Anime: Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World - Byouki no Kuni - For You

Another extra installment in the kino series. I'm not sure about the time frame of the "movie" according to anidb it is before the series. Its not really a movie either more an episode then a movie because its 30 minutes long. This story followed the general style of the rest of the series. In this specific story kino visits a country that is super advanced but is troubled by a "sickness" that many of its people contract.

Animation
It is nothing special definitely not for a so called movie. It just follows the good old style that is used for the rest so I can't complain or complement it very much. You find very little action or movement in the this more talking then anything else. The best part of the animation was the detail put into the city. Although it looked advanced some parts of it still looked kind of odd. Some details that make you question the city itself such as the "phone" having some screwed up pixels when a conversation is going on. All in all it did what it needed to do.

Sound
Also another aspect that does not change very much. In general the music is light and only serves as background. Even during climax and key points you never have a music score to up the tone. They always keep it simple and add what is needed for each part. They don't have an opening theme but the ending theme is nice and done by the same person who did the rest of the op/ed. I think they used the same voice actors too because they sounded the same but I'm not 100% about this one. So since everything followed I think the sound was fairly good.

Story
Like in all Kino they never have a main plot everything is episodic. I found the story they presented in this story a little weaker then some of the other ones. They choose a theme that is done quite a bit in many forms of movie or entertainment. Thus the outcome did not come out as a surprise or different. Although this is true I also think that since this kind of theme is overly done it was also important for them to explore this. For me Kino no tabi is like an compilation of "utopian societies". They also present it as it is without too much judgment or criticism. Although the conclusions may be a little stereotypical at times I still think that they fit best in most cases. Thus in this case I think it worked out ok.

Character
The main characters remain the same as always and I've never stopped loving them. Kino and Hermes are always fun to watch. Hermes with his random comments and "quotes" that aren't exactly right. Kino who never phases at anything and just takes everything in as it is. They just never cease to entertain. The rest of the characters served some role but not a huge importance. The only one who does is the little girl who is sick and dreams of getting better. They have a lot of irony with her situation and her hope. In terms of development not much is seen at all since this isn't much of an importance in the story.

Value and Enjoyment
The majority of people that will watch this will agree that not much value is found. As mentioned before it is something that many movies/books/shows have explored before and come to the same conclusions. At least some have or done something similar. Therefore the "learning curve" isn't very big. I don't think it has much rewatch value either. Only if you want to do a complete marathon of everything. I did enjoy this and I did not. Just seeing another addition to the series made me very happy. Since I've watched the series I've always hoped for more and more so this is a good sign for me. It also did not disappoint me nor surprise or make me enjoy the series more. It was just an average episode in the grand skim of things. I think the recommendation would extend to anyone if they just want a short decent watch. Its not extremely heavy and it does have some things to think about at the end. If you have or haven't seen the series doesn't make much of a difference but if you have you may have more attachment. So if you decide to give it a go have fun :)