Kino no Tabi (Kino's Travels, Kino's Journey) follows two travelers, the human Kino and the motorrad (a type of motorcycle) Hermes. Each episode (except for the two Coliseum episodes) takes you to a different country (often more than one) where the two experience life in a different place, surrounded by different cultures and ideologies. Like the viewer, Kino is an observer and rarely passes judgement on the people or places she meets, but the situations are often compelling (or disturbing) enough to possibly change ones' world view.



Kino no Tabi originally started out as a novel series (currently 13 books) before being made into an anime (13 episode TV series, preceeded by 1 OVA short for promotional purposes) Later, based on the popularity of the novels in Japan, two 30-minute movies were produced.

Kino no Tabi is different from your average anime series, and certainly won't please everyone. The variety of stories it presents from the various countries Kino and Hermes visits are at times cliche, at times highly disturbing, or at times rather bizarre. There are a few moments of humor, but they're more in the realm of satire than "haha funny" comedy. Also, some of the concepts are mature in nature and this definately isn't a kiddie show. However, the sum of the parts is far greater than if each element was taken separately. A single episode taken alone may not be original, but if you take the series as a whole, it's certainly quite different from what's been done before.