Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou

I have registered in MAL right now just because I wanted to recommend this to the world. The idea of a calm and slow apocalypse that makes no violence and leads hummanity into the end of big urban centers is the greatest thing I saw in it. Although the manga doesn't seem to aim at criticizing modernity, it surely shows how life was happier before the massification of culture and impersonalization of things. It may sound stupid that the characters, which are mostly amazing, live their simple lives in the simplest way possible fiding happines in the simplest stuff, but the way it is shown reveals the simplicity I (and most of us) don't simply have. Not that I hate modern life, just that it's nice to at least dream of something different in the best suited genre for that idea: slice of life. If there's a potential that slice of life can live up to, that manga surely achieves the "simple hapiness" part of it

Yokohama shopping trip is truly the best slice of life manga out. Told through the lens of Alpha, an undying android, it's set in a post apocalyptic japan where the sea level has risen (and continues to rise), flooding cities and roads. There aren't many people left but those who do group together in tight-knit communities.
Our main character, Alpha, runs a remote cafe on the coast. She gets few visitors and she waits for the return of her mysterious master. Her origins are unclear and very little is revealed as the manga progresses.

The setting and characters are unique and enjoyable - Seeing the interactions between Alpha and her friends and her going about her life. It's light-hearted and relaxing.
Each chapter starts and ends peacefully. Life is slow and you can almost feel the sea wind, blowing through the grass and trees as the world quietly slows down.

Alpha is given a camera as a present from her master which she uses regularly. She drives her scooter around meeting new people and finding new places.
The art really shines when Alpha is travelling - beautiful landscapes of sunken cities, streetlights silently glowing under the waves; sand swept coastlines and bustling cities.
On her travels Alpha meets many people. Some mysterious, some normal. Every character feels real and their life, past times and comings and goings are interesting and genuinely engaging.

Alpha, being an android, doesn't age. As the manga goes on, you see Takihiro and Matsuki, friends of Alpha who are children at the start, grow up. Their views on life, relationships with others and their hopes for the future change and mature.
Individually each chapter isn't massively special but, like life, looking back over it makes you appreciate the changes and is incredibly emotive, helping you to appreciate the small, seemingly insignificant stories told - There's a great joy in Takahiro and Matsuki's growing up, but a deep sadness as the world around Alpha slowly dies out.

As the sea rises, characters, with relationships and lives built and explored throughout the manga; age and move on, slowly leaving alpha alone.

Yokohama Shopping Trip is a celebration of life, of people and relationships as well as a lament to how all good things come to an end. It's a stunning, engaging and incredibly emotive manga incomparable to anything I've ever read.
It can be summarised by a beautiful chapter where Alpha grows a sunflower which ends with: "After a while the sunflower died and wilted without thinking of our feelings."

By now I have re-read YKK in full 3 times, and all I can say is that with each reread my enjoyment for this manga has only grown. Every reread has offered up new secrets and details I hadn't noticed, or had forgotten.

Note: I highly recommend finding a cozy soundtrack and listening while reading this. Personally, doing so has enhanced my experience tenfold. If you don't have any particular music in mind, I recommend the soundtracks to the YKK OVA's as they do quite well at capturing the tone of the series.

Ashinano Hitoshi's art goes from good to great to amazing over the course of the first dozen chapters. He knows how to capture serenity within his linework and produce absolutely beautiful scenery. I find that my favorite phase of his artistic evolution is around the middle, where it retains a decent amount of detail, but with more simlified forms than the very first few chapters. While I enjoy the latter half, it does get, a lot simpler. Of course that's not a bad thing by any means, I just like a balance. However, the artwork by the end of YKK is something I think worked for his next series, Kabu no Isaki even better, as his simplified forms are complemented by the vastness of the sky.

The characters are delightful and feel very natural in their portrayal. He allows us to experience the world through them, and their experiences help add to the subtle worldbuilding.

tl;dr
YKK is an absolute masterpiece, and if you ever need a story to soothe the soul and help you appreciate the little things in life this is it.

"Mono no aware é uma antiga expressão japonesa, que pode ser traduzida em algo como “empatia pelas coisas”, ou “se sensibilizar pelo mundo”. Num sentido mais amplo, a expressão remete a um sentimento de tristeza com a passagem do tempo, com a impermanência das coisas. É a percepção de que tudo muda, e inevitavelmente se emocionar com essa transitoriedade. Mono no aware é a melancolia que surge da contemplação, o que é bem característico de YKK. "

Em Yokohama Kaidashi Kikoi a história se passa num Japão pós-apocalíptico, o nível do mar aumentou e muitas cidades foram submersas, os humanos posteriormente voltaram a ter uma vida mais simples.
E nesse deleite, acompanhamos o dia-a-dia de Alpha Hatsuseno, uma robô que administra um isolado café à beira-mar.

