Pantsman
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Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō [Manga]
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō (ヨコハマ買い出し紀行?) is a science fiction manga written and illustrated by Hitoshi Ashinano. The title can be translated Yokohama Shopping Log or Record of a Yokohama Shopping Trip. One tankōbon volume, the publisher's former English language website, and the second original video animation (OVA) series have the subtitle Quiet Country Cafe in English. The series is often referred to in wapuro romaji as Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, or simply abbreviated as YKK by fans outside of Japan. - Spoiler: show
- The manga was serialized in Kodansha's Afternoon magazine from June 1994 to February 2006, with a concluding postscript episode in July 2006, and collected in 14 tankōbon volumes. Parts of the story were adapted as two OVA anime series of two episodes each.
The series depicts the daily life of an android who runs a coffee shop some time after the Earth's ecology has collapsed. It is noted for its spare pen-and-ink drawing style, as well as its calm, meticulously paced stories and engaging characters.
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Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō is set in a peaceful, post-cataclysmic world where mankind is in decline after an environmental disaster. Exactly what happened is never explained, but sea levels have risen significantly, inundating coastal cities such as Yokohama, Mount Fuji erupted in living memory, and climate change has occurred. With the seasons being less pronounced, the winters are milder and the summer isn't scorching anymore. The reduced human population has reverted to a simpler life, and the reader is told this is the twilight of the human age. One scene depicts an anti-aircraft missile being used in a firework display. Instead of raging against their fate, humans are quietly accepting.
Alpha Hatsuseno is an android ("robot person") who runs an out-of-the-way coffee shop, Café Alpha, on the lonely coast of the Miura Peninsula of Japan, while her human "owner" is on a trip of indefinite length. Though she spends much of her time alone, Alpha is cheerful, gregarious, and—unlike the slowly declining humans—immortal.
Most chapters of Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō are self-contained slice-of-life episodes depicting Alpha in daily activities, either alone, with customers, or on occasional trips through the countryside or into Yokohama for supplies (whence the "shopping log" of the title came). Whole chapters are devoted to brewing coffee, taking photographs, or repairing a tiny model aircraft engine, sometimes with only a few lines of dialogue. Through Alpha's experiences, the author brings out the small wonders of everyday life and makes the reader aware of their passing: the aircraft engine runs out of fuel; her scooter breaks down; the rising ocean encroaches on her coffee shop; the neighborhood children she loves grow up and move away. In evoking a nostalgia for this loss, Ashinano follows the Japanese tradition of mono no aware (sadness for the transience of things).
Though often self-contained, the stories have continuity—relationships grow and change, and seemingly insignificant details reappear later. Ashinano explains few details of Alpha's world, leaving mysteries that engage the reader as the series unfolds in a meandering progression, by turns funny, touching, and nostalgic.
Download links: Old Mirror: Volumes 1-14. Mirror removed, redirected to attack site. New links(thanks, arch_enemy!): Volume 1 Volume 2 Volume 3 Volume 4 Volume 5 Volume 6 Volume 7Volume 8 Volume 9 Volume 10 Volume 11 Volume 12 Volume 13 Volume 14
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Natsuki
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Re: Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō [Manga]
Thanks Yom and Arch_Enemy for the downloads!
For those fans of slice-of-life that prefer comfy scenery porn over moe overload.
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