Howdy,
I just picked up Vol. 11 of YKK at Kinokunia yesterday. It's available, so pick up a copy!
By the way, in the a way of an awful tease, the two most recent chapters (which have not been translated yet) are great. Ashinano really knows his stuff. The next chapter you will see, featuring Ojisan and Sensei is really sweet.
Best,
Dave
- dDave
Friday, April 16, 2004
Please tease me more. Why is it sweet? Do we learn more about their lives in the past or their plans for the future?
- Loran
Friday, April 16, 2004
Howdy,
Spoilers for chapter 116
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Ojisan goes off to see Sensei, and is having a cigarette break at the side of the road, watching the ocean. Sensei comes up and scolds him for not stopping by the house. Ojisan tells her he was going to as soon as her finished his cig. Sensei bums one off him, and they smoke together for a bit. Ojisan mentions how lonely he is without Takahiro around, and the rest of the chapter is a delicious dance between the two as as they talk about their respective loneliness, and hint about a possible solution to the problem....
- dDave
Saturday, April 17, 2004
I just picked up Volume 11 yesterday, too. All good stuff, and it's nice to see the first page of each chapter without all the text Afternoon slaps on there. This volume has some of my favorite Maruko chapters.
There's an extra page featuring three minor characters from Yokohama. The tea shop guy that has a crush on Kokone, the weird mohawked guy from the very first chapter, and Shiba-chan. I haven't had a chance to try and read it yet.
There was a flyer for PositioN in my copy. Don't quote me on this, since I can't really read Japanese at all, but unless I'm mistaken, PositioN will be moving to Kodansha's Morning magazine.
- martialstax
Saturday, April 17, 2004
Howdy,
The extra page shows the Musashino tea shop guy complaining that he only sees Kokone about once a month. The coffee bean guy then complains that he sees Alpha only once every three years or so. They both heave a sigh, wondering what their respective crushes think about them. Then Shiba-chan buts in with "Who were you guys again?"
The issue of Morning is a special edition, so it looks like we'll get one more chapter of PositioN, but it's not going to be an ongoing series.
Best,
Dave
- dDave
Saturday, April 17, 2004
Thanks for the info. Hopefully, there will be enough PositioN chapters to make up a tankouban. An all-color one at that.
- martialstax
Monday, April 19, 2004
Was in Japan and managed to snag all 11 volumes of YYK while there (as well as mangle the name verbally, much to the amusement of the shop ladies). After reading the translations here for WELL over a year, I'm glad I finally got these.
- tabyk
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
I'm confused (nothing new, really!). Doesn't Vol. 11 contain Chapters 100 - 110? Or did you mean the magazine, and not the manga?
- Doug Spiller
Friday, April 23, 2004
Howdy,
Yes, I was talking about issue #4 (april) of Afternoon. The chapter is question is 116.
Best,
Dave
- dDave
Friday, April 23, 2004
I'm terribly sorry, but I'm still a bit confused. Which chapters are included in the volume 11, and how many more chapters are published beyond that in Afternoon?
Thanks in advance.
- Teisuu
Monday, April 26, 2004
Howdy,
I don't have my copy at hand to double check, but I think that volume 11 contains chapters 100-110. The manga is currently up to chapter 118.
Best,
Dave
- dDave
Monday, April 26, 2004
I'm going to get it as soon as I get to downtown Seattle today.
It's really sweet seeing Oji and sensei like that. Wish we can know more back stories about them.
As for towns people having crushes on robots... hmmm, kinda ironic. We know in the past people probably feared and persecuted robots (thus Kokone had to learn self-defense techniques in her "school" and all robots are to carry a gun), but by now people are so used to them, they actually started to like them.
This may also be that, well, real people are dying off, but people know robots will live on. They are the future master of the world... so maybe to these younger people, the robots represent a future they will never have, and thus some people have a crush on these comparatively immortal beings. Or it could simply be that, hey, Kokone is cute and Alpha's really hot. :) I don't think people will intentionally create ugly robots, so I would assume all robots are attractive somewhat.
- JC
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Howdy,
I think Kokone was given gun training for her job as a courier, not because she is a robot.
http://ykk.misago.org/Volume7/82
After all, if all robots were given the training, Maruko wouldn't need the explanation, and she would have know to be a lot more careful!
Best,
Dave
- dDave
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
I do recall that Alpha has a gun too, and that she talk about her being asked to carry it (don't recall exactly).
My take would be that Maruko is a special robot who somehow wasn't required to do the training. Maybe she was raised to be an artist and didn't have to goto regular robot "school" like kokone. If you read the rest of chapters Maruko seemed to convey that she knows about the guns and the training (even know that they are usually kept blank). My guess was the was surprised Kokone used it on HER.
I'm sorry I don't buy the courier training theory. There are couriers in our world and they're not required to take martial arts training or carry a gun at all times; and I would say our world is more dangerous than theirs in Kokone's time.
- JC
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Howdy,
Alpha talks about her gun here:
http://ykk.misago.org/Volume1/31
It's for self protection, but nothing is said about training either way.
But her world is dangerous enough where owner asks her to carry a gun, Kokone has one, that the shop Alpha buys coffee beans at also sells guns and ammo:
http://ykk.misago.org/Volume1/21
and when Alpha travels, she is suspicious of noises/movement.
http://ykk.misago.org/Volume5/14
Best,
Dave
- dDave
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Sounds like you are pointing out examples as to why robots should carry guns, but not to why couriors should. Nothing from anyone's actions in the manga's telling me that violent crime is an issue in YKK's world. Alpha spend a year traveling, meeting no one but (very few) nice people all around.
