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ヨコハマ買い出し紀行 新装版 [Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (Shinsouban)] #5-6
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou: Deluxe Edition, Vol. 3
Days, months, years spilling out through a crack in a coffee cup.
A summer storm passes over the café, reminding Alpha that everything, even her memory, is changing all the time. She takes a tour through the seasons on foot, to record all she can in her memories. The days slide easily into the future. Enjoy chapters 53-82 of this beloved manga classic available in English for the first time.
A summer storm passes over the café, reminding Alpha that everything, even her memory, is changing all the time. She takes a tour through the seasons on foot, to record all she can in her memories. The days slide easily into the future. Enjoy chapters 53-82 of this beloved manga classic available in English for the first time.
486 pages, Paperback
Published August 8, 2023
23 people are currently reading
103 people want to read
About the author
Hitoshi Ashinano
64 books67 followersHitoshi Ashinano (芦奈野 ひとし, Ashitano Hitoshi) is a Japanese manga artist.
Prior to his professional debut as a solo cartoonist, Ashinano worked as an assistant to manga artist Kousuke Fujishima, while also releasing some doujinshi (amateur manga) under the pen name 'suke'.
Ashinano's comics are known for their contemplative, laid-back, nostalgic feel. His first and best-known series is Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō, a slice-of-life manga set in a post-apocalyptic world. The manga was serialised in Kodansha's comics magazine 'Monthly Afternoon' from 1994 to 2006, won the 2007 'Seiun Award for Best Science Fiction Manga' and was adapted into an anime.
Prior to his professional debut as a solo cartoonist, Ashinano worked as an assistant to manga artist Kousuke Fujishima, while also releasing some doujinshi (amateur manga) under the pen name 'suke'.
Ashinano's comics are known for their contemplative, laid-back, nostalgic feel. His first and best-known series is Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō, a slice-of-life manga set in a post-apocalyptic world. The manga was serialised in Kodansha's comics magazine 'Monthly Afternoon' from 1994 to 2006, won the 2007 'Seiun Award for Best Science Fiction Manga' and was adapted into an anime.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews
August 10, 2023
My favorite so far. Makes me want to spend a year on the road.
February 20, 2024
This story feels like the most relaxing laid back end of the world post-apocalypse story ever. It is horribly cute. It is a visual tone poem. The art is really great!
This volume the main character goes on walkabout. But even after a year nothing really happens. She mentions meeting people but we don't see many of those interactions. Most Manga would taken volumes to describe the two months Alpha spent working at a shop, but that story takes up less than a page here. It was interesting but even the side characters get "joke" strips complaining about the whole thing. It would have been nice to see more of what happened to the other characters from Alpha's home (I mean I'm invested in them as well as Alpha).
This volume the main character goes on walkabout. But even after a year nothing really happens. She mentions meeting people but we don't see many of those interactions. Most Manga would taken volumes to describe the two months Alpha spent working at a shop, but that story takes up less than a page here. It was interesting but even the side characters get "joke" strips complaining about the whole thing. It would have been nice to see more of what happened to the other characters from Alpha's home (I mean I'm invested in them as well as Alpha).
November 19, 2024
8.5/10
My best comic book discovery of 2024 (and this was a good year, with plenty of great authors read for the first me). This series keeps growing on me, with its charming exploration of emotional and physical landscapes. A little masterpiece of humanity and kindness through ink. And oval screen-tone frames. So much oval screen-tone framing. 😅
My best comic book discovery of 2024 (and this was a good year, with plenty of great authors read for the first me). This series keeps growing on me, with its charming exploration of emotional and physical landscapes. A little masterpiece of humanity and kindness through ink. And oval screen-tone frames. So much oval screen-tone framing. 😅
September 26, 2023
Things start to change for the characters in this volume, and you get to go on a road trip to see more of the landscape and people. Still maintains the charm, peace, and beauty that drew me to the story in the first volume.
