Even if it isn't my most favorite anime series (though it is up there), I consider Kino's Journey the best anime series I've ever seen. By far, I would recommend this series to more people than The Twelve Kingdoms and Haibane Renmei and other series. So when I found out that the first book of short stories that this anime series was based on had been translated and released in the U.S., I excitedly scoured all the local bookstores to see if any of them had it in stock. Fortunately, one did (though they didn't even have it in their inventory system yet, the book was up on the shelf!), and, as of the first couple of parts, the book Kino No Tabi: Book one of THE BEAUTIFUL WORLD is proving itself to be everything the anime was and more.

Before starting on the Prologue, let me repeat what starts the book, and what starts the anime: "The world is not beautiful, therefore it is."

Prologue

For those new to the world of Kino, the two page prologue helps set the tone of this whimsical yet serious book. Here, Kino talks to Hermes about their journey and why they continue. I quickly picked up on the analogy to life in all of it imperfect beauty.

Grownup Country

This story is portrayed in the anime, though I remember it being named The Land of Adults. In any case, the main themes of childhood, adulthood, self, and working are the keys to both. The novel does go through more detail of the country. Also, the book reveals Kino's journey right in this first store, something that was delayed until The Land of Adults was shown in the anime series. Though the strengths of Kino's later character isn't shown much here, her start on her journey is revealed.

There a few things to note; the adults in the book are much more vicious than in the anime. The adults in the book are much more obviously perturbed about their life and jobs, where as the anime seems to show them more like robots. In the anime, the stabbing of the adult Kino seemed accidental, where as the book was much more obvious that her father stabbed him on purpose.