Good afternoon, all. This post feels like a bit of a break for me, since as soon as CONvergence was over I went right to writing first episode impressions for the Summer anime season as per this blog’s mission statement from the distant past. I’m trying to keep a good pace while understanding that I’m just one person and shouldn’t expect to match websites with paid writers or blogs with multiple bloggers working simultaneously; comparison is the thief of joy and I started writing just to share my opinions for fun. I think for right now I’m just happy to be giving my writing muscles a good stretch and a workout with a couple thousand words a day or so. I’m also trying not to worry too much about quality, though that’s more difficult for an anxious perfectionist like me; I feel embarrassed when I miss spelling errors or forget to delete or edit things before I post. But that’s just how I am.
We’re now into the second half of Kino’s Journey, and I’ve loved reading people’s thoughts so far. I’ve been pretty poor at responding, so apologies, but that’s more because I tend to see comment emails arrive while I’m at work and then forget to log back in after I get home. I’ll be trying to remember to stay more involved going forward.
Previous week’s posts and discussions are linked below; as usual, feel free to keep discussing and sharing as you feel able and willing to do so.
Episode 7 – Historic Country – Crunchyroll – Funimation – Hulu
Eating sausages, Kino recalls a story that their master told them about a country with a clock tower. Many years ago, Master and her apprentice traveled to a country with an extensive police presence. Their plan was to sell some goods and make money to further their travels, but the apprentice was caught by the corrupt police force and framed for drug trafficking. When typical bribes didn’t budge the chief of police, Master made a show of leaving the country before sneaking back in under the cover of night. She used some distraction techniques to keep the police occupied while sneaking the apprentice out of jail. Rather than leave, though, they decided to stay and cause as much chaos as possible. Making a stand in the giant clocktower in the center of town, Master makes a point of injuring-but-not-killing anyone and causing general terror and frustration. Finally, after three days and three nights, the chief of police surrenders and the two travelers escape with their lives and a large sum of money.
It just so happens that Kino is approaching that same country. Upon entering the gates, the change in atmosphere is obvious. There are families enjoying the great weather where there were only officer patrols before. Kino enters the central square near the clock tower and notices a small monument. An elderly man explains the history of the monument, dedicated to two heroes who heard the needs of the people and stood up for them, eventually causing lasting change and allowing the country to become peaceful and prosperous. Kino notes that the man walks with a limp, a detail that he’s not willing to elaborate upon. Master was certainly an interesting and intimidating person, and Kino can feel her presence around this historic place.
Episode 8 – Country of Radio Waves – Crunchyroll – Funimation – Hulu
CW: Murder/dismemberment.
Shizu, Riku, and Ti enter a county that seems relatively normal – a decent level of technology, nice people, and a reasonable immigration policy. Shizu decides that this might be a nice place to live for a while, and the three travel to explore the different towns within the country’s borders. while refueling, though, they witness something horrifying – there’s a person crossing the street in front of them who’s covered in blood and carrying a severed head. Shizu aids the police, who discover several other related victims. Strangely enough, though, the police don’t seem interested in prosecuting the individual who committed the murders. As they explain, their country was incorporated many years ago, built by a group of slaves. The slaves were controlled via machines in their bodies that were sent radio wave signals. The stations sending the signals exist to this day and continue to influence people susceptible to them, much like the man who just murdered so many people. Shizu is skeptical, but offers to go himself to destroy the radio tower so that the populace will be free of this control once and for all.
When the three arrive at the designated location, it’s clear that the radio tower hasn’t operated for years, if not decades. It’s falling apart and deteriorated a great degree. Shizu takes photographs as evidence of this and returns to town, ready to let the citizens know that they’re no longer beholden to the radio waves. They do not react as expected however; most seem unwilling to accept that the radio waves were never a factor, and they accuse Shizu of being influenced by the waves himself. It’s Ti’s quick thinking that allows them all to leave relatively unscathed. As a parting gift, Shizu lies and tells the police chief that the photos were of an old tower but that a new and more powerful one was operating in its place, and it will likely drive the populace mad in less than a day.
After this ordeal, they visit another country for a few days so that Shizu can make some money, and Ti and Riku get some time to be together. Riku remarks that he doesn’t seem to quite understand Ti, but as it turns out, Ti has begun to think of Riku as a friend.
Discussion Thoughts and Questions (feel free to share additional ones in the comments!)
