Jul 16 2006
A while back, TOKYOPOP announced the October 2006 release of Pop Fiction, a new line of serialized teen novels. The series will kick off with four titles and having received my review copies (I just love getting mail!:), I settled in on Kino No Tabi first. Here's a sneak peek at Kino No Tabi, a Japan bestseller.Kino actually wasn't "Kino" at all, but stole her name from the Kino before her. She rides a motorcycle (talking no less) called Hermes and together, they travel around the world.
But the places Kino and Hermes visit are unlike anything we've ever seen.
There's Grownup Country (where the new Kino gets her start). In Grownup Country, kids are allowed to do whatever they want until they're twelve. Then they have to get an operation to have the child removed from their head so that they can become a grownup. Kino escaped before she was forced to have the operation and is learning to become a grownup all on her own.
After leaving Grownup Country, she visits places such as the Land of Shared Pain and the Land of Majority Rule, staying in each only 3 days before moving on. She and Hermes see wonderful things as well as horrible things as each land presents an important life lesson in extreme examples. Yet, the more Kino tries to run, the more she must face her own past.
Dark? Yes, but beautifully written and with a well-definted moral to boot. Kino No Tabi: Book One of The Beautiful World was written by Keiichi Sigsawa, illustrated by Kouhaku Kuroboshi and is Volume 1 in a series of 8 titles. Watch for Kino to hit your favorite bookstores in October of 2006.
