"Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou" by Hitoshi Ashinano

The panelists discuss "Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou", an incredibly slow-paced slice-of-life about a robot named Alpha living in a world deeply shaped by climate change. Despite that dark-sounding premise, the book is very calm and beautiful to look at, dealing mostly with the mundanity of Alpha's every day as she learns about the world around her. Also the persimmons are huge! (00:00) - "Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou" by Hitoshi Ashinano (01:02) - Front Matter (03:43) - Our experience (05:47) - Impressions (12:15) - Art! (17:40) - A question from stevefm (24:36) - Spoilers! (If you can spoil this manga) (25:55) - How the world gets bigger (27:55) - A unique coming of age story (30:23) - Time and memory (38:24) - Kokone (44:46) - Androids connection with machines (48:44) - What are spot blacks? (51:42) - They’re so gay (51:56) - The cryptids as androids (58:58) - Alpha’s quirks (01:01:00) - Translation and dialect (01:03:35) - Where we left off (01:08:30) - Big persimmons! (01:10:25) - Further Reading Further ReadingNothing else by Ashinano has an official English translation ¯\(ツ)/¯ Two YKK OVAs (not streaming anywhere but not hard to find) Thematically similar: Super Cub Apocalypse Hotel (anime) A comics podcast for everyone, proud to be a part of The Worst Garbage network. Find us on Bluesky or Tumblr. This week’s panelists can be found at: Scout Matt Robin Jillian Editing this week by AJ Fillari. Cover art by Scout Wilkinson. Intro/Outro music by Boqeh.