AWTY 180 - Cut-Co (Kino's Journey)

Cat.

See your party. Who's.

I deal with that.

Hello, and welcome to our RebelA at exploration and education and anime. I'm your anime idiot, patrick dugan.

I am an anime expert, dee hollander.

And I'm brenda mccullough, your anime night rider.

I knew it. I called it a mile away. Yeah, like, what reference will it be?

We all know brenton loves Mr. feeney.

Oh, yeah, the kit.

Yeah, we got there. To be fair, it was, I think, five years before my time and probably 15 years before your time, but oh, God. Yeah, that's about all I know of this anime because this week we're watching keno's Journey. Are either of you familiar with it?

No.

Great. We're all going in blind.

Never heard of her.

I remember getting it off some list and I was like, oh, of a good anime, though it's not the garbage I got a key camp from.

Thank you for clarifying.

Yeah, I look at a lot of lists I browse, and I purposely choose violence with the bad ones. But this was on, like, a good list. I was like, oh, this one actually sounds neat. Very stylistic, mostly because it wasn't set in a high school. So I was like, it could be about anything. Who knows? I looked it up.

Infinite possibilities.

Yeah, I looked it up on my anime list. It has the website, not my personal anime list. It has an 8.3, which I feel like is pretty high for my anime list. I feel like usually stuff is like, in the seven point something range if it's good. So that's interesting because even if something's.

Good and popular, you still get a lot of naysayers who are like, I don't think it's that great just bringing down the score. Anything above eight, it's like, ooh, that's pretty decent. Yeah. So see what it's about. For anyone who was confused about the opening, there's a character in the show and they have a motorcycle that talks. And that's pretty much all I know about this show.

But we know how at least one of these hosts feels about two wheeled transportation. It bodes well for us.

I got nervous because although I did know there was a talking motorcycle, from looking it up, I couldn't make the connection, and I was like, I feel as though I've made a mistake. What happened?

I watched the wrong show again.

Yeah. This is the third time in recent episodes that brenson has worried us with his introduction that we may have done something wrong.

It's a fun little game I've made up for myself. It's called gaslighting. Your friends.

Yay.

Cool.

What a great energy to start. Did I fuck up?

Catch off guard.

Well, we clearly know nothing about this show. Shall we dive right in?

Yeah.

Get Ryan zoom.

The world is beautiful.

The station at the base of Sazark has all the charm of an industrial seaport and the invasiveness of a busy market life.

Is a gift.

The belabored death of a joyful man is an ugly thing to at least.

With kind and giving people.

If you push past an angry sailor in gloucester, it's a transgression worthy of a trip to the bridge.

Adventures everywhere you look.

He knew I never straight far from gloucester and would rather read about the next town over than visit myself and.

Fun around every corner.

If I fall off my neck body mangled among the meat, would they notice.

A passenger in there?

So go explore.

I bury my face in the pillow and crust silently asleep.

The party continues me off make new friends.

She opened the door a crack, just enough to be face to face, but not to imply a welcome.

Remember, old one.

He was the only one welcoming in the starlight on its many mile journey.

And see the beauty the world has to offer.

I'm glad I could share with him this moment and return it to its rightful home.

Echoed Locations a traveler's Guide to a Solar punk World, a new audio fiction travel show premiering December 9. Subscribe now on your podcaster of choice. This show just looked directly into my soul. It knows it knows too much to.

Pull back a bit.

You got to put it down. We got to put this one down.

It's too hot. Too hot to handle.

So, yeah, I'll just establish first off, hey, listener, if you've been here for a minute, you might have heard me advertise a podcast called Echoed Locations. Well, this is echoed locations. This is a piece of fiction that I wrote that was made 20 years before, and it's so much better. Oh, boy.

Dub this is how we learn and grow.

Preservation, breed perspiration or whatever they say.

What?

I think people say that.

I mean, I know I ate the Thai food earlier. I'm not that sweaty.

I can smell that breathe condensation inspiration. Will precipitation went in different directions.

Clutchy. We're all on the same page. Anyway, episode one starts off I have to appreciate D for pointing us in the right direction, because we found out there's multiple series called kina's Journey. And when I started episode one, I was so scared because it just starts off running. Yeah, I was very confused at the beginning of those. But episode one starts off we saw someone riding a motorcycle through a storm, presumably the titular quino. And then we get a flashback to someone being exhausted and uncovering something in the storm. And then the flashback says then we hear someone, like, off camera saying, this is no way to begin a journey. We should go back to Master. There's a lot happening because there's kind of a flashback to a different sequence for a split second, and at least.

They really just toss you in there.

They toss you in. And at least the one I watched there was, like, overlays of different Japanese text on screen, and the one I watched wasn't translated. So I don't know what any of those were saying. Throughout the three episodes we watched.

Yeah, they were very sporadically subtitled for.

Me, it was subtitled in the the like subbed Japanese version. But I watched I ended up watching all three episodes dubbed. And I was like, I should have maybe checked what they said. I don't know, because they happened a lot.

Yeah, I also watched all of them dubbed, but it seems like a lot of them were just more or less title cards for the section we're about.

To see or ambiguous sayings that may imply the backstory of kena, that we're not crazy to in the first three. That's my guess. But we were all able to follow along fine without them, so didn't ruin anything. But yeah, it's someone saying, this is no way to begin a journey. aquino's journey. wink and then we see Keno digging out underneath this cover. And you find out it's just like, abandoned box or something. And Keno just digs out underneath it. It props it up and puts a sheet over it and just sleeps under it. Because we see they're in like a sandy deserty area, so they want to get some sleep in the shade so you don't die out in the sun. And we hear they never really establish, like, this is my motorcycle. And it can talk because like we said, it just goes and runs with it. So we get a shot of the motorcycle and we hear the voice again. So presumably the motorcycle talking. And the motorcycle says, keno, do you remember God? And boy, howdy did that just catch me off guard.

