Kino no Tabi: Live-Action at Riuva : Research Institute for Unicultural Visual Arts

Kino no Tabi: Live-Action

Published August 10th, 2006 in Anime, Culture

This is Kino. She’s one of the coolest anime babes. Why? Cos she has dual revolvers, a motorbike, uses "Boku" and is a traveller.

Kino no Tabi (Kino’s Journey) is a serialised light novel that appears in Dengeki HP. It’s ongoing but currently has 9 volumes. There’s a 13 episode anime series by GENCO and a 30 minute OVA. I haven’t read the novels so I can’t talk about them. The illustrator for the cover draws really beautifully, though I don’t have a sample of his/her work now.

The anime is episodic, with each ep detailing her trip in a new country. Each of these countries are diverse with creative customs and sometimes really dark rituals. While it’s not the most addictive of anime, Kino no Tabi oozes class, creativity and makes you ponder a lot about the nature of humans.

Kino is a girl, though this itself is quite the spoiler, as her gender is revealed a few eps into the series. She’s pretty monotone and calm in all situations, even in times of danger. Kino travels with a 3-day rule, that is, she doesn’t ever stay in one country for more than three days since she can learn all that she needs to know within this time frame. For self-defence, she wields a .22 caliber Persuader (revolver) and has a hidden .44 behind her back. Despite her kid appearance, Kino has god-like talent at shooting and has lightning draw speed.

In short, Kino is godly.

As for the actual anime, I wached it sometime ago so I can’t remember the details much. Episodes that shone were the Human Traffickers x Rabbit ep, the Kino Naming ep and the OVA where her past is delved into.

But why am I talking about her now? Cos Lenneth, aka the Saya Cosplayer, did a Kino Cosplay.

Kino wears quite a few layers in the show. But most of the time, she’s in a khaki coat, fur hat and goggles. Lenneth seems to be missing the dark green jacket but there are some scenes where Kino isn’t wearing it, just a white shirt.

I have to gush about how handsome she looks. Lenneth’s hair is pretty much perfect, especially compared to the official pictures. In terms of detail, she’s probably got them all about right. But the furhat certainly looks a bit strange, probably due to the large anime head proportion. She could’ve made the hat just a bit larger though.

Unlike the previous Saya photoshoot, which received some feedback here about the cheesy use of photoshop (lol lensflare lol) and limited poses + angles, I found this Kino picture set to be pretty well-taken. With a variety of poses and the use of wider angled shots to show the "Tabi" part of Kino no Tabi, this simple cosplay turned out more elegant than the Saya one.

According to Lenneth, the team had to work for ages to get to the photo site. Singapore is a city island so there aren’t many places like the one below with no visible urban development. She said that due to the fatigue, she "did badly for the photoshoot". I wouldn’t know about the fatigue, but I do know she did OK!

I like the pine trees, gravel path and long lalang grass. These do bring out the sense of "travel".

Click for bigger pic.

The gun is cool. There’s enough detail to look believably real. Pity about the lack of the 2nd gun though. Lenneth said, "I just used a toy gun and spray-painted it black." Damn they make good toy guns lately. The holster’s well made too.

Areas I feel could be improved…. hmm. One thing for sure is, the costume’s a tad too clean for a girl that doesn’t bathe much. While it may seem silly to roll around just to get a hand-made costume dusty, a bit of dirt for weathering purposes could add some realism. Another would be a motorcycle. Hermes is after all, an ever-present object alongside Kino. But this may prove to be a bit difficult for a 17-year old student to obtain . The little waist pouches look a bit too bright and out of sync with the rest of the colours, so perhaps a darker shade would’ve been more appropriate.

Overall, this was a great cosplay and the realistically simple costume + fitting background + cool props + nice photography scores it high points.

As callous as it may sound, good cosplay is really about 3 factors - the person (face, body), the photographer and the costume. Just like how most of us will not be models, not everyone can do cosplay and look good. The Otakon goers have been posting a lot of American cosplayer pictures and this has been affecting my sleep. I’m too frightened from the sheer demonic ugliness of some of these. No links for your own mental health.

16 Responses to “Kino no Tabi: Live-Action”

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1 Randall Fitzgerald Aug 10th, 2006 at 11:02 pm

Haha, seriously, American cosplayers look horrible doing it most of the time. Garrish, simple costumes, ugly faces, and a lack of any real attachment to ANYTHING cause these sorts of problems. Damn it all. Lenneth again, huh? You sly devil.
2 Anga Aug 11th, 2006 at 12:16 am

Based to that first picture alone I actually thought she is he… I haven’t seen Kino no Tabi and there isn’t really anything feminine to think otherwise so the revolver and background just finished the impression. Even after knowing the gender she is still almost completely boy for me.

