I recently was informed about a somewhat old (but not officially translated) comic that appears and has continued to appear for about 8 years in Kodansha Afternoon, which is a manga book in Japan that is about the size of a telephone book..

This series is remarkable for several reasons: It's not easily categorized as any particular genre that I've seen in anime or manga. Basically, it has no flashy powerup sequences, blindingly fast action fight scenes, fireballs and energy up the wazoo. The same goes for sex or anything of that sort. Maybe not everyone's cup of tea, but the way it progresses, outlining the lives of several people in the Yokohama countryside, as well as a few... peculiar phenomena is intrieguing. It's slow and thoughtful, with a little bit of quirk tossed in here and there.

The basic outline is this: this is set in a plausible near-future. No flying cars or anything, but there are androids that are somewhat common, though you couldn't tell directly they are non-human, though they might be a spectacle to people who otherwise might not realize they are speaking with an android.

The world is largely the same, with a few minor changes in the typical flow of life, save that through slow global warming, the countryside and some coastal cities are slowly losing parts of their topography, leaving almost spectral remnants from the past poking up through the encroaching waters.

It focuses mostly around one of the android, named Alpha after the series name she is part of. the Alpha 7 series. She is left some time ago by her owner, which she only refers to as 'the Owner' in her recollections, given care of a countryside cafe, which she upkeeps and runs. She has a number of neighbors and aquiantences she meets in the course of the series.

For a bit more detailed look check this wiki, or to download the 12 or so volumes that have been fantranslated go here.

It really is an interesting series so far as I have read, which is about to volume 4.

The translation site is good because you can download the entire volumes in individual zips, or you can look at it straight in your browser, with a coded bookmark cookie system, though the site webmaster asks you not to download all the volume and chapter zips AND read it in the browser, as the bandwidth is somewhat limited.