2020 has been a hard year for most of us, and 2021 has been even worse for many. After a whole a year of general incompetence by governmental powers ignoring research and successes when dealing with the pandemic everything feels like its gone to hell in a hand basket, and any sort of pick me up anime or game to help me escape the ongoing apocalypse of the real world and the sheer and utter, dread and anxiety that comes packaged with the cruel joke of the world at present is not only welcome, but needed. Easier said than done when FUNimation decides that its subs and dubs need to contain reminders of current events to keep them "accessible" and "relevant". (1)
Majo no Tabitabi is one of the few shows to do this for me. A simple, but effective episodic story of a witch traveling from country to country, and simply absorbing the situation as it comes about, was a surprising breath of fresh air, and its not even that it does anything particularly noteworthy by itself either. Most of what it does I can point to another show and doing just as well or better. Kino's Journey is similar to this show in a lot of ways in that it features a protagonist traveling from country to country the size of cities in the middle ages, each with its own sense of morals, and culture. Much like Kino Elaina is a visitor to another country who does not usually get involved with the ongoing drama or political climate and instead is an observer to the foreign region thus allowing us the viewer to ponder and decide on what the show is talking about.
This was my favourite aspect of the 2003 Kino's Journey, as it showcases the likes of tyranny of the mob, the harsh realities of survival and the sacrifices needed, and the concept of trying to find meaning in your life on your own terms, not the terms of your culture or society. However to leave it there and call Elaina's journey a copy-paste of Kino's is very misleading. The title of this post is the second coming of, not a ripoff, as I feel that their are enough differences in the context of these stories to make each stand on their own merits regardless of their similarities.
For instance Majo no Tabitabi is a fantasy, magic is a core aspect it is commonly used by a large swath of people in numerous countries and of different social castes. Kino's Journey while having occasional supernatural elements they were never really the focus, it included as many science fiction as it did supernatural ones, and most of the situations that Kino encountered were more grounded in the likes of surgery, experimentation, mechanics, and psychology, over mages casting spells.
The tones of each show are also quite different with Kino keeping a more consistent tone of usually bleakness, but ultimately one neutral to the situation. Elaina experiences a wide variety of situations, from the kooky to the cruel and bizarre. One episode is about a mad serial hair cutter who attaches hair to dolls, and another is about the son of a wealthy household trying to make his father's slave girl happy, unaware that he is only adding to her misery. A person's life is very rarely consistently either doom and gloom or sunshine and rainbows, we all experience moments with either, and they can change quite frequently at that.
The final difference that I'd like to discuss is that of the protagonists. Kino is meant to be a stand-in protagonist, she is biologically female, but most of her opinions and thoughts on the matters are kept vague and non-disclosed. The point of Kino is for the viewer to ponder on the concepts that it brings forward. Elaina is a protagonist with a personality, thoughts and feelings, while she doesn't seek to intervene or get involved with the strife or issues of a country for good reason, she does on occasion allowing for a different type of viewpoint into what ideas Majo no Tabitabi presents. The fact that Elaina has a personality also allows her journey to feel more personal and about her connections when they become relevant.
I hope that I've at least introduced you to the idea of trying one of these two shows if you already liked one or the other. The author of Majo to Tabitabi, Jougi Shirashi, has another light novel that they wrote and I hope to check out soon, and maybe do a blog/video on. As a final word for this video if you would ask me which one of these shows I ultimately recommend more than it would be the 2003 Kino's Journey. I was not a fan of the art direction in the 2017 second adaptation sense it felt like the 2D and 3D component, while each impressive individually, just didn't blend well together as a final product, and a few choices in the show's direction, like ominously showcasing a guy talk about a gun in a country where murder isn't illegal just makes me think that their was a disconnect with the director and the fan base. Links below are for where you can find links to Majo to Tabitabi and Kino's journey online.
Light Novels:
https://www.amazon.com/Wandering-Witch-Journey-Elaina-light/dp/1975332954
https://shrinke.me/cfTJHu5Z
https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Kino_no_Tabi
https://shrinke.me/4R9oaC
Anime:
(legal)
https://www.funimation.com/shows/wandering-witch-the-journey-of-elaina/
https://shrinke.me/0PqcKk
(2003)
https://www.hidive.com/tv/kinos-journey
https://shrinke.me/Eg3tfO
(2017)
https://www.funimation.com/shows/kinos-journey-the-beautiful-world-the-animated-series/
https://shrinke.me/Ke2jtJ
(Pirate)
https://www.wcostream.com/anime/majo-no-tabitabi-english-subbed
https://shrinke.me/qu9q
(2003, Sub)
https://www.wcostream.com/anime/kino-no-tabi-the-beautiful-world-english-subbed
https://shrinke.me/0noJ
(2003, Dub)
https://www.wcostream.com/anime/kinos-journey
https://shrinke.me/gcoXdB9j
(2017, Sub)
https://www.wcostream.com/anime/kino-no-tabi-the-beautiful-world-the-animated-series
https://shrinke.me/WGBP
(2017, Dub)
https://www.wcostream.com/anime/kinos-journey-the-beautiful-world-the-animated-serieshttps://shrinke.me/mGfq0H8