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** Maybe those "mushroom people" will turn out to be the new successors.
*** And the robots will be along to pass on humanity's memory and legacy to them.
* In either case, Alpha and her ilk won't have eternal life themselves, either; they are machines, so they need need parts and maintenance--which will likely be hard to come by once people have disappeared.
** Given how staggeringly advanced the robots are, their learning to maintain ''themselves'' and reproduce hardly seems far-fetched. The robots will eventually inherit the earth, becoming self-sufficient and replacing humans, just as children eventually become independent and replace their parents. It also fits the whole childhood and transience of things themes that run through the piece.
== The human race built the Alphas, and then when the need arose, they set them to keeping the lights on while they went away and waited for the planet to sort itself out again. Some humans opt to stay behind to help maintain the infrastructure. ==
* It's a common-enough trope in the various media: The planet is used up or becomes similarly unwelcoming, and so humanity -by far the biggest strain on Earth's systems- packs up and moves to a sort of vacation home while repairs are being made. Wall-E, most recently, but also games like [[Vectorman]] and a book I heard about once. This may be the twilight of humanity, but twilight is by definition not forever.
== Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou ties into the ''[[Mega Man (
This requires that either there ''are'' some humans left in the world (Dr. Light and Dr. Wily), or Dr. Light and Dr. Wily themselves are robots. Either way, most of the planet is populated by normal robots, and what we see in the Mega Man series are extraordinary robots granted special powers. Thus, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou is a [[Slice of Life]] version of Mega Man following the lives of the more normal robots.
** Thus the lack of male robots - most of them have been captured by Dr. Wily and converted into his Robot Masters.
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== The global disaster that forms the setting of YKK was genetics run amok ==
Long before the manga's setting, some scientists (or a group of scientists) set about on some breakthroughs in genetics research, principally genetic manipulation. Their motivations may have been varied: research for the sake of research, the solution to global agricultural depletion, the development of crops better suited for an environment afflicted with global warming.... Anyway, they created a plant or crop with adverse side effects. It quickly "broke out" and proliferated, disrupting the balance of the atmosphere's composition and aggravating the already serious global warming problem. It was able to cross-pollinate and hybridize with a wide variety of plant species; hence, the mushroom-like "shrines" and other people-like figures, plants imitating street lamps, and sunflowers three stories tall. Fauna became affected as well, as evidenced by the "kamas."
== Misago is a genetically mutated human resulting from the described theory above (or another mutation theory) ==
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* In which case, Misago might be one of the two unaccounted for A7M2 units (and Alpha's direct sister) or an earlier robot (such as an A6 model?)
== Misago is a [[
Why not? [[There Can Be Only One]]!
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== The "mushroom people" are Hatsuseno-sensei's creation, and Misago is a prototype ==
In chapter 21, When Ayase sees the face of the "water god", it immediately reminds him of Misago; afterwards, he's seen thinking of Hatsuseno-sensei and wondering what he may be up to. What he is "up to" is sowing mushroom people around the country: the creatures are his creation, and Misago is a prototype left behind.
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== The "Alpha" robots are directly responsible for humanity's post-apocalyptic decline because they compete with human females ==
It's like the episode of ''[[Futurama]]'' in which Fry tries to date the Lucy Liubot and the Professor shows him the educational video about dating robots. In the manga, most of Kokone's male co-workers are competing for her attention (though Kokone is oblivious to this until one of her female friends points this out to her very late in the manga), and the vast majority of Alpha's customers (who are overwhelmingly male if we only count each customer once) brave the broken trails to Alpha Cafe just to meet her, knowing full well that there's little chance of anything palatable once they get there. In fact, Alpha herself seems to be a major reason the town's still on the map. Perhaps female robots were so successful in competing for human males that the human population began dying out; nobody wanted to bother with fleshbag females anymore. This might reveal a more sinister motive behind their creation, and the reason there are so few male robots: there was a greater demand for female intelligent walking sex dolls than there was for male ones.
** But there aren't enough female robots to go round, and if a man can't get ''exactly'' what he wants, he'll settle for second best... We're not particularly picky animals when it comes to what he have sex with.
