![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Kino's Journey is about an androgynous young woman travelling through various countries, accompanied by her talking motorrad (motorcycle). The anime (of which I am quite fond) had a bit of a Big Fandom Moment back in the day (and is apparently regarded as a Breathtaking work Of staggering Genius by some...which, well, not really, no. I mean, it's good and interesting and has moments of brilliance, but I think a few fans might be a little carried away), and Tokyopop released the first light novel the anime was based on, but never released any one. Thankfully, volumes 2-11 can be found at baka-tsuki, and subsequent volumes are being worked on. Several chapters in those volume aren't actually hosted by baka-tsuki, but there are links to those volumes.
Kino never stays more than three days in a single country, arguing that it's enough time to learn about a country's people and customs, but it's implied that she actually fears that she'll want to settle down if she gets too used to a place. Some of the stories are "lets look at human nature," but I think even more are Keiichi Sigsawa going "WTF, people?" or "Let's see what happens if you take this one thing way too far. The chapters in the novels are largely standalone, and each volume is bookended by a prologue and epilogue. The prologue tells the tail end of a story, and the epilogue tells the earlier parts. the bulk of the stories are more chronological than not, but you shouldn't really look for a timeline while reading.
The anime covers various stories in the first few volumes, and Kino is the main protagonist of all the episodes. She's the protagonist of most of the light novel stories, too, but there are also a number of stories about Shizu (the swordwielding prince with the talking dog) and about Kino's Master when she was younger. The stories rarely overlap, but one protagonist is sometimes mentioned as having been to a country before in another protagonist's story, and Kino sometimes goes to a country because of a story Master told her about before.
Kino in the books is much more mercenary and sometimes ruthless than she's portrayed as being in the anime, moreso as the series progresses, though she's nothing compared to Master. Master's stories only refer to her as "the woman," and her sidekick as "the man." They're mercenaries and very ruthless, sometimes cruel, but also prone to (rare) random acts of kindness. Shizu, unlike his female counterparts, is overly chivalrous and honest and has a "romantic soul," if you want to be sappy about it. He's also somewhat prone to accidentally adopting little girls, even if they don't always stick around in the long run.
The novels are good, but a bit sparse even for light novels. The average light novel is around 200-250 pages, including at least a dozen (usually closer to two dozen) pages of illustrations. The Kino novels are about the same length, but also have a lot of white space.
A note should be made about about the author's afterwords. They are completely random and ridiculous and are mostly Sigsawa trolling his fans. In one, he starts talking about the series as if it were a huge shounen series with powerups and conspiracies and big bosses and outline major plot points for about 60 volumes. In another, he creates a fake copyright page and his messages hidden everywhere. If he isn't doing things like that, he's spouting random drivel. The fake shounen plot, BTW, apparently spawned a successful parody series called Gakuin Kino which I understand is a magical girl high school AU.
On to the next light novel binge.
Kino never stays more than three days in a single country, arguing that it's enough time to learn about a country's people and customs, but it's implied that she actually fears that she'll want to settle down if she gets too used to a place. Some of the stories are "lets look at human nature," but I think even more are Keiichi Sigsawa going "WTF, people?" or "Let's see what happens if you take this one thing way too far. The chapters in the novels are largely standalone, and each volume is bookended by a prologue and epilogue. The prologue tells the tail end of a story, and the epilogue tells the earlier parts. the bulk of the stories are more chronological than not, but you shouldn't really look for a timeline while reading.
The anime covers various stories in the first few volumes, and Kino is the main protagonist of all the episodes. She's the protagonist of most of the light novel stories, too, but there are also a number of stories about Shizu (the swordwielding prince with the talking dog) and about Kino's Master when she was younger. The stories rarely overlap, but one protagonist is sometimes mentioned as having been to a country before in another protagonist's story, and Kino sometimes goes to a country because of a story Master told her about before.
Kino in the books is much more mercenary and sometimes ruthless than she's portrayed as being in the anime, moreso as the series progresses, though she's nothing compared to Master. Master's stories only refer to her as "the woman," and her sidekick as "the man." They're mercenaries and very ruthless, sometimes cruel, but also prone to (rare) random acts of kindness. Shizu, unlike his female counterparts, is overly chivalrous and honest and has a "romantic soul," if you want to be sappy about it. He's also somewhat prone to accidentally adopting little girls, even if they don't always stick around in the long run.
The novels are good, but a bit sparse even for light novels. The average light novel is around 200-250 pages, including at least a dozen (usually closer to two dozen) pages of illustrations. The Kino novels are about the same length, but also have a lot of white space.
A note should be made about about the author's afterwords. They are completely random and ridiculous and are mostly Sigsawa trolling his fans. In one, he starts talking about the series as if it were a huge shounen series with powerups and conspiracies and big bosses and outline major plot points for about 60 volumes. In another, he creates a fake copyright page and his messages hidden everywhere. If he isn't doing things like that, he's spouting random drivel. The fake shounen plot, BTW, apparently spawned a successful parody series called Gakuin Kino which I understand is a magical girl high school AU.
On to the next light novel binge.