Light Novel 'Kino no Tabi' Gets New TV Anime

by Stark700
Mar 12, 2017 1:34 AM | 144 Comments

At the Dengeki Festivals 2017 event (Game no Dengeki Kanshasai 2017, Dengeki Bunko Spring Festival 2017, Dengeki Comics 2017), it was announced that Keiichi Sigsawa and Kohaku Kuroboshi's Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World light novel will receive a new TV anime adaptation.

Cast
Kino: Aoi Yuuki (Gosick)
Hermes: Soma Saito (Rokka no Yuusha)

Kino no Tabi was originally serialized in MediaWorks' Dengeki HP in March 2000 before the magazine was discontinued in October 2007. ASCII Media Works began publishing the series under the Dengeki Bunko imprint in March 2000, and published the 20th volume in October 2016. A spin-off titled Gakuen Kino began publishing under the same imprint in July 2006 and currently has five volumes in print. The series was previously adapted into a 13-episode TV anime that aired between April and July 2003. The series also received both a prequel and sequel movie adaptation. ADV Films licensed the series for North American distribution and released it in four DVD volumes between February and June 2004. Sentai Filmworks plans to re-release the anime on DVD on June 6.

Source: Dengeki Online

Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World - The Animated Series on MAL

Light Novels New Anime

20 of 144 Comments Recent Comments

A lot of people seem to be complaining that the art is bad. I think its pretty cute and a good modern remake of the original. However, Kino's overly cute character design led me to believe this would be another stupid moe slice of life and I almost overlooked the show until a lot of people started to recommend it. Its really good but you should check out the original too as it goes into more detail of some of the stories which also appear in this new one.

Nov 3, 2017 4:39 AM by Hijirihara

which studio is going to do the animation ??
btw the art looks bad as well as the voices picked for the characters , i don't think they suit them at all .
hopefully these gets changed i don't want to see moe shit in kino , i doubt it would fit with this type of story and how it has always been , i'm happy it's getting a new anime but it could turn shit because of how it looks like so far . hopefully i will be wrong because i absolutely adore this series .

Jun 4, 2017 4:58 PM by RPWPA

Art looks bad! Also haven't watched the original yet, so I don't know if I want a sequel

May 21, 2017 5:48 AM by Redhills

Aoi Yuuki voiced young Kino (Sakura) in the original and now she is voicing Kino herself. Like a pottery.

May 19, 2017 7:00 AM by minoru09

knktzvra said:
F*ck!
I´m so hype about this new season, but I really hoped to hear the same Kino´s voice.
Aoi Yuuki is my favorite seiyuu, but this kinda makes it worse.
I´m glad she get a new role, but I love Kino too and they just don´t fit at all, maybe if she sounds like Degurechaff this can work.
Hoping to be mad for nothing.

Agreed. Aoi Yuuki is also my favorite Japanese voice actress, but she's not Kino, it'd honestly be too jarring to not hear Ai Maeda as Kino.

Mar 30, 2017 8:41 AM by ZachM

When you have a plot-less, episodic series (there are no legitimate "arcs" here) with over 200 stories, readers are bound to perceive a drop in quality. It is true that some of the volumes are pretty dry (11, 13 and 15 spring to mind), but rest assured that the series hasn't really gone into the "sexualizing/moe" direction, unless you count the introduction of the ff. characters: 1) a woman who is always described as "gorgeous"; 2) a girl who is a loli, appearance-wise; 3) a teen-aged girl who is an actual foil to Kino's character.

Anyway, I don't really find the gender neutrality thing to be the crowning essence of the series. The LN has a host of stories focusing on other characters who are definitely not gender ambiguous, and to me at least, that never reduced their poignancy. Heck, the original draft of one of the stories even had a real fanservice scene, and still that wouldn't change the impact. What makes this series tick is that it is a commentary about the real world. It presents potential situations that could emerge when some of the mundane things we take for granted are taken to extremes.

Mar 22, 2017 10:02 PM by SaneSavantElla

Hm. I'm cautiously optimistic for this new adaptation. I really hope it continues the story instead of just being a remake.

Mar 21, 2017 10:28 PM by yuurikaze

Waaaaaaaaaaaat.... that's cool and all but i wish Spice & Wolf would've gotten a new season.

Mar 15, 2017 2:02 AM by Hatsuyuki

StarFromDust said:
Serious?? Hooray!! But please, don't messed up.

Damn straight. its always a 50/50 chance these days. Lets hope a ight studio is chosen THEN we can say it'll be good.

Mar 14, 2017 7:22 PM by TheNoseOfDeath

Wow....this was REALLY unexpected. I heard great things about the original anime so I guess I should watch it soon.

Mar 14, 2017 7:21 PM by TheNoseOfDeath

Good news, but why not give Ai Maeda the role to Kino again?

Mar 14, 2017 6:46 PM by MrAwesome2018

F*ck!
I´m so hype about this new season, but I really hoped to hear the same Kino´s voice.
Aoi Yuuki is my favorite seiyuu, but this kinda makes it worse.
I´m glad she get a new role, but I love Kino too and they just don´t fit at all, maybe if she sounds like Degurechaff this can work.
Hoping to be mad for nothing.

Mar 14, 2017 6:12 PM by knktzvra

Fai said:
Focusing on her "feminine" assets would directly clash with that idea. That's like giving Utena a bust size increase and a boob window in the clothes. Kino No Tabi is a show that would be completely ruined with fanservice or by sexualizing the lead.

