In Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, Volume 3, Alpha, an android, can see that time passes – and so can we. The adult humans she knows have gotten older, the children she played with are now young adults. There are fewer and fewer people. At her cafe, which never managed more than a few visitors on most days, now goes many days without anyone coming by. 

And yet, Alpha is mostly content to enjoy her time, sipping coffee, exploring the local area, until a crisis pushes her to leave the cafe behind and go on an extended tour of as much of the country as she can visit on foot in about a year.  While she is gone, we learn more about Alpha from Kokone’s discussions with the professor who was part of the design team than we even learned from Alpha herself.  However, like the end of humanity, there are still many holes in that story…we are unlikely to get them all filled in.

In this volume we learn, too, that Kokone truly has no room for anyone other than Alpha in her heart. And, while Alpha treasures Kokone as a friend, she’s not thinking about anyone that much…not even the owner she used to be waiting for.  She’s pleased with the small joys of existence; eating a giant chestnut, meeting a new android, finding a new place to stay and work. We also learn that Meruko is interested in Kokone, but is rejected for Alpha.

As nature takes over the landscape, and humans pass out of existence…how much longer will the androids exist without humans to need them? Nai’s plane will need fuel and Alpha needs beans for her coffee. Who would Kokone deliver to? I assume Meruko would probably make art regardless of whether she had an audience, as artists often do.

It’s hard to feel anything other than the melancholy of the passing age, in between the small joys here. What will life look like when the humans are gone? And how can we get to a point where this gentle twilight is humanity’s end instead of what we appear to be headed towards?

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Service – 1 pinups of Alpha are drawn with love, not service
Yuri – 6

Overall – 9

Yokohama Shopping Log, Volume 4 is out now from Seven Seas. Come for the coffee and company. Relax and enjoy the end of the humanity.