Kino's Journey is a very interesting story, actually. Much of it is allegory for post-war Japan, keep in mind, and the depredations of people preying on each other, something Japan has in common with Germany and Ireland during their respective dark ages and prehistory. She carries a single action colt .45 (long colt) and a silenced target .22 Long rifle pistol. She takes the name Kino and dresses as a man due to some trauma which is explained in the show. And the motorcycle talks because it has an AI, and anybody who's owned a motorcycle can tell you they have personality. I'm particularly fond of the episode about the railroad tracks. It describes govt perfectly. Kino's Journey is good to watch once. Pay attention because its a mystery program and its not good a second time.
I just finished watching Tsukuyomi Moon Phase and enjoyed it, despite the loli aspect of it. The opening music is very cute, enough that I always watched it. I'm also glad that they had the sense to end it at 26 eps, though there's a "special" floating around which is more of a fanservicey omake than anything else.
I am now watching Pumpkin Scissors and like it. The special battle madness of the Corporal, and his 13mm Gibbs chambered Encore pistol (with muzzle brake) looks pretty terrifying. The irony of course is that someone actually built a .50 BMG pistol with a muzzle brake very like this and shows it off at gun shows in the eastern USA. I don't know if its ever been fired. Unless the brake is carefully made, it would tear your arm off, and the blast could easily blind you. Its not something I would fire. I like how creepy the corporal turns, that he reverts to his training in those instances.
And I like how bossy the girl Lt is. She's royalty and never realizes she can't relate to people because she has so little in common with them. She just gives orders like she was raised to do and expects them to be followed. If they ever get serious about this character flaw she's going to have a bad self realization.
I think the setting is meant to be from the Russian side of things, post WW1, after they lost the war with Japan, and they are meant to be in an alternate, longer settled Siberia, with actual towns and railways etc, not just farming huts and a few squalid port buildings as actually existed there at that time period. Its not much better now, from what I understand. Vladivostok is not a hub of culture, after all. It could be, it just isn't.
Its interesting that some of them are clearly talking communist propaganda, but they still list themselves as an empire and nobody has overthrown the nobility: its not communist, just miserable all around. Anime can sometimes do a very good job describing a post war environment and I like Pumpkin Scissors for that. Section 3 is a propaganda unit and only its Lt doesn't seem to realize that. The corporal does, but he's using them to heal himself and recover from his post traumatic stress disorder. He sleeps under a bridge and feeds stray cats and sometimes he goes berserk and kills tanks with a hand cannon. He's not normal, but he wants to be. Somehow I get the feeling this is his redemption, and the moment he turns normal, he'll die. It would follow, after all. I've watched enough Anime to recognize asian symmetry now. Its kind of a pity because I liked the surprises but now I know what to expect. Meh.
At some point, the Corporal will have to find his nemesis, someone he has a past with, someone who chose evil (Vicious to his Spike, Knives to his Vash) instead of redemption. Someone who knows his dark secret. But I've only seen 6 eps so far, so maybe that's in ep 15 or something.
I just love the series, even if its a bit hard with the cliches at times :c
