YKK Forum

Ch. 122 - Discussion - Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler

Boy, that was a sad chapter. It's soo hard to gauge the passage of time. Poor Alpha. It must be scary for her to think about the loss of her house to the water. If the house dissappears before Owner returns (if he is still alive), that would be sad. Ouji-san has also inquired about sensei living alone. I think Ouji-san knows that he is close to dying and doesn't want to be alone anymore.

Back in the chapter called Two People - I predicted that chapter was foreshadowng Alpha's abandonment. In two people, there was only Alpha and the coffe machine. The coffe machine still worked, waiting patiently for someone to come along.

When Ouji-san, and Sensei die, Taka and Maki will be away, Ayase may be with Maki, Owner will certainly be gone (I feel his is a contemporary of Sensei), only Alpha and Kokone and Maruko will exist, but Alpha may be alone out in this town.

Could the ending be Director Alpha returning to Earth in the future and finding Alpha M2 in standby mode? She would turn on and say, "Oh! Sister! Can I get you some coffee?"

- Steven Robinson
Monday, March 21, 2005

"Oh! Sister! Can I get you some coffee?"

hehe that put a smile on my face. I doubt the series will take such a dramatic turn though.

- Altf4
Tuesday, March 22, 2005

That's a very good alternative, but seeing from the previous chapter I somehow agree with Altf4 that the ending might not be that dramatic (although it's a very good & sad ending I must say).
however I do agree that there's a chance that director alpha might have come down to earth in the end.

*btw, if the plot goes like you say then YKK will be one of the best manga who have the saddest ending (imagine being alone in the world waiting for someone who might even already gone...more like saikano I think).

A bit oot, there's also something bugging me after reading a chapter (I forgot where) where alpha and the man carrying birdfish were talking about the neighborhood near cafe alpha long time ago, it seems that the "owner" may not even exist in the first place.

- Kuswardhana
Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Owner does exist, and Ayase (birdfish man) has probably met him before. See chapter 21, Watergod, pg 89 of Vol 3. Ayase brings a letter of introduction from Hatsuseno sensei (at least, in the MangaProject version it's written Hatsuseno, can't get my hands on the original to be sure). Is the name a coincidence? I wondered why Alpha and Ayase never made the connection during their conversations.

- cube
Wednesday, March 23, 2005

That is the second time I have seen references to MangaProject version of the translation, however, when I search for YKK on manga project, it always refers me here! Is there another translation out there?

- Steven Robinson
Thursday, March 24, 2005

"Hasseno" vs. "Hatsuseno"

OOOHHHHH!!! I Know the answer! I know the answer!!! I remember this from when I was trying to learn the hiragana! dDave be sure to correct me if I am wrong!

The hirugana "tsu" is used to denote a double consonant for the consonant sound following(you know what I mean, I am spelling challenged). This is necessary because "~n" is the only single consonant sound in the japanese Kanas. All other symbols are consonant/vowel combinations or else single vowel sounds.

The doubled consonant is read with a barely perceptible pause.

So, "hattenshimashita" is pronounced "hat-tenshimash'ta"

So, nields saw the "Ha tsu se no" combination and intepreted it based on the double consonant rule. The manga project translator must have simple done a direct transcription! Ne? Ne?

http://ykk.misago.org/Volume1/143.html has the name on the mail box, but I can't see the letters....

- Steven D Robinson
Thursday, March 24, 2005

Umm... That's both right and wrong, Steven.

The use of the geminate consonant (small "tsu") to mark doubled vowels is called "sokuon". You are right in thinking that this would possibly cause some confusion, if the name were written using hiragana.

However.... Sensei's name will not have been written using kana, but with kanji, as on the mailbox - and the kanji are the source of the confusion, because there are (as nearly always is the case) several possible readings.

You may not be able to read the kanji on her mailbox, but I make them out as

初瀬野

(these characters are in Unicode entities, and probably won't make it through the forum posting to display in your browser - if they do, you need a unicode-enhanced font, anyway. If the entity names display instead of the characters themselves, you need to paste them into a text document and display it in a browser - that should convert the entity names to characters).

The reading for these characters is singularly unhelpful, since they can be read as either "Hatsuseno" or "Hasseno". However, most names that combine a kanji which can be read with a terminal "-tsu" with the a kanji that starts with an "s"-series mora tend to transform into a sokuon doubled consonant. I'd read it as "Hasseno", unless informed otherwise. Personally, though, I think "Hatsuseno" sounds more elegant, but that's just me.

A note on the kanji of Sensei's name....

初 reads as "first time, beginning"

瀬 reads as "rapids, current, torrent, shallows, shoal"

野 reads as "plains, field, rustic, civilian life"

Interesting, isn't it? It's as if the kanji of her name tell her story...

Of course, I could have misread them - that's a pretty unclear scan, and my copy of that tankoubon hasn't arrived yet, so I can't check the original.

- abunai
Thursday, March 24, 2005

Small correction to the above, since I (uncharacteristically) posted without proofreading my post first:

For "Sensei" read "Hasseno-sensei" (or "Owner").

Don't want to cause confusion between "Sensei" and "Hasseno-sensei". :-)

- abunai
Thursday, March 24, 2005

So, each Kanji symbol means all those different things? How can anyone understand what someone is writing? It boggles my mind.

And, if the kanji means those words are the individual sounds of the kanji the same as Hasseno, or if the kanji were standing along, would they be pronounced differently?

It's all so confusing....

- Steven Robinson
Friday, March 25, 2005

regarding MangaProject's translation of YKK. u can find the latest chapters at their website. Scroll down to the very bottom

http://mangaproject.cjb.net/

i'm sure u can find the rest at their IRC channel. But it seems the scanlation has stopped at Chapter 100.

- Altf4
Saturday, March 26, 2005

The parts about the meanings and ambiguities of the kanjis that make up the names of the main characters would be an useful addition to the Wikipedia article. Could I persuade someone knowledgable to add it it? The recent addition on the geographical aspects of names was very interesting.

- C_P
Tuesday, March 29, 2005

I would expect that when the sea does consume the cafe it will be while she is not at home, probably while she is out traveling. She comes walking from her journeys to find the cafe gone, along with everone else. She goes to the gas station to find her bike fueled up.
Tacks up a message to her master and gets on her bike, riding off.

Personaly i think it will be some time before they end things. Still have to get the old car out of the shed (V11, C111, P161)

Ojisan's health isn't a secret, it's mentioned at the start of the manga (V1, C0, P14).

But i'll stop speculating now before I start figuring out how fast the water is rising (something like 1/2 meter per year)

- BlindWanderer
Thursday, March 31, 2005

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