![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Kino's Journey 2017
Mar. 4th, 2018 02:38 pmI'll borrow the reasoning from someone over at tumblr: The 2017 Kino's Journey anime is pretty clearly meant as an animated take on the novels. Was it to please existing fans or make new readers curious about the universe? Both, I guess, but to what extent it worked is not for me to say. I never got around to reading more than the four novels that were translated to German, and I remember preciously little from them. My love of this universe is love of the 2003 anime, which is very much its own story.
There are a number of differences between the 2003 series and the 2017 one, but the only one that really matters for what they are, is their relationship to the novels from which they were adapted. The 2003 anime might be as episodic as the novels are, but there's a thematic coherence to it; the final episode (A Kind Country) neatly ties back into episode four (Country Of Adults). The story doesn't end because the journey doesn't - but the anime gives us closure.
The 2017 anime sets these two episodes back-to-back: Country Of Adults is episode ten, Kind Country is episode eleven, and the final episode is then some completely unrelated nonsense. The 2003 anime hasn't got much in terms of a story arch either, but the end ties back to the very beginning. The 2017 anime is completely episodic, and together with the so-so production values, is almost certainly only interesting inasfar as it connects to the novels.
Which is a lot of words for telling you that while the 2003 Kino's Journey anime is distinctive in both visuals and music and has a consistent purpose for its storytelling choices, the 2017 one is very generic in looks and sounds and comes across as fairly slapdash as far as the stories go. The 2003 anime made it very clear that the purpose of its stories was the social commentary and philosophical questions. While the 2017 did so sometimes, at least half the time I was just wondering what the hell was wrong with all these assholes.
I don't even dislike the 2017 Kino's Journey. But it wasn't memorable either, and I'm not using another six hours of my life on it. It was okay, but the most interesting part of it was how it compares to the 2003 one.
Below is a bit more in-depth commentary on how they did things differently, with spoilers for Country of Adults, A Kind Country, and the prounouns.
( hell, I liked how they did Country Of Adults )
There are a number of differences between the 2003 series and the 2017 one, but the only one that really matters for what they are, is their relationship to the novels from which they were adapted. The 2003 anime might be as episodic as the novels are, but there's a thematic coherence to it; the final episode (A Kind Country) neatly ties back into episode four (Country Of Adults). The story doesn't end because the journey doesn't - but the anime gives us closure.
The 2017 anime sets these two episodes back-to-back: Country Of Adults is episode ten, Kind Country is episode eleven, and the final episode is then some completely unrelated nonsense. The 2003 anime hasn't got much in terms of a story arch either, but the end ties back to the very beginning. The 2017 anime is completely episodic, and together with the so-so production values, is almost certainly only interesting inasfar as it connects to the novels.
Which is a lot of words for telling you that while the 2003 Kino's Journey anime is distinctive in both visuals and music and has a consistent purpose for its storytelling choices, the 2017 one is very generic in looks and sounds and comes across as fairly slapdash as far as the stories go. The 2003 anime made it very clear that the purpose of its stories was the social commentary and philosophical questions. While the 2017 did so sometimes, at least half the time I was just wondering what the hell was wrong with all these assholes.
I don't even dislike the 2017 Kino's Journey. But it wasn't memorable either, and I'm not using another six hours of my life on it. It was okay, but the most interesting part of it was how it compares to the 2003 one.
Below is a bit more in-depth commentary on how they did things differently, with spoilers for Country of Adults, A Kind Country, and the prounouns.
( hell, I liked how they did Country Of Adults )
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}