YKK Forum

Production process of robots

I wonder how such a "process" looks like.

Are they assembled, born or maybe grown like the human-shaped "mushrooms" that can be seen in the manga several times?

When Alpha got struck with the lighting, her hair were "replaced", not "regrown", so it suggests they could have some kind of "parts" that can be replaced -- at least the less important things like hair. On the other hand, apart from being stronger, faster, prettier and generally "better", their bodies seem a lot like human -- they breathe, eat, sweat, get sunburns, get drunk, get tired, sleep, etc. -- and most important of all, they regenerate and "heal".

I think it's not important to the plot of the manga, but it might be fun to theoretize a bit on the subject.

What do you think?

- Radomir Dopieralski
Tuesday, November 1, 2005

hm. now that u mention it, it could b that way. what do u dink of dat? mayb they're grown like a android and most of the part couldn't b grown, like hair, so it had to be replaced rather than grown. mayb the only ding they can't do is have kids, but able to stay young for a while. i dunno.

- terra
Tuesday, November 1, 2005

Better do not discuss this subject =) Mystery and charm can be easely destroyed. For example, if Alpha's hair don't grow, it should wear very quickly - or have to be incredibly strong =)
Such technical moments are not important in this manga, i think.

- Drake
Tuesday, November 1, 2005

After a moment of thought I think you're right Drake.

Sorry to bring it up.

- Radomir Dopieralski
Tuesday, November 1, 2005

Although the mangaka doesn't draw physically impossible things and tries to stay within the bounds of science, he doesn't appear to be a technology-nerd like Shirow. He concentrates on the philosophical side of things.

So trying to get into too much technical detail seems kind of pointless - it just ain't there, not like one could pick up a rock in the real world and analyze it down to the constituent atoms.

However, since YKK *is* self-consistent, it does make sense to deduce some tech details for character motivation and plot understanding.

Does this make any sense?

- Kerry
Tuesday, November 1, 2005

Actually, while getting into the how the robots are made when a new one is produced is getting too deep into the manga there are some instances where analyizing the production process is a good idea. For example, when Kokone finds the shrine and the album it does leave the reader wondering if the production process changed or new technologies were found before a new model number was produced. It also seems that there are different ways of producing male and female robots as there seems to be more success producing female robots than there is when producing a male robot. Nai himself said that male robots seemed to die off and the chances of one surviving for very long like he did weren't all that great.

I'd say it's not simply a question of how did they go from concept to production model but rather did model specifications change from one model to the next. That seems to be one of the more noticeable things with the robots as we can see some differences between Alpha and Kokone. So while the bodies would be the same for a specific model the outsides would definately be different with hair and eye color.

- Christine K
Tuesday, November 1, 2005

Btw, welcome "The Sheep" to ykk (havent noticed you here before) ^_^ Hope that I shall see YKKRL soon ;)

- tongHoAnh
Wednesday, November 2, 2005

I'm afraid a YKK-CoffeeShopManager, or YKK-TapoonFlightSimulator games would be much more exciting... ;)

I wonder what the goal might be in the former. Obviously not growth and getting new customers, nor earning money...
Maybe trying not to poison all the customers? ;)

- Radomir Dopieralski
Thursday, November 3, 2005

Actually, I think the production process is an entertaining subject to bring up. Ashinano used questions of the origins for the robots in several chapters, so it seems reasonable to wonder upon the very questions he posed.

However, all we can do is guess with the little clues we have been given. They have been made as male and female, are they supposed to eventually reproduce on their own by mating? If they are that advanced and that was the plan, what of the failure of the male prototypes? Does that mean this "generation" of robots is the last?

Or were they built like motor scooters in some now-abandoned factory, which could eventually be discovered by Alpha and Kokone on their joint wanderings one day?

We won't know until Ashinano tells us, but it's fun to look at the facts we have and speculate.

- Silverback
Friday, November 11, 2005

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