Well, its just one picture, so, unless someone has read the 20th volume, we will never know whether such a "different" cover art in the series actually has an impact in the story or whatever.

Its best if we wait for more information on just the new anime adaptation, rather than put all our focus on just one single cover art in the latest volume that we know nothing about.

Tho, if theres anyone whos read the LN and can give some info on how the story and character developments have gone throughout the LN and whether the "controversial" vol.20 cover art actually makes a difference or not, would be really helpful.

Mar 14, 2017 11:36 AM by AdolTheRed

Miragee said:

ssjokg said:

Gotta love seeing people contradict themselves so much.

1st of all, taking a girl and dressing it as a boy is already "fanservice".It is called crossdressing. And since many didnt know Kiino was a girl, also a reverse trap.
You, plural, being mad at the author and/or illustrator ruining that is just you being mad that your desired fanservice will be probably gone.As you said, "Her biological gender is irrelevant both to the story and to her as a character" .So if the story and her character doesnt change from whether she is a male or a female, then why the fuss?

2nd, just because she starts to look more feminine doesnt mean this shit will be filled with fanservice.And even if it does it doesnt mean it will be able to distract you from the story.
The original Saber, in FSN, was supposed to be a character whose gender didnt matter yet they couldnt stick to that for even 1/3 of the story."But FSN is about Shirou not Saber."Fate route is about both.

3rd, it is asinine that you, at least, are making a fuss about this, making a female character look more feminine, while calling Monogatari's random fanservice and often borderline hentai scenes ART.

Well, the only thing that was incorrect is that it has some relevance to the story. In one episode, Kino plays with the japanese language, pondering whether she liked being adressed with boy'ish or girlish co-words.
I don't think the series makes a point in cross-dressing her. It's not a cross-dress. It's just neutral clothing that fits her travels and it's hard to make a call if she is a girl or a boy just from that. Which is a good thing.

I am just going along with what the other guy said. I only watched 1 or 2 eps of the first series since I only wanted action shit back then.

I am not talking about what the author and the story were trying to achieve. What matters is that it caters to somebody somewhere.

And at least we see something that ruins her character all this talk is just fans who lost their fanservice thingy.

Mar 14, 2017 8:58 AM by ssjokg

ssjokg said:

Fai said:

Kino is Kino. Her biological gender is irrelevant both to the story and to her as a character.

Mar 14, 2017 7:57 AM by Miragee

Fai said:

Kino is Kino. Her biological gender is irrelevant both to the story and to her as a character.

Mar 14, 2017 7:27 AM by ssjokg

AdolTheRed said:
Are you saying that because the LN dropped in quality, the author or illustrator is trying to get people interested again by "sexualizing" the character?

The latter arcs apparently are weaker in quality and considering the current market of LNs, I would not be surprised if publishers wanted to "sex/moe it up" with that cover considering how jarring it is.

Sure it does not say anything about the upcoming adaptation but considering the tendencies of shows to "sex it up" that's still legitimate worry.

Considering that Kino is in fact a female, I don't see why the author can't make a cover art that makes Kino look more feminine than usual, especially after 20 vols into the series. I mean, sure in the story and how she acts, her being more gender-neutral plays an important part, but it is a fact that Kino is still a girl, and after 20 volumes, I don't see how anyone would think otherwise (unless of course that the author never even gave a single hint towards her actual gender throughout the entire 20 vols.)

Kino is Kino. Her biological gender is irrelevant both to the story and to her as a character. She refers to herself with a manly/boyish boku expression that is mainly used by males. Otherwise the story refers to her in gender neutral proverbs. Had story not shown us that she was born as a girl, there would be absolutely no other indication or importance in her biological gender.

Its pretty much a story of a person and their motorcycle on a roadtrip through disturbing and bizarre countries. There's no romance, there's no "heroics". She is a stoic , seemingly emotionless, brutally honest armed traveler who sometimes might end up being an influence in situations she finds herself in but she keeps it at complete minimum because of strict rules of ambivalence she follows - "The world is not beautiful, therefore it is". In doing so she essentially denies being viewed as a hero or heroine, refusing roles stories usually associate with either gender and refusing to be identified as anything else but Kino, likewise having same effect on people she meets.

Focusing on her "feminine" assets would directly clash with that idea. That's like giving Utena a bust size increase and a boob window in the clothes. Kino No Tabi is a show that would be completely ruined with fanservice or by sexualizing the lead.

AdolTheRed said:

This also leads to another question, which is, how well did the original anime adapt the LN?

👌👌👌

The only problem is that it is incomplete.

Mar 14, 2017 7:11 AM by Ahenshihael

ichii_1 said:

moodie said:
DVR ratings

Cute, now get me some real ratings that justify it's time slot.
OreMonogatari did better btw.

NHK shows are bound to be successfull as always. Had pretty good ratings for a 2 cour show. I would prefer JC staff with Kasai working with it tho.

Mar 14, 2017 6:37 AM by Diginarcissa

It is going to be pretty hard to beat how well adapted the original was, but with that said I am really excited about this.

Mar 14, 2017 2:28 AM by DankSgt

This better be good or im gonna be pissed

Mar 14, 2017 12:30 AM by SJWsAreMad