Yeah, this shows pretty wild.

It's pretty like introspective fucking came out swinging.

Yeah, this is just a philosopher's wet dream of it.

From a motorcycle. We get that line. And so they're talking for a bit, and kino wakes up and they tell their butt, basically tell their bike, like, stop. Stop trying to sway me. Stop trying to get me to go back home. I'm out on the journey. I'm a traveler now. Stop trying to bring you back. And the bike says, they need to be decisive. And we find out the bike's name is Hermes. And kena tells Hermes that the best trade of a traveler is never giving up. You know, you kind of get knocked down. You got to get back up and keep going on your journey because you're going to come into a lot of obstacles. And then we see it starting to rain, which I haven't seen in a good long time, being in Southern California anyway.

And then we cut rain tomorrow. Don't worry.

I've been lied to before.

Night.

Ooh.

Wow.

Hey.

We were very distracted. Cut to Keno and Hermes, and they're on the road looking at just a giant ravine, just like a giant chasm in the middle of the road, like, separating them. And there's like and hermes says, like, I knew we shouldn't have trusted that map seller. They were counterfeits. They were fake maps. They should have drawn this on a map if they were legit. kena says, like, well, the map has been right up till this point. And kena takes out, like, a little binocular spots again, nearby town. And they say, like, well, there's a country over there which is on the map, so everything's right except for this one thing. And while they're talking, they see like, an eagle flying overhead. kena looks up and asks, have you ever been jealous of birds? And Hermes is like, nah, I'm a bike. We don't fly.

I don't have eyes. I don't know what they look like.

It's hard to gauge the awareness of Hermes if it's like, I'm a robot made for this single purpose, or if it's like, I'm a fully scenting creature with emotions and awareness. But it's a very sassy motorcycle. And Keno remembers, gets a brief flashback of someone talking to them and says that birds always made them want to go on journeys because birds have just such the freedom of movement. And ermie says, like, well, what are we going to do now? Like, are you going to go on to continue our journey? And it's like, well, I'm hungry. You don't got to eat. You're a bike, but I got to go off and get food. So these turnarounds are riding in a different direction, trying to get to that nearby country. And as they're riding the road, it looks like they're riding back into a forest. And then the whole road just shifts and alters itself. And then it becomes like another canyon with like the road continues, though, but now it's like a stone archway, and all of the trees were around them are just gone now. And kena is like, ah, so that map seller was legit. It's the land that keeps changing, not the maps.

Makes perfect sense.

It was definitely one of the like, what the what world are we in? Yeah. And Hermes says, like, well, if the land keeps changing constantly, doesn't that make maps kind of useless and traveling kind of pointless? Like, really kind of just trying to pull the keynote back? Like, let's go home. aquino says, no, if the land keeps changing, that's the exact reason to be a traveler, to keep it all up to date. So we see keno finds their way around and gets to the nearby town. It looks like they're all small, independent countries, so, like, each town they call a country. But so quino gets to the big castle walls of this town and goes inside, and they see a sign outside that says it's the National Inspection Center. Fantastic. We'll register here, make sure we're all up to snuff, and they keep track of us while we're visiting their town. And when kino goes inside, they see a little automated receptionist like, welcome to our town. Please enter your name, stuff like that. So Keno signs in and types everything. It's like, oh, interesting. You don't see that level of automation out here. And once they do, we see the drawbridge to the big castle town open up. And they get inside and they see a little tourism robot who just like, pops. And I was like, hey, here's your handy guidebook to the town by, and then runs off.

Yeah, like, made it feel like an amusement park. Like a theme park.

Yeah.

Run by robots.

Yeah, it was very strange, but it wasn't, like, threatening. But it was definitely eerie in the sense of, like, there's no one here and that's not right.

Yeah. Did these robots kill the people?

Yeah.

Did they take over? What's going on?

They see a little vending machine robot. He's wearing the skin of a man, like, on the face. It's like, okay, like a kirby.

Yeah, like in the new kirby game. kirby in the forgotten land. Out now on Nintendo Switch.

Actually not sponsors. Wait, are you guys getting money?

We're manifesting.

This little pocket and Hermes notes that this country is really friendly. They've seen a few other robots, like, running around and doing their jobs, and they're like, oh, this is neat. No one's questioning us. There's no gangs, no violence or anything. Like, there's no one at all, actually. We haven't seen a human yet. And Keno is able to finally find, like, a hotel somewhere and get some food. Very fancy, obviously like a little waiter robot, like, come by and clean up the place and stuff. It's like, thank you for our server. Thank you for your service. Boo boo, boo boop. I really enjoyed all the robot designs in this episode. They're really good.

Yeah, they are gorgeous. Like, the aesthetic of this show is like 1910. Like, we see like, wax cylinder for, like, the basis of the, like, automated guard. So it's just like that very, like almost like clockwork machinery, but just way more advanced than it should be. I love it so much.

Yeah, kind of like a retrofuturism, but not quite fall out, but still more like old school than that. So yeah. Keno leaves the hotel, pays for it, and it's like, oh, wow, that was really cheap for how good the food was. And they end up finding a hotel. And the hotel they stay in looks like a castle. And the little bell hop robot brings them to their room and it's like this royal suite. And quinoa keeps prompting like, hey, if you're going to try and pull the rug out under me and charge me more for a big fancy room, I can't afford that. I'm telling you that now. And they're like, nope, this is fine. It's it's this. And they're like, wow, that's so cheap. Why is it so cheap here? Once again, a little suspicious. Let me see. keanu, go to bed. And I enjoy. Keno brings Hermes into all of the rooms that Keno stays in. He's like, wheeling in a motorcycle until, like, a hotel, I'd like to think.

