YKK Forum

Age?

Since I'm a somewhat curious person, I've been wondering about what age group YKK attracts.
So, if you don't mind telling, how old are you forum-goers?
And, if anyone knows, what age group does Afternoon aim at? (Oh my goddess! is running there as well, right?)

Myself, I'm 18, and I've found myself to be at the lower age range when I've done similar questions on other of my favorite series (such as Maison Ikkoku).


Oh, and does anyone else that started reading YKK recently feel "sad" about not having been able to read it from the start?

Wierd question, yes, but I would've loved to follow it and watch it unfold for the 9 (?) years it has been running. I think that you really get a great "bond" when you follow a series for such a long period of time.
Oh well, I'll just hope it runs for ten more years! :D

- Tomas Schnbeck
Wednesday, April 21, 2004

Howdy,

I'm closing in on 40. Or is it closing in on me...?

Afternoon is definitely aimed at a more "mature" reader, one in the late teens to mid twenties would be my guess. Yes, Ah!, My Goddess does run in Afternoon, and just celebrated 15 years of being published. There are a lot of good strips in Afternoon. Blade of the Immortal is published there as well.

Actually, I envy those who discover YKK late in the game and get to read it in one long breathless rush.

And YKK has been running 11+ years now. Hey Neil - time to update the home page, it still says "8 years".

Best,

Dave

- dDave
Wednesday, April 21, 2004

Kodansha says Afternoon is:

"A monthly comic magazine aimed at hardcore manga fans under thirty."

Congratulations! You are now hardcore.

Kodansha classifies Afternoon in its general "teenage boy" group of anthologies. See: http://www.kodanclub.com/

- Loran
Wednesday, April 21, 2004

"Actually, I envy those who discover YKK late in the game and get to read it in one long breathless rush. "

Ah, I totally agree!

I'm 17..so I guess I'm in the age range. I think YKK and a book really changed the way I look and think about the things around me.

- Carn
Wednesday, April 21, 2004

27

- Ced
Thursday, April 22, 2004

I am glad to see that at 37, I am still "hardcore" about something.

If anyone is interested, there is a good discussion of demographics in manga at animenation's Ask John column,

www.animenation.net/news/askjohn_archive.php

should get you there. It's the one for April 1st, this year.

- Ian Darrow
Thursday, April 22, 2004

I'm 41. I discovered it a little over 2 years ago, just after volume 9 was publshed. I'm glad I was able to discover it so late so I could read it all at once, but I've also had the last two years to talk about it with fellow YKK fans, so it's the best of both worlds.

- martialstax
Thursday, April 22, 2004

Hmmm...

I'm 53.

- Loran
Thursday, April 22, 2004

38. And one of the "Big Rush" crowd seing as how I just got the first 10 volumes delivered last week (darn, ordered just before vol 11 appeared, ah well, pick it up in a couple of weeks).

Looks like us "Old Timers" are actually outnumbering you "Young Whippersnappers".

An "Old Timer" is someone who can remember Marine Boy and Battle of the Planets first time around if you wanted a definition, at least it is in Britain. Don't know what the American equivalent is, Star Blazers and Speed Racer? Robotech?

- Andy Tucker
Friday, April 23, 2004

I guess that makes me a member of both groups. At 44, I remember watching Speed Racer. And I remember the looks on my daughters faces when I bought all 11 volumes at once. If the artbook had been available at the time, I would have bought that, too. At least I know where to order it.

- Doug Spiller
Friday, April 23, 2004

Hmmm...Let's try that again. I'm 44 now, and remember watching Speed Racer as a kid. However, I've only seriously been into the anime and manga scene for about a year now. I enjoy some of the same things that my daughters do, but I'm not sure they'd enjoy YKK as much as I do, or for the same reasons. They have left my 'Alpha' desktop picture on the computer, so I guess that's something.

- Doug Spiller
Friday, April 23, 2004

Hmmm...38, my wife a couple of years younger...both of us *love* YKK...

- Rob Masters
Saturday, April 24, 2004

Born in 1966, figure it out for yourself :)

Been reading YKK since 1998, and understanding it since 2002, thanks to Neil and other fan translators.

- Smarasderagd
Saturday, April 24, 2004

currently 22. i've just discovered it this last year. i think i read at least 8 volumes that first weekend.

into anime longer though, come to think of it i've watched anime from before i knew what anime was. (fond childhood memories of Unico, Voltron, Robotech (before i knew it was actually a couple series of macross))

- Canti-sama
Saturday, April 24, 2004

Hmm... does that make me an "old-timer" cause i remember them, or a "whipper-snapper" cause i remember them from childhood?

- Canti-sama
Saturday, April 24, 2004

I guess that puts me in the middle, at 32. I've never really given much consideration to target ages for what I'm reading or watching. I have more fun that way. ;p

- Dave Thespork
Saturday, April 24, 2004

I'm 24 -- I guess that makes me on the young side of this group.

- Chris Kern
Sunday, April 25, 2004

I'm only 16 and they don't sell YKK here. I'm tempted to read the whole comic again but that would eat the webmaster's bindwidth.

- YLH
Sunday, April 25, 2004

I'm 21. Uh...don't have much else to say to that. ;)

- Hekima
Sunday, April 25, 2004

Just turned 41.
There were 5 volumes out when I first discovered YKK. There is something about learning about Alpha's world gradually that is quite compelling (and maddening - in a good way!).

I remember Marine Boy but didn't get into manga/anime until 1996. Have always been interested in Japanese culture & animation though so it was bound to happen some day!

- Chris Davey
Sunday, April 25, 2004

18, female.

I can't seem to get my friends interested in YKK, which makes me feel all old-at-heart and vaguely smug, except that my Japanese teacher - I'm guessing mid-thirties, though he won't say - also won't read it. ("Yes, yes, robot going shopping, very exciting." He's a big "Ghost in the Shell" fan, and has a bunch of "Akira" in his office.) What I'm more curious about is the gender layout...? (It's not always easy to tell from the screen names.)