*** Gee. Thank you. Thank you very much for [[Squick|that pleasant mental imagery]].
== Alpha was [[Dead All Along]] ==
[[Exactly What It Says
== Alpha is really Sensei, and the whole thing is a simulation ==
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== The "present" Alpha's owner wanted to give to her was not the camera, but Kokone ==
Alpha's owner probably figured out that Alpha would get very lonely after a while, especially since her cafe sees very little actual business. Furthermore, he probably knew Alpha had never met a robot before. In a weird and pacifist [[Xanatos Gambit]] twist, her owner arranged for a courier service to deliver a <s> flimsy excuse</s> camera using another Alpha-series robot with the full intention that they meet and become friends, ([[What Is This Thing You Call Love?|among other things]]). To ensure that they send an Alpha-series robot and not a human, Alpha's owner also instructed the courier service to deliver the message Kokone transferred to Alpha; this would also teach Alpha how to interface with other robots. Truly, a gambit Light Yagami, Char, and even Xanatos himself would be proud of.
* Makes perfect sense, since he could bring a camera by himself (remember a note he left for Alpha in the first chapter) or send a letter with a camera. But still, the camera isn't just an excuse; it has its own important purpose.
== The nature of the relationship between Alpha and Kokone is.... ==
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* [[Les Yay|Full-blown lesbian in nature]]. Male robots are rare, so what choice do they have? Plus, at the very end, Kokone moves in with Alpha; they presumably live the rest of their lives together. Maybe Kokone just got tired of making all those long trips, but then again.... Also, ''[[Most Writers Are Male|they kiss in order to share experiences with each other]].'' What more evidence do you need?
** Alpha's owner ''wanted'' Alpha to engage in a lesbian sexual relationship. Maybe because he knew full well that males were too rare, [[Yuri Fanboy|or maybe that's how he honestly gets his jollies worked up]].
* Why should robots have sexual orientation? That's a qualification for ''human'' behavior. We're talking about robots, which have no gender by definition and thus don't need a sexual orientation, despite what they might look like. They are simply intelligent beings that somehow have a human-like longing for close emotional (and physical) connections. One wonders why the makers would make robots that can experience such emotional turmoil when it would have sufficed to simply let them ''mimic'' feelings. We wouldn't have much of a story if that was the case, though.
== Kokone is a well-tempered, patient [[Psycho Lesbian]] (and so is Maruko) ==
Or, to put it another way, they're both lesbian [[Yandere|Yanderes]]. Think about it: Kokone seems ''outright obsessed'' with Alpha, visiting the cafe as often as she can, always talking about Alpha, and eventually ''moving in with her.'' It seems a bit ''clingy''. And, ironically enough, Kokone has a [[Stalker
* This also affects the relationship between Maruko and Alpha. Maruko is suspicious and distrustful of Alpha because she's competing with her for Kokone. Every time Maruko comes to Alpha, it's always to "check the other side out," which is why she's nowhere near as open to Alpha as Kokone is.
** Maruko's jealousy was further inflamed when she saw Alpha made friends with Nai, who had a past relationship with Maruko.
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** Those territories have considerable overlap.
* Alpha was ''not'' saved by Kokone; she ''did'' commit suicide at the beginning of the manga. Everything that happens after that is [[All Just a Dream|all just a happy illusion]] created [[Dead All Along|when she entered Robot Heaven]].
* Alpha's owner gave her the gun ''specifically'' to commit suicide with if things got too lonely and unbearable or if Alpha became too injured to carry herself to a doctor (or if all the remaining qualified doctors died out). This is similar to a practice during WWII where American pilots assigned to missions over Japan were issued handguns, not to defend themselves with, but as backups in case their cyanide pills failed (which often happened).
* Before anybody says the guns just have electromagnetic "stun" bullets, we don't know what type of bullets Alpha had loaded in the gun when it was on her desk. Also, it's possible there are different type of electromagnetic bullets, including ones that are designed to outright kill robots. These may be the type Alpha was shooting at the sign with.
** Or maybe shooting herself with stun bullets is the robot equivalent of [[Emo|wrist-cutting]].
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* ''Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou'' is just yet another ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' rip-off without EVAs, Angels, NERV, SEELE...or anything else, for that matter. Just like the Bible.
== Maruko is a [[
"Maruko" is actually a male name, as Kokone and Maruko herself point out. And she does act and look ''very'' tomboyish....
== Maruko was once a slave ==
This is why she refuses to take on the family name of her former owners and why she insists on being so "independent."