The focus on the guns from the beginning has puzzeled me; this doesn't seemed like a land where guns are needed much, and they are mostly carried with no bullets. But we see them with Robots over and over. Even a while chapter devoted to Kokone's over-the-top yet natural defensive reaction to someone just sneaking up to her. My theory was that this world was violent in the past, and robots were targets once. However relations between human and robots has improved to a point where they no longer need to carry bullets, but they keep the guns anyway. Whether they had real "schooling" on defensive measures or just Owner telling Alpha to carry the gun is not that important; the key is that it's generally accepted that Robots know and should defend themselves. There's got to be a reason why robots are so defensive in this almost utopian world.
You're trying to brush all this as coincidences and that Kokone's reaction is of her "Courier Training" and has nothing to do with the fact that she's a robot and yet at the same time showing how defensive Alpha, another robot, get. I'm sorry I can't buy it.
- JC
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Howdy,
Kokone only seems to wear her gun when she's working.
http://ykk.misago.org/Volume5/27
When's she's out and about, she doesn't have it on as far as I can tell. She didn't wear it when she came all the way out to see Alpha on her day off.
http://ykk.misago.org/Volume3/6
And since Alpha only seems to carry hers when she is traveling, my guess is that Alpha feels the areas outside of the cities can be potentially dangerous.
And we have seen five robots so far: Alpha, Kokone, Maruko, Nai and Director Alpha. Only two have been shown to have guns.
But it's an interesting question. I'll have to look through the books to see if I can find any other examples of people carrying guns.
Best,
Dave
- dDave
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
I suspect that the robots were originally produced as weapons of war. Perhaps Kokone and Alpha carry the guns more out of habit than a perception of any immediate threat. During the time of the catastrophe or catatrophes that wiped out the population, there would have been a lot of disorder and violence amongst the desperate people. I find it hard to believe that Alpha was safely isolated in her cafe/home throughout this period. She, Kokone, and Maruko probably share some horrible memories of that time. I don't think the guns were given to them to protect them from humans that hate robots. Alpha and Kokone simply learned to use them in their training and feel uncomfortable without them.
If my conjectures are correct, that means that Kokone, Maruko, and Alpha were sent off to battle when they were very young. They were programmed (trained) and deployed long before they could develop emotionally. It was a "children's crusade." They may not have clear memories of the time just as adults have few memories of their early childhood. Perhaps they only have the emotional scars without a clear idea how they got there.
- Loran
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
It sounds like Kokone only carry her guns when she's going to be near people. Alpha's not a person, thus considered safe.
When Maruko said "they trained you", to me it sounded like the robot school she talked about before. I don't know where you get "Couriour Training" out if that.
To Loren:
Your idea sounds very refershing... I hadn't considered the possibility. It's entirely possible that a major war happened and caused this current extinction problem. Heck, maybe human beings poisoned themselves with some biological or chemical warfare weapons which cause fertility to drop.
As for robots being part of the war, hmm, I don't know since there's no sign of recent, major war like battle ruins, etc showned in the manga, and doesn't seemed like there's war during sensei and oji's flashbacks. The A7 looks to be somewhat recent invention, according to sensei. Maybe older robots could be deployed for war, but I have a feeling that by th time of sensei's youth, war's already irrelevant and exinction fear's already set in human population. I still think it make more sense that the robots were trained to protect themselves against human beings who feared them at first.
I like the idea of robot soilders, but I just can't see owner creating Alpha to be a killing machine.
- JC
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Coincidental to all this talk about guns and couriers, I was a sergeant in the Air Force for many years, and I'm currently a manager at a courier company.
Dave's supposition that Kokone has been trained in firearms as part of her courier training is entirely plausible, even if it's not backed up by any concrete evidence. Then again, almost all our suppositions about the world of YKK have very little concrete evidence to back them up. There's nothing to prove it, just as there's really nothing to rule it out. So it's just another theory to throw on the pile.
- martialstax
Friday, May 14, 2004
>As for robots being part of the war, hmm, I don't know since there's no sign of recent, major war like battle ruins, etc showned in the manga
Well, In 1955 you could not see many signs of Hiroshima or Nagasaki having been levelled either. In fact in one of these two cities a bank about 2 km from ground zero was back in (limited) business just a few days after the bomb fell. People adapt quickly.
And I don't think all the WWII references are coincidental, least of all the military references in the model names of the robots. Perhaps the missing early robot models were used in the war?
- C_P
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
Hehe.. maybe it's just me. I just can't visualize these robots I love dearly performing mass murder. Can't imagine smart and sensitive person like sensei create these wonders to kill each other. Maybe I'm just naive. :)
Well, but war theory have one backing: lack of major governments. Where did the central goverment of Japan go? Can't see how it just kinda disbanded itself. ("Hey we're going exinct. How about let's just all go home?") They could have been destroyed in a WW scenario. I would saw that a world-wide chrisis like human exinction would be a cause for more centralized govermental efforts, maybe even a world goverment. However, that's not what's happening here. So where did all the goverments go?
- JC
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
Regarding Maruko's line "they train you".
The (original) Japanese phrase that corresponds to "they" is 'anata n toko' which means "your place" or "the group of people you are in". The line is said in the "not-past" tense.
It has to be the company Kokone currently works in, not the training institute they used to attend.
Note that Neil's translation [v7, p82] is not said in the past tense, either.
- kGo
Thursday, May 20, 2004
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