-Goz, http://thedirechasm.uni.cc/

- Goz
Sunday, April 25, 2004

"does that make me an "old-timer"

You are only an old-timer if you can remember Crusader Rabbit.

- Loran
Sunday, April 25, 2004

Good Lord! That means you're DEAD doesn't it? I mean, look here- http://www.toontracker.com/crusader/crusader.htm

And I'm male, for the record.

- Andy Tucker
Monday, April 26, 2004

40, male.

And yes, I also follow Ah My Goddess series. Maybe it is better getting a life before it get serious... ;-)

Wilson

- Wilson
Monday, April 26, 2004

I'll be 21 come June 8th.
It's funny because when I think about my age, I feel 21. Though I'm still very much 20 years old. Maybe I think about it more in terms of the exact year that is currently, and thus I think about myself as [current year] minus [my birth year] years old as soon as my mind accepts that current year. (You know how it takes some time to write down 2003 instead of 2004 after it actually starts, for example).
Just a side thought I had.

And I'm male.

I must have missed or sompletely forgotten that I read how long YKK has been running. 11+ years? Wow. Amazing how it's only really set the ground for the characters, getting into some deeper explanations about how things are in that world.... Or that's how it feels. Like he's just about to reveal something interesting about the backdrop of the world.
Though that's of course not what the manga is about really.

I guess I feel lucky that I had the oppurtunity to read all of what's been released of YKK over a weekend, all of it in succession. I feel like I'd rather wait for a bunch of chapters to be released and read them at once to get near that feeling again.
Read YKK maybe once each year?
I've always been more for reading originally serialised comics all at once (when realesed as tankubans/trade paper backs) rather than reading 15-30 pages once a month.

In a recent discussion on the Mangascreener Forums ( http://forum.mangascreener.com/viewtopic.php?t=1270 ) I found out that in addition to having YKK ( and Oh My Goddess! and Blade of the Immortal as has been said in this thread already) , Afternoon also releases Endo Hiroki's Eden, Blame!, Narutaru (released under the name Shadow Star in the US by Dark Horse), Seraphic Feather and Yugo, Canon God Exxaxion, Genzo Hitogata Kiwa, Shadow Skill (the last four I'm not familiar with myserlf).
Very cool magazine.

- Yrobianot Beni Caliamadte
Monday, April 26, 2004

I forgot to mention that Love Roma by Toyoda Minoru is also serialised in Afternoon.
Check out this awesome manga if you haven't already, Mangascreener has scanslated volume 1 for Japanese-illiterate fans (http://www.mangascreener.com/project.php?id=41).

I'm pretty sure many who frequent this forum will like it.

- Yrobianot Beni Caliamadte
Monday, April 26, 2004

Love Roma is pretty nice--I'm glad to see that someone is translating it.

- dn
Monday, April 26, 2004

23 only, male, dedicated YKK fan for over a year. Also reads "Ah! My goddesss", but not in "Afternoon" - it's being published in Poland, too (sic!)

About the "old timers"... if someone from Poland remembers "The adventures of Maya the Honeybee" or "G Force / Scientific Ninja Team Gatchaman / Battle for planets" (why did the Americans have to come up with so many titles - it's SO confusing :/ from 1980-ies, he (or she) can DEFINITELY call himself (or herself) an "Old timer" :)

- Cornel
Tuesday, April 27, 2004

49 here. I fell in love with YKK when I saw an episode of the OAV at a convention a couple of years ago. I was delighted to find the manga had the same flavour and I have continued being delighted as each succeeding chapter appears. Kudos to Damien for making it available to us non-nihongo gaijin.

- Robert Sneddon
Tuesday, April 27, 2004

Howdy,

It's Neil who needs to be thanked for his hard work here.

Best,

Dave

- dDave
Tuesday, April 27, 2004

I'm 24, and this is the first time I've posted to this forum. I was introduced to YKK in its OVA form back in my college anime club, fall of 1999. I didn't get into anime for very long when I saw the OVAs but it had struck a chord with me. Back then Anipike was the place to get information on Anime and it didn't have anything on this. I had forgotten about YKK over the years and I was only reminded of it after visiting Anime Expo last year. I tried to find information on this series again afterwards and found this site. When I read it, it gives me quite a nostalgia trip about that year in school and it also makes me kind of sad that I had lost touch with a lot of friends I made through anime.

I just want to say thanks.

- Petapaloosa
Tuesday, April 27, 2004

Actually, Robert has my name right. :>

- dn
Wednesday, April 28, 2004

17... I feel so young...
I just started reading it about 3-4 months ago, and I've bought the first 6 volumes in Japanese. I hope to be able to read them by the end of next year.
Also, my Japanese professor really enjoys YKK, too. (I lent her my hard copies and she keeps bugging me to buy more)

- Zelmel
Wednesday, April 28, 2004

Just 41, male. Sysadmin at a major University.
I remember Ogon Bat, Bokken Shonen Shadar, Ribon no Kishi, first and second Kimbas, Prince Planet, etc. so I think I qualify as a old-timer.
Love YKK.
YKK hits me hard with its depictions of shriking little rural towns. I'm from a big city Rio, but I saw a lot of half-abandoned towns in the rural areas in the state. All the kids that can flee to big cities to get an education and a better life. Only the old folks stay behind. I went visiting my mother last year (I live in the US now), did some travelling to places I've been before and saw everyting with new eyes. Oh , and I bought a Olympus c5050 digital camera that now I take everywhere.

- Z
Friday, April 30, 2004

28. OS/Kernel hacker. California.

I ended up reading through the entire archive last night and now have 11 volumes of YKK on order. I'm really looking forward to seeing the original art (it's such great stuff) and trying to read through (very, very slowly) in Japanese.

