Reading Collective Reading of Yokohama Kaidaishi Kikou

[Leoat12]

Late~ However, certainly I will post this sooner or later. XD
I will read posts above and reply later as always.

Impressions about volume 5

Chapter 32 was a chapter full of thoughts. I guess is the first time that we saw Alpha complain about what she is living, in a area that naturally doesn't have much things to do, I think it's normal even for us, have a moment that we think that our life is stopped. However, in the final of the chapter we see that even with this Alpha still likes to see the landscape and do nothing once in while. It's healthy. hahaha

Alpha is a consumerist! At each chapter Alpha seems less with a robot, she has all aspects of a human, she stays happy with shopping and make plans just in time, like her visit to Kokone. I get curious of what mysteries she have in your body to behave so human, I guess only the owner can answer this question.

I guess Kokone was tense with the kiss in other robot because when she do this she thinks in Alpha right away, the robot that left the strongest impression in her. After this thoughts she sees Alpha in her home with suprise. xD
And one more robot with the same behave as Kokone and Alpha, apparently she is painter, a type of profession that need a lot of feelings to transmit in your paintings, I want to know more about her.

I guess I was right, Kokone thinks very much in the kiss that she gave in Alpha. XD This chapter was funny, Kokone hardly could mantain the conversation with her thoughts and Alpha is clumsy too. hahaha
Kokone really likes Alpha, but I guess there is much more than this. Will we see a love between robots? It would be interesting.

This color chapter was nice and I have the feeling that my theory above can be right, we can notice in this chapter that Alpha ahve almost the same feelings about Kokone but she doens't notice this yet.

This chapter was unexpected for me, see Alpha being called to drive this "boat". Sensei is mysterious, too. I gonna read the next chapter and complete here.
In the beggining fo the chapter I felt a little disapointed, I think that the chapter would come down with only the Alpha's controll at distance, but the connection between the "boat" and her was much deeper and even with no words I could felt the feelings of happiness of the "boat" for its first flying and at the same time the feeling of farewell. Being a robot, too, but with more intense feelings, Alpha understood the "boat" and cry with this. It was a beautiful chapter, full of meanings.

Misago appearances are always nice, this time wasn't different, it's hard to explain her expressions, why she would appear and stuff. She is a complete mystery and all the times that she appear I want more informations about her, and, who knows, a meet between her and Alpha.

Chapter 40 didn't have much dialogues but left a good message in my opinion, that we have to wait until the right moment to do the things, calmly and soft, this let the things much more beatiful. I had this feeling in this chapter, what about you?

Chapter 41 returned the subject of memories times ago. It must be interesting see a photograph just in front of your eyes as if you were there one more time. Also, there is moments that we can't describe, for this we have cameras to remind these moments, I understand Alpha very much.

Last chapter of the volume was a boredom moment of Alpha, nothing more to say. hahaha

 

[ukimix]

Chapter 32 was a chapter full of thoughts. I guess is the first time that we saw Alpha complain about what she is living, in a area that naturally doesn't have much things to do, I think it's normal even for us, have a moment that we think that our life is stopped. However, in the final of the chapter we see that even with this Alpha still likes to see the landscape and do nothing once in while. It's healthy. hahaha

What I don't understand of this chapter is that she talks as if she had seen Mt Fuji in its olden-days... Because the shape of a mountain only change with a sudden and huge geological event (volcanic eruption). Now we know there was a huge inundation, and that Alpha knew the shape all things had before that inundation. Is it that the inundation is related with the change in Mt Fuji's shape? I have no idea what to thought about it.

I guess I was right, Kokone thinks very much in the kiss that she gave in Alpha. XD This chapter was funny, Kokone hardly could mantain the conversation with her thoughts and Alpha is clumsy too. hahaha
Kokone really likes Alpha, but I guess there is much more than this. Will we see a love between robots? It would be interesting.

Same feeling here, and same laught about Alpha's clumsiness. I wrote about it above.

This chapter was unexpected for me, see Alpha being called to drive this "boat". Sensei is mysterious, too. I gonna read the next chapter and complete here.
In the beggining fo the chapter I felt a little disapointed, I think that the chapter would come down with only the Alpha's controll at distance, but the connection between the "boat" and her was much deeper and even with no words I could felt the feelings of happiness of the "boat" for its first flying and at the same time the feeling of farewell. Being a robot, too, but with more intense feelings, Alpha understood the "boat" and cry with this. It was a beautiful chapter, full of meanings.

