Freedom isn’t free.
What They Say:
Episode #6: “In the Clouds”
A group of travelers sets camp high up in a tall mountain range. The affluent group laughs together, wearing warm clothes, and prepares their dinner. Meanwhile, one girl works silently away.
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
This is yet another episode of Kino’s Journey where Kino is just the bookend, and witnesses the aftermath of another traveler’s journey. This is sure to frustrate some people, but I think it’s interesting to show how others in the world have dealt with similar points of origins to Kino’s.
This time the travelers are a group of traders who have stopped on a mountainside. Their comfortable demeanor is soon shattered when we see the girl with them in chains, a slave gave in exchange for goods in a previous country. Only one man in the group seems to be not outright hostile to the girl. The rest treat her worse than an object, yet the girl doesn’t complain. She was taught not to hate because clearly, this is part of some grander plan God has for her.
There are plenty of parts of the setup of this episode that feel clumsy. It is partially due to the fact that the show only has 22 minutes to work with each week, and partially because these stories are parables. The information dumps and sometimes clumsy approaches don’t matter as much as getting the viewer to the important part. For example, the relentless questions the trader asks of his new slave about her thoughts and feelings on the matter. It doesn’t feel like an exchange that would ever occur, but it’s the fastest way for the viewer to learn the girl’s worldview. Likewise, the extreme and instant hostility of her new owners is practically cartoonish. They don’t immediately give off the impression that their culture was one in which they would instantly make such a distinction between person and possession.
Things, obviously, go south for the traders. The conflict, when it comes, isn’t external or even retaliation. It’s the inner conflict of a girl between her religious beliefs and the reality of her existence. When she breaks she feels her only option is death. When she seeks that end it eludes her. She’s still seeking it when a voice calls out to her with joy that she’s now free. She may be physically free, but mentally she’s far from it.
It’s hard for a viewer to accept that the girl can’t seem to embrace that her life is hers to live. Yet people end up staying in horrible situations all the time because that abuse is all they know. People will follow their beliefs to their own demise if they feel their very soul is on the line. Surprisingly, this episode doesn’t leave the fate of the slave girl up for interpretation. We’re given a look into the future, and it is one of peace and prosperity, with a life worth living and full of meaning. I personally think it might have been better off narratively to let the viewer draw their own conclusions about the girl’s future, but this is still Kino’s journey. If I look at this from that framing device I see a girl whose past was just as brutal as Kino’s, but who chose an entirely different future which stays true to her beliefs and shows that it’s not just Kino’s way or the highway.
In Summary:
Guilt. It’s easy to look at the girl and ask her why should she feel guilty, but trauma doesn’t work like that. Religious and cultural indoctrination, the rules by which you live your life, they don’t allow for cold outsider’s logic. This whole series is about the rules by which people live their lives, be they just or unjust or as often the case, completely irrational. Kino travels and follows her own rules, but they are just one set. Not every tragic traveler has to follow the path of the gun. Sometimes, you can walk away from violence and find a new reason to live.
Episode Grade: B
Streamed by: Crunchyroll & Funimation
