Anime: 'Kino no Tabi' (2003)

I'm not particularly into anime, but I've loved this little series for years and years. It's one of the most thoughtful, philosophically interesting things I've watched, in addition to being very elegantly drawn in hazy, muted shades of mostly greens and browns. The protagonist, Kino (the series' title translates to 'Kino's Journey'), is an impressively androgynous young girl who travels the world on a talking Brough Superior motorbike, packing a small arsenal of rather classic guns to protect herself from ruffians. Kino and Hermes (the bike) never stay in one place longer than 3 days, so you can imagine how far they travel over the course of 13 episodes and 2 short films. A bit steampunk, a bit just plain anachronistic, the societies and technologies of their world range from exceptionally primitive to sci-fi futuristic. Human nature being one of the main topics, quite a few of the storylines are rather sad; the very best ones, though, project a rather beautiful sense of absolute wonderment at the sheer magic of existence and potential. The anime was based on a very popular series of Japanese light novels by Shigusawa Keiichi, which share the same name and are just as good as - if not better than - the show.