Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou

Just finished the manga, i fucking love this melancholic, not so light hearted manga.... Man tear up a little bit in the last chapter.. knowing that Gramps and Sensei is gone..

Time to give this one last read before a final farewell

Btw isn't there a few chapters that were typeset with MS Paint? Have you spoken with Elemhunter for his raws?

Yrssssdddss!!! HQ!!!!

Thanks for redoing these chapters, they deserve it.

Ah, we're getting random high quality scans. Neat.

I can't tell you how happy I was to see this in my notifications. No matter how long it's been since I've read it, it always brings tears to my eyes. 

Well, that was a lovely journey, wasn't it ?

I love this artist so much. His melancholic stories are just so well done.

Woa, thanks for the HQ version of the chapter, turelio. As usual, such a lovely reading. 

YKK the only anime still on my computer after multiple years, many TB of data filling and erased of all the shows I've watched.  This is a wonderful and calm story.

 

Gentle music, the sounds of a Moped or the wind and a soft voice.  Broken concrete and grass against blue skies and stormy seas.

That's one of the enduring mysteries of the human condition.  Advertisement plays a role in it (think of super popular toys of years past; Cabbage Patch Kids or Tickle Me Elmo, where TV commercials created such a huge hype that parents were fist fighting in stores to get them for their kids).  Another facet is the art of "tittilation:"  using images or situations that push buttons on people.  The images/situations can be sexy, cute, badass, or whatever and are designed to appeal to a large portion of a particular demographic.  From panty flashes to My Little Pony, it's all a formula for business success and requires little imagination or talent on the part of the creator.  It's designed to sell magazines  or toys or whatever.

 

Where does this leave the works of Ashinano Hitoshi or something like Kodama Yuki's masterpiece Sakamichi no Apollon?  We just have to hope that there are enough readers and scanlators out there who appreciate such gems and bring them to those of us who don't live in Japan and don't read the language.  I just know that I was hooked after the first couple of pages of YKK, and the name Ashinano Hitoshi (and a select few others) for authorship pushes MY button instantly as a "must read."

I've noticed that on the other hand, things like this people keep on reading.  They're remembered years later.  For instance, one of our esteemed contributors (Hi ICLW!) just recommended this to me.  So new people keep on discovering it for a long time after it's finished.  The formula stuff tends to be forgotten five seconds after the last chapter arrives.  That long tail can add up.

 

Of course some stuff is written solidly inside genre boundaries and is still inspired--in which case it too will be remembered.  Look at Girl Friends; on the surface it's notable basically as the most ambitious example to date of recycling basic shoujo romance themes and plot devices into yuri manga, with a smattering of cliches standard to yuri itself; there is nothing obviously original in it.  Yet people still remember it years later because at the craft level it is incredible.

In this case you have both originality in conception and artistry and skill in the rendering.  If it were this original but the craft was lacking it wouldn't have the same impact and we wouldn't remember it the same way.

You know what just struck me?  On one hand, there's this sadness, wistfulness that so much has been lost, and there are so few people left and stuff.  But on the other hand, to be perfectly frank the world depicted seems on average a lot nicer than today's.  So one disquieting thing about the manga is that it shows the world with most humans gone as being in many ways better for it, both for the nonhuman world and for the few people that remain, who don't have to deal with modernity's hyper-paced existence--and that seems all too plausible.  Take that iconic scene where they're watching the bay with the street lights of the abandoned city and they're so beautiful.  I found myself thinking yeah, the dead city is gorgeous--the live version would have been noisy and polluted and hectic and full of advertising.  In an indirect way, you could say the pleasant, slow-paced world of the manga represents a pretty harsh critique of modern life.

Excited to read this with all this praise !

summer.

very few update on my follows...

time to reread some masterpiece

We never get to see Alpha's master, that is one thing that always caused me curiosity, the fact that one thing was left unanswered is something that I have learned to like in time, like if the author is telling us that is not necessary to know everything to enjoy the story or in general to enjoy the world, that was specially useful considering how trying to know every little detail is impossible and obsessing about it actually ruins the fun, something actually happens to me a lot.

v2 because a couple pages got left out. Oops.

From what?

Fckfckfckfckfckfckfckfck!!!!!! It's happening!!!!!

v2 because a couple pages got left out. Oops.

As many have already said, this manga is truly special. Ashinano Hitoshi has created something wistful and subtle, like a gentle breeze on a warm summer day.

One of best Seinen + Slice of Life i;ve read.

That.. was some trip. The melancholic feeling was always there, Just around the corner. It was among the best reads I've ever had. It left me sad so many times.

In the midst of all the heartwarming, not too light-hearted, feel good moments, the sad aspect always reminding of its presence. It was as soothing for my heart as it was for my eyes. Even though I was on the verge of tears every five chapters. 
I believe this manga is the calm Cafe Alpha for my heart after all..

Oh the Portuguese people get to meet the mizago, I'm so jealous!!

Edit: this will look completely out of context when the Portuguese group move beyond chapter 10. But I'm still jealous; they seem to have much better scans. ...and thinking about it they might not meet the misago in chp 10, I would have reread this to find out if it wouldn't give the iPhone water damage due to all crying.

Masterpiece right here. This manga is the epitome of coziness and healing.

it is a pity that this manga does not have many follows, and a piece of manure like High School DxD has a lot of follows much more than this piece of art.

Well you are a piece of manure. High School DxD was much more awesome.