I love the pace and complexity of the story -- seems to be a lot of depth here. It'll be fun to see where it goes.

Huge thanks to Neil for translating this and making it available here. Wonderful stuff.

- Brian
Sunday, May 2, 2004

Conveniently, I keep forgetting my age ever since I trucked passed 30. On the other hand I remember that was born in 1966. Yes, a spritely lass at 38. (and a 'Hinoe Uma' a boot!)

My first anime experience was racing home to catch Kimba the White Lion and Ultraman.

I was pointed to this site about 4 months ago.

- KageMusouka
Wednesday, May 5, 2004

I get Afternoon regularly, and from the other titles in it, this is an older boys anthology. There are no furigana on top of kanji so the readers are assumed to be at least high school or above. Looking at other titles in Afternoon: AMG! is aimed at older teen/college boys, Narutaru is really for older teens, not kids. Blame!, Tokko, Shadow Skills, Exaxxion are definately for violent, fan-service titles for young adults as well.

Although it's in a older boy's mag, I still feel YKK out of place. But perhaps it's so unique that it's going to be out of place anywhere. I mean, I can't see YKK in a older men's anthology either. But I guess that's the beauty of the Japanese manga industry; there are so many titles and mags around that editors can take a risk and put an unique title like YKK in a mag like Afternoon. since YKK is more akin to the "alternative" comic scene in the US, I have a feeling that it's in the mag in the first place probably because an editor loved it, but it has grown in popularity over the years. You can never guess what your target audience will like unless you take some risk I guess.

I'm in my early 30's but I've been reading AMG! since early 90's. During the same time I've also been reading YKK faithfully. I guess I'm out of the original Afternoon target audience for years now, but YKK (and some nostalgia for AMG) kept my subscription to Afternoon.

- JC
Wednesday, May 12, 2004

24, Female

It's strange, how I first got introduced to YKK; it was entirely by accident. A year or so ago, I saw the first episode of YKK when it somehow mysteriously got burned onto a friend's copy of the Rurouni Kenshin Seisouhen OAV. Even my friend doesn't know how it got there. We didn't know the title of the show and the only thing we knew about it was what we could inexpertly translate (the show was in the original Japanese, without subtitles). The only clue we had was that the girl's name was Alpha, that she was an android, and that the episode was about her trying to take the perfect photograph.

We've been looking for so long for the series that episode came from that I'd just about forgotten it when, out of the blue, someone posted a message two days ago about YKK on the Anime and Manga Fanfics forum ( http://forum.anifics.com ). The post just mentioned YKK in passing, but it had a link to this site and, curious, I followed it. I was glad I did. Seeing the pic of Alpha on the front page made me realize that *this* was that mysterious anime I'd seen long ago. It must have been fate. ^_^

- C-chan
Sunday, May 16, 2004

I'm 15 male, I guess I'm one of the younger readers in this group. I do agree that this manga is aimed at a higher age level, my friends don't seem to like this manga very much. Does that mean I'm mature for my age... probably not.

- Roy Zhou
Sunday, May 23, 2004

I'm 27, male. I tried this manga before, but I didn't like it. When I gave it the second chance I actually found myself liking it. Can this possibly mean that I 'm now old?

- Teppo Takatukka
Wednesday, June 30, 2004

I'm about to turn 30. None of my friends or family enjoy YKK like I do, but I haven't given up on them yet :)
One of the things I love most about YKK is how it relaxing it is to read. I'm a network administrator by day, and it's a great way to calm down and forget about all those little tasks that need doing. Sometimes if I can't get to sleep, flipping through one of the YKK books works wonders.. if I remember to stop :)

- Brad
Wednesday, June 30, 2004

I thought I had posted to this topic already...the memory must be getting a bit hazy.

I'm 51, just a regular teenage boy!

- seaweb
Wednesday, June 30, 2004

I'm 47. I discovered this manga about 2 months ago via a review in AnimeFringe, bless 'em. Been watching anime since '82 (unless you count Astroboy, Gigantor, 8th Man and--naturally--Speed Racer).

I've seen a lot of giant robots (and I like 'em fine), but it's nice to see the more contemplative, serene side of Japanese pop culture, Miyazaki-san's recent popularity notwithstanding.

Thanks for translating this, Neil. It's a breath of fresh air in a Dragonball Z world.

- plm
Wednesday, June 30, 2004

>I'm 47. I discovered this manga about 2 months ago via a
>review in AnimeFringe, bless 'em.

The article plm referred to in the previous post is:

http://www.animefringe.com/magazine/2004/04/feature/02.php

It's nice and thorough like the older EX.org article http://www.ex.org/2.4/27-yokohama.html but considerably more up to date. Hopefully it'll inspire more folks to give it a try!

Oh yeah, this thread... 39 this year. And next year too, and the year after, and... :)

- K.D.
Sunday, July 4, 2004

19 Male, discovered YKK about 2 years ago...damn it sux having to wait for each chapter now...same with all other scanlations

- AltF4
Sunday, July 4, 2004

Thanks to the fresh young squid (or the several really old geezers, however you look at it) the average responding groupster is around 32 and male.

Otaku, ne?

- seaweb
Sunday, July 4, 2004

25 and a half. Reading this manga since 2002. I think that this one is one of the very best ever created. Loved AMG better once, thought =) Now YKK my favorite. Currently i'm translating it into russian.

- Konstantin
Sunday, July 4, 2004

Male. Turned 29 this April. Now closing in on 30 at the speed of 24 hours a day ^_^

I had learned about YKK from old EX review of the first OVA, back in XX century ^_^;; but exact year escapes me. Then in 2001 I ordered the DVD and, needless to say, the manga followed shortly.

