I knew from the moment I started sorting out what manga to cover this month which series I would end it with. It had to be the series that no one ever thought would be licensed, to the point that its unlicensability had become something of an inside joke among manga readers and reviewers. It was too old, too odd, too obscure, and generally unmarketable to your average reader.
And yet here it is, less than a year after it was first announced, like a proper Christmas miracle.
YOKOHAMA KAIDASHI KIKOU, by Hotoshi Ashinano. First published in 1994 and first published in North America in 2022.
PLOT:
Alpha the android runs her master's coffee shop while they're away. There's not a huge demand for it in a world where most of Japan's major cities have been swallowed by the sea, but she does have a few neighbors who regularly pop for conversation and trade. Sometimes Alpha ventures out on her trusty scooter to faraway towns, traversing the few paved roads that haven't broken down or turned into beachfront property, enjoying the sights and hoping to get a new message from her long-absent owner.