Just like pushing it up like a gray and stare. I'll be right up.

And yeah, we see Kenny go to sleep, and it cuts to them cleaning their gun. And it's still dark out, so it was hard to tell. It's like, oh, did they wake up? But we see them cleaning their gun, their little revolver, and then practicing drawing it, like pulling it from the holster real quick. And while they're doing that, we see the sunrise. So they got up early to do it, and they set off going around town, speculating about who lives here and why. They seem to be the only human in the entire country. And after a while, they get up to, like, a high vantage point. Candidates out their binoculars again, and they spot a few people off in the distance. Yeah, there's some people, but they're alone, which is weird. And they're all sticking it close to their property. No one's like, out on the roads. Everyone's around their house. But it's weird that there's not even families. You don't see, like, family units, like parents and kids running around. It's just individual people. Once again, little odd. So they go back to their hotel and can't is that they agreed to stay there for the three days, and then they'll head off on the road. And Hermes is like, oh, we were staying here for three days, or, why are we staying here for three days? And keno's like, well, it's a good way to get a feel for everything. You see a lot of the stuff. You experience life here and keep on moving on and keep on the travels, but when they're back in the hotel keynote, it's like, actually, I think if I stayed anywhere from one to three days, I run the risk of settling down, and then I wouldn't be a traveler anymore and think, well, from that, a traveler. What am I? Sort of thing. It's like, oh, existential. I'm hitting real quick. And they head out to the outskirts of the town. So they leave the big castle walls, and anytime they run across someone on their house, they see Keno and scream and run back inside and take cover. I was like, that doesn't help the unsettling presence. And Keno approaches a man that they see gardening, and the same thing happens. keno's like, hello, sir. And he turns around, screams, and darts behind his house. And then after a second, he comes back out. He's like, wait, you can't read my mind, can you? It's like, no.

Isn't crazy to say, sir. Absolutely not.

The first thing I was expecting you.

To guess about me, but you're abandoned or something. It's like, oh, you're not telepathic, are you? It's like wild swing. Goes back to my motorcycle asking me if we've forgotten about god, just heavy punches here. aquino asks like, why is everyone separated? Why is everyone on their own? And the man says, like, oh, you're in the land of visible pain. Also la. He says, this country advanced quickly. They advanced tech wise very rapidly. That's why so many robots are pretty much automated and running everything by themselves, even though people don't live there anymore. And they said they hit a certain point where they realized to try to end suffering between people. They realized it was about miscommunication people not understanding each other. So the best way for people to understand each other is that they could actually read each other's minds.

Pretty big leap there.

Maybe we have a community center and like, hang out on Friday night, just talk.

Yeah. What if you had, I don't know, like a culture that allowed people to express their feelings safe way, telepathy.

So their scientists developed a sort of serum that if you drink it, you could read people's minds. And it's just that simple. And there's a part of me that enjoys the glossing over of something like that. We're not here to dissect how therapy, how telepathy works. We're here to use it as a plot device to tell this weird little niche story. And it's something I kind of really enjoyed about that, how we kind of gloss over the whole telepathy part real fast. And he says, like, yeah, we all enjoyed it. We were all celebrating. We thought, hey, this is a solution to all our problems. The kids track it, but it does drank. Everyone took part of it. And we all very quickly could read each other's thoughts. And immediately I had this crush on this woman for a long time. And the second we both drank the serum and looked at each other, we both knew the feelings were mutual. So we immediately started living together and started falling in love because we already knew how the other person felt. And things moved very quickly. And then equally as quickly, we learned about some differences. I love music and she doesn't. She loves gardening and I don't. And we realized how different we were. And that wasn't bad at first. But then those little differences started building on top of each other more and more. You could hear the thoughts of people resenting you for not enjoying the same thing. Those kind of intrusive thoughts that everyone has but you keep to yourself to maintain society. You started bleeding through. And sooner than later, people couldn't dissect, couldn't separate us from the people. And people started not trusting each other because you could hear every little self doubt, every little nitpicking thought in everyone's heads all the time and eventually kind of just tore the country apart. And that's why they say this is a land of visible pain, because you can see clearly everything about the person because you can read their thoughts. So it was the scientific breakthrough that destroyed our country. And he said, like, talking the telepathy only goes to a certain range. So everyone agreed that it was best to get away from each other. So that's why they all live isolated and far apart. So that way they couldn't hear each other's thoughts. It was kind of like, oh, yikes. And they said with all the robots that they had, everything kind of automated itself. So they were able to live this way. They were able to have robots, like bring them food and stuff if they weren't farming for themselves. So they're able to continue to live this way. And it seems to be for the best. But he says, because we're living this way, there's no new kids, no one's living together, no families are being raised. So after his generation, the country is probably going to die out.

Yikes.

Understandable, but what a turn. And Keno is like, dude, I met you like 20 minutes ago. What.

Talked to anyone in a long time?

There's a lot to take in looking back at the hotel with like, the little brunch robot, like, fuck, maybe I should just go back. But yeah. So they talked for a while, and it's clear that the guy really enjoyed it because it's the first person he could talk to. And who knows how long without reading their thoughts. keena goes to leave, and they're both happy. They had the little chat, and the man's like, hey, wait a minute. What if you just, like, hung out long? What if you stayed? What if I had any social interaction?

Wouldn't that be cool?