* Tie-in to the above theory: Maruko was once specifically a ''[[Squick|sex slave]],'' and this influenced her later behavior. This is why she adopted a male name, a tomboyish attitude, and an unusual, [[Stalker
== The reason there are so few male robots is that most robots ''chose'' to be female ==
Robots are allowed to choose their own gender; most of them, for whatever reason, just prefer being female.
== A key figure in the past of ''YKK'' is [[
The WMG page for [[
* Alternatively, Grant time-traveled back from the future of ''YKK'' and wants to set things right before the [[
== The reason Alpha and Kokone have handguns for self-protection is that [[Stalker
Past experience, whether through their own experience or from lessons learned through the interactions of older robot models, have probably told Alpha and Kokone that female robots are frequent targets of rapists and stalkers (which is odd, because most science fiction tells us humanoid robots will automatically [[The Worf Effect|have the strength of ten men regardless of the robot's sex or gender]]). Hence Kokone's reaction when Maruko "ambushes" her.
* Makes sense from a marketing perspective to have weak androids; of you make them as frail and fragile as a standard human, people would be less likely to be intimidated by them and more likely to purchase them.
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Japan was caught in the crossfire between Khan and his foes, resulting in the destruction and rising sea level seen in the manga. The "Alpha" series of robots were developed in reply to Khan's eugenically modified forces. Humanity does eventually recover though, for some reason, the technology behind the "Alpha" series is lost...until one day, when Arik Soong digs through some ancient records and finds some old, mysteriously labeled vinyl disks, and wills them off to his grandson Noonien....
* The "weird mushroom stuff" and other strange flora phenomenon are the results of Japan trying to duplicate their own Augment program; this program was considered a failure and abandoned in favor of the "Alpha" series.
* Consider what we know of Alpha and her sisters and brother, and what we know of Data from ''[[Star Trek:
* This would also explain why Hikaru Sulu is so fond of dangerous plants.
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== A major theme of ''YKK'' is unrequited love ==
All the credit needs to go to a poster at [https://web.archive.org/web/20110723152225/http://www.pander.us/ykk/index.php Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou @ pander.us]. Said poster pointed out that Alpha seemed to be most attracted to Ayase, who only encountered her twice. Alpha was also highly interested in Nai, but she didn't even leave Kokone a note when she left wandering about. Therefore, the relationship between Kokone and Alpha might be entirely one-sided. In the meantime, Maruko's relationship with Kokone is blocked by Alpha. Sensei and Ojisan, despite having spent their youths together, admit that they've spent their lives alone.
== ''Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou'' is a pre-history of ''[[Battlestar Galactica
Doesn't take much of an imagination to imagine that most of the human population have gone off-world to establish new colonies, leaving Earth in the hands of the Alphas and their descendants, the Cylons.
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Both take place [[After the End]], both feature [[Ridiculously-Human Robots]] that are female, the main characters of both series are learning to cope with loneliness as they [[I Will Wait for You|wait for their owners]], and both main characters develop attachments for those few humans who stick around. Given the circumstances of these works, ''Planetarian'' should fit almost seamlessly into the same timeline as ''Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou,'' during the final stages of the war that led to humanity's downfall. The Planetarian robot would be an early Alpha-type robot, maybe the same one buried under the grave Kokone ran into before she entered the library.
== Most of the humans left Earth for [[
The Earth was considered no longer viable, and so they left behind whatever humans wished to stay and some robots to look over the Earth and perhaps one day restore it to its former glory. [[WALL-E|Hmmmm, kinda sounds familiar....]]
* The basic setting of YKK is a kind of a cross between ''The City and the Stars'' and ''With Friends Like These...'' -- humanity became so advanced that it got bored with simply living on the same old Earth and just went... somewhere, leaving behind those not wanting to emigrate. Robots were made because the remaining population was too small to sustain itself and the technology. This tech is truly breathtaking: the robots are obviously made from scratch, but they are absolutely indistinguishable from humans except for a couple of specifically added traits. And then there is Taapon, which is simply impossible unless they know some material couple of orders of magnitudes stronger than current materials science is able to predict. So there weren't any cataclysms -- just abandonment.