This was the best chapter to me. I really like the live of that boat: its sadness, its joy, its final destiny. Above I wrote about it.

Chapter 40 didn't have much dialogues but left a good message in my opinion, that we have to wait until the right moment to do the things, calmly and soft, this let the things much more beatiful. I had this feeling in this chapter, what about you?

Same feeling. Ayasse is one with his partner, the Kamas. Also, Ayasse has time for work, but also for partnership or friendship or loyalty. And it's nice to see that the purpose of Kama's wait was a precise moment to fly... The same topic, the relation between work and time to fly or time to do what you want to do other than work, is a main topic in Kabu no Isaki, another great comic by the same author. I wonder if that thought about to wait calmly to the right moment has something to do with Zen-Buddhism.

Last chapter of the volume was a boredom moment of Alpha, nothing more to say. hahaha

Lol. Honestly I can get sleepy watching those drawings of Alpha stretching herself and getting sleepy over the grass.

Also, talking about certain symbols, certain poetic images that appears over and over in Ahisnano's works, the dragonfly is one of them. Dragonfly is a metaphor or something else, of flying, but also of using your free-will wisely. Notice the dragonfly is capable of keep flying in the same position, against a current of wind. The Kamas can do the same thing, to keep his position in the same place, waiting for the precise moment to do something. This was portrayed in chapter 19, when Alpha meets Ayasse for the firs time. But if you notice, that same idea, namely, to wait for the precise moment to do something- is portrayed in chapter 40 of this volume. That idea is somehow also focused in the 7th tale of Position by the same author.

Now yo make me notice that that could make sense of the title given by Ashinano to his short comic Position. What Ayasse has (in chapter 40) when he knows how to wait and how to accompany to his Kamas is certain position. And also the Kamas has a certain position when he's waiting for the precise moment to fly. In short to know how to wait, and when to walk or to fly requires you to know how to adopt certain positions:

Spoiler

Coming back to the dragonfly is pretty much a symbol in Kabu no Isaki. Notice all the things that can fly in this story: the tarpon, sensei's ship, the dragonfly, the kamas... and in a symbolic way, Alphas's intent to use her free-will appropriately is an intent to fly, it's the intent of her soul to fly, to say it so.

 

[Leoat12]

Chapter 32's question: How Mt Fuji has an ancient form, different than its current one? Is it a geological event? How old is Alpha?

I think that how old is she isn't the question, information about how Mt. Fuji look in the past can be got easily, I guess. One question that I thought that if robot born with any knowledge? They are born as a child? With body of a child and/or a mentality of a child? These questions can answer on how Alpha know about Mt. Fuji.

The reading chapters 34 to 36, just made me thought it'd be a interesting twist if, using their free-will, Kokone and Alpha decide to become lovers? Wouldn't it?
Well, they have had great time being together. They can experienced pleasure as when they were humming together the song Alpha was playing with the Gekki, but I wonder if they are capable or more human passions and feelings.

This page, when Kokone seems to remember the kiss/transfaration seems to suggest love between them… She even blushes and then the panels are just really funny with Alpha asking her if she can stay at her home, lol.

Also the main topic of chapter 36 seems to be the fact that the aroma of the city is the same Alpha have smelt in Kokone’s hair and clothes… I know women has better sense of smell than us, guys, (and I don't know about robots like those) but… when did she smelt Kokone’s hair? …

We thought in the same way. As a said before, Alpha left a deep impression in Kokone with her way of live her life and stuff, this happen with human, too. You already heard that people that live intense experiences together can fall in love to each other? A deep impression can let unexplicable feelings that can turn in love. In romances we can see much of this.

I suppose the fact that Sensei assesses that nothing concrete resulted from the investigation with the ships (ch 37), is a hint to let us know that what happens to the robots when they develop their own personality is just something that it’s beyond scientific explanation. That would be pretty nice, since the same thing happens with the most important things in ordinary human life; they are also beyond scientific/rational explanation. Love, death, life… Those things just happen to all of us, and we experience them … but our rational explanation are just powerless to give a full account of them. I mean, they are not there to be explained, but to be lived... Coming back to the manga, I hope the story will tell us about it in Alpha, and Kokone's destinies.

Things that scientific explanation cannot explain are happening with robots, something that almost symbolize the science. Alpha and Kokone are robot that are above of scientific explanation, robots should be progammed machines, but there isn't no traces of this in both. The internal operation of Alpha interesting me very much, as well.