How cracky would that be? And keenan's like, nah, I'm good, which is understandable. And the guy's like, okay, yeah, that's fair, right? You're just passing through. Your traveler. Makes sense. But Keno also notices, like, oh, yeah, he was out here gardening when I came by. And he's got his bunch of roses and stuff that look actually pretty nice, just like his ex in the story. And we see Keno go on continuing to travel, and they pass by a house that also has a bunch of roses outside. And Hermes is like, you think that's the ex's house? keena's like, yeah, probably. Well, and they keep moving. I thought they were going to talk to her and be like, hey, maybe you could work it. No, kena's. Like I'm passing through. I'm not here to change people's lives. And once again, part of me really enjoyed that. We keep on keeping on.

Yeah, it's not the kind of thing where someone comes and changes everyone's life for the better. Someone comes, listens, and leaves.

Yeah. I'm here to experience this town, not fix it. It's doing fine without me. It will continue after I'm gone.

It really is just like a fantasy travel show. It's like, look at this neat little town moving on.

What a concept.

Listen how sad it is here.

And Hermes asked Waikino looked at the man a little differently as they left, because as they were leaving, we sat on them for, like, a few seconds, a few beats. Keno says, I got the feeling he was telling me to be safe on my journey, even though he didn't say it. So in my head, I kind of replied like, hey, don't worry about it. Thanks for your kindness. And it ends with Keno being like, I wonder if he heard that. I couldn't hear his thoughts, but could he hear my thoughts? Sort of. And that's episode one.

Yeah. So in the beginning of episode two, we see a dark and snowy terrain, and a little rabbit comes out of a bush and then gets shot by rabbit. It was cute, and there was more blood than I was expecting.

Yeah.

And it's Keno that shot it, of course. And they're in a big old snow suit, and they go back to Hermes. And Hermes complains about the snow. They don't like driving in the snow. Keno agrees, but they got to keep going. They're taking the rabbit to someone, some people who we don't know yet. And then they arrive at a tent, and Keno peaks inside. And there's three guys that just look like worse for wear. They tell them that they've been there since the beginning of winter, and that was a flashback, that little bit right there. And now we're back to Keno returning to the tent with the rabbit. And so quino gets back, and they all like, rush at them. But they're like, I have to cook at first. Like, you don't want to die from eating raw meat.

That's been all of my life. I do like when the guy tells kena, it's like, you must not be surprised when we tell you this. And they say, we've been here since the beginning of winter. Kenny goes.

Oh, I'm surprised.

Surprised? I was like, God damn. Keno the one thing.

So, yeah, they're stuck there. And so Keno is like, I'm going to take care of you guys. And they skin the rabbit, like, bow their head, pay their respects, cook it in a stew. We see the men chow down on the food, and Keno gives them some nutrition pills and some water also, and says, I'll stick with you guys until you feel better and can get your truck out of the snow. One of them gives them a small box, and there's a ring inside. And then another one of the men is like, why are you giving that to Keno? That was supposed to be a gift for your wife. And he's like, yeah, but Keno saved our lives, so they should have it. And yeah. So Keno tells Hermes that something is bothering them. They feel bad about killing the rabbit. And Hermes is like, well, you killed stuff for yourself all the time. And Keno feels bad because the food wasn't for themselves. And they also don't necessarily have an obligation to feed these men. And Hermes asks, what's wrong with choosing fellow men over an animal? And Keno is like, well, I still have no obligation. Like, I don't know these people. But Keno knows that if they were in that situation, they would want someone to stop and help them. And it's not like the rabbit can benefit Keno in any way anyway. So cool.

Hermes had a line where they say, charity is not for the sake of others. And I was like, Episode two hitting hard.

This is just full of gems that make you go, oh, fuck, yeah, I should call my dad.

So Hermes is like, oh, are you going to sell that ring? And quino puts it on and puts their hand out, and it's like, what do you think? And Hermes, yeah, I don't think it really suits you. So the next morning, Keno boils some water on Hermes. And Hermes is like, I'm not a stove. And Keno gives the men more nutrition pills. And they're starting to look suspicious. And I don't trust them. Maybe it's because I just don't trust men.

But, you know, it's fair.

They are looking a little susquino. Gets them another rabbit. When they shoot the rabbit, they like, say something. But they're in their snowsuit, and I don't know if the audience is supposed to hear it or not.

Yeah, it was very muffled. Like, even turning my volume all the way up, I couldn't make out what they were saying.

Yeah, so I guess you're just not supposed to hear it. So, yeah, the guys are eating the dinner. They say they'll get the truck out of the snow. The next day, Hermes tries to convince Keno to leave before helping the guys get the truck. But they feel like they have to see it through because that guy gave them the ring. They're like, well, now I have to earn it. So sitting around a fire, one of the men is talking about his fiance. Keno asks if he's married, and he says, I'll be married on the day of the Returning Home Alive Festival. I was like, that's not a very creative name, but I'll a little wordy. Yeah.

Can we do a second pass on this? Just to punch it up?

No, it has to be on the nose. So one of them explains that at the end of the fall, different groups travel north for business and trading. And then at the end of winter, everyone comes home and celebrates once the last group comes back. I don't want to say superstition, but it's said that if you have a wedding on the festival day, the marriage will have great prosperity. But there was a surprise storm and the snowfall started early and it got them stuck there. Hermes asks what they sell and they change the subject. So that's not great.

It's George foreman grills. We're just embarrassed to still be selling them.

Hey, I have one of those. It's not so.

Bad.

Pretty handy, they say. I think Hermes says, like food or something. And he's like, yeah, something like that.

Something like that.

And it's just like also real quick, I thought these guys were like emaciated because they were starving to death. And then they waited the flashback of the festival. And they're like, no, they just look like that. I was like, okay. They look like skeletons.

They're just some nasty dudes. So they change the subject, say, keno, if you come to our country, you're going to have a warm welcome. And then one of them plays a song on a pant flute.

Woo green sleeves and learned it in middle school.

