it’s honestly quite hard to put this series into words. After all, dialogue is not exactly something that’s entirely central to it. More than explaining itself, it’s an additional decoration meant to stir something within your heart, not your mind. Even still, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou volume 5 is decidedly different from the rest of the series. Maybe it’s because you know that it signifies the end, or maybe it’s just that time has marched onwards so much that the ship has completely replaced itself during its journey. Whatever the case, it remains a unique and beautiful work- even nearly 20 years after it finished.
It’s also a thorn in my side for trying to say much of anything about it. The characters? They don’t care about fancy arcs or themes, they’re just living their lives, exploring the sunset of humanity in the countryside as the ocean eats away at the world. Oh, but then you could talk about its worldbuliding? Nah, Ahishinano refuses to leave any breadcrumbs or real details. The entire point of the series, and in particular Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou volume 5, is to obfuscate the appearance of that detail. Putting together a bigger picture is akin to scoffing in the face of this manga as a whole. It’s a slideshow of memories, of all the fondness and good times that Alpha has in this life.
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou volume 5 makes that clearer than ever. Adjusting the slider on the chronology, more and more space appears between each of the moments in this volume. When you place everything together- this whole 15 volume stretch- you really understand Alpha as a person. What matters to her, what interests her and what she remembers the most. Her time with Makki and Takahiro as children remaining a bright and shining light that eclipses much of her twilight years in the manga. Her journey around Japan that ate up an entire volume, or all the moments of seeing those two little kids as fully fledged adults.
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou volume 5 isn’t necessarily “the end” in the way that we tend to interpret those words. After all, Alpha is still running her coffee shop, Kokone is around and Maruko is still in Yokohama. It’s more an end to this story. No, not the series itself- Alpha’s story. Her worry of loneliness and isolation in a world that will continue along with or without her, the anxiety of being left alone as everyone else marches forward. What she finds through this story is not just comfort in isolation or company, but comfort in life, wherever it might take her. That could mean running the cafe until the end of time, going on another journey, or being a playful aunt to Makki and Takahiro’s daughter.
Ashinano’s produced a truly one of a kind story that’s remained as timeless as Alpha herself. Though Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou volume 5 represents the end of the manga, there’s still a world that exists past it. All the beautiful nights and bright mornings, all the sounds of those scooters puttering about- the moments will exist forever as fond memories of this experience- moments that you and I will continue to come back to (between re-watches of the lovely OVAs).
I doubt that this story means much to everyone that’s come across it, but those who the mood is just right for, there’s a lot left to love in this work past its finale. It still feels like a bit of a dream that we got this manga in English, really. But here it is, all done and dusted somehow. I’m very thankful, of course, but a lot like many of Alpha’s wandering memories and dreams, something about it just doesn’t remind you that this is reality.
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