 

[ukimix]

Things that scientific explanation cannot explain are happening with robots, something that almost symbolize the science. Alpha and Kokone are robot that are above of scientific explanation, robots should be progammed machines, but there isn't no traces of this in both. The internal operation of Alpha interesting me very much, as well.

Certainly there's a clear opposition between codes or programs and free will. But I guess that if the story focuses on how those robots manage their free will, we won't see much of its internal mechanisms, but mainly of their decisions, actions and wishes... Now your questions make me wish to see the factory where they were created and ... again, who is the owner? Will we know him?

---------- Post added July 27, 2013 at 10:56 PM ---------- Previous post was July 25, 2013 at 11:23 PM ----------

My notes on Volume 6

Chapter 43
Alpha dances alone, or better lets herself to be driven by the music while she walks. You know, in psychology there is the concept of flow, which, imho, is possibly one of the best mental states a human can have:

Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by complete absorption in what one does. Proposed by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, this positive psychology concept has been widely referenced across a variety of fields.[1]
According to Csikszentmihalyi, flow is completely focused motivation. It is a single-minded immersion and represents perhaps the ultimate experience in harnessing the emotions in the service of performing and learning. In flow, the emotions are not just contained and channeled, but positive, energized, and aligned with the task at hand. To be caught in the ennui of depression or the agitation of anxiety is to be barred from flow. The hallmark of flow is a feeling of spontaneous joy, even rapture, while performing a task[2] although flow is also described (below) as a deep focus on nothing but the activity – not even oneself or one's emotions.
Colloquial terms for this or similar mental states include: to be in the moment, present, in the zone, on a roll, wired in, in the groove, on fire, in tune, centered, or singularly focused.

Very similar to what happens to Alpha in this chapter, but also to Alpha and Kokone when they were humming the song and playing the Gekki, back in chapter 17, entitled Waves (certainly, in that chapter Alpha and Kokone were riding the wave of the music) . There is also this metaphor of that state in the fly of Alpha on board of sensei’s ship. To flow, to fly… to be one in the flow of life…. Those are thoughts this manga always bring to my mind.

Kokone, in chapter 47 provides a new poetical definition of the concept: state of flow is the state in which you are when you have music in your blood.


Chapter 44

Analogy between Onisan and Alpha and the two in the tarpon. I find very intriguing the robot in the tarpon and the whole ship. Why is she cut off from her peers? Why they are in that plane, and what is that plane for?

Chapter 46 to 48
I wonder why are these 3 chapters connected: Record, Record II and Record III? Mainly because the last one seems to be no related with the other two chapters. Anyway, the place from where Alpha is looking at the lights in chapter 48 entitled Record III, is the same she once visited with her owner, and the one she went in chapter 22, when she met Sensei Koumishi.

Chapter 51
From ligth to darkeness to light…
From no wind to cool breeze…

Chapter 52
I don’t think Alpha is a sleep drunk walker, so I’d say, in chapter 52 she actually flew! Before and right after that night flight.

Chapter 53
The thing with the sizes of things in Ashinanos stories. Suggested by sensei’s when she thinks about her riding her bike…. Flying, flowing being in a state of flow increases the size of the world… that's another sign of Ashinano's poetic language, I guess.

Cha 54
Lol…

The internal operation of Alpha interesting me very much, as well.

I see Kokone is just as interested as you in to understand the mechanisms and functions of A-7 models, (Alpha doesn't care about it much). Possibly she will be successful in her search, and you happy with it. :-)

 

[Asarii]

I've always wondered how and why the Alpha models were created, and it's good to know that Kokone is just as interested. It makes sense that it would be her instead of Alpha who would try to uncover their origins; the latter is not very concerned about the past nor the future, and she simply wants to enjoy the present as it is. Hopefully Kokone will obtain some clues during her search!

 

[Jammin]

I'm at chapter 24. Not quite to where you guys are but I'm catching up! I'll let you know my thoughts when I do.

 

[ukimix]

I'm at chapter 24. Not quite to where you guys are but I'm catching up! I'll let you know my thoughts when I do.

Is not there a thanks + like command? Damn!

---------- Post added August 04, 2013 at 12:50 AM ---------- Previous post was August 01, 2013 at 07:03 PM ----------

My notes on Vol 7


55 White sky

Does Alpha flies? Every time she dreams she flies, after the dream, we have clear evidences she actually flew. It walks like a duck, it quacks like a duck..



