Who knew, right? Well, before the fourth episode, anyway. Oh sure, there are hints, but in all honesty, there's no way you could be sure either way. Why is this important? Well, I guess the whole point is that it's not: Kino no Tabi is, among many things, utterly non-gender-biased, which, when you watch a lot of anime, is very refreshing.

The story revolves around young Kino, who, riding upon her talking motorcycle (or motorrad, in the universe of the show), Hermes, travels to a variety of countries, all of which have their own strange customs and quirks. It seems that each of these it meant to demonstrate a specific weakness in human nature and Kino's outsider perspective allows us to see just how foolish our thought-processes often are. Her logical side tries to stay out of each country's internal conflicts, but her compassionate side and more notably, her curiosity often gets her wrapped up in things, anyway.

I'm going to gush about Kino herself, now for a bit and I'm apologising for it ahead of time. Kino is a really great character. She's like one of Hayao Miyazaki's lead characters, but more so! She's a strong and independent female lead who isn't at all objectified by having exorbitantly over-exaggerated lady-parts. Even so, despite being a bit of a tomboy, she still has subtle feminine moments, allowing her to still be attractive and triggering an emotional response in the viewer. But make no mistake, you may feel like you want to protect her, but in a life or death situation, she'd more likely end up protecting you. She's tough as nails and a sharpshooter to boot!

Which brings me back to her logical but compassionate nature. Kino has several guns, a lot of knives and no hesitation to use them. Unlike some media that try (embarassingly) to have a compassionate character use a killing weapon without killing anyone (I'm looking at you, Black Cat) with the only alternative being a heartless antihero who has trouble not killing people (there are so many I can't even think of a specific example), Kino no Tabi takes a more reasonable approach and has Kino, a compassionate person, killing people when this has become her only option or when there isn't time to think it through.

Episode two illustrates this wonderfully, when Kino decides to help some stranded travelers, but is forced to kill some rabbits in order to feed them. She feels sorry for the rabbits and even prays for them, but ultimately lives with the decision she has made and doesn't dwell on it too much. When the travelers turn out to be slave-traders and betray her, she has to kill them in order to survive. At this point, she recognises that she made the wrong decision in killing the rabbits, but in the end, she cannot tell Hermes that she wouldn't make the same decision again. According to her beliefs, she made the right choice in helping the travelers; it was just poor luck that they turned out to be bad people. And even though they were bad people, I believe that she would have let them live if she had had the choice, but they left her none.

Not many people in Kino no Tabi are bad people, but simply the product of whatever messed up country they come from. In this respect, the show seems both optimistic and pessimistic about human nature. Optimistic in that people aren't usually inherently bad and pessimistic in that people aren't inherently good, either. In the end, everyone just seems foolish because they don't seem to have any choice in the matter. The message here seems to be just that. Take a long hard look at yourself and try to figure out which of your beliefs are just passed onto you from a messed up society and which are truly yours.

Each episode has a nicely executed variant of this general statement, but none feel too preachy because of the whimsical nature of the show's universe. The art style tends to reflect this as well, as the art itself is rather simplistic and fanciful, but the colours are subdued and give a sense of seriousness. All in all, Kino no Tabi seems to have a lot to say and keeps things interesting with its fantastic and sometimes bizarre settings and characters. I can tell that this is the kind of show that will probably be ignored by a lot of people in favour of something flashier and with more fanservice, but it's definitely worth watching. After all, real value lies in the show that can rely on its own merit, rather than trying to get attention by being loud or sexy. Like Kino herself, this anime has more class than that.

My Advice:
"Watch this show no matter who you are!"