I finally bought the art book...whew! Besides showing lots of merchandise I must look around for...what about the art on the inside covers?
Ashinano-san has sprinkled the characters across a bird's eye view of the eastern Kansai Plain, with Maruko in Tokyo (the Tower is still up), Kokone a little west of Tokyo, and Nai at the airport way out west of Yokohama. Alpha and most of the rest of the cast are in the southwest. Above them drifts the Taapon with a brown-eyed, brown-haired Director Alpha.
I guess that's best we have for now about where they are. They're all Kansai folk.
But as I might expect...there are mysteries, too.
On a building near the airport is a sign in hiragana that reads "game," which might well mean "patience" (which could imply Ashinano-san is listening!).
Just north of Alpha, what looks like an old Nike missile is rising on a flame into the sky, straight out of the water (is this the last-gasp of an innundated missile site or evidence of military submarines on the prowl...against who?).
In Yokohama, the Landmark Tower is now awash in Tokyo Bay (so, the water is STILL rising).
And way south on the edge of the horizon...what's that? It looks like Sensei's waterskipper headed north! Wasn't Sensei sending it out to sea for good?
On another topic: why is it so hard to find topographical maps or a good roadmaps of Japan online? Anyone have a link for me?
- seaweb
Tuesday, August 3, 2004
Here you go:
http://www.jnto.go.jp/mapindex/E/
try the keyword search for "yokohama" and you'll be in the area. It is Java-based and slow to load, but nicely detailed. I haven't figured out how to print it out, though. If you know, please let us know.
- Ian Darrow
Wednesday, August 4, 2004
I think the illustration is showing where events in the story have occurred. So the missile is the one from chapter 13 & "Kame" is the roadside cafe in chapter 71 where Alpha worked for a while after her flight with Nai.
I was really suprised to see that Maruko's out-of-the-way riverside studio was so close to Tokyo Tower!
- Chris Davey
Wednesday, August 4, 2004
They're not Kansai folk. Kansai is further to the southwest. It's Kobe/Osaka/Kyoto. I believe Tokyo and Yokohama is part of the Kanto region.
- martialstax
Wednesday, August 4, 2004
"what looks like an old Nike missile is rising on a flame into the sky, straight out of the water"
http://ykk.misago.org/Volume2/90 et sequelae.
The chapter is entitled Kamakura Fireworks. Here's a link to today's Kamakura...
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2166.html
- Robert Sneddon
Sunday, August 8, 2004
Apologies all around.
Kanto. Yep. I can hear "Kanto plain" in my ears. Why was I thinking of Osaka? Hungry, perhaps.
And I had forgotten about the Big One and the fireworks show. No mystery there. Obviously, defensive weapons of that calibre are no longer required.
- seaweb
Friday, August 20, 2004
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v80/Blaze101/ykk2.gif
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v80/Blaze101/ykk.gif
it was originally 1000x2000 but lower it down to
353x500
- Nanashi
Friday, August 27, 2004
Thanks for the pics. I notice the Yokohama Pacifica building is still in one piece (the quarter circle just to the left of the Landmark Tower in ykk.gif). That's a relief, as I (hopefully) will be in it in three years time, at the Japanese World Science Fiction Convention if they win the bid in a few days time in Boston.
http://www.nippon2007.org/
In the manga we never see the Pacifica (probably because the Landmark Tower is in the way). The Pacifica is (currently, in our timeline) right on the shorefront -- I'm surprised it wasn't inundated like the rest of the coast.
- Robert Sneddon
Sunday, August 29, 2004
You can find the Pacifico Yokohama in chapter 92 [a2002, 50], right next to the Landmark Tower.
- kGo
Thursday, September 2, 2004
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