57 White paint

Spanish version of the last page of this chapter makes more sense. Alpha says something like: “It’s been a long time since I thought about owner... Now I have more memories of Ojisan and Kokone than of him.” In that way Alpha's last lines echoes all the other pages about her weak long term memory: here: "I was already here by that time. Owner told me this a long time ago" and here: "I suppose it was my idea at that time...". Also Alpha think about the fact that with the time she cant differentiate memories of imaginations ,and after that she began to take pics of the house... as a way to not forget about what she has been living for real. The chapters portrays Alpha as a robot with weak long term memory, and the camera should be useful to help her with it.


58 Two Drops of Indigo

The drops are the Alpha from the coffe (Alpha-Coffe) and the Alpha from the Tarpon (Alpha-Tarpon). First, Alpha reminding Sensei Koumishi ofan old friend, and Alpha-Tarpon having a necklace with the symbol created for Sensei Koumishi is clearly an indication that the old friend who Sensei talked to in the past was Alpha-Tarpon.
Time doesn’t pass for Alpha models. But also they have a weak long term memory, since we see how Alpha-Tarpon barely remembers the meaning of Sensei’s symbol.
A general idea is that a robot has a safety mode memory, and also has no free-will. I’m wondering if a collateral effect of the accomplishment of a robot with free-will is his weak memory for long term events.


62 Typhoon

In two previous chapters of the volume Alpha is worried about the house (White Paint and Indigo Eye). Also in this volume the house is destroyed by the typhoon. Alpha’s reaction towards this, is to play music with her Gekki… I don’t’ know if in her initial specifications it was written she should have to react in that way facing towards disasters like this, but I’d bet it wasn’t. I mean, that should be her development, that should have to be what she has accomplished with the time being far away of her owner. That distance between her and her owner is in some way the distance between her initial specification and her own achievements beyond those specifications. It should be also the path she has been walking.



63 My place, 64 Letter and 65 Shore

Alpha talking about her development:

Spoiler

I found lovely this idea in Ashinano’s work: the size of the world is the size of your trips, or the size of your walks. Because, taking it in a philosophical mode, it's like if the world doesn’t exist outside there until you decide to make your path walking it. That’s a poetic version of European idealism, but also of contemporary constructivism: the world is a construction of the mind. Existentialism (Sartre) version would be like this: your world, your existence is a construction of your will. And surely, that is what the chapter and the page tell us. Behind those excursions that enhances Alpha world, it’s Alpha’s free-will the origin of all goods, of all steps, of all decisions.

Before the last chapter, I was thinking Alpha was planning on moving with Kokone in the city. Kokone’s face after reading the letter Alpha wrote to her owner was a clear hint to me. But it seems there are no gas station where Alpha went to. So that’s not Kokone’s city. Where could it be?

---------- Post added August 09, 2013 at 04:18 PM ---------- Previous post was August 04, 2013 at 12:50 AM ----------

One page recommendation for Position:

Any similarity?

---------- Post added August 13, 2013 at 12:49 AM ---------- Previous post was August 09, 2013 at 04:18 PM ----------

My notes on Vol 8:

There is no much to comment about this volume. We see Alpha working in several places and making some money, supposedly to rebuild the coffee shop.

The travel brings Alpha entertainment and experiences. Even if it’s a business travel. This two sides of everyday life: work and entertainment/joy are a main topic of the other great work of Ashinano: Kabu no Isaki.

Other than that, now we know robots have parents (human parents?), and also that they can die. And once more it appears the poetic image of lights in the middle of the dark night as a symbol of nostalgic.

Spanish translator wrote an interesting note about the chapter entitled ‘Sasage’:

The Sasage is a red seed similar to a bean. Japanese use to cock it with rise, which turns red as an effect of the cocking. This red rice with sasage is used in celebrations, and, as it happens in the case of this chapter, in the celebration of the first menstruation. Very graphic That red rice is very graphic, isn’t it? Even so, Takahiro does not realize nothing… Poor Makki-chan.

---------- Post added August 17, 2013 at 10:40 PM ---------- Previous post was August 13, 2013 at 12:49 AM ----------

I'm so deeply touched by this manga...

 

[Googlez_kun]

What chapter are you at?

 

[ukimix]

What chapter are you at?

I have read Volume 9. It has been a volume full of revelations to me. In it, we comes to know Alpha models are made of music and scents. That has been there all the time. Kokone had said it before in chapter 47. But also I bet those experiences gathered by Sensei in her earlier experiment with the ship to provide useful information to the project to create a robot with free-will, should be the reason why she says to Alpha: “you and I seem more like relatives than anything else”. So that they are made of sounds, scents, images and also feelings.

