Kino rides again

I finally tracked down the “Episode 0” fansub of Kino, named “The Tower Country”, on YouTube (after unsuccessfully looking on BitTorrent). The episode is about 12 minutes long and broken into two pieces. It was a fascinating episode, much more faithful to the original series than the “Life Goes On” prequel. I feel like Kino is an addiction of sorts – like Zen koans, they don’t ultimately have any meaning or lesson you can consciously absorb, but seem laden with symbolism nevertheless, and I find myself wanting more. Ask and ye shall receive… there will actually be a new Kino series released in 2007, featuring Kino as a young woman. The title will be “Kino No Tabi: Nanika Wosurutameni” (or, “In order to do what?”).

There’s more info about the new Kino series here and at the official site here but it will take a Japanese-speaking otaku to decipher. One thing is clear though – the manga covers upon which the new series is based demonstrate that Kino won’t be mistaken for a male anymore.

Older Kino Kino new series

Kino’s Journey: The Tower Country videos via YouTube below the fold:

5 thoughts on “Kino rides again”

  1. It looks to be less of a series and more of a movie, especially if it’s adapting a single story arc in the original light novels. Those novels covers look like the original Japanese covers, though it’s been a while since I’ve seen them. The cover for the American release of the first volume is quite different (It uses one of the story-arc inserts):

    And if the google translate of the official site say anything, well, after you get through the hilariously bad translation… it does seem to suggest that it is a movie in the works. Probably animated movie, but still sounds like good news!

  2. I have the torrtent, and it’s still seeded. All I need is your email (it’s a 15K attachment, the actual 00 episode is 91MB).

  3. Nick, thanks for that. I might see if teh books are available at the library or put in a request for them. Not really keen to spend money on them 🙂 FYI I fixed your link and deleted the redundant comment.

    Conrad, can you email me the torrent at apoonawa dash blog at yahoo dot com? Much appreciated…

  4. hello there
    i have been meaning to catch this series and i’ve had an extremely tough time trying to find episode 0’s torrent as well

    if it is possible, could either conrad or fledgeling otaku send the torrent to my mail (shokobutsu at yahoo dot com) if you guys still have the torrent?

    many thanks in advance~

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