"Kino no Tabi 21" by Shigusawa Keiichi. Another collection of new worlds, incorporating the latest social trends
This has been the 11th consecutive year where a new volume of Kino got released in October. October has became a month we look forward to for a new dose of Kino together with the fall anime season, especially this year where we are blessed with both novel and anime versions of Kino. The colored afterwords chapter happily reminisces how it has been 14 years since the last colored afterwords chapter, and coincidentally 14 years since the last Kino anime. The art style might have changed slightly, but Kino is still the same Kino.
Kino is still the same, what has changed are the real world societies that are reflected in this novel. The first chapter starts where citizens have done some fairly brazen acts in order to become famous on the nation's radio broadcast network, not unlike certain real life video sharing service. A later chapter describes the benefits of replacing classrooms by computer networks, which should remind readers of certain online academies. A few chapters after that was a country where artificial intelligence has advanced to a point where parents completely trust the machines to raise the perfect next generation, perhaps as a cautionary tale to everyone who relies too much on machine learning and related technologies, although this story ended relatively well depending on who you ask. It's an acute reflection of the world with an equally acute sense of humor.
The really dark sense of humor came in the next chapter right after all the artificial intelligence bits. I shall not spoil the punchline that was carefully built over two chapters, and perhaps the real punchline would be the day when "Kino no Tabi" series suddenly ended with this chapter being cited as the cause.
This series has been a pleasure to read as always, let's hope the world does not end tomorrow.
Previous (2017-10-18): "The Seven Dials Mystery" by Agatha Christie
Next (2017-11-11): "Imouto sae Ireba Ii" volume 8 by Hirasaka Yomi