Eye Contact is Overrated Anyway

So do I. It's called alcohol.

Volume 5 of Kino's Journey: The Beautiful World takes a different approach from the earlier volumes. Whereas most of the earlier volumes were focused on Kino's briefs visits to different kingdoms, this one focuses much of its pages on just one land, where the people can't look at each other.

Iruka Shiomiya (or maybe that's how it went in Keiichi Sigsawa's light novel originally) takes the approach of having Kino visit the kingdom, and find everyone wearing masks that can be adjusted to show expressions. Then there's a flashback to when the woman who taught Kino how to shoot, who insists she be referred to as "Master" (that's her with the dark hair up there), visited the country with a previous apprentice. What Kino finds is the end result of Master's solution.

After Kino departs, the prince from volume 3, Shizu, arrives some time later. He responds somewhat differently to what he finds than Kino did, which is nice. Kino tends to go with the flow. Unless someone or something directly threatens her life, she lets people live their lives as they wish. Shizu, maybe because he spent years exiled from his kingdom and determined to come back and set things right, can't help getting involved. And his attempt to help ends, well, it's either hilarious or creepy depending on how you look at it.

Then there's Kino's teacher, who we get our first real glimpse of here. She's willing to get involved, if you pay her, and she's very morally flexible. One of the other chapters is her some years ago, telling Kino about a visit to a land where a sniper lurks in the woods and kills people for money. Some people hired her to kill him, but other people hired her to leave him be. He settles disputes, so really, he's like a community service. Like a garbageman.

The other major story in this volume, which leads it off, is about Kino visiting a land that is supposedly incredibly unfriendly. Yet Kino is greeted warmly, so you know the other shoe is gonna drop. I already knew what was coming because this was story they used for the 13th episode of the anime, but that didn't make me any less sad when it played out as it did. It cast a pall over the rest of the volume.