Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou

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I love this manga. Sometimes I looked at the panels for a long time, I read the dialogues in those panels over and over again. I didn't want to lose that moment, I wanted it to be engraved in my memory, but unfortunately mother nature wasn't that kind to me when giving me a mind... It is a manga that makes me wish I had a photographic memory...

I learned that there are other mangas like Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou out there. That it blongs to a manga genre called Iyashikei and i even read another manga in this genre and it is called Girls Last ... Tour. As far as i learned Iyashikei series are feel good manga series that has an over all melancholia on the plot and this is exacly what Yokohama Kaidashi Kioku was.

Girls Last Tour is another one of my all times favorite mangas, but it had a bad end, i understand a Iyashikei manga suppose to have melencolia over overall its plot, but a bad end gets into territoriy of feel bad...(HA HA) I am just saying though, actually i love bad ends, but an Iyashikei supposed to be a feel good series with sweet sadness, you know melencolia, so i think Girls Last Tour kind of get out of Iyashikei territory with its bad end because it is not sweet sadness anymore, it didn't depress me or anything, i love a bad end anyway, but it can depress some other people.

I realised that i am a Iyashikei guy. I learned that March Comes in Like a Lion is also an Iyashikei manga (i am collecting it right now, but i haven't started to read it yet) I am just pulled to Iyashikei mangas... Even without knowing that they are Iyashikei, i go for Iyashikei mangas. (HA HA)

TL:DR
Over-rated but not bad. Some loose threads in it "plot". Very unique atmosphere, similar to the "cosy dystopia" vibe of Girl's last Tour. Seems somewhat rushed towards to end. Beautiful art but it can't compensate for the characters and plot (or lack thereof). I recommend this only if you enjoy the vibe. There really isn't much else here.

Story: 4/10
The story follows Alpha's life as the people around her grow up, and she grows as a person too. Her interactions with neighbours and friends she makes along the way changes her, subtly. Maybe too subtly, it's hard to convey that the robot Alpha is now ... "human", or more human, when she was pretty much a regular person in the beginning anyway. The fact that Alpha (and some of her friends) is an android is simply superfluous.

People grow up, move out, the village Alpha lives in decays slowly. The world is dying, the apocalypse happened in the past, and yet nothing comes of it. The apocalypse, or humanity dying out really only comes up at the last chapter.

It really does feel like another manga about living in the country side. The fact that the world is ending, or that there are robots around, is simply unnecessary. You could rewrite the entire manga to be about a small village dying out and pretty much nothing would change.

So many elements of the manga feel tacked on or pointless. What's with the Misago? It never goes anywhere, was it supposed to represent growing up? If it was, there are far better ways to go about. What does the never-landing plane mean? Why was it included? I can't even guess.

I feel that there is a long period of relative stasis story-wise and then the child characters suddenly grow up. Maybe that was the intention, after all that's how it often feels like in real life, right? However, the languid pace the earlier chapters becomes light speed. I think it would have more impact if we spent more time with the characters, and they grew up at a slower pace.

Kokone's thing is trying to find the androids that came before her. And we sort of get a conclusion, that android were made from human experiences. No not uploading human brains or something dark like that but something more literal. If that sounds nonsensical, I agree. It didn't make any sense for me and that robbed any emotional impact it could have had.

The manga has a melancholic, bittersweet but pleasant atmosphere. Yet, when I read this, I often wondered what I was actually looking at. Sure, the child characters grow up, but we see them so little (and it happens so fast) that I didn't really care. Alpha never really changes, not in any way that I could actually describe. The friends she make get a few appearances each but they never have much of a presence. There's no plot, no drama or deepening relationships. This manga isn't philosophical or enlightening, I was never made to think about something. The more I think about it, the more I feel I wasted my time reading this.

Art: How can you even rate art?/10
Damn the art is good. The characters actually change clothes! Wow! The character designs are so cute and emotive. Some of the panels are practically paintings, if I saw some of them in a gallery, I wouldn't bat an eye. The manga has whole chapters with no dialogue and the minimalist style absolutely works! The panels are so well constructed and emotive. If nothing else, check out some of the wide panels.

And to address criticisms I've heard, I don't think this is a moe-bait manga. Yes, the character designs are cute and data between androids is transferred by kissing (sigh, I know) but it's never shown "on screen". There isn't really fan service.

Character: 4/10
Characters are idealised caricatures of rural folk, no drama, no real emotions. I don't think any of them has any depth to them. I really can't say more on the subject than that, there just isn't anything to say.

Overall: 5/10
This was a hard review to write. When I initially finished it, I had pretty positive feeling towards the manga. But, given time and fresh eyes, I find more and more to dislike. The manga has very meditative atmosphere which I love. There isn't a manga (or any work really) that feels quite like it. But, if I sat down and tried, I don't think I could tell you what I'm supposed to be meditating on. Maybe I just didn’t "get" it or maybe this manga just isn't for me. Lots of others seem to love it so maybe it will really resonate with you if give it a shot as it has so many others. As for me? I wouldn't recommend it. Except for the art, it's almost worth reading just for that. Great art and a unique vibe just can't compensate for no plot and bad characters

It's old, feels old, and in general, I don't think it was that good of a read. It's an iyashikei sort of chill slice of life manga, but honestly, many other series are much more successful.

For example: Non non Biyori focuses more on nature and the character relationships are very nice. Minami-kei has nice manzai and slice of life interactions. Barakamon also just has way more recognizable characters. Overall, it just feels like this manga has no niche that it fulfills.

There's a bit of slice of life, supernatural, a bit of sci-fi elements. There's coming of age elements in the form of our ... MC growing as a person emotionally and getting to know more people, but it's also trying to maintain a sort of lighthearted feel the other half of the time. There's random perspective changes in the form of sci-fi ships that travel the sky and other people monologuing, and there's also the aspects of all the robots that barely get touched upon. It's so fragmented and as a result, there's practically no memorable characters, the interactions are dull and repetitive, and the coming of age and character development not nearly enough to carry the story.

I read it purely as a buffer period, but it was very bland and lacked anything special. Is it bad though? No, but it's certainly not worth your time