Sinkutanku is "Thinktank", a group of inventors: Margaret Cassiopeia, Eliot Quasar, George/Gyoljo Humpy, Shinnosuke Otoi, Maria Purunie, and another professor

Leukeyon/ Lykeion, appears to be an island city (above and below the water) (they call it an ocean city) where high technology is the mainstay of the population (future Silicon Valley? ;-p).

Note on the inventors: It looks to me like they have certain strengths and skills (which is the logical reason for working in a group). So far, from what I see, Cassiopeia is the head of programs and AIs (Artificial Intelligence), and Otoi's strength is in mechanics and robot building. I have to find out more about the others. Later on in the timeline, Otoi's son, Masanobu, seems to be a computer expert (programming) though he also dabbles in the mechanics for the robots.

I'm thinking that these three (A,B,C) were all invented at about the same time for different purposes. Cassiopeia seems to be the driving force on a lot of the programs, and she's involved in all three of these. At-random was the first robot and was designed specifically to be a coordination center for Leukeyon. Have no clue as to what Bundle was suppose to be other than AI. In the Manga 13 side story, it reveals that Code was designed specifically to help Bundle in whatever Bundle's task was. Why neither of them (or at least Code) were put into use immediately is completely unclear. ((I'm thinking that the "anime revisionist history" may have fouled things up and the Manga 13 side story was suppose to take place very shortly after this -- but that's pretty much impossible with Atrandom, Karma, and Masanobu's history.))

I think that Emotion is probably at least a few years after Code because of the "older brother" attitude that both of them have, and his protectiveness to her. It's *possible* that they were made at the same time... but I'm thinking that Cassiopeia had a new idea after watching Code and decided to try it out, which would require a time dilation. From her name, the fact that she lives in Cyberspace, and her help with A-S Signal, I'm *thinking* that she might have been designed as an experiment for AI development in human emotions. Possibly, this could be about the time that Atrandom started having his seizures, which would lead to some of the questions. Beyond the experimental program, I'm also thinking that Emotion might be vital to the development of new computer's AI systems in human-feeling development before they are released. That's sheer speculation on my part, though, and would obviously only apply to those robots/programs invented in the same cyberworld/website. (Unless somebody copied her program? -- I'm wondering here about the Q-series which none of the other robots or humans knew at all about, but were part of the same general program set. What I'm thinking is that perhaps at some point Quasar got kicked out of the main scientist group, but then copied all the data to continue inventing on his own, sortof.)

I'm presuming later in the timeline just because it's a completely new idea from At-Random and other standard robots. And by the alphabet, she's later. However, this does lead to a slight problem in the series assumption that A-series are all HFRs. If Harmony is the first HFR, then what about A-G? (And what about the A-series that aren't obviously HFR like A-A and A-R?) Grr... It's vaguely possible that the alphabet has only a vague significance as far as order, in which case Harmony could have designed much earlier in the timeline (Atrandom is specifically stated to be the first A-series robot, and Harmony specifically stated to be the first HFR. With the weird confusion with the A-series, there's also an interesting question if Harmony was originally intended to be part of the "A-series" or was a separate invention (in which case, she could have been first...).

Presumably Karma was invented right after A-A lost it... but how long did it take to invent Karma after they knew they needed him? Karma's HFR appearance suggests much improvement after Harmony was invented... but could be closer in time just due to different inventors working on it (now that HFRs were possible at all). Presumably, Cassiopeia was working on the same integration of AI human emotions into the robots, and the E alpha and beta robots were the test-ground for Karma -- since they didn't want him to run amok like At-random.

I don't have many details on the events around this time. A little bit here and a little bit there. For instance, Karma was invented for Leukeyon, yet it's stated in his and Pulse's history that he was with the Otoi family until Leukeyon was constructed (? but A-A 10 years ago was invented for Leukeyon! that's slow construction). ... Then there's the Big Accident, mentioned only briefly in different areas. ... etc. So... my theory is that while the Thinktank group of scientists (Karma too) was out (somewhere) there was a big accident (;-p) at Leukeyon -- "big" accident, as in explosions that blew up at least a portion of the city -- probably in the control areas and some family areas. That would explain the series of deaths at this time (just imagine being on the lower levels if the water came in!). With Leukeyon mostly destroyed, it needed to be rebuilt (hence the "under construction" for another 10 years...). All the scientist split off to their own individual homes and started working more separately (I imagine the emotional trauma was also very extreme for most of them). No robots were made for a long time after this (of the A-series, at least).