November 14, 2023
The manga where nothing ever happens manages to turn a destructive typhoon into an excuse for the main character to go walkabout around post-apocalyptic Japan. There are no mutants or scavengers or bandits or anything; it's just a nice walking tour for her that takes her all the way to Mount Fuji. And then she goes home to pick up the nothing she was doing before right where she left off.
There are some guns brandished and mentioned though, so perhaps Chekhov's law will force something to happen one day.
Since I'm already past the halfway point, I guess I'll stick it out and just look at the pretty pictures.
There are some guns brandished and mentioned though, so perhaps Chekhov's law will force something to happen one day.
Since I'm already past the halfway point, I guess I'll stick it out and just look at the pretty pictures.
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December 20, 2024I felt so connected to this edition. Such charming and relaxing storytelling. God I wish I could escape capitalism and just walk around for a year…
March 22, 2025
It’s like a Cinnabon. So sweet and comforting 😻
October 12, 2023
No series makes my heart warmer than this one. What a great volume. I loved Alpha's trip, and the fearless passage of time. Can't wait for the next release.
April 17, 2024
"For the first time in my life, I feel as if I've gotten a year older."
The café is looking its age: peeling paint, rickety shutters, old signs. Alpha is thinking about a remodeling effort, but that would take a whole bunch of time, money, and motivation she doesn't quite have at the moment. Indeed, most home projects often require a cause or a source of inspiration. In YOKOHAMA KAIDASHI KIKOU v3, Alpha receives her motivation through a wholly natural if somewhat dangerous muse when a typhoon sweeps through the area and decimates Café Alpha.
And although everyone's favorite quiet-life robot girl doesn't have many options (or money), it's clear that "starting over" with the café will first require a mental break.
The heft of YOKOHAMA KAIDASHI KIKOU v3 tracks Alpha as she journeys, on foot, throughout this distant and decaying Japan. She circles swamps, climbs through overgrown valleys, gets lost, learns about the dangers of roasting gigantic chestnuts, gets lost again, and on and on. Previously, this manga was about exploring one's relationship with the environment to ascertain how overlooking nearby details can inform the depth of self. The current volume, however, slightly inverts the scenario. Alpha ventures far from home, broadening her circle of familiarity, and in doing so exposes herself to the grandeur of human diversity and the many curiosities therein.
An airplane? An actual airplane? Alpha's never seen one up close before. And considering how often she daydreams about flying, the young woman's encounter with a peculiar robot pilot sets her imagination on a collision course with awestruck reality.
Mount Fuji? Up close? Alpha can see the massive mountain from the café. And yet, when she travels (and later sets up a streetside stand selling honey corn to make some cash), the nearness and magnificence of Fuji reinforces the intimacy one often desires when huddled at home and at peace.
Takahiro is tall now? And Makka has grown up, too? Funnily enough, the gradual growth and maturity of the manga's secondary characters earns respectable attention in this volume. Takahiro takes care of Alpha's motorbike while she's away, and the boy's attention is dutifully split between tending to the gas station, keeping tabs on Makka, and just plain growing up in the sticks. Takahiro is 13 or 14 years old now, but he's matured a good deal. Readers still don't quite know the details of his fondness for Alpha, beyond his general affection for her, but one wonders whether being a year apart from the robot lady has moved his emotional fortitude one way or the other.
YOKOHAMA KAIDASHI KIKOU v3 is a delightful volume. The book's shifting tactics for assessing how one measures their dependency on the things of home is impressive. For example, an early chapter about Alpha taking a photo of the café's façade, and then subsequently losing her camera when she falls into a sinkhole at the shoreline, absolutely tugs at the heartstrings. The author's tight articulation of Alpha's waning eyebrows and wordless, disconsolate trudging truly manifest that even for a robot, images of home, however ephemeral, hold value.
The current volume encompasses the source material for the second set of OVAs (2002) that constitute the manga's adaptation. The second set of OVAs lack the keen and dynamic environmental design of the first set, but accurately and beautifully focus on the manga's loose and feathery reclamation of emotional uncertainty. Alpha is a robot who never ages, and yet, she explores the world to explore herself. And she's constantly surprised at what she finds.
