Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō

Felt pretty consistent to me. It continued the growing up of the kids, which was one of my favorite parts of the manga. The main reason Alpha being a robot matters is that she continues existing in this dying world as everything around her keeps changing. This is mostly shown through the kid characters though, but there are other things too. The growing older thing is also shown with the old man and the doctor, where there are some flashbacks to them being younger, or even the chapter with the ship that the doctor piloted when she was younger.

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>not having a purpose
being (able to be only) a robot, i mean

>how could I criticize something that is specifically lacking from the series?
By elaborating on what you lack. Saying that something is lacking is hardly a valid criticism.
>All the manga had was the alpha character with serene countrysides occasionally accompanied by quaint side characters. If that is all there is then that exactly is the criticism of the series and only a lack can be pointed out.
But that's not everything the manga is about below the surface. Alpha's story is a story of relation, a story about self-discovery and personal growth, a story about the passage of time and transience of things, an examination of human nature in a completely unique take on the apocalypse/end of humanity scenario. I find it interesting and substantial.
From your original post, it seemed like you completely missed the point and were looking at it in the most superficial way imaginable.

>The appeal to most, and when being suggested to others, is that YKK is an aesthetically pleasing Manga that specifcally does not focus on story but engages the world in the series very solemnly and artistically.
Why the claim shouldn't hold? The art is very good, so is the literary aspect. It utilizes the medium to its full potential by reading like a poem in one scene, and talking completely through visuals in the next one. To me, it's very artistic and aesthetically pleasing.

>My criticism lies exactly with the fact that if this second point were the main force for YKK it failed as the series continued and the substitute being the story of Alpha, her developement or engagement with others it was far too shallow.
I don't understand your point. The series delivered both the second point AND the story of Alpha which doesn't make it any worse in my opinion.

>Most of the scenery, for which this series is more known for, is simple but carries a somber feeling with it (or tries to). Yet this scenery itself never gets to flourish since it is rarely every being brought into contrast...
>The relation the characters have with their enviroment (specifically these desolate areas) are (near) never explored and the lack thereof wasn't engaging
The scenery doesn't need a contrast in the manga, the contrast already is in your mind. Unless you live in Africa, you are used to living in your own version of how all of this originally looked. The contrast exists between our present world and the one being shown. The relation of characters to the environment is therefore obvious. And it's also shown in some concrete anecdotes throughout the story.

>The initial series benefited solely from its setting and art style but that didn't carry it after a certain point. I wouldn't in a serious discussion call it bad or even shit but it is a great disappointement. The writers to me appear to be uneducated or unexplored in the field they tried to develope their own, for whatever reason, and it really showed since once again a japanese series falls off after not providing anything but a great premise.
That's, like, your opinion man. Seriously though, you can have this opinion by all means, but I disagree. You haven't provided enough concrete reasoning behind it, so I can't pick a single thing to disprove.

>私はロボットではありません
どうだろうか

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Are those pictures made by Ashinano himself? The moonrunes seem familiar.

Indeed they are

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>I don't understand your point
My point is they are too weak as I elaborated. I am not speaking of a lack of either but that neither suffices.
>Why the claim shouldn't hold?
Because the same art on its own, expecially so minimalistic as a manga (and specifically YKK) does not hold on its own. After the third volume you have seen the depth of the art to which on its own it would become rather repetetive if it were not the material for something else for example: ethical motivs, character developement, actual change in enviroment, etc.

i feel some points in this post I answered in my second reply desu.

The guy who did the recent re-translation/rescan of YKK had a link on one of the blog entries where these were posted. It was some old japanese fan site from the first half of the 00s

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>The scenery doesn't need a contrast in the manga, the contrast already is in your mind
I am fully aware of this and i am saying that exactly this is why the initial series gets carried by its premise meaning its novelty to the reader so that when he first reads and sees the depictions he himself makes that contrast. The manga itself struggles with this and once other aspects fall short the reader will no longer be excessively dreaming about the city under the surface of the water through his own imagination but would request the manga itself to offer something, literally Anything! This is why I said the post apocalyptic scenery fails to ever properly engage the reader since it is more the reader initially projecting and the manga offer nothing further:
>Rarely ever is even the first mention of something enough to engage the emotions (to the reader also the ethical implications) attached to these post-apocalyptic sceneries and a follow up appears practically never.
(1/2)

>recent
It's been more than two years now.