YKK was my third ever-read manga (thanks to Andrew Cunningham for his text translation) but it's easily my all-time favorite now.

- Teisuu
Monday, July 5, 2004

18, male, just found YKK, and couldn't be happier. Not too many females responding here... still need to experience a bit of a demographic shift in the English speaking world I guess. I get a feeling I will end up following Ashinano Hitoshi as religiously as Yoshitoshi Abe.

- Haniel Goertz
Tuesday, July 6, 2004

I'm a 23 year old male, and I've been into anime since I was about 14, although I watched Voltron (and had the toys) when I was little. I am more of a reader, so I tend toward the Manga side of otakudom...

This manga definitly doesn't quite fit - it has no fanservice or violence per se, unlike Ah, My Goddess (fan service), or say Narutaru (horrible scarring violence). I think this is something that the editior decided and got away with, as the typical sectrum is already covered in Afternoon.

I've been trying to get some people into this series, and some of the people I know had already seen the OVAs. I have to say I think the manga is a different experience, as it's a long story of little events, kinda like real life. I read it all at once just a couple weeks ago, and it made me feel a million times better, as I was in a pretty bad mood at the time.

I think that the younger fans are actually mostly female, and manga has more female fans in the US (the shojo manga boom). But it's hard to reccommend this series to anyone because it doesn't fit ANYWHERE. Like I said, no real fanservice, no violence, no shonen-ai, no torrid romance. Kinda hard to pull people in, or explain your enthusiasm.

At least now almost any title could be liscensed - I find that Naru Taru is liscensed a bit shocking when I watched the anime (Darkhorse is so slow I think I'll probably learn Japanese before they finish translating the next 2 books). I just hope ADV, Tokyopop or Del Ray goes for it.

- Adam S
Tuesday, July 6, 2004

Something Adam S said reminded me of what, I'm sure, is a common experience of ours:

> Kinda hard to pull people in, or explain your enthusiasm.

Despite having a graduate degree in English and having written articles about YKK, in an informal situation I find it hard to explain this manga to friends or family. Either this conversation takes place in reality or quickly in your head:

Violence? No. Sex or fanservice? Not really. (Actually, there is some--but it is so subtle that it is hard to point out.) No fanservice, okay, is there any romance at all? Not as such. Well, this is anime--mecha? No. Swords? No. Chibi animals? No. Guns? No. Okay, back to basics: what about drama? Er, no. Okay, so what the heck is so great about this manga?

Well, the art is great. ^_^ There are one or two mysteries, but they have no real bearing on the events. The characters are cute.

The experience is exactly like trying to explain "Piano" or "Kokoro Toshokan" or "Tonari no Totoro". Ever try to explain the plot of Totoro? A little girl gets lost. That's the biggest thing that happens.

But, like Adam, it never fails to put me in a better mood.

- Ian Darrow
Tuesday, July 6, 2004

Sorry--that was WAY off-topic.

- Ian Darrow
Tuesday, July 6, 2004

It has mystery! :)

- Brad
Tuesday, July 6, 2004

I'll be 16 next month and I love YKK: I love it for it's cuteness and the interesting thoughts it arouses. I think a lot about serious things but I don't know if I'm really that different from other people.

I was kinda surprised to find that so many "Old timers" reading this and liking it a lot. I guess I'm just not famialiarised with the world of otakus since all of the people who watch anime and read manga that I've been acquainted with (all through IRC on a certain channel) are as young as 12 and as old as 21.

- Joonas Rajamki
Thursday, July 22, 2004

"I was kinda surprised to find that so many "Old timers" reading this..."

Just like Ojisan, we are fans, too.

- Loran
Thursday, July 22, 2004

I'm 17 and I've started reading YKK last year.
I simply love it because it's so slow paced and, well, I love looking at things and observing landscapes and the way feelings and impressions are described in YKK suits me perfectly.
Wenn I tried to get a friend interested in YKK, she accidentally started with the Afternoons and first she was like: "What is it ABOUT? I mean, a giant sunflower?"
But in the end, she liked it... ^^

- Ting Ting
Friday, July 23, 2004

23 My self.

As for catching it after it's ran for a while, no big deal, allows me to set down and read a huge amount in one sitting.

- Miah
Saturday, July 24, 2004

Wow, such a large demographic for this manga...

I always find it somewhat surprising when I learn about people interested in similar things as me. Not in a bad way, of course.

I'm 21 and I'm still enjoying anime and manga. It makes me wonder how long I'll keep it up. Reading up on other people gives me hope for a lifelong hobby. Or something to spend my money on, at least. I can see it now... collecting anime figures and toys until I'm 50...

I guess I could be considered a latecomer to the series, since I discovered it sometime last winter. I watched the OVAs first, since some of the fansub groups I follow had them posted. Then I read 9 volumes of the manga. Someday I think I'll revisit it, but in the meantime, I keep myself occupied with new anime from Japan and manga from Borders.

- kawaiiguy
Sunday, July 25, 2004

I'm 30. I watched "Battle of the Planets" when I was 6. ^_^

I'm also a huge anime fan... but when a fan reaches the age of most of us here it's a bit past the time to have anime posters in the bedroom or figurines in the living room. But since YKK is on the top of the list of 100's of animes I've seen, I've made an exception for it. Three framed cels from the first OVAs are the only decorations in my home that show I'm an anime fan. : )

Keep it subtle, keep it mellow. I love YKK!

-k

- Kempis Curious
Tuesday, July 27, 2004

34, male, Hungary

- Vida Laszlo
Friday, July 30, 2004

26, male, and started a bit more than two yeras ago, however first heard about YKK maybe three or four years ago.

- khathi
Friday, August 20, 2004

Hi,
this is my first post in this forum, though I'm reading it for a while now. :-)

I'm 31 an male. The first contact with the world of YKK was about 1 1/2 years ago, when I watched the second OVA series and fell instantly in love with it. After that I looked for more YKK stuff and discovered the first OVA and the manga.

