Kino's Journey Chapter 4 Prologue How to understand in the middle of the red ocean

Journey to Kino is composed of short fables. The author Keiichi Shigurezawa adopts a writing method similar to "King Hua Yuan" and "Lao Can's Travels", using people as the latitude and the longitude and the longitude. They are criss-crossed and woven into various wonderful stories. The main protagonists in the story are Kino, Siz and Master, representing three different outlooks on life and philosophies. Kino is naturally good, Shizu is lawful good, and Master is chaotic neutral. Three groups of people travel around the country and experience various events. Among the many stories, there are five main themes: "True" and "False", "Yes" and "Nothing", "Good" and "Evil", "Love" and "Hate". There are also many stories describing the current situation. The strange current situation of society. If you want to know more about the stories in the book, you can refer to the animation of Kino's Journey. The animation adapts and organizes the stories in the book so that the audience can better understand the meaning that the author wants to express. There is a postscript for each volume of Kino's Journey. Different styles are also one of the characteristics of this work.

Chapter 4:

This is a harmonious story about humans and animals, but when a sharp blade suddenly visits, it is natural to be caught off guard. All side branches are brushed aside in one stroke, while those distortions of human nature that are unique in the real world and magnified exponentially continue all the time. This is the charm of "Kino's Journey". The so-called adults are just work machines that have no emotions but insist on smiling. After the girl disobeyed orders and expressed to her parents that she did not want to become that kind of adult, the adults' so-called rational logic began to stir up, but behind the seemingly rationality was naked irrationality, until finally Kino stepped forward to block the fatal blow for the girl. With one knife, the irrational color in this unreal world reached a poignant height: they continued to pull out the blood-stained bayonet inserted into Kino's body with a smile, and stabbed their own daughter, just to continue "The rational logic of adults" defends the hypocrisy of "the country of adults".

When something heinous suddenly appears, all innocent fantasies are wiped out. But after all, it’s just a fairy tale. On the little girl’s 12th birthday, Elimes, who has been just a prop for a long time (…), begins to show off her skills. This talking motorcycle appears on the stage: “I will guide you to unfold the plot. ”

Of course, in the end, she and it broke through the cage-like city gate and looked at the red mountain flowers all over the field. The little girl who had been imprisoned for a long time was stunned. The outside world is so beautiful, and we are relieved. After the first Kino fell, a new Kino was inadvertently created. She threw the red ball that symbolized her past into the sky and out of sight, and then took on the name of Kino and wrote a new page. It’s kind of the animation to compile this reminiscence into episode 4. Audiences who don’t know what “Kino’s Journey” is, after getting the emotional foreshadowing in advance, should find the long-lost gust of wind in this episode, which will bring joy to their hearts. The already calm lake surface now has some ripples.

Let me talk about some of my thoughts from the novel:

"Truth" and "False"

The relationship between truth and falsehood is in Chapter 1 of "Dream of Red Mansions" There is a saying in the Five Chapters of Taixu Illusion that is very apt: "When the fake becomes the real, the real is also fake."

When the false is seen as true, the true will also become false. Volume 7 "The Kingdom of Liars" Everyone lies and takes the lies told by others as the truth. Volume 10 "The Story of a Group of Braggars" The braggarts told the truth, but everyone confirmed that the truth was a lie. Truth and falsehood are often people's subjective judgments. The story of Kino's Journey mentions the truth and falsehood of many religions, history, media and prophecies.

The first volume, "The Country of Free Speech" and "The Story of Painting", the eighth volume, "The Country of Radio", and the tenth volume, "The Country of Visits" are stories related to the truth and falsehood of the media. The author of "The Story of Painting" painted chariots for no particular reason. He just painted chariots because he wanted to draw chariots. However, under the exaggeration of the media, the paintings of chariots have taken on an anti-war and peace-loving meaning. "Radio Country" reflects the media's tendency to make things out of nothing. "Visit Country" revealed that each media has a specific position and will modify what the interviewees say.

The eighth volume "A Country with History" describes the truth of history. The master and his disciples were framed decades ago and were forced to resist. The military and police across the country were unable to do anything to them. Many people were He was beaten to lameness, but decades later, the master and the disciple became heroes who prayed for the people. In the fifth volume, "The Country of Heroes", the seven strange uncles who blocked the road and killed people were glorified as seven heroes in their country.

The fifth volume "The Land of Prophecy" explains whether the prophecy is true or false. The origin of the prophecy of the Land of Prophecy mentioned in the third episode of the animation is just the nonsense of a mad poet in the Land of Sorrow. Of course, the prediction of the end of the world cannot be accurate. When an inaccurate situation occurs, another reasonable explanation will naturally be produced to prove that the prediction is not wrong. Sadly, the prophecy finally turned out to be true. Other countries interpreted the prophecy in another way and mobilized their armies to destroy the country of prophecy.

In the story of "The Rescued Country" in Volume 8, the author expresses his view of religion that religion itself is a scam. Volume 10, "Telephone Pole Country," hints that religion is harmful.

For the way of man, "what is false becomes true when it is true" can make the false become true, and the false may be better than the true, but for the way of heaven, what is false is false and what is true is true. Yes, just like the story in "A Country with History", even though history can be changed, the old man's crutches and lameness cannot deceive people.

"Have" and "No"

Usefulness and uselessness are also common themes. People often regard useless things as useful and useful things as useless. The fifth episode of the animation combines the first volume "Three Men on the Railway Tracks" with the fourth volume "A Country Where You Can Not Work". Chino meets three old people on the railway tracks who have worked all their lives, and they all say "A Country Where You Can Not Work". Telling them the story of "Guo" actually tells these old people that you are all working in vain. The stories in the fourth volume, "The Kingdom of Bridges" and "The Kingdom of Towers," reflect the author's opposition to large-scale construction that wastes people and money.

The distinction between usefulness and uselessness is actually not as simple as it appears. Useful things often appear useless in front of everyone. Zhuangzi's fable mentions a big tree that was not cut down because it was useless. It was finally turned into a big tree for people to enjoy the shade. In the third volume "The Ended Story", Enid is useless as a pirate, but Enid's change of career as a writer is very useful. "Three Men on the Rails" They worked for nothing for fifty years and seemed useless, but the salary of these fifty years of work allowed them to support their families, so it may not be really useless. Large-scale construction may seem useless, but the government distributes money to the people through large-scale construction, allowing the people to have purchasing power to stimulate business development. Large-scale construction may not be completely useless. It is not a simple matter to truly distinguish between useful and useless.