Yokohama foi um dos mangás que mais me surpreendeu, a obra expressa tranquilidade e relaxamento durante a leitura de uma forma tão surreal, tendo aquele ritmo calmante, sem pressa e às vezes sutilmente monótono de contar histórias, dando a obra um conjunto de emoções distintas que é muito bem expressada. Veja isso tomando um café ou chá e ouvindo Lo-Fi e sinta a atmosfera única que YKK proporciona, é simplesmente incrível, realmente é o epítome do gênero slice of life.

A arte é incrivelmente linda aos meus olhos, contendo um estilo bem detalhado, com lindo cenários que vai fazer seus olhos brilharem.
a beleza simples mais muito bem expressada através da arte de Ashinano Hitoshi é algo que me deixa encantado.

A protagonista Alfa é um androide e ela não muda, mas a percepção regular de que o tempo passou antes que ela soubesse, transmite a sutil atmosfera melancólica por trás da personagem, principalmente enfatizada no final da obra.
Sim, como robô ela é imortal. Mas o mundo ao seu redor não é, o mar continua subindo e subindo, sempre aos poucos...

YKK realmente me conquistou, cada capitulo que eu lia eu era fortemente envolvido pela magnífica atmosfera da obra, não contém os elementos principais da maioria dos mangás, e de certa forma pode não agradar a maioria das pessoas, mas com sua arte, atmosfera e escrita magistrais que faz você admirar, suspirar, imaginar e refletir, ao meu ver, é nitidamente digna do termo obra-prima.


"Meu lugar é o café Alpha. As coisas que vi. As coisas a cerca de todo mundo, eu nunca esquecerei... O mundo inteiro que foi como um festival vagarosamente se acalmou.
E esses dias...
Se tornaram a tranquila época que é chamado de a 'Era da tarde calma.' Deixe me mostrar-lhe só um momento dessa curta era, antes que chegue a noite.
Sente-se mais uma vez...
A noite da humanidade...
Que essa seja uma era pacifica."

I'm not eloquent, nor intelligent. I'm just an average guy that indulges in his hobbies, anime & manga, to escape from real life for a little bit. That being the case my review will be very brief.

Yokohama fills you with a sense of serenity, a beautiful world just slowly passing you by. I'm not sure how it does it, but it lets you savor the same slow moving, beautiful world that the characters experience and it make you feel at ease. It really does.

If you are the type that reads manga for action and extraordinary feats (which I'm not saying is a bad thing), you won't find what you are looking for here. What this manga does give you is very similar to Aria; a beautiful world in which to escape to. Slow moving, but ever changing, it's just wonderful to imagine you are there. This manga really is the epitome of the slice of life genre (to echo other reviewers), I cannot recommend it enough if you want a beautiful place to escape to after a shitty week at work.

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou is about an android living in a post apocalyptic world. It was published in 1994 to 2006 and the author is Hitoshi Ashinano.

The story has odd pacing and its feels slower than then the time that has passed. There are some time lapses in the manga. It also has quite short chapters. The rules of androids were simplistic. In general, the manga was calm and there wasn't much conflict in it. The characters were well written and the main character, Alpha was very likeable and interesting. There was also plenty of character development.

The art in Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou is amazing. All the character designs are great. I liked that there wasn't a lot of details added to the background and character design to keep it looking simplistic. The also characters looked very fluid. I appreciated that some chapters were coloured in and some weren't so you could look at the art in different perspectives.

In conclusion, it's a very good manga that I will definitely reread in the future.

This is my first review but this manga definitely deserves one! I originally watched the first OVA of the anime over a year ago and was completely blown away about how a two episode OVA could captivate me the way YKK did. So after about a year I decided to read the manga and wow it might be the best manga I've read. Alpha is an android living in a post-apocalyptic Japan and runs a coffee shop that only gets one or two customers a week. We see Alpha's everyday adventures of learning about the world, appreciating the nature around her, and watching her and the people around her grow. The art is beautiful and makes you look for a minute before turning the page. It is very relaxed and laid back and just makes you feel good. It captures the idea of "mono no aware." It is light-hearted but also a but melancholic and sad in a sense. I would put it into the category of slice of life and "iyashikei," or in other words, "healing manga." It makes you understand the concept of impermanence and makes you appreciate the present as much as you can, because time moves faster than you know it. I recommend this manga to everyone because it definitely has a special place in my heart. Also definitely check out the OVA! The first OVA is one of my favorite animated pieces ever, but the second one is good as well. When you finish reading and watching yokohama kaidashi kikou, you will definitely feel some type of way, but in a good, tranquil way.