It's hot. Cross buns. The next day, Keno and the men work to get their truck unstuck. And they're successful. They've like, tied the truck to Hermes. Hermes is revving up. Two of the guys are pushing the back of the truck. And they get it. Horrendous. They think keno. Keno tells Hermes. Good job. And they're all kind of standing toward the back of the truck. And they call Keno over. They're like, hey, can you come help us with something? And Keno's like, yeah, of course. They go back there, and the men have their weapons drawn. What's this about? Turns out they sell humans. Yeah, real bad shit's.

Ugh.

So Keno puts their hands up. Right away, hermes is very concerned for themselves. They're like, what's going to happen to me? And the men are like, we'll find you a new rider soon.

Thanks, Hermes. Yeah.

So the men make Keno put down their revolver, take off their coat, do a little turn. They have another gun on their back. They drop that too. They have so many knives. They're just unloading all of these knives into the snow. It goes on forever.

I like that. Even Hermes didn't know that. Hermes was like, keno, how many do you have?

What the fuck?

Yeah, truly, everyone's beyond like, whoa, you're strapped. Just like there can't be a reason.

I like knives.

Keto is carrying around like £20 of knives on them at all times.

Yeah.

So knife salesman, what do you cut?

Co. And the last knife, I don't know if it's actually a knife. It's like a grappling hook almost, I think, because they make their attack finally, and they like shoot out at them with this last thing. Gets all of them on the ground and kills them all. shoots one of them in the face. They deserve it. They're bad people. And then once it's over, keno admits that it was scary for them and that they thought it was the end. And then they go and open the back of the truck. And a ghostly woman flies out. kenos released a spirit and opens the back of the truck and sees a bunch of human remains.

Yikes yikes.

Food or something like that.

Something like that. So they leave the ring with the bodies of the men, says like, sorry I was unable to help, which I was a little confused by. Hermes points out that the town won't have the festival that year. And I was like, fuck.

Sorry. You were going to marry a slaver. Tough luck.

Well, it makes me wonder, like, what? I mean, the town must have known. Makes me wonder what else the town was exporting kind of thing. Puts things in a different perspective.

Yeah.

Which is feels like the point of the show. So, yeah, before they go, Keno kind of eyes all three rabbit skins from when they fed these men and they take off. Hermes asks what Keno would do if they had to decide between two lives again. They don't answer for a minute and then says that these things will always happen because we're only human. And then it just ends. And I think that's what's like so especially in the third one, there's no opening or ending. And it really just ends. Like, hino will say something and it's just over. And it's like, Jesus Christ.

There's no happy or cathartic wrap up. It's just like and we're moving on.

Yeah, I think this is the first series we've watched that just straight up does not have an opening or ending sequence.

Yeah.

I don't know if it's just like in the copies we're watching or if it's just the choice to be like, no, this has to feel like you are just traveling with this person.

Yeah, not even that. There has to be like an ending sequence. There's no rolling credits or anything like that either.

Yeah, now that you say that, I never even thought about it until just now.

Yeah, we get like a brake bumper where they show the title of the show. But even that is, I believe, silent.

Yeah, there's like a little, like piano something or other, but nothing exciting. There's not a lot of music in this show either.

A lot of quiet. Just think about what you just did. It's like beans.

Just have a lot of feelings and be sad.

Well, thinking of being sad real quick, google it. Looks like there's an opening for this.

Okay.

Maybe it's just the ones we did watch. Interesting.

Either way, it feels more impactful watching it without it. So, listener, be warned because yeah, if it was just like a catchy, like a jpop song, like any other series, this would not have the same weight as it currently does.

Yeah, that's exactly what it is.

So absolutely do not watch it with.

That because it will not match the tone.

It's the opening.

Well, we start out episode three. Keno and Hermes get into a new town, and they're greeted by someone being like, ah, here for the end of the world. Excuse me. Because there is a great prophecy in this town that they interpret to mean, tomorrow the world will end at sunrise. So they're able to get a room for free because everyone in this town is like, it doesn't matter. We're all going to be dead in like 8 hours, so who cares? So Keno also does some shopping, goes to like, an ammo shop. He's like, how much for some of these things? The shopkeep is like, who cares? We're going to die. Just take what you want. And they're like, oh, hell yeah. I'll just load up on a bunch of stuff and just goes on like a shopping spree wherever they can.

Smart.

So they see a priest with just a big crowd outside of a church. And Keno is talking with a couple off to the side sitting at, like, an outdoor patio. And Keno is like, hey, what's going on? And these people explain, oh, yes, that's the priest that interpreted this prophecy that the world will end tomorrow because he deciphered the great book of prophecy that he decided was a prophecy. It's all up to interpretation. But as he's talking to the crowd, he's like, oh, yes. The celestial patterns laid out in this book, I charted them all out and it says, like, after the 19th moon of whatever, I calculate that moon is tonight. So with the rising sun, like the book says, the world will end tomorrow. We get that establishment that that's going on, and they go back to their hotel for the night. So back at the hotel again, got to get philosophical. Why do humans have to find meanings and narratives and everything? Why don't we just see things as random events like they are? And we just leave that question hanging forever. And we see Keno doing another just drills, like drawing their weapon. And it happens early in the morning and we see sunrise and the world does not end.

What the fuck?

What a rip off. I hate this town.

It was at this point I was like, Keno, leave.

Get out of that.

So many free things.

You better go. So, yeah, they all go to the center square where the crowd is at the church. And everyone, everyone's like, what? What? I made so many enemies yesterday thinking I would never see them again. What is happening?

I fucked my best friend's wife.

And I gave him the finger while I did it too.

There's no repairing that.

God, you know, if there was like a doomsday center like that's, what would be happening? It's all a bunch of like, we can't go back. We've done some horrendous unforgivable shit. We can't just go back to life.