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According to [http://senile-seinen.blogspot.com/2007/04/yokohama-kaidashi-kikou-chobits-video.html this site], ''Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou'' has a "huge following...in Japan among exhausted salarymen on their way home after a week of 12 hour workdays." Now let's take a look and examine that for a little bit. The stereotypical portrayals in works such as ''[[Crayon Shin-Chan]]'' and other anime and manga works will do for a starting point. Now, what kind of picture is an exhausted salaryman going to idealize after 12-hour workdays, especially in Japan? Well, first of all, he's probably going to idealize a setting with the absence of monotonous work, probably a setting rich in pretty pasture lands and other rural imagery. Large cities would be banished from this picture because they represent the overcrowded conditions the poor salaryman has to put up with on a daily basis. Now, what else is this tired worker going to idealize, especially when he gets home? A faithful, beautiful woman with a lust for life, (among other things), who nonetheless exerts a healthy independent attitude. (In other words, the exact opposite of Mitzy from ''Shin-Chan.'') Transplant said salaryman's loneliness, urban claustrophobia, and longing to explore unseen lands onto the female character to create an empathetic connection between character and reader, a [[Yuri Fanboy|lesbian element]] for [[Fan Service|good measure]], and some random elements of mystery with no intended explanation to create a "hook," and you have a surprisingly formulaic, calculated outlook on ''Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou''.
* Of course, with that said, it does rather sound like a genus of [[Poison Oak Epileptic Trees]].
* The same applies to a lot of other anime and manga series, especially the [[Slice of Life]] variety. They are basically ways to escape the rather harsh and dull reality of the average Japanese working/school life. Knowing this helps in understanding where a lot of the tropes come from.
* Of course a problem with this that to be formulaic their has to be a formula a work is clearly adhering too. While yes in a very board sense YKK is "slice of life" in the sense of following the life of a person in which not much really spectacular happens it has very little else of what we normally associate with that term as a genre. It just clearly has a very different vibe and feel to it then the normally very happy go lucky works we tend to call "slice of life". One incident might be a coincidence, but two is a patten and the more they pile up the harder it is to ignore them.
* There is a name for works like this: [[Iyashikei]]. They are not only a means to escape reality, but also a means to instill a peaceful feeling with the audience. For examples of other [[Iyashikei]] series see ''[[
== In another part of the world, far away from Yokohama, ''[[Blade Runner]]'' is happening ==
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== ''Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou'' is an alternate result of humanity's loss against the [[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann|Anti-Spirals]] ==
Lord Genome doesn't exist in this alternate outcome or is killed during the war. The humans return to Earth and set work on the Alpha series of androids, who would continue on the legacy of humanity; they would lack spiral energy so as to not incur the wrath of the Anti-Spirals.
* But Alpha, and perhaps some of the other robots, ''do'' have Spiral energy and are powered by Spiral Energy, but are ignorant of that fact. Perhaps one day, they'll discover the truth and ''kick logic to the curb and drill through the heavens!'' (sorry, couldn't resist)
== [[Fallout]] and YKK are the same universe. ==
No, seriously!
The cause of the rising sea levels is global warming; oil has nearly run out, hence the lack of cars and most modern technology; and all the weird creatures are mutants spawned by radiation and genetic experiments (just more... cuddly then what showed up elsewhere). The A7 series of robots were designed to endure the war and help humans rebuild after it by living long and thus retaining knowledge from before. The US did much the same thing except, instead of making cute robot women, they went with a central robot brain that controlled drones, which proceeded to go homicidal after the end… oops. Likewise, instead of building vaults like the US, the Japanese opted to produce nuclear powered flying machines to carry key people through the nuclear war and winter.
Sadly, much like the US, this proved largely for naught, as most of these preparations failed and much knowledge was lost; luckily for Japan, though, it wasn't nearly as big a target as the US, and so some areas escaped largely unharmed (like, say, certain small out-of-the-way peninsulas). Also luckily for Japan, it didn't have more guns then people, and the slightly less harsh conditions fostered unity instead of a battle for survival, explaining its comparatively better state. Unfortunately, the residual radiation has still rendered most people infertile, and the population is slowly dying off all the same.
* War. War never changes...unless it's Japan. Then we get cute anime girls instead.
* Maybe they found G.E.C.K and used it fix Japan. Serie takes place in far future when society has stabilised, instead of being barren wasteland of California or Capital Wasteland.
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== Scooters are vibrators ==
[https://web.archive.org/web/20171231122713/http://www.onemanga.com/Yokohama_Kaidashi_Kikou/16/11/ Looky]
== Simplest explanation is best ==
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