As for anime and manga in general, I'm a late starter. Although I watched series like "Captain Future" as a kid, I got interested in anime and manga again only about three years ago.

Bye,
Wiesel

- Wiesel
Thursday, August 26, 2004

i'm 25('78) male, italian. i'ma a student in computer science and a anime/manga hardcore-scifi-cyberpunk-grotesque-literature and movies- fan but i'm totally japanese and half english -illiterate (Y__Y) so thank you very much, translators..! i love things like ghost in the shell(manga), appleseed(manga), grey(manga), venus wars(manga)five star stories, last exile, silent mobius(manga) but also things like kurogane (iron) communication, niea_7, haibane renmei, angel's egg. i bought a large number of mangas in their american versions, because us manga market is much more developed than italian.
searching for something new(for me), i downloaded a fansubbed version(bakamx) of the first oav s. because i thought that oavs were shots taken from something larger, and that larger thing was obviously the ykk's manga(a similar experience came from watching the oav of " the five star stories" and discovering then the manga) searching for that work, i came here.

ykk is very beautiful.

- Mauro
Friday, August 27, 2004

I'm a 24 year old male, currently a student of Criminology and Criminal Justice (got a late start on post-secondary education).

Got into YKK... hmm.... 'bout 2 years ago or so. I was going through manga too fast and asked around a forum I go to for suggestions and someone pointed out YKK for it's beauty.

So, I started checking it out, and man, it's now my favourite manga series bar-none :P A bit of a shock to my friends since they'd expected me to be into something action-based

And I gotta say I love this forum. Generally well thought out opinions, and wow, I don't think I've come across a flame yet!

- Devin C
Sunday, August 29, 2004

I'm 22 going 23 in more than two months time year old female. Working in a financial institution. Started reading back in 2002 on a whim after encountering several sites mentioning YKK yet failed to provide an image or two (scrooges, the lot of them!). Got curious and read my first chapter of another site (this is before I found out about this place). That would make it more or less two years ago since I started reading YKK.

Love it ever since.

- Dragna Vey
Monday, August 30, 2004

21, from Vienna/Austria.

I love YKK and PostioN.

Reading YKK is like walking in a Wood....relaxing.

After a stressfull (work)day, YKK is like medicine ^^

- t_g
Saturday, September 4, 2004

Quoth Loran, "You are only an old-timer if you can remember Crusader Rabbit..."

Very funny. I'm 47, which means I not only remember "Crusader Rabbit," but I also saw the original television run of "Astro Boy" in the U.S.

So that makes me an Ur-Fanboy.

- smurd
Sunday, September 5, 2004

14... everyone is this topic is older than me. <_< >_>

- James Flagg
Monday, October 25, 2004

That just means you're awesome, James. ^-^

- Carn
Monday, October 25, 2004

I'm 25 ('79), male, from Russia. By the chance was supplied with 11 volumes of YKK on the disk. Was charmed by it. I thought that Ah, My Goddess was the best manga, but had to change my opinion =)

- Drake
Tuesday, October 26, 2004

hm..., i'm 23, indonesia, after reading ykk, my age became 43, ykk makes me changes in a lot of way, and make value live more...., ah....., i wish i can go inside manga.., and live there happily ever after

- nova
Tuesday, October 26, 2004

It's cool to see so many people that fall in the age group of my older siblings (mid thirties and above) reading YKK. Goes to show you that you don't have to stop liking something just because you settle down and have a family or get a high profile job. Anyone young or old can like YKK.

As for me I'm 29 and only found YKK this year when I decided to look for manga scanlations that I could read without downloading them. Took me all of two maybe three weeks tops to get caught up with the entire thing. I've got a friend up near Vancuver in Canada that I introduced to the series who's 32 and loves it a lot. So I guess you can say we fall into the average age range for the series. And here I was thinking most of you were just out of college and read a lot of scientific magazines and books. Goes to show you can't assume always think everyone reading a manga series is going to be younger than you.

- Christine K
Tuesday, October 26, 2004

58, male, must be the old-timer of the group, tho my friend Lance is a couple years older and a more rabid YKK fan than I. I found the first OVA's years ago on tape and had to look hard for the manga.

My favorite genre is shoujo, like PSME, Kare Kano & Hana Yori Dango, but I also like some shounen series like Yumeria & DearS.

- Kerry
Wednesday, October 27, 2004

Hum hum.
Feeling frightfully young here, being as I am the sprightly age of 20. But I still listen to Radio 2, so am effectively a pensioner. It evens out at around 43.

Discovered YKK about three months ago whilst looking for the Haibane Renmei doujinshi. People said this was a manga that had the magic of Haibane Renmei, and since HR is far and away the best series (anime or other) I have seen I checked this out post haste. Never has the transition from complete ignorance to utter fanboy been so swift.

- Akkur
Saturday, November 6, 2004

I'm a 17 year-old-male going on 40 and found YKK not too long ago. I wandered in from a Megatokyo forum member's signature to his livejournal which happened to have a first post concerning YKK. He seemed very enthused (poonai_4_ever?) so I thought I'd check it out. Day later, I had downloaded all the zipped chapters and a week later, the OAVs/manga burned to CD-R. ^_^ There is just something about the slow but meaningful passage of time in YKK that makes me slow down and contemplate serenely about the simple things in life. ^^ It reminds me of reading about the philosophy of Taoism in World History.
I guess I'm a young'un in this forum. ^_^ From the quiet friendly community here, this place feels like sitting down to have a drink at Cafe Alpha on a quiet sunny day with smiling Alpha leaning against her counter with one hand holding her head as customers converse friendly-like to eachother.

- Katei
Tuesday, November 9, 2004

53, and a fan of anime since "Magic Boy" in '62 and "Astro Boy" in '63 hit the U.S. I just wish I'd found out about YKK years ago instead of less than a month ago.