Another week, another tale whose truth is certainly in the eye of the person telling the story. Episode 7 is probably one of the most straightforward and entertaining ones in the series, and I think that’s mostly due to how much of Master’s character comes through even via a secondhand telling of her experiences. The intro paints her as a cunning person, and the remainder of the episode reveals her as no-nonsense and unwilling to tolerate the brand of inconvenient injustice being doled out by the corrupt police force. It was entertaining for me to see someone who’s so assured in how she wants to respond and whose emotions are so obvious and yet not expressed in an outward way like one might expect. I’m also amused by the fact that the entire experience of essentially overthrowing a corrupt government body is used as a teachable moment for her apprentice. Bonus – his bad over-acting in the jail definitely gave me a hearty laugh!
More seriously, though, despite the results of the entire situation being amusing, there’s a sting in knowing that there are elements of this episode that aren’t limited to the fantasy world. Without going too deeply (for fear I might never escape), I think we can agree that there are a lot of problems lately (“lately” meaning that we hear about them now) that result from poor police treatment of the public, whether that be in general or related to someone’s race, gender, or sexuality. Being on the police force is to be in a position of power, and while there are people who can wield this power for public good, there are also those who allow power to enhance their already antisocial traits and a general culture that allows them to do so. This episode made me think very deeply about what conditions would need to occur to cause a widespread change in our public mentality towards police authority. I think it’s too big a problem for a solution to just crop up and I don’t imagine any random travelers are likely to swoop in and cause a ruckus, thus freeing us from our authoritarian tendencies once and for all. I did certainly find there to be some unsettling elements to this episode, however.
This episode reminded me that history truly is written from a certain point-of-view, and those who get to tell the story are also likely to embellish it to make themselves look the best. As the elderly man at the end of the episode shows us, it can be convenient to forget the negative part you had to play in a bad situation, especially if the result ends up being roughly positive.
- Master is a mysterious figure, though we get a sense of the person she is from the things she helped accomplish. Do you think she (and by extension, her apprentice) was interested in fighting for justice and helping the people, or was she simply getting revenge on the corrupt police force due to being personally inconvenienced?
- In this episode, we see Master, a traveler, interfering directly in a country’s governance and directly causing mayhem, much as Kino did when leaving the Colosseum several episodes ago. Does this help inform your opinion on Kino’s actions then knowing that Kino may have been influenced by Master’s attitude on the “proper” protocol in these situations?
With episode 8, we switch the subject from police corruption to fake news. Seriously, though, I find this episode very fascinating because I feel like there are a lot of things to like about this country in that they’re open to immigration and seem to have a relatively stable civilization, it’s just that they believe that their brains are susceptible to something that doesn’t actually exist. As you can probably guess from the first sentence, what struck me as the most important observation to be made in this episode is that people can be so very willing to believe things that are completely untrue and easily proven incorrect. When presented with evidence to the contrary, rather than believe themselves to be wrong and have to take responsibility for that, they would rather double-down and believe that the facts are fabrications attempting to dismantle their worldview. I probably don’t have to tell most of you why I found this to be so important; I’m sure there are many of you out there who deal with this firsthand. But sometimes it just seems much more obvious when shown to us in crystal clear anime form.
Shizu remarks at the end of that story that he wishes that “everything were transmitted as easily as radio waves.” He’s obviously lamenting the fact that he was unable to “reach” the members of that society and allow them to see the truth, but I wonder if he might possibly be indulging in some self-reflection, too. Shizu has had problems in the past attempting to save people from themselves and ultimately failing to do so – if you’ll recall, he also made some pretty powerful assumptions about what would be best for the people of the ship country and those didn’t serve them well at all. In this case, he assumes that they would rather know the truth, and that the truth would ultimately free them from from the ghosts of their past oppression. At least in this case, it seems that the resulting implications – that people are responsible for their own behavior – are too huge, and their society isn’t ready to address them yet.
I found the short vignette at the end about Riku and Ti’s day out to be sweet; it’s nice to see that Ti is willing to open up, especially considering her traumatic past.
I’d like to note that the questions below are pretty tough and caused me to realize that I still have some internalized prejudices I need to work on as they relate to societies that have resulted from traumatic circumstances, slavery, etc. Please don’t interpret them and judgmental of any real-world group – I’d prefer to keep the discussion related to the fictional society depicted in the episode.