The café is looking its age: peeling paint, rickety shutters, old signs. Alpha is thinking about a remodeling effort, but that would take a whole bunch of time, money, and motivation she doesn't quite have at the moment. Indeed, most home projects often require a cause or a source of inspiration. In YOKOHAMA KAIDASHI KIKOU v3, Alpha receives her motivation through a wholly natural if somewhat dangerous muse when a typhoon sweeps through the area and decimates Café Alpha.
And although everyone's favorite quiet-life robot girl doesn't have many options (or money), it's clear that "starting over" with the café will first require a mental break.
The heft of YOKOHAMA KAIDASHI KIKOU v3 tracks Alpha as she journeys, on foot, throughout this distant and decaying Japan. She circles swamps, climbs through overgrown valleys, gets lost, learns about the dangers of roasting gigantic chestnuts, gets lost again, and on and on. Previously, this manga was about exploring one's relationship with the environment to ascertain how overlooking nearby details can inform the depth of self. The current volume, however, slightly inverts the scenario. Alpha ventures far from home, broadening her circle of familiarity, and in doing so exposes herself to the grandeur of human diversity and the many curiosities therein.
An airplane? An actual airplane? Alpha's never seen one up close before. And considering how often she daydreams about flying, the young woman's encounter with a peculiar robot pilot sets her imagination on a collision course with awestruck reality.
Mount Fuji? Up close? Alpha can see the massive mountain from the café. And yet, when she travels (and later sets up a streetside stand selling honey corn to make some cash), the nearness and magnificence of Fuji reinforces the intimacy one often desires when huddled at home and at peace.
Takahiro is tall now? And Makka has grown up, too? Funnily enough, the gradual growth and maturity of the manga's secondary characters earns respectable attention in this volume. Takahiro takes care of Alpha's motorbike while she's away, and the boy's attention is dutifully split between tending to the gas station, keeping tabs on Makka, and just plain growing up in the sticks. Takahiro is 13 or 14 years old now, but he's matured a good deal. Readers still don't quite know the details of his fondness for Alpha, beyond his general affection for her, but one wonders whether being a year apart from the robot lady has moved his emotional fortitude one way or the other.
YOKOHAMA KAIDASHI KIKOU v3 is a delightful volume. The book's shifting tactics for assessing how one measures their dependency on the things of home is impressive. For example, an early chapter about Alpha taking a photo of the café's façade, and then subsequently losing her camera when she falls into a sinkhole at the shoreline, absolutely tugs at the heartstrings. The author's tight articulation of Alpha's waning eyebrows and wordless, disconsolate trudging truly manifest that even for a robot, images of home, however ephemeral, hold value.
The current volume encompasses the source material for the second set of OVAs (2002) that constitute the manga's adaptation. The second set of OVAs lack the keen and dynamic environmental design of the first set, but accurately and beautifully focus on the manga's loose and feathery reclamation of emotional uncertainty. Alpha is a robot who never ages, and yet, she explores the world to explore herself. And she's constantly surprised at what she finds.
June 13, 2024
“For the first time in my life, I feel as if I’ve gotten a year older.”
I was perfectly fine with this being a cozy manga that is light on the plot, but I was happy to see this volume making a big narrative change: Alpha decides to take a year long trip around Japan. Even that plot, which takes up the majority of this volume, was still easy going. Meanwhile, things are changing back home. Kokone is even closer to getting answers about the early Alpha series and who all the Alpha’s are modeled after. Takahiro and Makki are growing older — so old, in fact, that the Kami-like creature, the Osprey, no longer appears to them (a common trope in Shintoism). When Alpha returns from her trip, the two are surprised that Takahiro is now taller than her. The plot line I always hoped from the beginning to starting to shift into hear: Alpha is ageless and somewhat immortal, so it was inevitable that Takahiro, who started as a ten year old kid, would grow to be Alpha’s peer as someone who presents as a young adult. And yet, the love triangle complicates that. Tragically, Takahiro will grow older and eventually die and Alpha will be doomed to watch. It’s a doomed romance and so it only makes sense that Takahiro and Makki are better suited for partnership. Anyway, I’m just glad to see time moving in the story rather than staying static.