- Greg Crider
Thursday, February 17, 2005

I'm 50. However, through some torturous meta-physics and a faulty time machine (it's stuck on "forward"), I find I am actually half-a-century old.

Wow.

My mental age is somewhere between twelve and twenty two - as needed.

(Oh, yes. Could the 'News' page PLEASE be updated?)

- Robin
Friday, February 18, 2005

27 and female. I'm surprised really. I really expected the demographic to be skewed the other direction, don't really know why looking back at it. Maybe because the drawings are fairly simple? Shonen tends to be a bit more complicated, more shading, full backgrounds instead of flower outlines, etc..

I'm particularly fond of YKK because of the attraction of a world where you can take time to do things like walk around the house counter clockwise. I also have found that some of the lesser known Jimmy Buffett songs have the same feeling, odd though it may be.

- naraxa
Tuesday, February 22, 2005

45, male. About 2 years ago I began to be curious about anime, starting with miyazake, little knowing I was skirting the edge of a vortex... anyway, I got to know YKK through the second OAV and worked my way backward from there to the entire manga.
I keep looking around Vancouver and imagining it with a population of about five thousand, the Pacific fifty feet higher, the Douglas firs and Himalayan blackberries reclaiming the streets and all of it with the air of a sleepy fishing town - a kind of VKK.
Hey, Christine K, who’s your Vancouver YKK friend?

- terry sunderland
Sunday, March 13, 2005

I hate to admit it to myself, but I'm almost 42... :p

I've been a bit of an anime nut since I started watching Kimba the White Lion and Gigantor on TV as a very small child... Over time I gradually became aware of the differences between "certain" cartoons. Some were simple and full of black and white cardboard cutouts for characters. Others depicted a more realistic and evolutionary quality to their casts... they also had a special style that resonated with my sensibilities... By the boom of the 1980's occurred, I was already widely aware that there was a vast difference between what was coming to the US from Japan and what was "produced locally"...

The realization experience eventually caused me to jump into the pursuit of original material with both feet. I began reading manga in college after picking up a series of imported Film Comics from Macross the series back in 1984... I now have amassed a collection of both anime and manga that has my wife wondering if we need a bigger house to "hide" it all! Unfortunately for her, my boys already have taken a liking to my side obsession... :D

I am SO IMPRESSED with YKK. I'm not surprised that I had never heard of it before as its such a low-key and quiet story, but it DOES surprise me how prevelant info about this series is. I stumbled upon it almost by mistake, and most certainly by serendipity. Four days ago I was reading reviews of recent manga releases on the AnimeOnDVD.com forums and noticed a fetching character being used as an avatar by another user. Happily he posted the series name in his sigline and my quest to find out more about this girl called "Alpha" began. I must say that after downlaoding the translations here I'm flabbergasted and hooked deeply by this tender and reflective story. After having recently seen Speilberg's A.I. I am SO very happy to read an alternative to the violence and despair depicted in that film. Perhaps as Alpha lives out her days, despair is to be expected, but for now the glorious simplicity of YKK brings a feeling of warmth and reflection to the heart and mind... The next step is obtaining the tankoban!

I need to go thank that user on AnimeOnDVD now...

Darin~

- Darin Kirschner
Monday, March 14, 2005

To Terry: He's a shoujo-ai writer that goes by the name Shanejayelle.

- Christine K
Monday, March 14, 2005

23

- The GZeus
Tuesday, March 15, 2005

At 45 years of age I have been watching anime avidly now for about 10 years. Before that I had been introduced to anime when Robotech came to the US. I think the main reason that I turned to anime was a lack of material in US and European films. Especially sci fi material. I started reading sci fi books in 74 or 75, starting with Robert Heinlein's The moon is a harsh mistress, and I have been hooked ever since.

As for YKK, I just recently found the anime and the manga. I started by reading the manga first then downloading the fansub OAV's I was really impressed with the manga, and I found the OAV's to be very enjoyable, but like a lot of anime not to cover enough of the manga.

One thing that really impressed me was how subtle his story lines and drawings are. In fact because of that, the scenes between the characters that have a bit of sensuallity in them are extremely effective in conveying shear raw emotion. Much more so I believe than even some of the scenes in Ah Megamisama.

- R T Childers
Wednesday, September 7, 2005

19 this 11.

I came across this manga about one year ago in search for something more meaningful in the entertainment industry. IIRC, what I did was skimming through thousands of anime/manga from a-z, reading only 10 first pages to judge the whole manga (or watch 10 mins to judge the anime) Ykk is one of the finds during that treasure hunt.

- tongHoAnh
Wednesday, September 7, 2005

Currently 23 years old.

- painsama
Wednesday, September 7, 2005

38, Male

I knew of this manga for a long time, but neve found the time or the motivation.

Some months ago I could see the OVAs and became quite intrigued, mainly because the story has no plot at all and a ridiculous amount of time was devoted to things apparently so unimportant as a sunset... not something that I dislike, quite the opposite.

So I found this site by chance, and began too browse across the pages. I was lucky, because my curiosity led me to inspect the double pages and this particular chapter crash on me

http://ykk.misago.org/Volume3/19

It was sooo over the top, the two women carried away by the music and becoming almost one single person... but at the same time, it appealed to some deep and dear layers of my personality...

...that I coudn't do anything that read the rest...

- DavidF
Wednesday, September 7, 2005

I'm 54. I know that there are at least two lurkers here who are older than I am, and I'm curious who the oldest regular is.

Is there anyone else here old enough to remember Tom Terriffic and Gerald McBoing-Boing?

- El Gonzo
Thursday, September 8, 2005

Gerald McBoing-Boing for sure, but mostly through my Dad who bought us Super8 movies of them to play on his Bell & Howell...

