Hitoshi Ashinano (芦奈野 ひとし, Ashitano Hitoshi) is a Japanese manga artist. Prior to his professional debut as a solo cartoonist, Ashinano worked as an assistant to manga artist Kousuke Fujishima, while also releasing some doujinshi (amateur manga) under the pen name 'suke'. Ashinano's comics are known for their contemplative, laid-back, nostalgic feel. His first and best-known series is Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō, a slice-of-life manga set in a post-apocalyptic world. The manga was serialised in Kodansha's comics magazine 'Monthly Afternoon' from 1994 to 2006, won the 2007 'Seiun Award for Best Science Fiction Manga' and was adapted into an anime.
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where everyone is actually pretty decent. In contrast to all the stories about survival of the fittest, this is a world that survives on community and kindness. The protagonist is a realistic robot running a cafe in the middle of no where, waiting for her owner to come back from where ever he/she has wandered off to. She has a few neighbours. She gets a couple customers a week at the cafe. It's a quiet, slow, often quite plotless slice-0f-life story. In this volume, we see Alpha, our protagonist, drive into a village for coffee beans, watch the sun rise on New Years, and get injured in a lightening accident.
Given the age of this book, the art is dated and sometimes weak. But there's an endearing quality to it that invokes a lot of nostalgia for me, and I really quite enjoy the scope that the artist manages to convey. There are simply not a lot of people in this universe. The landscapes are big and full of plant life, but humans are rare. It's a bit unnerving, but peaceful. The environment is harsh, but not so much that our characters can't survive and thrive in their own way.
So if you want to see a gentler post-apocalyptic story that's just about people's daily lives, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikuo is for you :)
A post-apocalypse story... that’s actually extremely wholesome, relaxing and uplifting. There’s no darkness, violence, despair or evil to be found within these pages. Nothing but ambient, atmospheric, nature-fueled positivity between the last remnants of humanity and humanoid androids coming together to live peacefully in harmony and give each other the love and support they need to find purpose in their daily lives.
Alpha is a sweet robot girl that runs a cafe at the end of the world. She invites the few guests she receives into her shop to sit down and talk with her over a steaming cup of coffee. She bonds with locals and travelers by sharing heartwarming stories of the past and dreams for the future. They share happy memories in the present rather than dwelling on the past. Communities come together to raise children with hope for a brighter future. The population has decreased immensely, but loneliness has become a thing of the past.
The story plays out in a seaside country with boundless blooming nature with no pollution or industrialization in sight. Nature has reclaimed the earth, sea levels are rising and rich vegetation covers nearly every inch of land. The last survivors of the world respect nature and treat it like a friend rather than as a resource to be abused for profit.
It’s a mature apocalypse story that balances whimsical childlike wonder with coming of age self-discovery and finding contentment in a world that’s been robbed of most living things.
In the twilight of civilization mankind fades in a kindly and stoic way. The relationships are mainly of unselfish support and little communities behave like a family. Between the evanishing communities there are a few androids so admirably humane that even a few moments of flaws like jealousy and bigness are portrayed but mainly the seeking for happiness and love. Some android characters clearly evolve into more beautiful and compassionate beings during the story, assimilating experiences relations and stories. The landscape of the ending human remains are depicted of several beautiful ways in such an extent that the very nature try to mimic some human memories. At this point it’s important to praise Ashinano Hitoshi’s admirable and inspired artwork of simplicity, beauty and expressiveness.
The economics of the era seems a bit vague and implausible and one could only imagine that people rests on the remains of the past and some maintenance for more elaborated things like cameras, fuel and vehicles but clearly there’s not a strong effort for development of new designs or projects. The most advanced element on the series is an ancient ever flying stratospheric airplane the seems to just observe the ending from above but never interfering. For daily necessities people use to share goods or, in a lesser way, uses money that comes from an indefinite source. Alpha - the main character - for instance uses to go shopping and buy coffee beans but usually some of her customers are exempt from paying bills, to be fair you see the effects of lack of money too as Alpha wants to repair the shop but has no resources for it.
Over more than a decade kids grows and move away, eventually visiting the main line. Old friends disappear, probably passing away but you never knows. Androids in its turns stays young keeping memories, still loving, and waiting. If humanity would disappear this way, we can only hope androids like these prevail as witness for the best part of being human and prevail as a beautiful society.
Afterwords: First of all, english is not my first language, so please forgive me for some flaws. I’m not a regular reader of “mangas”, the earlier one was probably “Lone Wolf and Cub” that I read as far as 30 years ago when at college, and the next one will be “Girl’s Last Tour - Shōjo Shūmatsu Ryokō” by influence of YKK. I seldom review movies or books except when they causes a strong effect on me and It’s the case with this series. I couldn’t restrict YKK as just at comics genre but it’s in fact a brilliant piece of literature, one of most positive and graceful portraits of humanity and empathy. Days after finish this series I confess still affected by this piece of art.
To Ashinano Hitoshi-san, thank you very much for this opportunity.
I remember watching the anime of this one, and I remember that it was a pretty lovely anime. So I decided to check the manga, and I can just say that this one is also just as sweet. It is a slice of life, so it is all pretty slow, but that is no problem. You will be fully emerged in this world.