I was perfectly fine with this being a cozy manga that is light on the plot, but I was happy to see this volume making a big narrative change: Alpha decides to take a year long trip around Japan. Even that plot, which takes up the majority of this volume, was still easy going. Meanwhile, things are changing back home. Kokone is even closer to getting answers about the early Alpha series and who all the Alpha’s are modeled after. Takahiro and Makki are growing older — so old, in fact, that the Kami-like creature, the Osprey, no longer appears to them (a common trope in Shintoism). When Alpha returns from her trip, the two are surprised that Takahiro is now taller than her. The plot line I always hoped from the beginning to starting to shift into hear: Alpha is ageless and somewhat immortal, so it was inevitable that Takahiro, who started as a ten year old kid, would grow to be Alpha’s peer as someone who presents as a young adult. And yet, the love triangle complicates that. Tragically, Takahiro will grow older and eventually die and Alpha will be doomed to watch. It’s a doomed romance and so it only makes sense that Takahiro and Makki are better suited for partnership. Anyway, I’m just glad to see time moving in the story rather than staying static.
July 8, 2024
Once again, there is so much to love about this manga. There is the slow, pastoral world. There is appreciation of everyday beauty. There are quietly emotional, contemplative scenes. The art is so evocative, I could hear the wind, feel the sunshine, smell the sea, hear the seagulls.
Alpha’s café gets blown away by a summer typhoon. So she decides to go wandering, take odd jobs and earn some money for rebuilding. I loved her journey of wonder and discovery. An especially memorable episode was the one in which Alpha got to fly in an airplane for the first time in her life.
I like how Hitoshi Ashinano gives the readers glimpses of the other characters and slowly makes them more and more real. For example, there is a scene when Kokone receives a letter from Alpha. I didn’t see the contents of the letter, but I saw so much joy.
This manga makes me want to see beauty everywhere.
And do you know what the best part is? I have volume 4 omnibus on my bookshelf, and volume 5 is to come out this August.
Alpha’s café gets blown away by a summer typhoon. So she decides to go wandering, take odd jobs and earn some money for rebuilding. I loved her journey of wonder and discovery. An especially memorable episode was the one in which Alpha got to fly in an airplane for the first time in her life.
I like how Hitoshi Ashinano gives the readers glimpses of the other characters and slowly makes them more and more real. For example, there is a scene when Kokone receives a letter from Alpha. I didn’t see the contents of the letter, but I saw so much joy.
This manga makes me want to see beauty everywhere.
And do you know what the best part is? I have volume 4 omnibus on my bookshelf, and volume 5 is to come out this August.
August 12, 2023
For a series that was released in 1995, these are surprisingly contemporary, besides being phophetic of a future we may be rushing into. As well, the artwork is quite simply superb! I enjoy these stories, told from the perspective of a humanoid robot and a few humans as the world is ending. They are light and lively, a tribute to humanity's ability to adapt and find pleasure and purpose in the simple things that used to mean so much to all of us. I try to slow down while I read to keep from finishing the 476 pages too soon, but it's over so quickly. (The curse of graphic novels.) Then I wait months for each new translation installment to come out.
January 17, 2026
I know this is a calm and cozy little slice of life series, but I realized I was still reading it all wrong! I read the first two volumes as if there were a broader narrative, and I found myself a little disappointed when it never seemed to continue in any one direction. But when I stopped reading it as if it were a story, and more like a collection of unconnected vignettes (which it really is), I found my enjoyment growing. I slowed myself way down, and stopped waiting for the chapters to circle back, or answer my questions. I stopped waiting for anything, and just enjoyed the ride. I feel like there's a life lesson here. Noted...