This is the kind of manga that you can read on a bed under a blanket and feel warm but the warmth comes from what you read. it's not a heavy dialogue story and many chapters have as little words, but the experience is very warming. it is of a revelatory nature about the future and its people and you can easily insert yourself in it.
the art style is most efficient for telling this kind of story, the character will grow with you.and most of all it is a "chill" manga.
If you let yourself be immersed you will be rewarded massively.

The waves find their way past the shining streetlights and crash onto the eroding street. There's someone watching, a figure made to look, act and feel human. Here she stands, taking in this beautiful sight. There's no hurry, she's already closed her shop. There probably wouldn't be any customers anyway...

This is the setting of Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (YKK), a calm beautiful and post apocalyptic slice of life manga.

Story(10/10): YKK is the journey of Alpha Hatsuseno, a human like robot, through the "twilight age of humanity". Human civilization is in decline. Sea levels have risen and once big cities became small towns or were abandoned completely. Alpha lives alone in the countryside, her next neighbors live a few kilometers away. Waiting for the return of her owner, she takes care of the house and runs a coffee shop. People come there just to see her. She has developed a habit of sitting down next to her customers to chat and drink coffee with them. However the shop is located in the middle of nowhere, so only a few customers visit each week. Because of this, Alpha has a lot of free time and ends up spending much of it with her neighbors or roaming through the countryside.
Throughout YKK's story, we learn more about the mysterious world, the robots and their development and accompany Alpha and her friends through years of living and growing up in the countryside.
The story is not great because of any exciting things happening, but because of the care for detail and the perfect pacing.

Characters(10/10): Alpha is a multilayered, realistic, yet interesting and unique character. She's more of a human with a few robotic properties than the other way around. These robotic properties were implemented in an astonishingly brilliant way. While reminding of their robotic origin, they're often used to instead emphasize their fundamentally human abilities to feel and to imagine. This results in Alpha and the other robots having a uniquely different but still "human" perception of the world. Alpha is one of the best protagonists to be seen in manga and anime.
The side characters also don't disappoint. They're all likable, interesting and understandable in their actions.

Art(10/10): Not only is it exceptionally beautiful, but the art is also used as a way to communicate large parts of the story itself. This manga doesn't use a lot of words and instead decides to use the strengths of its medium to the fullest extend. This results in a unique, calm and subtle way of story telling.

Enjoyment(10/10): There's no feeling quite like reading YKK. It is interesting, beautiful and relaxing in a way that'll have you starve for more. Even after reading it, its mystery and themes will keep you thinking for a while.

Overall(10/10): It feels wrong giving this a 10 in every category, as nothing, not even YKK, is perfect. However with this manga everything fits together so well and the strength outweigh any flaws, that you could only find with a magnifying glass, by a large margin. While it's not something everyone will like, YKK does what it sets out to do almost flawlessly.

"Today will be tomorrow's yesterday"

The time is set in future where rising sea level has flooded most of the costal areas. The story
of Alpha Hatseno, an Alpha 7 M2 series robot left by her owner at a countryside coffee shop,
she acts fully like a human being running the coffee shop named 'Cafe Alpha'. The story
surrounds Alpha as she is synchronizing with commoners in behind the backdrop of a
futuristic country-side Japan. The story begins with Alpha making a shopping trip to
Yokohama. Marionette and yet like an elegant woman Alpha's character is able to captivate the heart of most of the male readers.
About the manga in General, YKK is a 'mono no aware', a Japanese concept that awares us of
the transience of things and describes beauty. The fragrance of the country side and it's
transcending charm, sober warmth of long scooter ride through desolate streets, a coffee
shop in the country side with entertaining customers, the sober country people, scenes like
the setting sun and mysterious essence of the ocean gives it a color blooming atmosphere evoking overwhelming feelings of nostalgia, reminding us how time is fleeting.
Ashinano is one of those few mangaka who can make you feel the warmth through his
pages, the warmth as if a blurry reminiscence to those days when you were light headed and
comfortably numb, those days you still long for, a nostalgia drive. Very much unlike the
usual manga where you find string of events with cliches and other elements to stew it up.
This infact exhibits the traits of a country novel and short stories, with simple events and colloquial monologues. It is a piece that syncs with readers of all ages though only for
people with a certain desire for this warmth. Most amusing part is the characters, how
natural they are and able to blend through progressing events with just simple acts and that
again captivates the readers, it's as if the readers can relate them to their daily lives. To sum
it up YKK is as simple as amazing it is.