I'm pulling this timeline out from general appearance of the characters, specifically Masanobu, from manga 5 when he was definitely 10 (though it's a bit hard to tell with manga drawings...) and magna 13 when he looks older (teenagish). Plus, considering the invention, I think it's much more likely to have been done at 14 than 10. ;-p (Also the age by C-M site.) However, I have to say the timing on this one is *very* warpy! The whole Thinktank group is there when Code is talking to Cassiopeia, Quasar's lab is very close to Otoi's, there seems to be no indication of any major tragedies, and Code would have been a program only for almost 15 years without being used! That's all just silly. I think at the very least, things got confused on this timing because this story would make a hell of a lot more sense being placed more at anywhere from a +2 to +4 timeline. But that would have put it before Karma and too young for Masanobu. Now if they'd just left Masanobu out of it, things would have been fine. ;-p (And there's no indication prior to this that Masanobu created the sword -- up until manga 13, it's been implied that Code designed it himself. Which makes a hell of a lot more sense, to me.) Of course, if one takes this story completely as fact, the whole rest of the timeline is changed to this alternate one: <will put a link up later>.

Or... another alternative is that Code never needed a body, always using Bundle's when the program needed his support, that after Leukeyon was destroyed that the majority of the team resettled on the mainland somewhere as a group to continue working on projects together, and that at this point Quasar was still with the group (maybe this incident is what kicked him out of the team). Humm... I rather like this idea because then I don't have to mess with the timeline, and it keeps the conflicts down. Personally, I think it would have made more sense for the scientists to have scattered immediately after "the big accident" but... this works too. Having lost so much of their own families, they may have clung harder to working as a group together. <shrug> Pick your own idea. ;-)

I initially thought that Lavender was the first of the "fighting robots," but I've been corrected on that point because Pulse specifically has that title (explained in his section). However, Lavender still is one of the best fighters out there due to technique and experience. Why are we not surprised that her inventor is Dr. Otoi (who loves watching the fighting robot programs)? Don't have much information on why the need for a Security robot or how she did this (she appears to be a mix of fighting skills and intellectual thought).

I'm tossing this group of robots in the same invention timeline because I've got the (potentially mistaken) impression that Oratorio and Lavender were created very nearly at the same time and are close in age. Plus... it looks a little at least like the group of inventors that were in Thinktank are still working together on the projects, if they aren't actually a "team" anymore. That could be a reason for the continuation of the A-series names, at least. But they could be more loosely connected now (instead of being a team hired by the city, perhaps), and working on individual projects or comissions. A-O is rather obviously Otoi's alone, since he's designed specifically to safeguard Otoi's computer system (not the group's). (And since Code in manga 8 isn't familiar with Oracle's domain, apparently he was in Cassiopeia's computer system, which is obviously a separate system.)

On this timeline, I'm putting them in at this point (5 to 7 years after the accident) because I initially thought that Oracle was invented due in part to the problem with Bundle. Since then, Jhiend has very kindly translated those chapters of manga 13 for me and it tossed out a lot of my speculations about what was happening there. But... I'm not discounting the possibility of it still. ;-p ('Sides, I have to account for all the years somehow...) And it makes sense that it would be awhile after the "big accident" for the group to find a place with resources and materials to match what they had at Leukeyon and start building actual robots again. The bit about coming after Bundle especially makes sense if this is at the time Quasar left the group and the inventors started worrying about keeping secrets from each other. So... either Oracle was invented in a fit of parenoia/caution from a split in the group, or else he was invented just on general principle since Otoi was setting up his own area (wanted to do an idea like a minature Leukeyon, so to speak). I can see either one happening.