But what has been completely breathtaking to me was the note written at the end of the volume by the author:

Have you ever wanted to have a record of scents and smells?

“That year, that day, that night’s smell…” “That train station’s odor”… “The smell of that book”…

If you could save and reproduce sounds and images…. If you could share the smells and feelings with someone…

For now, these can only be stored in your memory.

And the only time you can make such a record is when you experience that sense again.

Those are the worlds of a lonely soul. Or better, the words of someone who feels an overwhelming or absolute solitude. Absolute because it’s not like if you are alone today but could be accompanied by someone else some day in the future. Rather it’s about a solitude that can’t be denied ever: even if you can revive those thing stored in your memory, you can’t ever share them with someone else. It’s like if the only being that can accompany my feelings and memories is me; nobody else. Like if I were alone since and for ever and ever.

Now I’m wondering if alpha project was not the project to break that absolute solitude that can’t be denied by humans. If it was not the case that the creators of the Alpha project and models asked themselves: if we could be able to share our feelings, and if someone would have thought a solution: Maybe if each of us could put his/her own feelings or the memories of his/her feelings in a robot, and if we design the robots in such a way that they could pass the memories stored inside her to other robots, at least in that way we would have created a being that would be able to feel both your feelings and my feelings. I mean, not you neither me, but another being with the feelings of both of us…

...Because Alpha and Kokone just can do what that note wish for us humans: to share images and sounds.

On other hand, Alpha and her robot friends were made with the purpose to have free-will. Some results have become happy: Misago in some sense, and Alpha and Kokone in many senses. Those later have become able to live in society, while Misago has created her own world. In our everyday life, I suppose Misago should be taken as disturbed person. At the beginning of the story I took her as a charming character of certain fictional story. And now, that character makes me think about certain standard ideas and rules we have about normality and insanity in our societies. Michael Foucault, the French philosopher has thought about it, and has shown how there could be certain arbitrariness in categorizing a person as a disturbed one.




To me chapter 77 it's a master piece. The drawings are absolutely powerful in telling us about Alpha's feelings and essence. YOu can see there her search, her intimacy, her feelings of unease; that together with the fact that the chapter tells us about Alphas's essence in a glorious scene:

Spoiler

I found this page all powerfull in telling things, so intense and beautiful:

Spoiler

Ashinano is really good in creating those moments and representing the essence of his characters in just one perfect panel. Shirosan from Kabu has this one:

Spoiler

 

[Leoat12]

Vacations finally! I am back with the reading and I finished volume 6 today, so I will catch up soon.
I'll post all when I catch up, you're in volume 9, right?

 

[ukimix]

Vacations finally! I am back with the reading and I finished volume 6 today, so I will catch up soon.
I'll post all when I catch up, you're in volume 9, right?

Yoo, well come back! Yes, vol 9. This week, vol 10 but there are no hurries.

---------- Post added August 24, 2013 at 10:24 PM ---------- Previous post was August 20, 2013 at 05:36 PM ----------

About Vol 10

The reading just let me a feeling of the passage of time in Caffe Alpha.

In chapter 89 when Takahiro hugs Alpha, he says to her what she said to him back on chapter 6 when she hugged him.

Waiting for more revelations...

---------- Post added August 29, 2013 at 06:14 PM ---------- Previous post was August 24, 2013 at 10:24 PM ----------

My notes on Vol 11

Good bye?​

Alpha is left alone… Chapter 104 is the good bye of the Tarpon and Director Alpha. Chapters 102, 103 and 107 are the good bye of Kokone, Chapter 110 is a prelude to the good bye of Makki, and Chapters 105 and 109 are the good bye of Takahiro, the saddest one of all good byes. From the old friends around the coffee only remain Sensei, Ojisan. I'm wondering why all those friends are going away, and I can feel the end of a lovely story.
The relationships between Alpha, Kokone and Maruko seems to arrive to a point of concretion. Love at distance is never love, and Kokone and Maruko’s proximity has favour their relationship against Kokone’s wish to be and to live with Alpha. We can see how Kokone feels a bit uncomfortable in their visit to her platonic beloved. And also, how Maruko tries to push and to search into Kokone’s feelings about Alpha. Maruko ends presenting apologizes to Kokone for a rude talk to Kokone’s former platonic beloved, and also taking up with Alpha. Also in the end, (or up to this volume), Alpha keeps talking to Maruko, but not to Kokone.