Yeah, cosplaying should be left to certain individuals, not everyone have look for that.
3 Justified Aug 11th, 2006 at 12:27 am

Theres such a place in singapore? o.o
4 Tsubaki Aug 11th, 2006 at 1:14 am

Exactly what Justified said, there’s such a blazing kampung-ish place here in singapore? Fantastic location shoot IMO. And did she wear that in cosquest? Because we totally missed her.
5 tj_han Aug 11th, 2006 at 1:26 am

Oh she said she was there at 2pm but in normal clothes. We missed her.
6 Sasa Aug 11th, 2006 at 2:35 am

Damn, I want a Kino costume and refer to myself as “boku” XD But I guess I won’t be able to part with my long hair T_T
7 Waterfall Aug 11th, 2006 at 9:23 am

Stop stalking her!!
Serious good pixs. If she were younger and shorter I could swear that it was Kino come to life.
8 wyred Aug 11th, 2006 at 9:40 am

Kino also doesn’t sleep.
9 Lenneth Aug 11th, 2006 at 6:45 pm

Thank you to those who left comments! TJ, thank you for your comments too! I’d take them into consideration.=)

Actually, this photoshoot is just a preview of my costume. I was dying to get a shoot of my Kino outfit but my tailor destroyed my jacket so I had to make another. This was taken when I was waiting.. and am still waiting.*sigh* I also had the other gun with me! But strangely, none of the photos sent to me had it in them. Must have been failure shots lol!

I seriously wanted to get a Hermes but it is very difficult to deal with many factors so I didn’t.. most likely in the future! It’ll be so much easier to pose with one.

Oh yes, one last thing is that I’m mainly following the design in this picture:
http://www.desktopanime.com/walls_dl.php?wid=40&size=1280
as there are many slight variations in the different artworks.

Thank you once again, RIUVA!*bows*
10 Michael Aug 12th, 2006 at 10:53 am

I love Kino no Tabi…such a great series. The two-part coliseum episodes were especially moving.

As for the cosplay, Lenneth does a fantastic job portraying the character. However, I have to say that the hat just doesn’t feel right - all the shots without the hat are great, but those with it make it feel that much less…real. It’s probably because of what TJ Han mentioned…a lot of the costume seems a bit too clean. Ah well, great stuff overall, and much better than what I’ve seen done in general. And yeah, American cosplayers are pretty bad. Horrible, even, in many cases.
11 Akira Aug 30th, 2006 at 1:38 am

She needs to change her physical appearance。 It‘s rather disturbing； thinking of this cosplayer as Kino。
12 Nekochi Sep 21st, 2006 at 9:59 am

This costume is amazing.
13 Sai Oct 7th, 2006 at 11:46 pm

Wow, great Kino cosplay. I love Kino no Tabi. It’s probably my favourite series.
The setting was really perfect for it, and your outfit looks great.

Did you know, you can actually buy an official Kino cosplay goggle hat? Here’s a pic:
http://www.crossrealms.net/kino/images/products/collectibles/hat.jpg
Hat & Goggles (reproduction of Kino’s accessories made of cloth, metal and plastic)
Price: ¥ 7,500 | $ 70.61 | £ 38.26
Size: M (58cm)
Distributor: Toy Works Inc.

The only place I’ve ever seen it on sale is on Yahoo Japan Auctions. You can get a deputy service (like Shopping Mall Japan, Crescent, Celga etc.) to help purchase from there if you don’t know Japanese.
I wanetd to get it but coldn’t justify the price xD

Best of luck.
14 Ole.A Oct 27th, 2006 at 4:39 am

Wow. That’s a pretty nice cap! Maybe i should get some girl to cosplay as kino….. I Had a jacket similar to hers (it got ripped apart in a bike accident i may repair it someday) I have a similar cap and i got pretty close leather goggles that i use when i’m out riding, I even got an english Ariel red hunter that’s prettu similar to the brough superior she got….

Has the Rise of Anime contributed to your neglecting of other hobbies?

Yes, my best skill now is "watching anime".: 74% (113)
No, anime is too weak to make me lose control.: 26% (40)

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