Kino no Tabi -the Beautiful World- the Animated Series PV

I just started watching the original Kino's Journey anime in anticipation for the new adaption coming out next season. I'm only a few episodes in but after watching the PV for the new season I can't say I'm really excited yet about the new adaption based on the few episodes I've gotten through so far.

I'm mostly a little disappointed in the character designs and overall art direction.. It just seems so cookie cutter and looks like so much of the other anime that airs these days. Even though the art direction/character designs in the original were fairly simplistic (which isn't necessarily bad) you could tell it stood out from other shows in it's time, and so I'm a little disappointed the new adaption isn't carrying on that legacy.

Also worth noting that the new adaption features a new voice cast, which isn't a big deal really. Would have been nice to have Ai Maeda back for Kino, but she's only done that one voice acting role within her career as a screen actress and singer. That being said, Yuuki Aoi is taking up the role as Kino and I like Yuuki Aoi!

The director for the new adaption is Tomohisa Taguchi, who after looking up the work he's done, has done nothing but storyboarding, and directing so that should hopefully be a good thing. He's only been the series Director for a few things though, such as the Persona 3 and 4 anime, as well as Twin Star Exorcists.

Have you seen the original Kino's Journey? Are you excited for the new adaption coming out?

-Sorea

Also a personal gripe, I really don't like how so many studio's opt for CGI for mechanical designs.. poor Hermes deserves better!

EDIT: so shortly after writing this, I discovered the character designs for the new adaption are based on the illustrations from the newer Light Novels and are actually accurate in that regard. Damn differences between the older and newer illustrations! Knowing that, I'm far less disappointed with respect to the character designs lol