Inhale 550https://64.media.tumblr.com/2b7bda684f48528ef9796f552f889705/3b77878ec038680b74/s500x750/792c0c542327958d82ef908d64ba77749173cb66.gifv 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 MerriamWebster 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 wouldve never landed on my radar. A YouTuber I watch Kenny Lauderdale named it the Most Relaxing Anime Ever Madehttps://www..com/watch?v=LbxcNB9k9z8 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 its pretty nebulous once you stop to think about it. Based on the definition I find Ranma relaxing because it always leaves me feeling calm and happy. That said its a zany frenetic and kinetic romcom/sitcom so I know it wouldnt be relaxing to many people. I wanted to know exactly what type of show this was and if someone elses relaxation was my own. Going in I already knew a manga that had a decent claim to the title of Most Relaxing: Ariahttps://anilist.co/manga/30081/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 scifi expectations too grand for the series. I might pick it back up one day I dont 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 Ill let her explain it herself as per the OVAs 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 its good that I am an android as I can wait however long that it takes. 550https://i.yt.com/vi/OoOyoC6WsQ/maxresdefault.jpg So she waits for her owner to return tending to the cafe in her absence. She doesnt have to worry about many customers however. I like to imagine this takes place many years after Weathering With Youhttps://anilist.co/anime/106286/WeatheringWithYou/ 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 arent many people around so we arent straddled with a lot of dialogue there are significant stretches where were 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 its ready to fully reclaim. Rolling puffy white cumulus clouds to show that even when the Earths SNAFU heavens 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 theres 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. Alphas 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 its 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 its depicted here. Theres something poetic about it: the waters of Earth is where we came and its where well go. 550https://externalpreview.redd.it/Ss1pMn4Hi79CpSAWADyKRakcl67p4avvbkzCh333w.jpg?auto=webps=6c981b1cc649a518ea5143eb3878ef871579d3a3 Still this very setting is what jolts me out of this relaxation mode. I wouldnt 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? Whats the status of the government and how is society organized? Naturally this isnt the animes angle so these questions arent 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. Theres a somberness to the anime that makes me a bit sad and I personally cant relax when sad. Plus its 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 doesnt know whos on the other side. Its never talked about in the first episode but in the second she casually mentions having a holster for it. Its hard to have an idyllic atmosphere when your main characters strapped because it means either she or the owner believes in the need for a gun. Has she been attacked? Is it likely shell be attacked? Plus theres the second episode where shes struck by lighting and its 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. 550https://41.media.tumblr.com/3d8aef70b2e0822c90c3ed56318c6bd1/tumblrnowv9hMgHF1r7j91oo1500.jpg 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 hiphoplike with some reggae influences. Theres an entire genre of hip hop thats chill so I dont 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. Its 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 youre not getting much in terms of music. This quietness helped me reflect more on the anime. Its pretty zen. Its a really minor point but I really enjoyed the sound of wind in the second episode.. The characters are fine. Theres not much to them at all but I feel theyre 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. Kokones the best candidate for a character to bounce off of. Shes 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 shell visit when shes off work but thats never explicitly followed up on. I say explicitly because the ED does show Alpha in firstperson serving someone so it logically could be Kokone but Id prefer if this were more explicit. 550https://i.yt.com/vi/rOowXELf8Bw/hqdefault.jpg Honestly maybe fun isnt the tone they were going for. Maybe it was just supposed to be quiet and reflective. In thats the case they nailed it. Id say theres no harm in shooting for both but with a runtime of a little under an hour its probably best that they limited their focus. Theres 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 Im curious to see how the sequel OVA fares. Maybe we could see Alpha do some more you know shopping? 550https://pbs.tw.com/media/ENDhaySWwAI4R4O.jpg At the end of the day this was a good anime. I cant 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 its relaxing its not to the point where it becomes boring unlike Aria for me. That could be due to the length however. Yokohama doesnt 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 doesnt come from disliking the anime it comes from not loving it. Its good not great not mediocre. If youre a fan of chill atmospheric anime you may get more out of this than me. Its a lovely anime just not one Im 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 550https://wideface.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/screenshot439.png?w=584 And exhaaaaaale