A.I. Love You
Encyclopedia
is a Japan
ese manga
series by author Ken Akamatsu
. First released in the mid-1990s in Japan, an English
translation of the series was published by Tokyopop
; the Tokyopop version of the manga is out of print as of August 31, 2009.
The original Japanese title, A・I が止まらない! (A.I. ga Tomaranai!), is a play on words. While it literally means "A.I. Won’t Stop!" the word "A.I." has several meanings. Besides being the acronym for artificial intelligence
, it is also the Japanese word for and the Japanese transcription of the English word . Tokyopop does their best to recreate this pun
with their US release of the series in which this case they added "Love You" to create a pun referring to the statement "I Love You" in A.(I. Love You).
Hitoshi has only one thing going for him - his ability to program computers. In fact, he is so good at this he has created programs that can rewrite themselves - Artificial Intelligence
, in other words. So far he has created thirty of these programs, and the latest - whom he names Saati ( The Japanese pronunciation of the English word "Thirty" )- is so advanced that conversation with her is indistinguishable from a normal girl and, thus, would easily pass the Turing test
.
However, there is still the barrier of Hitoshi being in the physical world and Saati being a program, until one day a freak lightning
strike materializes her into the real world, where she becomes the girlfriend of Hitoshi.
The series then follows their now not so ordinary lives, as well as other A.I.s of Hitoshi's creation. The basic plotline is derivative of the Kōsuke Fujishima
manga Oh My Goddess!
, with the AI constructs being analogous to the goddess characters of the earlier manga. The setting also bears similarities to the John Hughes film Weird Science
. Both feature male protagonists creating their ideal girlfriends on computers and both girls are brought into the real world via lightning, bearing somewhat superhuman powers. Despite these obvious similarities however, Akamatsu claims not to have seen the film prior to creating the series.
Activated April 6, 1994
Activated June or July 1994
A.I. Program No. 31
A.I. Program No. 29
A.I. Program No. 28
, , and
, , and
and
A.I. Program No. Zero
An epilogue to the story exists but appears to only be available on CD in Japanese in Japan.
epilogue
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
series by author Ken Akamatsu
Ken Akamatsu
is a Japanese manga artist from Tokyo.Sailor Moon was his introduction to anime and manga fandom.In his teens, Akamatsu applied himself to Film Study . Eventually, he became famous as an illustrator featured in Comiket . He used the pen name...
. First released in the mid-1990s in Japan, an English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
translation of the series was published by Tokyopop
Tokyopop
Tokyopop, styled TOKYOPOP, and formerly known as Mixx, is a distributor, licensor, and publisher of anime, manga, manhwa, and Western manga-style works. The existing German publishing division produces German translations of licensed Japanese properties and original English-language manga, as well...
; the Tokyopop version of the manga is out of print as of August 31, 2009.
The original Japanese title, A・I が止まらない! (A.I. ga Tomaranai!), is a play on words. While it literally means "A.I. Won’t Stop!" the word "A.I." has several meanings. Besides being the acronym for artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
, it is also the Japanese word for and the Japanese transcription of the English word . Tokyopop does their best to recreate this pun
Pun
The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...
with their US release of the series in which this case they added "Love You" to create a pun referring to the statement "I Love You" in A.(I. Love You).
Story
The story centres around Hitoshi Kōbe, a guy who is neither academically gifted nor good at sports, so he does not do very well at school.Hitoshi has only one thing going for him - his ability to program computers. In fact, he is so good at this he has created programs that can rewrite themselves - Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
, in other words. So far he has created thirty of these programs, and the latest - whom he names Saati ( The Japanese pronunciation of the English word "Thirty" )- is so advanced that conversation with her is indistinguishable from a normal girl and, thus, would easily pass the Turing test
Turing test
The Turing test is a test of a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour. In Turing's original illustrative example, a human judge engages in a natural language conversation with a human and a machine designed to generate performance indistinguishable from that of a human being. All...
.
However, there is still the barrier of Hitoshi being in the physical world and Saati being a program, until one day a freak lightning
Lightning
Lightning is an atmospheric electrostatic discharge accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms...
strike materializes her into the real world, where she becomes the girlfriend of Hitoshi.
The series then follows their now not so ordinary lives, as well as other A.I.s of Hitoshi's creation. The basic plotline is derivative of the Kōsuke Fujishima
Kosuke Fujishima
is a Japanese manga artist.Born in Chiba, Japan, he first came to public attention as an editor of Puff magazine, his first job after completing high school. Fujishima originally intended to be a draftsman, but took the editorial role after failing to get a drafting apprenticeship...
manga Oh My Goddess!
