Well, that was a departure from the previous episode.

Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World – The Animated Series
Studio: EGG Firm
Genre: Adventure, Slice of Life

I’ll be honest. This episode threw me a little. After the weightiness of the last one, this one just didn’t really grab me in quite the same way. It’s solid, certainly, but it lacked the intrigue that the series has managed to craft into a handful of episodes, thus far. There is the added factor of learning a little more about Kino, though it wasn’t anything terribly interesting. And she once again wasn’t the focus of things, which probably hurts in the long run.

The episode focuses instead on a tale of the past. Specifically, Kino is telling Hermes a story about her master. As I said, the added background for Kino is appreciated. But it doesn’t actually tell us that much about her character. We still aren’t aware of a terrible lot of what her background was like, aside from her simply being an apprentice.

And while I do like seeing the person who no doubt inspired many of Kino’s operational habits and attitudes, I would have preferred to see a story that revolved around their pasts together, as opposed to some other apprentice. I don’t know if he has some kind of significance beyond this episode in terms of the source material. Nor do I really want to research the source material like I usually do to find out. Because that would defeat the allure of the series, which is the sense of mystery surrounding Kino.

If this man doesn’t ultimately go on to become important, then I honestly see no reason not to have focused instead on a story of Kino with her master. Not so much in the capacity of revealing key events in their past together, but at least showing off their relationship a little more. I get the impression that theirs was a bit different from the relationship Kino’s master had with this other guy.

As to the events of the episode itself, I did like what was actually going on. I thought the story itself was actually fairly amusing. It wasn’t some high energy thrill ride or anything. But it was actually pretty funny, given how things played out. But if things happening was enough to signify a great episode, well… we have quite a few anime this season that would be deserving of the highest accolades. Still, the payoff of the episode was pretty amusing. I almost feel like this episode is the one that should’ve been called “Country of Liars,” given where it takes things.

Nice cane ya got there, old man.

The episode was just generally underwhelming for me. I know other people have been expressing that sentiment from an earlier point, but I’ve been charmed by most of the episodes up to this point. Even some of the ones that pushed Kino to the background. That said, I do hope the series returns to form soon, now that we’re seemingly up to the halfway point. But as it is, this particular episode was just Harmless. Were you more interested in it than I was? Did it perhaps fall a little to you? Maybe there are some other shows out right now you’d rather see? We may just have a review or recap of it!

But if you’re still interested, Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World is Simulcast on Crunchyroll, Fridays at 11:30am EST.