Yeah. So the priest is as baffled as everyone else and is like, oh, there there has to be a reason. Oh, well, one of these moons was a lunar eclipse, so we didn't actually get an actual moon. So it should be tonight, revising the story. And we get another priest, the northern priest, who comes in and is like, oh, yes, as I predicted, this southern priest is wrong. The actual end of the world will be in 30 years, so there's nothing to fear, everyone.

Thank goodness.

I'll worry about that in 29 and a half years.

Can't wait for 30 more years when I can fuck my neighbor's life again.

So in the town squarequino is getting ready to leave, and the shop keeps come up, and they're like, hey, all that stuff we gave you, and I love it so much. Keno is like, yes, it's very helpful.

Fine.

And they're like, yeah, we can't ask you for money now. That's fair.

We fucked up already with this one.

And Keno leaves this episode. Like, everything ties together at the end, but it's definitely more segmented than the last one. We'll tie it up, but next segment, we see Keno gets to the next neighboring country and goes up to the main gate to check in. And the guard is just so delighted. He's like, what? We haven't had travelers here in months or years. Wow, this is incredible. Everyone's going to be so excited to see you. Come on in. And just starts ringing the bell to be like, hey, town folk, we have a guest. Everyone, come on.

Come, please.

Everyone. The gate opens, and just everyone greets Keno just like, fully jazzed. And they have a feast ready. And then we see that they start doing their local tradition, which is I'm sorry, I'm unfamiliar with this concept. Cat ears. Is this something common in the anime community? Is that.

What are you talking about?

But yeah, there is a so called local tradition based on whatever their back story is. But everyone dances around in cat ears, and an old woman offers some to Keno. Keno is like, I don't think they suit me.

Okay, long story short, it's a town of furry.

Yes, that's something. I was kind of excited because they walk, and he's even the guard walking behind Keno take off his hat, and he's got the cat ears on. And I was like, oh, are there animal people? We've already seen some kind of weird supernatural stuff in this. Maybe it's just a race of animal people. And then you see the headband on all I was like, oh, dang furries.

So Keno's like, all right, cool. Thank you. Got to get moving by and leaves. And we see all the townsfolk just, like, waving goodbye. And then once quino's out of the ear shop, they're like, that tradition sucked. Oh, come on. That's not going to attract tourism. All right, well, we got to think up a new plan. All right, everyone goes in just well, so next segment, we see Keno just on a wooded road, and there's just a woman standing in the center who points over to a cabin off one of the forking paths. So going over, Keno walks in and is like, oh, finds a friendly professor. A professor that studies local cultures.

Again, you should listen to go with locations.

Anyway, so he's just a friendly person offers some tea, has a chat with Keno, and fills the men on what just happened. He's like, all right. Yeah. So it's a little bit of a scheme of the town. So hundreds and hundreds of years ago, the king was banished and all the old traditions were thrown away with it. So essentially, this town lost their identity. So what they try to do is whenever a visitor comes by, they just like, play test some new traditions that they can do, like what will really attract tourists and all that stuff.

But nothing really was like a places.

Everyone situated at a workshop.

So he's like, yeah, it's kind of sad because what they're doing now is a local culture and tradition just like spitballing and trying out new things whenever a new person arrives. That's a culture in of itself, but they're all too stupid to recognize that. And even if they did, they probably abandon it. So I just have to keep watch from afar because he also notes, yeah, that banished king. Yeah, I'm a descendant of him, so I'm sort of like the technical ruler. But we're all ousted. We're just watching, seeing how this town survives from the outside.

It's just like their own soap opera. It's like, man, these people are dumb. This is great to watch.

Exactly. So we get to another country just really burning rubber. In this episode, we see Keno and Hermes on a gondola, just loading a motorcycle onto, like, a venetian gondola. It's a very funny thing to me, but they're just going through just really sombre canals. It's very gray, dark and dreary. And just the saddest poem in the world is being read out loud to the entire city. So Keno is like, what is that? That's weird. And the why? The gondolier is like, oh, yes. Now time to give you the backstory.

Welcome to bummer City. We're happy to have you.

Yeah, truly, this is just sad country. That's like the only identifying title we get. This is the sad country.

Also known as Pittsburgh.

Buddhs.

Take that, Pennsylvania.

We all have Billy.

I got one of us. So the gondolier gives the backstory that there was an ancient poet who was so joyful, he was always writing about cheer and happiness and all this fun stuff. But then a foreign king ordered him under the threat of death to write him a sad poem. Just the worst wake to commission something is to, like, kidnap someone and be like, hey, you have 19 days. Just the opposite of what you've been doing forever. I have no way of telling if this will be good, but I assume you can do it. Okay, chop chop.

I understand a lot of the show is just doing so for the sake of doing it and a lot of philosophical questions. Don't worry about the technical stuff, like the telepathy. This one just confused me. Like, why write a sad poem? Why is the king so into this sad poem, he will murder people for it.

Art be like that, I guess.

The king of Imolandia.

So war tour is coming up. I need a new anthem.

So this poet, having no sad experiences in his life, just anguishes for the whole like 18 and a half days until his wife, who seeing him sad for like the first time because he just can't crack this poem, didn't want him to suffer anymore. So she walks up to him and is like, hey, sweetie, I love you. Goodbye. And kills herself.

Hey, honey, check out this neat new trick I just found out. It's called suicide.

No. Real rough in the eye. Yeah. So now that he finally has inspiration of his wife's death in front of him, he now knows sadness. So he finally presents his poem to the king and just recites it. And it's just like a day long bummer, just the poem just rambles on forever about only a bird with broken wings knows the truth. And just like these just the bleakest stuff in the world. And this poem was so bleak, the king just left. He's like, fuck, I have to get out of here. And just abandons his city. Eventually dies.

