Inhale

What do you find relaxing? Is it gardening, driving, baking, reading, cleaning? Perhaps to properly answer this question, we must first determine what exactly relaxing means. According to the Merriam-Webster Thesaurus, to relax is to either “calm emotions and relieve stress” or “to get rid of nervous tension or anxiety.”

Why am I focusing on relaxation, you ask? Well you see, dear reader, without this framing, the 1998 OVA Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (or Yokohama Shopping Log or simply Yokohama) would’ve never landed on my radar. A YouTuber I watch, Kenny Lauderdale named it the “Most Relaxing Anime Ever Made” and I was intrigued. I decided not to watch the video, deciding to go in blind and see if I thought it could live up to such a lofty title. Not only is it lofty, but it’s pretty nebulous, once you stop to think about it. Based on the definition, I find Ranma ½ relaxing because it always leaves me feeling calm and happy. That said, it’s a zany, frenetic, and kinetic romcom/sitcom, so I know it wouldn’t be relaxing to many people. I wanted to know exactly what type of show this was and if someone else’s relaxation was my own.

Going in, I already knew a manga that had a decent claim to the title of “Most Relaxing:” Aria. I read the first few volumes at my local library many years ago. I did find it quite relaxing. It was very “chill,” as the kids say. Too chill in fact. I began to grow cold as it dipped into boring territory. Perhaps I was just going in with sci-fi expectations too grand for the series. I might pick it back up one day, I don’t know. I was worried Yokohama might be similarly boring. This worry ultimately was unfounded: it managed to hold my attention throughout.

Yokohama follows Alpha as she—

Actually, I’ll let her explain it herself as per the OVA’s OP.

“Some years ago, the owner entrusted me with the cafe and went away somewhere. Where and why did he go? Will he return someday? I think it's good that I am an android, as I can wait however long that it takes."

So she waits for her owner to return, tending to the cafe in her absence. She doesn’t have to worry about many customers, however. I like to imagine this takes place many years after Weathering With You, because Yokohama, if not the entire Tokyo Bay, is severely flooded, leaving most of it underwater.

The setting helps foster a relaxing feeling. Things are very quiet. There aren’t many people around, so we aren’t straddled with a lot of dialogue; there are significant stretches where we’re only with Alpha. When this occurs, she seems to bow out of the way to allow the scenery to dominate the shot composition. And my, what gorgeous, yet somewhat solemn scenery it is. Empty suburban streets with grass poking through, as if Mother Nature is peeping through the cracks of her world to see if it's ready to fully reclaim. Rolling, puffy white cumulus clouds to show that even when the Earth’s SNAFU, heaven’s still immaculate. Beautiful mountains in the background, Ghibli plains in the foreground. Water so beautiful you want to go for a dip by just looking at the screen. Then there’s the last scene of the OVA which is absolutely breathtaking. We see streetlights turn on one by one, human pedestrians replaced by schools of fish. It looks like a night sky filled with stars, but under the sea. Alpha is a bit overwhelmed and I am too. Alpha’s house/cafe looks quite cozy as well; I can imagine living there with a significant other. The art direction gives me a feeling of relaxation as well: colors are muted and make me think of a painting (when Alpha takes a picture, it is rendered as a painting and it’s even more beautiful). The characters are neither particularly realistic nor overly “anime,” leading to designs that feel somewhat “safe,” easing tension and allowing me to approach them. I think global warming being the catalyst for the apocalypse was very deliberately chosen to foster a relaxed mood. The aftermath of nuclear bombs can be horrifying. As horrible as it is, you have to admit global warming has a picturesque quality to it, at least as it's depicted here. There’s something poetic about it: the waters of Earth is where we came and it’s where we’ll go.

Still, this very setting is what jolts me out of this “relaxation mode.” I wouldn’t go far as to say it stresses me out, but it certainly leaves me more on guard than I think the creators were intending. For one, picturesque or no, the apocalypse is the apocalypse. How sudden was the flooding? Were the majority of citizens able to evacuate? What’s the status of the government and how is society organized? Naturally, this isn’t the anime’s angle, so these questions aren’t answered, but I still have them. While the setting is beautiful, if you stop and think about it, it starts to become just a little unsettling. Just a little. There’s a somberness to the anime that makes me a bit sad, and I personally can’t relax when sad. Plus it’s hard to be completely at ease when Alpha has a gat on her table and even takes it with her to the door when she doesn’t know who’s on the other side. It’s never talked about in the first episode, but in the second, she casually mentions having a holster for it. It’s hard to have an idyllic atmosphere when your main character’s strapped because it means either she or the owner believes in the need for a gun. Has she been attacked? Is it likely she’ll be attacked? Plus there’s the second episode where she’s struck by lighting and it’s played 100% seriously. I appreciate the details, both big and small that point to the waters not being so calm, but it takes away from the relaxed feeling. The only thing that actively stressed me was Alpha not taking pictures, especially at the end. She has 300 pictures per role for crying out loud.

I talked about quietness, and what better way to create quietness than through sound design? The OP is certainly not what I expected. It had a distinct beat to it: definitely hip-hop-like with some reggae influences. There’s an entire genre of hip hop that’s chill, so I don’t object to its inclusion, I was just pleasantly surprised. The ED is also quite nice and mellow. For the most part, however, the anime is oddly quiet. It’s a bit calming and helps me better take in the scenery and the characters. Each episode features insert songs that are more like music videos to the backdrop of calming imagery. Other than the midway insert songs and OP/ED you’re not getting much in terms of music. This quietness helped me reflect more on the anime. It’s pretty zen. It’s a really minor point, but I really enjoyed the sound of wind in the second episode..

The characters are fine. There’s not much to them at all, but I feel they’re not the focus, so I give it a bit of a pass. Still, I think a fun atmosphere could have been fostered if they interacted with Alpha more. Kokone’s the best candidate for a character to bounce off of. She’s a fellow android with a somewhat benign job (delivery girl in her case). Kokone delivers a camera to Alpha and their interactions are quite cute. Kokone even says she’ll visit when she’s off work, but that’s never explicitly followed up on. I say explicitly because the ED does show Alpha in first-person serving someone, so it logically could be Kokone, but I’d prefer if this were more explicit.

Honestly, maybe “fun” isn’t the tone they were going for. Maybe it was just supposed to be quiet and reflective. In that’s the case, they nailed it. I’d say there’s no harm in shooting for both, but with a runtime of a little under an hour, it’s probably best that they limited their focus.

There’s not much in the way of situations. No overarching plot, just a day in the life, nice and simple. It works for two episodes, but with the amount of character interaction we have, I feel like this could wear thin easily. Still, I’m curious to see how the sequel OVA fares. Maybe we could see Alpha do some more, you know, shopping?

At the end of the day, this was a good anime. I can’t say it was the most relaxing thing ever, though. It had some elements that kind of bucked against its calming qualities, but maybe those helped the anime as a whole. While it’s relaxing, it’s not to the point where it becomes boring, unlike Aria for me. That could be due to the length, however. Yokohama doesn’t stick around long enough to overstay its welcome. I might actually decide to watch the sequel OVA one of these days. Hell, might give Aria another shot.

Yokohama had to balance calm and engaging and it did it pretty well. My score doesn’t come from disliking the anime, it comes from not loving it. It’s good, not great, not mediocre. If you’re a fan of “chill,” atmospheric anime, you may get more out of this than me. It’s a lovely anime, just not one I’m gushing over.

“The dangerous times have since been called the ‘Age of Evening Calm.’ I think I will continue watching this twilight world as long as time flows.”

7/10

C-

And exhaaaaaale