Oh My Goddess!
, also known as Ah! My Goddess!, is a Japanese seinen manga series written and illustrated by Kōsuke Fujishima. It premiered in the November 1988 issue of Afternoon where it is still being serialized. Every few months, the most recent chapters are published in tankōbon volumes by Kodansha...
, with the AI constructs being analogous to the goddess characters of the earlier manga. The setting also bears similarities to the John Hughes film Weird Science
Weird Science (film)
Weird Science is a 1985 American teen comedy film written and directed by John Hughes and starring Anthony Michael Hall, Ilan Mitchell-Smith, and Kelly LeBrock...
. Both feature male protagonists creating their ideal girlfriends on computers and both girls are brought into the real world via lightning, bearing somewhat superhuman powers. Despite these obvious similarities however, Akamatsu claims not to have seen the film prior to creating the series.
Main characters
Born June 5, 1978- Hitoshi is a freshman high-school student (in 1994) at Menjō (綿城) High School who underachieves at school both physically and academically. One of his few strengths is his ability to program, and create artificial intelligences, and he eventually created programs Twenty and Thirty - programs so real that conversations with them are indistinguishable from conversation with normal girls.
- Through a series of freak lightning accidents, both programs are transferred to the real world, and become a greater part of the life of Hitoshi.
Activated April 6, 1994
- Saati is the thirtieth A.I. program Hitoshi created, and is the first program that Hitoshi really liked.
- Through a freak lightning accident she is transferred to the real world, and becomes Hitoshi's live-in girlfriend. In the real world she takes the family name , which is properly pronounced nanpa ("whirlpool"). In Japanese naming order her name, Namba Saati, is based on the English pronunciation of "Number Thirty" (Nanbā Sāti).
- A kind girl, size data 82-58-85 cm (32¾"-23"-34") with thick eyebrows (A trait Akamatsu admitted to liking on women, citing Sae IsshikiSae IsshikiSae Isshiki is a Japanese actress. She starred in a film Kura for which she garnered the Newcomer of the Year award of the Japanese Academy and a TV program, Futari ....
as an example), and a bit naive, which does lead to frequent problems with Hitoshi. The most notable of which is that when she cooks meals she has the tendency to make them look exactly like the picture, regardless of the taste (having no taste buds), using everything from paint to colored markers until she receives a program upgrade that allows her to taste.
- While she is sweet and kind, she is similar to the Love HinaLove Hinais a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Ken Akamatsu. It was originally serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine by Kodansha from October 21, 1998 to October 31, 2001 and was published in 14 tankōbon volumes by Kodansha. The series tells the story of Keitaro Urashima and his attempts to...
character Naru Narusegawa (whom she resembles) and Negima! Magister Negi MagiNegima! Magister Negi MagiNegima! Magister Negi Magi, known in Japan as is a manga and anime series by Ken Akamatsu . The manga is currently being published by Kodansha and serialized in Shōnen Magazine in Japan. Del Rey Manga published the English translated version in the United States and Canada prior to Kodansha...
character Asuna Kagurazaka in that she beats up Hitoshi if he does something perverted.
- Hitoshi based her appearance on his mother.
Activated June or July 1994
- Toeni (or "Toni" in the TokyopopTokyopopTokyopop, styled TOKYOPOP, and formerly known as Mixx, is a distributor, licensor, and publisher of anime, manga, manhwa, and Western manga-style works. The existing German publishing division produces German translations of licensed Japanese properties and original English-language manga, as well...
translation) is Hitoshi's A.I. Program No. 20 (Nanbā Tōenī "Number Twenty"). He based her face on Kimika Aso, the breasts on Reiko SatoReiko SatoReiko Sato was an American dancer and actress.Born in Los Angeles, California, Sato was interned at the Gila River War Relocation Center during World War II. Sato is best known for playing seamstress Helen Chao in the movie Flower Drum Song. After her death in 1981, she was cremated, and half...
u, her butt on Ai IijimaAi Iijimawas a Japanese media personality and AV idol. She belonged to the entertainment agency Watanabe Entertainment until her retirement.-Early life:Born as , she described a troubled early life in her autobiography. She was raped in her early teens, and had an abortion...
, and her legs on Chisato Moritaka, giving her the measurements of 86-59-88 cm (34½"-23½"-35"). However, despite the fact she worked, she teased him a little too much, and though the teasing was good-natured he couldn't handle it in addition to the pressures of school, so he stored her away. Her personality is incredibly shallow throughout most of the series. As the conclusion of the series approaches, however, her personality changes to that of a comforting big sister for Saati and Forty. This change is also apparent in her facial expression, which becomes progressively softer.