- When people commit crimes in the Country of Radio Waves, they’re not imprisoned and prosecuted, they’re rehabilitated (because it’s believed that their crimes are the fault of radio waves, not their own impulses). How do you feel about this? Do you think that this is a good way to approach crime (even violent crime) in our own countries? Do you think that this removes responsibility from individuals? Does it matter as long as, in the aftermath, it’s prevented from happening again?
- As an addition to this question, are you curious about what qualifies as “rehabilitation” in this country? (I am!)
- The police chief tells Shizu the story of their country, including that the founding members were slaves who had been controlled via electronic means. Do you think that this identity has shaped how the people view personal responsibility? Do you think it’s a good or bad thing?
Once again, thank you all for keeping up with the show, and hopefully I’ve provided you a good jumping-off point to share your opinions!
3 replies on “Anime Book Club – Kino’s Journey ~The Beautiful World~ Week #4”
I did watch episode 8 now, but I’m not sure I have that much to say. I didn’t think about fake news when I watched the main story, though I think it’s an apt comparison and good observation. It was pretty obvious the residents were not going to simply adopt Shizu’s truth. Honestly, as a visitor and outsider, it probably wouldn’t be that smart of an idea to take his claims as clearly true. At the same time, the society was also clearly not interested in investigating further, and the true scary part of this set-up to me was the immediate turning to accusing Shizu of himself being under the influence of the waves. When you invent a monster, you get to decide how it operates, which makes it oh so easy to turn against whoever is a convenient target. As far as the rehabilitation over punishment and societies built from trauma ideas go, I think they are interesting concepts to explore, but I’m just not sure there is enough information in the show about either of these ideas to have a lot to say. I think every country’s past and story of its own creation influences what ideas will be more acceptable, but I definitely don’t have the cultural background to offer insights on a nation founded by escaped slaves.
Well Episode 7 just tickled me pink. Working as a public defender, many of my regular troubles in life come from overzealous policing and all of the power structures around that justify their occasionally awful behavior and make sure all the harm and blame falls on the oppressed, so this episode made me feel just spectacular. For those that don’t know, police seizing all valuables, particularly related to drug possession, is very much a real thing in the United States right now, and they do it as soon as someone is accused. The more thoughtful question posed by this episode would be the embrace of violence to overpower the powerful and cause them to submit, rather than going through peaceful and political processes. I can’t quite decide how I feel about that, since we’re living is this bizarre-ass time where I can see things only getting worse until the resistance becomes violent. I’m certainly not ready to turn on my fellow Americans at this point, but I do wonder if political processes and protests will be enough to fight back this scary, terrible alt-right wave, or if this will ultimately come down to violence. I am unsure.
As far as Master goes, it was pretty hard not to like her a whole lot. I think that confident, and emotional while not having to constantly express it is a point well taken. It is interesting to consider this episode along with Coliseum, and again I think the answer lies somewhere in between travellers’ senses of justice and just being pissed about what’s happening more directly to people they at least kind of know. Haven’t watched 8 yet, but wanted to comment on my feelings from 7.
Police states are in general bad business, though the blatant frame-up and inability to keep a straight face suggests that this is a relatively recent development that hadn’t solidified yet. (And thus the ability to shed that form of government so completely when it became an embarrassment.) As for Master’s role in the affair, I am reminded of Janye, hero of Canton–she was less concerned with what happened to the ordinary people of the country and more with teaching the corrupt cops a lesson.
The book I’m reading right now, Second-Hand Origin Stories, has a near future where being a black Altered (superbeing, so called because all superhumans in that world were created by mad science) has been effectively criminalized. It’s only legal to use your powers for good if the government agency in charge of Altered approves you, and the agency somehow finds a way to disapprove any black person with powers from herodom. The one black superhero we meet was grandfathered in from before the agency took control. And any crime committed by a black Altered results in near-lifetime sentences, including “saving lives without a license.”
Poor Shizu should have blown up the radio depot and gone with “there’s no further waves from that depot” but he has too much faith in humanity.
Rehabilitation instead of death or permanent imprisonment does sound better, and apparently people don’t normally take advantage of claiming radio waves made them kill; so maybe it’s only genuinely mentally ill people who are treated.
Perhaps the police chief will do the sensible if cowardly thing and just not go back into the country for a few days. Not seeing the place in flames and ankle-deep in blood, he’ll have to question just how much of what Shizu said were lies.
And the last bit is nice just to have a story about the characters.