I did this.

And yeah, this poet, being so traumatized, continued to recite this poem out loud for the entire city to hear for ten years straight.

I love this one. This is so, like Greek.

Yes, I love this one.

Yeah. So the city just becomes so inconsolable because they just hear the saddest poem in the world every single day. So the poem, the poet, ten years later finally dies. Everyone is like, all right, cool.

We finally got over sweet relief.

But then the day he died, his 14 year old daughter, who in all this time had memorized the poem, picked it up where he left off and just continued reciting the poem. So now they have a tradition in this town where every ten years, the 14 year old girl with the most beautiful voice in the city is assigned poet duty and must just recite this for the next ten years.

Insane. I love it.

Bomber City. For the sake of being a bomber, there's no reason for it.

So she's like, oh, that's pretty gnarly weird, and just hears more and more of it. Then she's talking to someone else later on in the town, and he's like, yeah, this poem, it was so moving, so good, it had to be written down. It was put into a book. Some people consider it a prophecy of some kind. Weird.

What?

What? So she's like, oh, shit. Okay, so it's not a prophecy that the world's going to end. They're just reading a very bleak poem. So she leaves the town. She's on the outskirts, and as she's about to get going again, we just see tanks and soldiers and all this military force moving into the sad country and one of the soldiers walking by is like, oh, hey, you don't seem like you're from that town. That's good, because our city, our country has this prophecy that the world's going to end. But it says, like, you have to destroy the green plate. And we interpret that to mean this city with, like, a green circular coastline. So we have to destroy it in order to prevent this prophecy from happening. And it's like, oh, cool, great. What a great little tale about, hey, maybe do some media literacy before you base your entire country around a single book of allegories and episode three.

No, I think what's so interesting, because it wasn't the sad country, was it? It was the country from the beginning that gave her the free stuff.

I thought it was a different country entirely. I thought it was just like another country that we never even saw. Yeah, because they don't make it very clear.

Yeah. Like none of these countries have names. You are probably right, because it would make much more sense if it was circular like that.

Yeah, well, because then their prophecy is right and it's just like this crazy.

Damn that their world is going to end because of invasion.

And like the end of this one, I forget what Hermes asks Keno, but it just abruptly ends with Keno saying, why don't you ask me in the morning? And I was just like, Jesus Christ.

Oh, yeah. So do you still believe in the prophecy if it's about to come true for this city? And Keno is like, I don't know. We'll see in the morning. Like we'll see when the dust settles. And it's just very grim and like, oh, shit.

Yeah, this one was my favorite of the three, easily. Yeah, because the whole the whole myth part of it was I loved, of course, because I love myths and like, I love a full circle moment. So if it was that city from the beginning or country from the beginning that they went to and they thought the world was going to end, and then they were like, no, tomorrow. Perfect. Beautiful. Tied it up with a bow. Delicious. Give me more of that.

Yeah, it really caught me off guard until the very end when it cinches it all together. And I'm like, oh, shit. Okay. But there was one line from the soldier too, who just runs like, hey, you're not from around here. You don't look like you're from, like, the town. Keno's like, no, I'm a traveler. The guy goes, good. We didn't grope in any bystanders or like someone who wasn't involved with this. And he says, god, I love when a plane comes together. And it just I don't know why that line hit me so fucking hard. Yeah. He's just like, hell, yeah. It all worked out. But also there was for not to mention we've mentioned it plenty of times off mic. There's like a CRT sort of overlay throughout this entire series. And when we were making sure which series it was, I looked into this. I guess it's a reboot or sequel from 2017, and it doesn't have that. And all the screenshots I found of this series from 2003 have it. So I think it's a stylistic choice. And honestly, I love it. I think it works great for it. It makes it feel really dated very much. But of course, no one who's familiar with crtv is just really going to understand why it looks like that. Yeah, but it really just adds like a whole another layer to it of just this. Like, it feels like a weird vhs travel show. I found, like, in a yard sale. And it's like, man, look at this weird land. Where is this place? And yeah, it's a real just snapshot of areas where you're like we said, quino goes to the country but doesn't get involved with the country. It really is just passing through and showing you what it's like in a different land real quick and then moving on to the next quino's journey.

No reservation.

Keno's, quinoa and kai. I don't know. kwords.

Yeah. If you'll allow me to get self indulgent for a minute and just talk about this because yeah, truly, I had no idea what the show was going into it. This isn't a weird setup for me to plug in hiatus project. This was just extremely jarring because this really touched on a lot of stuff that I was trying to explore. Like, I very much wanted to make a show where it was a travel show in a fantasy world based on Anthony bourdain's stuff of like, yeah, let's just go explore and see what this culture is like. So truly seeing, like, yeah, let's go to this country, find, like, the unique local culture and, like, how this city works for an episode and then move on. Absolutely blew me away to be like, oh, cool. This thing that I wanted to make already existed for like, two decades before I did it. So number one, just immediately grabbed me for that. Like, oh, same thought, very similar wavelengths, but just being as beautiful. And like, the aesthetics are exactly what I was going for. The tone was exactly what I was going for. Again, listen to it if you want. If this show sounds interesting to you, number one, watch it. But number two, you can listen to my podcast, which is kind of, I guess, like, fanfiction in this world now. And I do just again, if you like this, there's another podcast. I'm not going to be completely self indulgent. Another big inspiration for me was a podcast called scenic byways, which is essentially this, but exploring, like, American folklore and culture through the eyes of a trucker driving by himself. It is very good. It touches on Paul bunyan and, like, Big Rock Candy Mountain and just like, American folk culture in a very cool and interesting way. So number one, yes, I am very on board with this show. I've already looked into buying it because like you said, it has that feeling of like, yeah, this is like an archaic vhs. I found my immediate feeling was like, I need to buy this before it disappears off the Internet forever. I need to own it. And then I saw like, oh, yeah, the dvd is readily available. It's a very popular series. So even just the show itself has that vibe of like, oh, this is like a hidden gem just built into the tone of the show. And it is very good. I am highly on board with this.

