I've received several emails asking me if Kino is a girl or a boy, so I figured a longer article was necessary.
First and foremost: Kino is a girl.
The most irrefutable evidence would be novel 1, in the chapter "The Peaceful Country" where one line reads, "And the girl named Kino could find no reply." Actually, the book rarely explicitly mentions Kino is a girl ("shoujo") although in Japanese, the third-person pronoun he/she is usually inferred by context anyhow. Another example (and currently the only other one I can think of) is in novel 7's epilogue, where Kino is never referred to by name but as "the girl".
Other things hint at Kino's gender. In the story "Country where people understand pain" (novel 1 chapter 1, anime episode 1) Hermes gets worried that Kino's long stare means she wants to marry the man they meet. In the story "A Tale of Cannibals" (novel 2 chapter 1, anime episode 2) Kino receives a ring, which Hermes and Kino both think don't suit her. In several places including the Coliseum chapters (novel 1 chapter 4, anime episode 6-7), people refer to Kino as "miss" which she doesn't particularly like. Also in Coliseum, the King makes a rather unsuccessful pass at Kino. In "The Country of Adults" (novel 1 chapter 5, anime episode 4) we see Kino's past, and she wears a pink dress with a red ribbon and is named after a flower.
Although more apparent in Kuroboshi's novel artwork, Kino does have breasts, but they're not in a fanservice-y busting-out fashion. This is underscored by the conservative way Kino dresses, in a white shirt, black vest/jacket and brown overcoat.
So why do many English sites, including the official kinosjourney.com and the translations in the DVD covers refer to Kino as a boy?
Personally I think it's due to a lack of knowledge of the story. The dubbing never mistakes Kino for a boy - in the early episodes several people refer to her as "Miss" or "Ma'am." However, if other translators were hired to work on the website and DVD jacket notes, it's possible that without knowing much of the Kino story they would confuse her gender. After all, since Japanese doesn't use he/she much, people tend to assume a person is male (the internet seems to work in this fashion oftimes). This is not helped by the fact that Kino refers to herself using "Boku", a male personal pronoun, instead of "Watashi", which is generally gender-neutral or "Atashi", a female personal pronoun. Probably even more confusing, in the prologue of novel 1 (translated for the North American DVD 1 jacket), Kino's voice is described as "like that of a young boy, and thus high-pitched." From there it would be easy to assume Kino was male.
In conclusion, Kino is a girl. I like to point out this picture when people ask me. But it's easy to make the mistake.
This site and its contents (C) 2002-2006 Ming-Ling, all rights reserved. Kino no Tabi and related properties are (C) 2000-2006 Shigusawa Keiichi, Kuroboshi Kouhaku, Dengeki Novels, ADV Films, and other respective owners. This is a fansite for fans by fans. Please read this site's disclaimer for more details. |
 |