- Due to another freak lightning accident Toeni is also brought into the real world, where she too stays with Hitoshi just like Saati (who refers to Toeni as onee-sama, the Japanese term for "big sister").
- Forty is Hitoshi's A.I. Program No. 40 (Nanbā Fōti "Number Forty"), and the first he brought to life on purpose (sort of). Created using both C and Assembly Language, he/she is more powerful than Saati and Toeni combined. Saati and Toeni sneaked a before-it-was-ready look at this new A.I., agreed on an age, twelve, and then argued about the gender and personality and pressed too many buttons at once. The end result was an A.I. that had two modes: a male personality and a female personality within a female body. When Forty-kun, the boy, said "girl", he became Forty-chan, the girl; when Forty-chan said "boy", she became Forty-kun. While each has presumably heard of the other's existence there are only two instances shown in which Forty-chan has some consciousness of Forty-kun; mostly each is blithely unaware of the other.
- Forty-kun describes himself as a hard-line conservative who is not interested in Hitoshi's porn-based hobbies, an anal-retentive neat-freak, a self-righteous good boy, with a taste for the nicer things in life - Saati's personality choice. Forty-chan describes herself as sensual party girl with a taste for the wild side of things, even going so far as to seduce Hitoshi by using a Hyper Program Option to give herself a more mature body - Toeni's personality choice. Saati wanted a nice little sister, and Toeni wanted a naughty little brother; they got a naughty little sister and a nice little brother.
- Forty-kun got it into his head that he wanted to go to school, so he was enrolled in class 1-C in what looks like Jr. High and, convenient for the manga artist, located in the same building as Hitoshi and Saati's High School.
- Ken Akamatsu has said that Forty-chan became a character model for Kaolla Su from Love HinaLove Hinais a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Ken Akamatsu. It was originally serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine by Kodansha from October 21, 1998 to October 31, 2001 and was published in 14 tankōbon volumes by Kodansha. The series tells the story of Keitaro Urashima and his attempts to...
.
Other characters
- Kimika, the smartest and prettiest girl in school, is adored by Hitoshi to the point where he makes Toeni, who is almost identical in physical appearance to Kimika apart from looking about five years older and having much larger breasts. She never gives Hitoshi any consideration, playing a trick on him at the beginning of the series, she also serves as the antagonist to the group in Volume 1, and in two chapters of volume 2.
- Math and homeroom teacher of Hitoshi Kōbe. He is seen in the first chapter being severe towards Hitoshi and appears several more times in much the same role. His name is mentioned in the fourth chapter. A character named Nitta-sensei, looking like an older version of this character, appears in Mahō Sensei Negima.
- A boy who single-handedly guards Kujūkuri BeachKujukuri Beachis a sandy beach located on the east coast of the Bōsō Peninsula in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. Lying within 60 km of Tokyo and being the second longest beach in Japan, it is a popular swimming and surfing destination for inhabitants of Greater Tokyo....
from litterbugs. To avoid getting hurt any more by Makoto's booby traps, Hitoshi and Saati help him collect every soft drink can buried in the sand (in and out of the water) - 138,652 in total - which Makoto cashes in to build a special watchtower to guard the beach better.
- A skilled computer programmer/hacker who spent some time in his past in the USA producing operating systems. He was the main antagonist of Volume 3. He spends much of his time producing computer viruses such as the Peter4 Trojan horseTrojan horse (computing)A Trojan horse, or Trojan, is software that appears to perform a desirable function for the user prior to run or install, but steals information or harms the system. The term is derived from the Trojan Horse story in Greek mythology.-Malware:A destructive program that masquerades as a benign...
virus that infected Saati and the Spider Virus in the Zero Arc (Program.53-55). He has been involved in criminal enterprises such as pyramid schemePyramid schemeA pyramid scheme is a non-sustainable business model that involves promising participants payment or services, primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, rather than supplying any real investment or sale of products or services to the public...
s. More recently he has become obsessed with the "reality module" by which A.I. programs can come to life, and used to bring a fire-breathing dragon (which he named Xenobia) to life. The handle "Billy-G" is a take-off on Bill GatesBill GatesWilliam Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen...
.
A.I. Program No. 31
- Billy-G's version of Saati created from a back-up file when he captured her in Volume 3. She appears in Volume 8.