Alpha’s way of life​

Now, Maruko questions Alpha way of life, and their talk has been very telling to me. Since, in some sense, the background of the story is certain project to create robots with free-will, and the main story is about Alpha, one of these robots. The, an important question is: what life Alpha choose to live? What tells us that life she has chosen to live? Ch 102 give some keys to an answer: "I’m lucky to have a body that doesn't cost much to feed. … I don’t think that’s something I need to worry about all the time. I’ll leave it at that". Those are pretty revelling words. Alpha is different from the common regular robots. They all seems to be worried about work.

Now, in chapter 18, we could read a letter Kokone wrote to Alpha, in which she expressed his worries about behaving human enough, and how she discovers with Alpha that she simply can be herself:

Dear Alpha-san.
I'm sorry to just show up the other day. That single day has become very important to me. I've been thinking a lot since then. I've started to act 'more human' … Beginning from the time I first met you.
Before then, my robotic qualities were the more noticeable ones... I've never been very strong. I wanted to know if I could take you as a model on how to live without being so ‘inhuman’.
Then I met you the second time. What happened then was a shock to me. I didn’t need to act like a human, since you allowed me to find my own heart.
It seems like I'm good at passing as human. We both are better than we should be. I think that's interesting. But, there's nothing about that here... I now believe that robotic behaviours are just a part of our personalities.
Recently, I've found that I'm becoming a little more comfortable with this. I think I'm getting more relaxed all round.
I'm really glad I met you, Alpha-san. Am I over-reacting? I don't care! I'll come to visit you again. I promise!
Until we meet again...
Takatsu Kokone

Alpha’s choice of not worring about working as much as others do, is her choice. Alpha doesn’t want to look human: "It’s true that if I weren’t a robot, I probably wouldn’t make enough to live on…." She knows it and it’s her choice to live in a different way. She happily has accept what she is. That should be what Kokone admired in her. That what Alpha taught her.

Now, that’s a whole topic in Ashinano’s work. Here is also a connection with that kind of a moral dilemma presented by Shirosan in Kabu no Isaki about how to use your time: working or making what you want to do, but also with the meaning of fly or of be free. Isaki works making deliveries with Shirosan’s Cub, and here Shirosan says Isaki her deepest true about the essence of flying that Cup:

Spoiler

"Shirosan: When you fly this cup of mine, the destination and such… they’re of secondary importance, see?
Isaki asnwers: I understand."

It’s the same to Alpha who doesn’t have to worry too much about working, thanks to her design. Using her free-will, she has taken her own choices, and working as much as a human is not one of them, or behaving as a human is not one of them.

Of course about what to use your time, everyone has to provide his/her own truly answer. But Alpha (and Shirosan and Isaki too) is just a beautiful expression of certain wish for a world that is somehow different to our world, a world in which work consumes all our time.

Nature simulates human civilization? ​

Chp 106, those big mushrooms that resemble kids, the trees that resemble lamp-posts, and the squared giant plants that resemble the buildings of the old city… the nature simulates human’s cities… Clearly it gets creepy at night.

---------- Post added at 11:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:14 PM ----------

This manga is to be read slowly. As usual, after posting my notes I read the following vol in a go. Then I wait some days and at the end of the week I read again the same vol once more. Always second reading has been much more delightful and telling. It wouldn't be the same if I read the same vol twice the same day.

 

[Asarii]

Yoo, well come back! Yes, vol 9. This week, vol 10 but there are no hurries.

That's good to hear! I wasn't sure where we were since I've been on/off so I read ahead to volume 10.

Even though he has done interviews through OVA/radio in 1996 and 1998, it's really hard to find any interviews online by Ashinano-sensei. His Japanese Wikipedia page doesn't say much nor does it have any external links to articles. There's something called "Colour Illustration Technique", which I'm intrigued by since I love how he uses watercolours.

 

[ukimix]

That's good to hear! I wasn't sure where we were since I've been on/off so I read ahead to volume 10.

Even though he has done interviews through OVA/radio in 1996 and 1998, it's really hard to find any interviews online by Ashinano-sensei. His Japanese Wikipedia page doesn't say much nor does it have any external links to articles. There's something called "Colour Illustration Technique", which I'm intrigued by since I love how he uses watercolours.

It would be nice to know about that technique.

As for the reading we are this week in vol 11, until next Monday.