I am not trying to justify that the reader needn't himself engage with the aesthetic pleasure but that after the 50th pannel his own resource is exhausted and the manga offers nothing new itself.

Compare a tree that continuously observed will engage the subject's sensory and visual imagination by first exploring all its branches, the foliage, the bark, the roots, the grass underneath and with the wind moving the leaves and branches and the light and shadow changing along will have the observer give an endless delight since he will be continuously engaged and the longer he observes the more he (not being redundant) observes. The essence of the tree while remaining the same offers more the more one contiuous to observe.
YKK gives a still world that upon first viewing allows the reader to imagine his own additions (a positive for YKK being able to do this), but after a while he would need the manga's world to move with the wind and help his imagination to engage new, or old but in a new light, aspects again. YKK does not offer this.
(2/2)

終

woops

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I thought it was perfect from start to finish, pleb.

There is character development. Most of it is from the kids as they grow up but you also have things like Alpha dealing with the things around her (such as the kids growing up) or Kokone trying to find that record, which shows her questioning her existence and the existence of the robots in general.

I think I understand, so I will reply to your series of posts as a whole without pointing out individual sentences. You actually made a valid and intelligent point there (Are you even OP?), but now it only made me think your issue boils down to the simple fact that you expected something different from the story, something grandiose. It's true the setting can't remain interesting forever and it's also true that apart from the setting, the story of Alpha and other characters naturally becomes the next point of your focus. And you found it lacking.
But that's where our viewpoints differ, because I've found great enjoyment in these stories. To me, Alpha is extremely well-developed character and I can relate to her greatly. In the silent pages, I can almost always tell what is she thinking and often I don't even need the narration to help me. The story doesn't seem shallow to me, I find her simple life very charming although the appeal is personal, so this naturally can't apply to any reader.

Contrary to your opinion, I don't think it needs anything else. Imagine, for instance, if there was some grand environmentalist message thrown in at the end. Then it would in its importance overshadow the larger part of the manga and make it meaningless. I'm fine with a simple story about life where there are a lot of small lessons to be learned along the way and where the journey ultimately becomes more important than the destination, and I'm sure I'm not alone in this sentiment. But I understand your view as well now.

As an anecdote to lighten the mood, you remind me of that one shonen watcher who criticized Aria, because there was no villain in it anywhere (though your point seems much more valid).

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So just to sum it up. The manga did everything it set out to do. Does it fail in any concrete aspect? I don't think so. Is there anything lacking? Perhaps, but that's the issue of the one who found it lacking, not the work itself. For others (such as me) it might just as well be complete.
It doesn't mean you can't criticize, or have your own opinion on it, but I think you really started on the wrong note with the original post, and I'm glad you eventually elaborated on that.
There are still a couple of points I have issue with (such as the author being uneducated?), but let's leave it at that for now.

I appreciate your replies and engagement in my thread (Yes, I am OP and pretty much any post not yours that is more than 2 lines long is mine). I made a thread similar to this a month ago and it went by unnoticed so i do mean it, thanks!

I by no means mean to trample on your pleasure of YKK by criticizing it like I did, since frankly I can find the pleasure you do as well in YKK but jsut I wish I had stopped reading it after volume, say, 6. But the frustrations I have with the series are not made up.

>you remind me of that one shonen watcher who criticized Aria, because there was no villain in it anywhere
I am not an Zig Forums resident so I don't know this lore.

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I find enjoyment in defending my favorite media (or criticising the ones I dislike), and it's even more enjoyable if whoever I'm talking with can produce valid arguments, so it's alright. I understand your frustration to some degree, and it's always good to see a different perspective.

>I made a thread similar to this a month ago and it went by unnoticed
Yeah, I guess sometimes you just need a good bait. It's quite possible that I would just scroll past it if the first thing I saw was a long paragraph, can't rightly say. The downside is it gives a wrong impression at first. Well, there's nothing much you can do about it.

>I am not an Zig Forums resident so I don't know this lore.
Oh, it's not lore of Zig Forums. I found it on a website-that-shall-not-be-named, and it's honestly my fault for even going there in the first place, but at least I got a laugh out of it.