How's THAT for dating me? ;)

As I said earlier, I started my Anime fascination with watching Gigantor on it's first run in the late 60's... the manga came with my college days in the 80's and the quick realization that Robotech was actually Macross...

- Darin~
Thursday, September 8, 2005

Oh, man! Super 8 came along when I was in my late 20's. Who's dated?

- Fool Gonceau
Thursday, September 8, 2005

26, male. My files of the YKK prologue are dated 2002 January, so I'm going to guess that's about when I was introduced to it...I can't help but feel a strong sort of bond with Alpha, as I am what one might call a hermit, often passing whole weeks without really seeing another person or even going (or looking...) outside. Occasionally sitting down and reading through a few volumes of YKK in such a situation really gives one the urge to just go on a walk and appreciate the fact that, yes, there is still a world out there...but when you only see it every so often, you definitely get a sense that time moves ever onwards, the world keeps changing...and you aren't. *sigh* Yep, definitely feel a bond with Alpha.

- T. Cook
Thursday, September 8, 2005

I'm 51 and male. Although I was introduced to YKK by my 21 year old daughter. I'm not a hermit, but we've chosen to live either on the edge of Canada (arctic) or in the boonies of British Columbia (Kootenays) for 30 years, so YKK really resonates with me. Life is really slower (and saner) here and the young people almost always leave to find work elsewhere and come back much older. Don't feel like I'm standing still though - just aging well in a slightly different direction from my city friends :)

- Otter
Friday, September 9, 2005

24 in a month, living in Finland, and currently a student (studying the secrets of Win2k3/Linux servers).

I must admit I'm suprised by the number of "old-timers" reading YKK, as most anime/manga fans seem to be under the magic limit of 30 years.

- Simo Simula
Friday, September 9, 2005

Most of us "old timers" aren't computer friendly enough to be anime/manga fans. Most of these non internet communities seem to be on campuses (at least around here). But some of us learned to code on punch cards back in the stone age - which was a very YKK type of experience. You would bring your little pile of offerings to the sysop and then go for a coffee. When you came back, you got to try to figure out why your program hadn't run, and try again. etc. etc. We certainly learned patience and to appreciate good coffee.

- Otter
Friday, September 9, 2005

Let's just say that appreciation of YKK and PositioN seem to take a certain mature outlook, no matter what the reader's age.

- El Gonzo
Friday, September 9, 2005

I’m a 45 year old male living in Conroe, Texas. I have been a regular visitor to this forum for quite some time. The story, pace and artwork of YKK has made me slowly change the way I look at the world over the years and I have really begun to appreciate the beauty in simple, everyday things. Ashinano-Sensei is so extremely good at drawing one into the story that the even the most seemingly ordinary scene or event can bring on rather profound feelings. It’s hard to find such work to enjoy these days.

- M3K
Friday, September 9, 2005

I'm 24, male graphic designer. After reading this article (http://www.ex.org/2.4/27-yokohama.html) I started hunting. It was a need to figure out what YKK was all about. Eventually, I found this site and read everything.

It's soothing.

- Andrew Sikes
Sunday, September 11, 2005

Just passed 27 4 days ago... hmn.. a guy in malaysia. Found this site by chance a months ago. I think i actually saw the YKK links in some manga review websites but did not take interest from the short desc then. Was glad i found it now. Been an avid anime & manga fan for quite some time since the days of saturday morning cartoons :)
Well ... the youngters of now will the the old timer of the near future quite soon considering that YKK will continue on for at least 10 more years ( I sure hope so ).

- Tiren78
Sunday, September 11, 2005

In one month I will be 26. :(

I'm in love with YKK for almost two years. :)

Huge thanks to Neil. :)))

- Elefant
Monday, September 12, 2005

" I get a feeling I will end up following Ashinano Hitoshi as religiously as Yoshitoshi Abe."

hmm..i like abe too.
not all of his works, but serial experiments lain, haibane renmai and texhnolyze.

i am not the big manga reader, i watch more anime .

from all the mangas out there, i read only a few:

1) YKK
2) PositioN
3) Love Hina (the first manga i've ever read)

- ykk_fan aka mr.aufziehvogel
Monday, September 12, 2005

i forgot..-i am turning 23 this year and i am from austria/vienna (like i wrote here before as ykk_fan :)

and i read the folowing mangas too:

planetes, aria, aqua

- mr.aufziehvogel
Monday, September 12, 2005

57 coming up to 58, from western Canada. I came to YKK through the anime releases. I have several friends in the 30 to 45 range who are also fans of the series. To me, it is like a giant puzzle, the key is in what we are not being told. I find it quite interesting following the various speculations about the history of Alpha's world, particularly since I have a fairly broad science background.

- Roger
Monday, September 12, 2005

First time posting. *waves excitedly*

I'm 24, female, from Malaysia. First experience with this wonderful manga was when I downloaded a chapter scanlated by MangaProject on a whim, without any prior information regarding what I had just downloaded. It turned out to be a pleasant read and I got hooked on it. This was back late 2002, early 2003. Been reading it ever since. ^o^ v

- Dragna Vey
Wednesday, September 14, 2005

i, myself is 21, and is started reading this when i was 19.

this has been a good manga, and it helped me slow down my time and life.

- terra
Wednesday, September 14, 2005

42, male.

I have been reading for the past couple months and loving every bit!

Thanks to Andrew Sikes, a few posts above this, for posting this link - http://www.ex.org/2.4/27-yokohama.html. That is a very cool review of YKK.

- Silverback
Wednesday, September 14, 2005

I'm 21 myself, though at times I feel like I've lived a whole lot longer....

- Esker
Wednesday, September 14, 2005

I'm 27.

