YKK Forum

Takahiro's & Makki's parents?

Where are Takahiro & Makki's parents? Alpha never met them & I don't remember any references to them.

- Peter by the Sea
Wednesday, October 6, 2004

Perhaps they died along with 99% of the Japanese population in whatever cataclysm swept across the land 13 years before?

- Loran
Thursday, October 7, 2004

usually ive noticed that, in most manga, that the parents of some main character never turn up, even though they're still alive - love hina, full metal panic and a.i. love you for excample]
maybe, storywise, takahiro and makkies parents sent them away for their health, or perhaps they couldnt afford to support them.

- macloud
Friday, October 8, 2004

The "parentless (high)schooler" IMHO is mostly a plot driving trick - making her/him more "independent" and less common: Which pubertal kid or teen wouldn't want to live apart from his 'opressive parents':-?
And it reduces the budget, too<_<

- Rainer
Friday, October 8, 2004

I wonder if Makki was born around there. Makki's "auntie" and "uncle" speak in a thick rural dialect but she almost never speaks in that way. She does speak the Kanto (a wider area) dialect but it does not sound rural.

- kGo
Friday, October 8, 2004

Any chance they're not human children at all?

We only "see" the robot people who identify themselves. Robot people may be a substantial portion of the visible population.

What if a world-altering event also took away a big percentage of the reproductive-capable population? Maybe the bigger cities (where government seems to have been humbled and where much of the physical infrastructure seems to be missing) were the first targets of some sort of attack.

And what if the survivors, able to measure their own untenable existence, chose to create or modify robot people to be self-sustaining...and the form their reproduction took mirrored the human process: birth of a non-mature being who slowly acquires self-awareness and self-determination.

The older people, like Sensei and Ojisan, with no species future, sort of exist now as maternal/paternal surrogates.

Perhaps it's reproduction that cause the reset that robs the robot people of their memories?

- seaweb
Friday, October 8, 2004

Nah, another aspect of robot life is very long life or immortality, and Alpha points out that Makki and Takahiro don't have such a "gift":
http://ykk.misago.org/Volume6/38.html

And while Nai says that he's "all man" as much as Alpha is a woman (implying sexuality is possible), there's no indication that robots start as children... except for Alpha's dream http://ykk.misago.org/Volume2/52
Ooo they're so cute! ^_^ However, there seems to be more evidence that Alpha's baby and toddler stage was in her current body. http://ykk.misago.org/Afternoon2004/7

I'm also thinking there is a crtical fertility problem in the world, and it would follow that T&M are offspring of two people who were/are fertile. It could be the two children were assigned to the care of this villiage, and they both have the understanding that they are expected to marry and reproduce. Somehow I feel it explains Takahiro's past behavior towards her, not having much choice about the situation he seemed to tolerate her the best he could. The recent chapter where he sent her two letters might be an indication of real romantic feelings towards Makki, who is now a young lady. ^_^ I hope so!

-k

- Kempis Curious
Saturday, October 9, 2004

At about 14 she's a rather *young* lady, neh?

- Rainer
Sunday, October 10, 2004

Howdy,

There is no evidence in the books regarding Makki or Takahiro's parents. We just don't know what happend to them.

But remember that Makki and Takahiro live way out in the country. It's not surprising that there are no other kids out there. If you look in the background whenever there is a story set in a big city, you can find lots of kids, so I think any population decline is gradual and gentle.

Best,

Dave

- dDave
Tuesday, October 12, 2004

If Takahiro's biological parents are still alive, they don't seem very close to him. This statement by Takahiro's was poignant:

http://ykk.misago.org/Afternoon2004/25

He seems to regard Ojisan, Alpha, his "uncle" & "aunt" as his family. They are the ones who "raised him" & loved him. I wonder how his relationship with Makki will continue?

- Peter by the Sea
Tuesday, October 12, 2004

Nai described Takahiro's "home" as, in Japanese, 'umareta tokoro', which literally means "the place where you were born" [a2004, 30]. Takahiro didn't contradict Nai.

I guess we can assume that Takahiro was born around there.

- kGo
Wednesday, October 20, 2004

Reply to this topic
Topic list


Contact the translator