Also... There's an interesting question of whether or not Oracle is an A-O or not. I was initially presuming he was, the other webpages think he's not. My idea for him being part of the A-series is first and foremost his name and the fact that he was created with the definitely A-O Oratorio. The question arises in that he is never in any of the mangas called an A-O. So it leads again to the basic question and problem of what exactly is the A-series? If Oracle isn't part of it, then one can assume either 1) that Otoi did *all* the invention work for Oracle (not even a part-group effort, one of the possible criteria for an A-series) (I don't like this idea because Otoi doesn't seem great in the way of AI inventions -- he seems more mechanical/robot design to me; I still think Cassiopeia did more of the AI work, even on Otoi's later robots.) or 2) the criteria for A-series includes being intended to be put into a robot form -- which Oracle never is (I like this one better except for the problem then of Code and Emotion, both A-series programs that weren't put into robot bodies -- the saving grace on that one might be that they'd been *intended* to be robots initially but then there was a hiccup in the projects.).

The timeline on this one is also warpy due to the basic question of when Cassiopeia retired. It could be right after the big accident, but then there's the Code/Bundle story. However, in some of the flashback scenes with Europa and Atrandom, Europa looks *very* young while in the present timeline she's quite mature Now this was either artist's liberty to indicate maturity level, or the young look was what she was first designed as and then both bodies were redesigned later. If the bodies were redesigned later, then obviously the E-girls had kept their young-appearance for all these years (robots don't age, to judge by Karma), and then presumably Europa's redesign was done by Quasar <shudder> after she'd been at his place for awhile. No clue as to who did Elara's redesign (I presume she initially would have looked as young as Europa, though there are no flashbacks of her).

The timing is just my speculation because of everything else happening and having to fit it in somewhere.

I rather think that Quarter was probably the first of the Quantum robots because 1) by the alphabet, he had to be in here somewhere 2) the next robot, Queen, is a copy of the fighting Pulse, which hasn't happened yet. Of course, Quiet could be in here too, but my general impression is just that he seems more recent than Quarter (for one thing, his body design was based on Atrandom's HFR, which happens later in the series (either that or Atrandom's body was based on Quiet's. ;-p)).

Unless, of course, there was actually a "Quantum" robot who was invented around this time period that we've never heard of -- perhaps altered to make the others later on. Because this letter is taken... but the humans seems to have no knowledge of the Q-series being copies of A-O and the others. That's another possibility... There's something in one of the mangas that I have to check on... I'll get back to this idea.

I'm putting him in here at this point because considering how protective he is to Constance's daughter Mariel, I'm thinking he might have been invented as a bodyguard for her kids. Constance apparently has another child who is older (Mariel looks to be about 4 or so).

It looks like Otoi didn't really have a plan in mind for Signal other than testing his new metal and chip. Since he originally designed Signal as a fighting robot, but then gave in rather quickly to Nobuhiko's plead for a sibling robot. Signal and Pulse seem to be the only robots actually made with no specific purpose in mind.

I'm presuming on the timeline 'cause there's no indication of Nobuhiko or Kris knowing about the redesign until Pulse shows up. And since they were one big happy family last year... ((From what I've seen in the other mangas, Kris hung out with their family a lot, I think...)) ((I should mention here that I've noted on the sites that speculation is that Pulse and Kris might be a couple since they're together so much -- my own theory is simply that Pulse is like Kris' older brother. Most of the humans seem to have robots they attach to as far as siblings go. Minoru has Code, Masanobu has Karma, Kris has Pulse, Nobuhiko has Signal, Mariel has Raiden, etc, etc.))

After this point, a lot happens in the series... ;-p I'll write them in eventually...

Masanobu seems to have a rather cold outlook on all the robots (not hesitating to reprogram them and mess with their circuits) except Karma (who he seems to regard as sortof an older brother -- but he's not as close to Karma as Nobuhiko is to Signal). (Of course, his dad also has the same outlook, to a slightly lesser extent.) (Side note: Of all the robot inventors, it seems to be the women inventors (Cassiopeia, Minoru, Maria, and Constance) who choose to see them as people and not just programs. Then there's Nobuhiku, but he's changed a lot knowing Signal.)

Another interesting observation here, looking at the numbers, is that Masanobu is the same age as when the timeline starts (I didn't do that on purpose, I swear!). And Minoru (Masanobu's wife) is suppose to be sortof a sister to Code as well. Growing up with computers and robots... I rather liked that short story where Nobuhiku was trying to talk about his family -- the robots definitely add a different flavor to one's life! ;-) I wonder how long before Nobuhiku is inventing robots and writing programs too? ;-)