- A school newspaper reporter in Hitoshi's high school who wears glasses to read because she is far-sighted. Actually she's a pretty girl without them. She became suspicious of Hitoshi and Saati when she just missed seeing Saati come out of a computer screen. Sensing that it is a big scoop she spied on them both in school and at their residence. She dropped her story on them when she was saved from an underwear thief by Hitoshi, Saati, and Toeni. She is seen in two other chapters too.
- Hitoshi's paternal cousin who lives in AomoriAomori Prefectureis a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku Region. The capital is the city of Aomori.- History :Until the Meiji Restoration, the area of Aomori prefecture was known as Mutsu Province....
; she refers to Hitoshi as onii-san ("big brother"). She is an excellent skier and helps her father to run a hot-springs resort. Growing up she was very much a tomboy and she and Hitoshi would play often such as 'Doctors and Nurses', in which case she took on the Doctor role. She used to have a crush on Hitoshi since he wanted to marry her when they grew up - even having a sense of rivalry with Saati - but now sees Hitoshi and Saati as the resort's "honeymoon couple".
- She is based on Ken Akamatsu's actual cousin, Kikuko.
A.I. Program No. 29
- Saati's previous incarnation until a bug in her linguistics program caused her to be shut down, 80% of Twenty-Nine's programming went into making Saati. When Toni accidentally materialized her, Twenty-Nine, easily mistaken for Saati, went on a minor crime rampage until found attempting to expose herself to a group of middle-aged men. She attempted to pass herself off as Saati until Toeni and Hitoshi picked the real one; like all programs except Saati, she had zero modesty while Saati had modesty to spare.
- Twenty-Nine is currently stored away on a 5¼-inch floppy disk with all the previously errant programs.
A.I. Program No. 28
- An in-joke character, recognizable as a parody of Tetsujin 28-goTetsujin 28-gois a 1956 manga written and illustrated by Mitsuteru Yokoyama, who also created Giant Robo. The series centred on the adventures of a young boy named Shotaro Kaneda, who controlled a giant robot named Tetsujin 28, built by his late father....
.
- Forty-kun's homeroom teacher and the object of his first crush. Considered popular and gorgeous by most of the male students, she is: 26 years old; single; 88-57-87; 5'2"; 105 lb (47.6 kg); her favorites foods are tofu burgers, shave ice, and hard-boiled eggs; her favorite flower is the rose; and she's terrified of spiders.
- Everyone, Forty-kun especially, was crushed when they discovered she was secretly engaged to Ken'ichi Nakamura (NAKAMURA Ken'ichi) the P.E. teacher. The custom, still prevalent in the mid-1990s, was that a woman leaves the work-force when she marries. Thus Takemoto-sensei put off her marriage, put off her resignation and kept her engagement-to-marry secret until the last day of the school term. Forty-chan managed to bid farewell to Forty-kun's first love for him.
- A library representative in Hitoshi's high school who is referred to as the "Madonna of the Library"; her shy and quiet nature compliment her 90-cm (36") D-cup bust. Not very good at computers, she tricks Hitoshi and Saati into infecting the school database with a virus she mocked up. When Saati defeats the virus, which plumped up the measurement data of every girl in school to D-cups, Yūko admits she is really a 78-cm (31") A-cup who padded twelve centimeters (5") to her chest to gain the attention of boys, and needed to overwrite her official measurement data to avoid being found out.
, , and
- Three girls from class 2-D whose names are identifiable inside the school's system when Saati and Hitoshi accidentally implant, then remove, Yūko's breast-enlargement virus. Misato is 164 cm (5'5½") and 50 kg (110 lbs); Aki is 168 cm (5'7") and 53 kg (117 lbs); and Ryōko is 156 cm (5'2½") and 50 kg (110 lbs).
- A widow living with her child's family in Nerima, Sayo once worked as a first-grade teacher at Jinjō Elementary School in Nagano since 1926, but it was closed down in 1945 before she could hand out her last class' graduation diplomas. When she learned that the school was scheduled to be demolished, she started an online diary in order to find her last students or allow them to find her. Unfortunately, she died in February 1996 before she could do so; fortunately, Hitoshi came across it one month later while looking for more explicit online diaries.
- Her diary address accidentally downloaded onto a floppy disk that Hitoshi gave to Saati to backup her memory, Saati became "possessed" by Sayo's "ghost". They discovered the identity of Saati's "previous life", Sayo's granddaughter ( Her name is unmentioned in the manga ), the school, the diplomas, and the students, now grandparents themselves. Sayo, bearing an uncanny resemblance to Saati, thanked Saati for putting her spirit to rest before she was purged from Saati's memories.
- Another ghost named Sayo appears in Ken's later work, Mahō Sensei Negima.
