Alpha's owner sends her a present together with a coded message which needs to be delivered by a robot. In hindsight, this is obviously a ploy to make Alpha meet other androids, make new friends and come out of her isolation.
In the first OVA, Maruko gets off the train on her way to Alpha's cafe in February and doesn't depart again until January. The first 15 minutes take place over the course of almost an ENTIRE YEAR.
Alpha and Maruko used to have owners, and this is treated as being normal. Are there any limits to what the owner of a robot can do with his personal property?
Maruko's past involves her wanting nothing to do with her previous owner (She even says "It's complicated" and changes her family name) so Fridge Horror assumptions can be made.
Following on from the above, everyone that we meet treats the robot people the same as human people. Does this mean that humans can also have owners?
Takahiro lives with his grandfather, and Makki lives with her uncle (the teacher from the early chapters). There's no mention of their parents, but there's no actual middle-aged people in the original cast, only old people and children or young people like Ayase. Something bad happened in the near past.