---------- Post added September 08, 2013 at 06:10 PM ---------- Previous post was August 30, 2013 at 12:29 AM ----------

Ok, I share my notes on Vol 12, tho I feel as alone on this thread as Alpha in her coffee

Ch 113
This is just a lovely chapter. The red earrings, the ribbon, the cups of coffee, the fish weathervane… Those are first Alpha’s decisions, first Alpha’s elements, in her path to define her personality. There is a little help from owner; the earrings, the ribbon, and then Alpha discovers she likes the cups, and the weathervane… and finally, her decision to left the owner and to stay at the coffer. And she talks about what she wants to do…

Owner is really a good father. In this chapter is like if he and us are witnessing the first steps of a little son or daughter. He simply lets her be, and respects Alpha’s choices.





Ch 116

Loneliness is an important concept of this manga. I wonder why. Sensei is the most representative character of it. But, the comparison between Sensei and Alpha is unavoidable, since after having good friends, Alpha is getting as alone as Sensei.

... It’s like if the author would think that given our differences, those differences in what each one chose for each own life, loneliness is a logical result of it. How nostalgic is that concept…

Also, the idea that being alone creates the feeling that you have left something unfinished matches perfectly the idea that when you are truly free, each new path you walk increases the size of your world. That was the very same idea described by Sensei in that chapter about her logo. (Ch 53)





Ch 119

This chapter is just a trully gemstone. It wasn’t a long time ago that Takahiro was there sleeping in the coffee… In present time, Alpha sees how Makki sleeps on the same table, and also she looks her reflex in the window, and cries thinking: "so fast, too fast".

My interpretation is that it's about the pas of time. Or even that childhood is left behind... for humans, not for robots. Misago doesn’t understand it, Alpha understands it and cries...

Likely Alpha cries because time doesn’t pass for her. Like Director Alpha in the Tarpon, she can outlast her friend’s period of life. So when all of them die, she will be there, being the same. That could be why she looks at her in the mirrow and cries: so fast, too fast… That could also explain why loneliness is an important concept in this story. In the end, the robots will be alone, since all their human friends will have died.

 

[Asarii]

Volume 11 Thoughts

Chapter 101 is the first time (I belive) that Alpha, Kokone and Maruko interacted with each other. Even though I thought Maruko was a bit harsh, I don't blame her because she most likely has had a different life experience than Alpha.

Chapter 104 made me wonder if Alpha will still be where she is six years from now; Takahiro has already decided to move west. Personally I think Alpha will remain where she is while she observes the changes among the people and environment around her.

I got the sense from that the robots have a more attuned sense than humans. The candy was too sweet for Alpha and Maruko whereas Takahiro was fine.

 

[ukimix]

Volume 11 Thoughts

Chapter 101 is the first time (I belive) that Alpha, Kokone and Maruko interacted with each other. Even though I thought Maruko was a bit harsh, I don't blame her because she most likely has had a different life experience than Alpha.

Chapter 104 made me wonder if Alpha will still be where she is six years from now; Takahiro has already decided to move west. Personally I think Alpha will remain where she is while she observes the changes among the people and environment around her.

I got the sense from that the robots have a more attuned sense than humans. The candy was too sweet for Alpha and Maruko whereas Takahiro was fine.

Maruko is just so funny. She's jealousy about Kokone and about Nai. I really enjoyed her interaction with Alpha and Kokone.

Vol 11 was very revealing to me. In it we can see clearly what Alpha has choose for her life (mainly in her interaction with Maruko and in her answer about his big question about her way of life). Since the whole story is about Alpha's decision and about what she has done with her free-will capability, that conversation, the whole volume and the next vol 12 are making perfect sense to me of the whole plot.

In some sense, I found Alpha much more (how to say it) mature or much more satisfied with her way of life than Kokone, Maruko or even Director Alpha (the one in the Tarpon). That's funny because she's a previous model of all of them. Possibly only Misago (the first model) seems to be as satisfied as Alpha...

 

[Asarii]

Maruko is just so funny. She's jealousy about Kokone and about Nai. I really enjoyed her interaction with Alpha and Kokone.

Compared to the rest of the robots, she seems to be more cynical. I thought it was cute how Kokone, who's the shy one, was the who brought the two together. :3

Vol 11 was very revealing to me. In it we can see clearly what Alpha has choose for her life (mainly in her interaction with Maruko and in her answer about his big question about her way of life). Since the whole story is about Alpha's decision and about what she has done with her free-will capability, that conversation, the whole volume and the next vol 12 are making perfect sense to me of the whole plot.

In some sense, I found Alpha much more (how to say it) mature or much more satisfied with her way of life than Kokone, Maruko or even Director Alpha (the one in the Tarpon). That's funny because she's a previous model of all of them. Possibly only Misago (the first model) seems to be as satisfied as Alpha...