Hell yeah.

I liked it a lot. But I like even more that dugan likes it so much. I said on the podcast before, I love listening to people talk about things that they enjoy. And I'm glad you can like this so much. Hell yeah.

We take those. There's a few of far between. We take what we did.

I feel like I mean, this is the highest success, I think.

Yeah, well, I was going to go in and be like, oh, yeah, moped kid energy. Of course you like it. And it's like, hey, I'm staring deeply into your soul. All right, cool.

I don't want to be that guy. But I'll also point out still hitting the fairy category a little bit.

Well, first off, how do you feel? I don't want to just monologue and then take it away from time.

I fucking loved it. I'm going to continue watching this because I very much enjoy just these niche little snapshots of especially this fantasy world. But it's not like super high fantasy where it's like, oh, a dragon's, the mayor. Which I mean, I'd also enjoy that, but it's more grounded. But it's also like there's no way it could happen modern day. There's no way this whole town would work together to find a touristy gimmick and do it every time a new person shows up. There's no way this town would just be sad forever. Like, that just can't function in reality. But I love because in fiction, it could. It easily could. Because why not? And that's some of my favorite parts of like, One Piece, where they're going to these different weird little islands early on in the series. And it's like, let's see what's up with this island. It's got this crazy, weird gimmick that it should not be able to function with. But unlike One Piece, it's not like, hey, you know that guy over there dressed like a baby? Here's a 35 chapter sad backstory for why he's dressed like a baby. This show is just like and we're moving on.

Yeah.

Before we question it, before you can question anything, we're already at the next tab.

Yeah. I like that this has, like, the dark, mysterious vibe of Girls last tour. Yeah, I like that. This doesn't have a goal as far as we know. Like, kino is just traveling to look at things, whereas in Girls last tour, they're like, oh, we're trying to get to this place, but this is just like leisurely.

Yeah. I love that we're exploring all these local cultures, but we have this overarching plot. I assume they'll get to at some point, but it feels very, like post apocalyptic. It feels like this world should be more inhabited, but we're just not seeing a lot of people. Just like pockets of small cities. And it's like, yeah, something's bigger is going on here. But we don't get the typical anime of like, so introducing you to the world. There was this great divide and blah, blah, blah. It's just like, hey, what's up in that town over the hill? And then we find out. End of episode.

What's that over there? Yeah. I mean, even the first episode of the Land, that's constantly changing by itself. The fox happening with that not my problem to figure out. And you move on.

Found a road. That's all we needed. Don't need to.

That's all you need. It's great. Yeah, it's very interesting and I very much enjoyed that. It's a show that appreciates the quiet moments. Like we said, there's really not a lot of music, if any. I think the only music we heard was in story music of that guy with the record player and stuff. And even when Keno was hunting the rabbits and cleaning them and stuff. It's very much like a show that appreciates those quiet moments and like the skill or craft of something or cleaning their guns and stuff. And that's always an easy sell for me, those detailed, craft sort of introspectives.

Yeah. Just really trying to put you in the moment with this character and experience this narrative as they are experiencing it, rather than, oh, this is a fun show. I'm going to have a fun time watching this. It's like, no, feel this. It's cold. You're cold.

I think for me, it's a lot of like, look at this skilled person at their craft. I'm like, God, I wish I knew how to do fucking anything. Yeah. Big thumbs up all around to see.

Yeah.

If there's a show you the listener would like us to watch and possibly have already written podcasts about, you can send your recommendations to us. Are we there yet@gmail.com? Is our email. Or you can reach out to us on Twitter or Instagram at. Are we there yet? On both. And again, it's called echoed locations there's on Episode Out. And it will likely not come back. But we have hope. Maybe I won't be on eight TV shows at some point.

You can hear my socials on any other episode of this podcast. I'm going to recommend The Broken Earth trilogy by nk jemison because I feel like if you watch this show and like it, you will definitely. Like the Broken Earth trilogy. It is a masterful work of fiction. I highly recommend it.

You can find me on Twitter. Don't recommend it me or the Twitter. Instead, I'm going to recommend. I didn't know we were doing recommend.

To give me ma'am. It was on my mind.

No, it's a good idea. I just I was trying to think of anything. I was like, I got nothing. dude, you can't cut this part.

Thanks. jeez nacho fries from taco Bell.

Fuck. Bring it back. Okay. You can find me on Twitter at av. I don't recommend it Twitter or my social handle, it's me, thirsting after artist. Instead, I recommend a YouTube series called Tales of Alyrion. And it's also just a fantasy high fantasy show. Much more high fantasy than this. But there's almost no dialogue. And the few dialogue that is in it isn't in any known language. It's all fictional. So it's very much a visual show rather than a plot heavy. And it's just got a lot of amazing art and a lot of the, like, fun characters with really defined shapes and styles to them like we've talked about in Ranking of Kings. That just really hits hard for me. And yeah, the first season ish is all out and it's really good.

We're all branching out to given recommendations for stuff that you gave recommendations for stuff you didn't do. But thank you to camille ruley for our artwork and thank you to Louis zong for themesong, stories, which again, someone else with incredible talent doing their own thing. You can find all of louie's music at Louisong bandcamp.com. Thank you and we hope you'll join us next week as we learn to live with anime.

Also read the Song of achilles that has nothing to do with this.

Gideon Knife is amazing as well.

Video you.