August 12, 2023
This continues to be amazingly calming, beautiful and slow and thoughtful in a way I really appreciate. This is very much slice-of-life where sometimes not much happens and that's okay because some days are like that. Also I love the way little bits fit together into a larger life. Alpha goes on a walkabout after a typhoon, and we get to see more of the world (including giant fruits! and an trans-coded robot!) I could go on about all of the wonderful things here, but really, this deserves to be slowly read, so go do that instead. :)
September 22, 2023
This whole series may now be one of my favorite manga series. Despite the few diagloues and simple drawings, the short slice of life interactions of Alpha capture the slipping of time during the end of the world. Can't wait for the final volumes of 4 and 5. This is one of the books that gets better the older you get. The urgency of time but also the slow mundane day by day; the complete paradox of how we experience time is quietly captured by this book. An older classic but will forever hold its own.
April 5, 2024
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou is such a relaxing read. While it does draw attention to environmental factors of the downfall of the society, it is also still light-hearted and endearing. The friendships Alpha is building are growing slowly, organically, and it’s beautiful to see her personal development alongside the development of the other characters. They actually even age. She doesn’t, obviously, but the others do! Most of the manga I have read thus far, the characters stay the same age. I’m enjoying a more realistic take!
November 27, 2025
I feel so fortunate to be able to sit back and read this manga whenever I have a break. The vibes are so pleasant and the art really just takes my breath away. I think previously I've thought the volumes have felt a little length, but given the fact that there is so shake ups in this volume the pacing works pretty well. You just can't go wrong with this series, honestly. It has enough yuri vibes to take you over the moon whenever the robots are together. Its so great in so many ways.
August 12, 2023
love this series
Beautiful art, slow, comfortable pace, a bittersweet tale about the world coming to a quiet end.
This book is the forerunner of all those "last tour at the end of the world" books that seem to be catching on lately, and it is a true classic. Highly recommended.
Beautiful art, slow, comfortable pace, a bittersweet tale about the world coming to a quiet end.
This book is the forerunner of all those "last tour at the end of the world" books that seem to be catching on lately, and it is a true classic. Highly recommended.
June 23, 2024
Still enjoying it and I'll pick up vol4 when I can. This series is great for fanning passions of just going for a walk in nature. Some pages I can feel the brushing wind and drenching sea spray right off the pages.
My only issue is Hitoshi Ashinano remains seemingly obliged to include fan service every so often which is doubly jarring in this kind of story.
My only issue is Hitoshi Ashinano remains seemingly obliged to include fan service every so often which is doubly jarring in this kind of story.
September 4, 2023
probably my favorite installment. this is quickly becoming such a beloved series for me and something that i will revisit often. so many moments moved me and did not hesitate to save a lot of the panels. highly recommend for cozy dystopian vibes.
December 2, 2023
Evocative as always!
The way the mangaka draws scenery is just so good! There is such a feeling of... Reality? Not, like, photorealistic, but more... Evocative is the only word I can think of. Just some inked lines and you start remembering the smell of the sea.
The way the mangaka draws scenery is just so good! There is such a feeling of... Reality? Not, like, photorealistic, but more... Evocative is the only word I can think of. Just some inked lines and you start remembering the smell of the sea.
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January 7, 2026"Oh, yeah, seems like it were pretty hard on him. Might be his first experience of that. Having the places you knew disappear on you." ME WHEN I READ THIS SERIES 💞🌸🙈🤧🫶🏻🗣️💞👩❤️💋👩 my girl kokone is down bad
August 13, 2023
my second time reading this story
It gets more magical every time. I’ll read this whole series all over again very soon. Looking forward to volume 4!
It gets more magical every time. I’ll read this whole series all over again very soon. Looking forward to volume 4!
August 22, 2023
I still really liked this arc in the series, but it felt less cohesive, like they weren't quite sure where the story was going. More melancholy/bittersweet.
August 26, 2023
My favourite volume so far.
September 22, 2023
kind of made me sad though
October 13, 2023
I adore this manga. Profoundly comforting and beautiful without doing much at all.
November 20, 2023
3.5 stars.
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December 9, 2023"The road remembers, even if people forget."
December 17, 2023
Favourite volume so far.
Reading this manga series soothes me.
Reading this manga series soothes me.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews