@GreyArea
Yeah, I had the knowledge that Western comic strips were a big influence on Kikai, it just was in the last few chapters that it clicked which one it was really about. It probably took so long to remember because I was really young when Bloom County concluded. There are so many hallmarks though, the surreal undercurrent of a superficially normal place, the insightful, well-spoken children characters, the way the government is portrayed, and others. Also Akita visually evokes Bill the Penguin a bit.