I'm glad that we're finally going to see what Alpha decides for herself and her future. She doesn't age so she won't experience the same life milestones as Takahiro has as he's growing into an adult. Maruko brought up a point about how Alpha doesn't have to worry about sustaining herself with food, and it seems as if they don't have to face death as humans do. Since they're "immortal", I think the purpose to the robots is to determine what life means for them.

I agree. Even though she's the previous model, she's content with living in the present. She doesn't think about the past (as Kokone did during her research) nor does she think about the future (which Maruko questioned her about). Alpha is happy as long as the people around her are happy.

---------- Post added September 19, 2013 at 08:09 PM ---------- Previous post was September 11, 2013 at 10:15 PM ----------

Spoiler: I finished the series, and here are my thoughts

I was trying to complete volume 12 a few days ago, but I ended up finishing the whole series instead.

Takahiro growing up made it obvious that Alpha would stay the same no matter how much time passed and to see the same thing happen with Makki was jarring. In one chapter she's a high school student who was helping out Alpha with her cafe, and several chapters later she's a mother of a girl who was most likely the same age Makki was during her introduction.

The conversation Alpha had with sensei made it seem as if she was already around when sensei was younger. Considering how much of a presence she and jiisan had, I was at first a little disappointed that we never touched upon their deaths. Upon further thought, their deaths being confronted upfront would destroy the warm atmosphere that the manga had so maybe it was better off that way. No one really dies unless they are forgotten after all; I'm sure Alpha will continue to remember them.

On the series as a whole, I love how a story about robots could be so natural and low tech. Usually when robots come to mind, they're associated with large cities, cyberpunk, flying cars, the Internet, etc. None of those elements present, which makes Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou a refreshing change.

 

[ukimix]

I just ended it now....

I didn't know or image that a manga could be able to make me feel so much things and emotions. I still can feel all the warm feelings in the air or my study... and how these lovely drawings and words touch my face, and my heart... Thanks to all of you for sharing those nice moments you shared and for make possible for me to share my experience...

Possibly I'll write later. Now I'm only smells, sensations, sights, feelings

 

[Asarii]

I didn't know or image that a manga could be able to make me feel so much things and emotions. I still can feel all the warm feelings in the air or my study... and how these lovely drawings and words touch my face, and my heart... Thanks to all of you for sharing those nice moments you shared and for make possible for me to share my experience...

Possibly I'll write later. Now I'm only smells, sensations, sights, feelings

The plot is pretty simple with minimal dialogue and events, and I love how it makes up for it by making the readers feel and experience whatever the characters are feeling. One of the themes of Yokohama are the five senses, and it's why I bolded the last sentence of your quote.

 

[ukimix]

The plot is pretty simple with minimal dialogue and events, and I love how it makes up for it by making the readers feel and experience whatever the characters are feeling. One of the themes of Yokohama are the five senses, and it's why I bolded the last sentence of your quote.

Yes, it's rather a simple plot. Also this manga is a masterpiece, a true gem among the manga gems.

To me the central concept if the free-will. There is a project to create robots with free will; and the main plot is about how some few of these robots manage their live, and take their decisions making us of their free-will.

So we have there Alpha, Kokone, Misago, Maruko and Director Alpha (the one aboard the Tarpon in the sky). On the conceptual side it's quite interesting because it's like Alpha is out of our contemporary time and habits. During most of the time we saw them, Kokone and Maruko chose a different way. They chose a human modern way of life, work, hurries, meeting people in the middle of big cities. But in the end they seem to be happier with a simpler way of life, more rural, less urban. But that was Alpha's choice from the beginning. Alpha chose a life of sensations, and what she makes most of the time and in most of the panels is just that: to feel the world around her. (Not to talk about Misago, who is happy living as a happy beast in the middle of wild nature.)

I'm still amazed by the contrast with our ways of life nowadays, with all that speed, all that work, all that amount of images and sounds. Pretty much the contrary than what she made of her life. (I wonder if all of it doesn't have to do something with Japanese Zen).

But the manga is a masterpiece not because of its simple and very touching plot, but mainly because of its narrative. When I read it I was like captivated by a spell; I mean, now I can sum up the whole plot in some few lines; but when I was reading is like if I were living there, in that shore, in that bay, with those people... I remember how I was sad when Alpha cried seeing how fast her human friends age and leave her behind fast. I wrote about it, and it could be some kind of gooey posts, but... Ey! sure I was there.