One did not have any sort of choice in the matter, it was decided for you. This is, of course, similar to the way that we get assigned a gender at birth and are expected to pefectly perform that gender, with no option to switch or be something else.

But young Kino meets a person who defies everything she believed in her life. He's free to go and do whatever he likes, he doesn't fit in the binary of this country, and he grew up free to be himself. This is wild to Kino at first, but she keeps thinking about it and realizing she does want to keep doing things she likes. She doesn't want to get brainwashed into doing things she hates with an unchanging smile on her face. She wants to be herself, to be free. She doesn't get that choice, of course, not while she's still in the country. She admits that becoming an adult like them would be as bad as dying; because she would lose all her personality and individuality. That's when Hermes opens her eyes to this: she DOES have a choice. Actually, this is her only chance to take it. She runs away, and she's finally free, and she throws away her past and continues life under a new name.

Even if all this is unintentional, this episode's themes still speak to the ideas and beliefs of trans and non-binary people. It is an episode about freedom of choice, freedom to be yourself despite what your culture may impose on you. This is an episode about leaving your past behind for a better future. So, in a way, this episode IS about being non-binary.

Thank you for reading!! I hope there aren't any major mistakes in here. If there are, please let me know so I can fix it (kindly, please). Like, obviously I said words like "feminine/masculine/androgynous" which are labels which don't always fit everything they get assigned to. I hope that it's clear that I used them intentionally for the purposes of getting a point across. Hope you enjoyed, and I've convinced you to watch (or rewatch) this awesome anime!! Bye-bye ^_^

[obscureanimeoftheday]

Obscure Anime of The Day:

Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World

Aired: 2003

Genres: Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Historical, Psychological, SciFi, Seinen, Slice of Life, Steampunk

[cure-yell-liker]

[alliestair]

Gender Envy

[iyashikei-tournament]

Round 2 Match 3

Propaganda under cut

Kino's Journey

[none]

Natsume's Book of Friends

ongoing animanga about a boy who can see youkai, and who has not had a good childhood because of it. he moves to a new town where an older couple take him in and treat him like their own. he learns to grow as a person and become more accepting of the world and the people around him, and of himself. it's a really sweet series that makes you cry every episode and also there's a talking kitty cat it's so great

[mangacapsaicin]

keiichi sigsawa & kouhaku kuroboshi’s kino’s journey || 時雨沢恵一と黒星紅白の『キノの旅』

[lordshinytambourine]

Non-binary person named 'Film' lol