- The fraudulent owner/operator of the Yamazaki Dieters' Spa Resort in IzuIzuIzu may refer to:*Izu Province, a part of modern-day Shizuoka prefecture in Japan**Izu, a city in Shizuoka prefecture**The Izu Peninsula, near Tokyo***The Izu Islands, located off the Izu Peninsula...
that Toyotomi HideyoshiToyotomi Hideyoshiwas a daimyo warrior, general and politician of the Sengoku period. He unified the political factions of Japan. He succeeded his former liege lord, Oda Nobunaga, and brought an end to the Sengoku period. The period of his rule is often called the Momoyama period, named after Hideyoshi's castle...
allegedly visited during the Muramochi period. When Saati, Toeni, and Hitoshi found they had put on weight, Chitose took their money for ridiculously half-brained weight-loss plans, and ran.
- The president of NamakoNamcois a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of...
computer game company that employs Hitoshi and the girls when Toeni spends all their money (again). Hitoshi becomes a programmer for their latest game, Fighting Dolls '96, while the girls are dressed up as the three female characters. When Toeni accidentally deletes the game's unsaved data, putting Hitoshi into a severe work/schedule bind, she comes up with a plan for them to enter the computer to become the characters for a trade show. The good news is that nobody, including Namako himself, noticed anything unusual; the bad news is Hitoshi still had to rewrite all the data that was erased, except better to match what was presented at the trade show.
- Cynthia (or "Cindy") is a Japanese-American teen idol who ran away from home to her mother's homeland because of her dysfunctional relationship with her father, the CEO of IBNIBMInternational Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
. She was attempting to buy the most expensive PCPersonal computerA personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
in a computer store in AkihabaraAkihabara, also known as , is an area of Tokyo, Japan. It is located less than five minutes by rail from Tokyo Station. Its name is frequently shortened to in Japan...
( ¥Japanese yenThe is the official currency of Japan. It is the third most traded currency in the foreign exchange market after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a reserve currency after the U.S. dollar, the euro and the pound sterling...
3,128,000 ) when Hitoshi recommended a simpler model. Choosing Hitoshi as her computing teacher, Cindy flirts with him in front of Saati to the point of an tug-of-war that knocks him out cold. When they learn that Cindy wants to overcome her acute technophobiaTechnophobiaTechnophobia is the fear or dislike of advanced technology or complex devices, especially computers. tech·no·pho·bi·a n. Fear of or aversion to technology, especially computers and high technology. -Related forms: tech'no·phobe' n., tech'no·pho'bic adj."— "tech·no·pho·bi·a - Show Spelled...
in order to write a combined apology/birthday e-mail, both of them help her finish the job, with Saati becoming the "computer fairy" in order to find her father's e-mail address.
, , and
- Three students from Hitoshi's class seen during rehearsals for their school festival play, The Little MermaidThe Little Mermaid"The Little Mermaid" is a popular fairy tale by the Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen about a young mermaid willing to give up her life in the sea and her identity as a mermaid to gain a human soul and the love of a human prince...
, in Volume 7. Their surnames are identified by name-tags on their gym clothes, Nakanishi and Yamaguchi are the boys' surnames, Mizuki is the girl's. Hitoshi went to the homes of Tooru Nakanishi and of Yamaguchi on Christmas Eve 1995 in Volume 5.
and
- Hitoshi's self-proclaimed "beautifully developed and big-breasted little sister". Younger than him by two years, she is loud and energetic, and has a few psychological problems (that of wanting to grab any woman's breast, especially if they are big). Like Hitoshi she is a talented programmer and has developed her own A.I. program, named "Ma-kun", whom she wears around her neck inside a tamagotchiTamagotchiThe is a handheld digital pet, created in Japan by Akihiro Yokoi of WiZ and Aki Maita of Bandai. It was first sold by Bandai in 1996 in Japan. As of 2010, over 76 million Tamagotchis have been sold world-wide...
. Ma-kun has a very calm, cool and collected personality. It is indirectly implied that Toeni and he continue on to have a relationship after the conclusion of the series as she is seen wearing him around her neck in the final chapter, and in the epilogue.
A.I. Program No. Zero
- Zero is an A.I. program and the antagonist of Volume 8. Zero appears as a young teen male and is also known as "Spider-Zero" after Program Zero was infected with the Spider virus. Zero is also an artificial construct and bears a striking resemblance to Fate from Mahō Sensei Negima.
An epilogue to the story exists but appears to only be available on CD in Japanese in Japan.
epilogue
Manga
Further reading
External links
- A.I. Love Network - Ken Akamatsu site.
- A.I. Love You Volume 1 at Tokyopop.