I would recommend this show for people who enjoyed _Star Trek: The Original Series_ or _Serial Experiments Lain_. It follows a young woman named Kino as she travels to different countries. In each episode she visits a country and observes their culture and customs. It's hard sci-fi, in that each country is basically a thought experiment like, "What if everybody in an entire country had telepathy?", "What if the punishment for an opposition vote in a democracy was death?", or "What if we removed the ability for a person to feel self-conscious?". There are a small number of dud episodes, but many of them had my wife and I glued to the screen, remarking to ourselves what an interesting concept the show had introduced and wondering how such a simple and innocent idea could inevitably go sinisterly wrong, as it often does in the show. What's cool is that the show typically makes no judgment of these countries. We are often left to decide if the country was a good one or a bad one on our own. Keep a special eye out for Episodes 2 and 9, which I thought were the standout episodes of the show!

"Kino's Journey" follows the duo consisting of Kino and the talking motorcycle Hermes. Together, the two travel through various cities and learn something about the history of the city and its inhabitants. This is a completely unique narrative structure, which is very refreshing if you like to watch a lot of series (like me, for example). Each episode contains a short story, which is often quite interesting - the themes of the story range from war to technological progress to grief. In addition, the relationship between Kino and the motorcycle Hermes is written very warmly. "Kino's Journey" was clearly a surprise hit for me and thrilled me with its unique premise.

Pretty good, definitely an anime to check out.