- Verythrax
Wednesday, September 14, 2005

I'm 19, male and I'm italian

- Roberto
Thursday, September 29, 2005

Just turned 21 male, italian. For what i'm concerned i'll have loved this manga even many years ago.....even when i first started reading magas... and thus i won't feel older...maybe it's just myself. I've started reading it this year and there are way too much reason for loving it.....both personal and not. Since i don't know jap i can rely only on this translation....so keep it up!!!(i don't think it'll be serialized here soon..)

- bluecrow
Thursday, September 29, 2005

Mostly a lurker here... I don't really post much but still find myself checking these boards several times a week.

I'm 24 (nearly 25), male.

- Silver
Saturday, October 15, 2005

a 24 year old finnish bloke.

- lepinkainen
Monday, October 24, 2005

I'm a 21 year old British guy, and 'discovered' the YKK anime a couple of years back, though I only found the fan-translated manga a short while ago (literally hours, in fact), and am steadily making my way through them, with occasional breaks to do silly things like post here.

I've read the first couple of volumes, and am loving them even more than the OVA's, which is saying something ^_^


Amusingly, I can't stand coffee - tea's more my thing - though I do appreciate the art of lazing around... which is rather a given, as I'm a student ^_^

It seems that I'm in the lower age bracket of the YKK fanbase, a fact which is perhaps reflected in the fact that none of my friends share my enthusiasm for the show. Or can bear to even sit through twenty minutes of it. Still, this community gives me hope... perhaps I should try and get my mother to watch it? [Sorry, couldn't resist a mild dig - though I am actually being serious, she does enjoy a lot of the comics and other 'slow' anime (e.g. Kino's Journey) I throw her way, so I could see her liking it]

- Yann Best
Tuesday, November 1, 2005

34 Male Aussie. I first heard of YKK a few weeks ago when someone suggested it as a recommendation for people who liked shows such as Haibane Renmei, Somedays Dreamers, and Kino's Journey. Well I have not seen the last title, but the first two are in my top 5 titles of all time.

It was only two days ago when I managed to get hold of the OVAs and after watching them I HAD to find the manga Translations (I can not read Japaneese). I have just a matter of hours ago finished reading all the scanlations up to Chapter 136.

Just an observation.. This thread was started over 18 months ago. This has got to be the only place I have posted that has a thread still alive after so long. To me thats an amazing thing.

- HeDanny
Wednesday, November 2, 2005

22, male from Malaysia.

I bumped into YKK after browsing some manga scanlations listing. It's a refreshing change of pace compared to other manga, and YKK remains one of my favourites. :D

My friends give me strange looks when I try to get them to read YKK though :/

- Tangram
Sunday, November 27, 2005

33 y'ld from Mexico.

I don't remember when exactly i started liking YKK, i watched the anime first raw and definitely i enjoyed a lot of the chars and the music, then someway i happened to find this site and started reading more of the manga, now YKK is one of my favorites.^^

- Naret
Sunday, November 27, 2005

19, male, the Philippines. (Err, asl? Haha.)

Hmm. I did a little something on Microsoft Excel earlier. Added 2 years for posts from 2004 and 1 year for posts from 2005. Anyway, the results (based on your posts so far):

(age) : (number of readers)
16-20 : 13 (13.8%)
21-30 : 39 (41.0%)
31-40 : 19 (20.0%)
41-50 : 15 (15.7%)
51-60 : 9 (9.5%)

Yep. YKK for all ages. (Well, almost. Not for kids though.)

- Jonathan
Wednesday, September 27, 2006

24, male.
In my attempts to "spread the word", I've managed to get one person interested int it, out of about a dozen I've tried, and she was 19, and blitzed through it.

In retrospect, by having a long backlog to get through when I starte, I do believe I missed out on the process of mulling it over and rereading back issues between stories. At the very end, every time a new chapter came out I'd read the new issue, then it'd remind me of past chapters and before I knew it it was two hours later and I'd read a volume and a half worth. Earlier on, I'd read through a volume going forward instead, and I rather prefer the alternative.

- Speaker59
Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Almost 24 now, male, russian. Wached some anime on TV in my childhood (Firebird 2772, Macross, some other) and really like it. I am an anime fan since then.
I found out about YKK accidentally in autumn 2005 by looking through a CD with lots of different mangas, mostly incomplete. I found three volumes of YKK there, and fall in love with it in an instant. I was searching the web for the rest of it and I finally discovered this place. I read all scanlated YKK volumes available at that time almost in about a week. It was even greater, than I expected. Such calm, and still emotional. Such joyful and still sad. Such light-hearted and still serious. And full of nostalgic feelings about time, running away like a sand between our fingers. It makes you to stop your everyday rush, look around and think about simple things around you, like beauty of a sunset or a cloud, sound of the wind or sweet smell of withered leaves under your feet. YKK really change something in me for good.
But that site gives me not only YKK. I really like the crowd here, on that board. Discussions here are tranquil and sometimes philosofical and people tends to be frendly with each other, witch is so rare this days. It is great, that a place like this exist.

- Dmitriy
Wednesday, October 4, 2006

I totally agree with being "sad" about not being able to have read it from the beginning. Especially in that bonus chapter, when it said "Here's to 12 years without a break..."

But you, you person who created this board, you couldn't have read it when it started anyway. You would have been 6.

- Jen
Friday, October 20, 2006

"Actually, I envy those who discover YKK late in the game and get to read it in one long breathless rush. "

Actually, I don't agree, I would much more have desired to read the manga from day 1 until the end of the run. Feels as if I 'burnt up' the magic in the series too quickly, shame tho

- Rudolf
Sunday, November 19, 2006

Rulof is right. when you discover it late in the game, you can blaze right throu, but u'll lose the magic that come with it.

YKK does often make us have another perspective on our Life and the city.

btw, i posted before, but my age is now 22. i'm still keenly interested in YKK and read it once in a while.

- terra
Sunday, November 19, 2006

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