Chobits

Chobits is a light-hearted yet spiritual story that deals with a multitude of issues from relationships to feeling alone. With many sexual issues and references this series is definitely a 16+, such a funny amazing series it is definitely a must read for anyone. The reason why I said that it was a spiritual story was because whenever I read it I felt internally happy.

The characters are uplifting and very hilarious, Chi with her naivety which causes her to get into many different situations some of which are embarrassing, then there is her ‘owner’ Hideki who is a typical young adult who lives a basic life he goes to school and has a job, but is unfortunately poor.

The story is amazing it has a beautiful likeness to life trying to find the ‘one’ who will always care and trying to learn about life and that is what this series does it shows us about getting the basic things in life in a hilarious way.

The art is just brilliant it is light and cute and manages to show us the story in a charming way. The art can be a little strange at times with funny spastic expressions by Hideki.

In short this series is brilliant it is something I can connect with (to a point) and it’s extremely uplifting and makes you happy all the time you are reading it and me wish it lasted a little longer.

Chobits was one of those things I heard about as a kid, but never thought to get into until recently. For as high of recommendations as I had heard for this series, I was more or less underwhelmed. Though the art is very well done and there are very good messages about loving others for who they are, not what they are, the plot itself felt fairly narrow. I wasn't surprised by anyone's actions and I wasn't pulled emotionally at very many points. Everything about Hideki and Chii's actions felt predictable to me. It was an okay read, but I don't think I'd go back to it in the future.

Slight spoilers of the ending are beyond this point!

The thing that disappointed me the most was the ending. I'm not upset by Hideki's decision to not know the secret about Chii, but I would've like to know. Without having the mystery of Chii and what calamity she could cause being answered clearly, it felt like an empty threat. Overall, it was pretty unfulfilling for me.

What better way to kick off my manga reviews than with the first series I ever read? That’s right, at the cusp of my teenagehood, I was introduced to Chobits, a series about basically a boy and his robot. I can still remember how I was introduced to it. It was after watching Cardcaptor Sakura being rebroadcast on TV that I wondered if there were other interesting anime out there that I was unaware of. Through the power of the internet, I figured out about Chobits!

The art was beautiful, the story was pretty interesting AND most importantly, the manga featured coloured pull-outs. I read the first book and was subsequently hooked.


Chobits opens with Chii being found in the trash. Chii is a persocom, something of a robot who looks human and can do all the things a computer does. The one thing special about Chii is that she has been programmed to love. As we find out through the series, it wasn’t because Chii was deemed useless, but because there were other circumstances tearing her away from her original creators despite their deep love for her. The exploration of whether a robot can be sentient and eventually develop feelings for humans and whether it’s creepy or whether a human can reciprocate those feelings is central to the manga.

All these exploration of emotions are done in the backdrop, as Chii learn to integrate into human life under the tutelage of Hideki, the main protagonist student who can’t afford a real persocom and felt super lucky at picking Chii up. Chii eventually makes a lot of friends, gets a job and then falls in love with Hideki just like he has for her.

What CLAMP, the manga creators, excel at, is artwork and side characters, in my opinion. Their artwork is intricate with a Shoujo asthetic, and yet for this comic you can see the action shots and comedic facial expressions bleeding through to cater to the Seinen demographic. For me, this was the first story I had read which had such a science fiction theme, where robots could think and love just like humans. This manga (and another one which I’ll review soon) ignited a love for science fiction in me which caused me to devour other science fiction books, you might read this and think “What a load of crap. What’s all this airy human and robots falling in love stuff? There’s no science at all. There’s no logic.” But to me that was one of the manga’s strengths as well. I’m sure that if the manga had gone into hardcore explanations of neurotransmitters my brain wouldn’t have been able to handle it.

Instead, we have a compelling story with an over arcing plot, with side characters that support the narrative question: Can robots love?

The only weak side of the story is… the fucking ending. That ending that starts in chapter 87 and makes me want to bash my head on a wall, It left me with a really unsatisfied feeling I was when I first read it, even though I couldn’t really explain why until now. Everything else about the story, from the premise, to the plot, to the art, to the detailed side characters was perfect. ALL PERFECT. And then the ending… felt like a rug was pulled out from under mebut that's fine, it doesn't change my love for Chobits whatsoever.

Chobits talks about one poor guy called Hideki that finds an expensive ''machine'' called persocons that have an appearance of a human, in the middle of the trash, he starts to use her and discover that she is an special persocon which cant be controlled and used by any system and coincides with a possible legend called ''Chobits'', and when he begins to discover more about her, he starts falling in love with her. This is the main plot of the story, really interesting at my viewpoint.

The story follows more a casual rotine of the both characters, and Chii wich is the machine that is found by Hideki, discovering the world in a sensible way, and explores a little bit of the relationship of humans and machines, and we have to consider that in the time that the story was written the technology and the point of view of the people was completely different than the time that we live right now so its kind of amazing if you think about how since the beggining of the age of the computers and technology people have already thought about human's relationships with machines and how some people would replace humans for machines. Anyway, the time was another and i had to consider that before thinking on it.

The story at all was ok, i expected a deepful meaning in the general, and that didnt really happened but i had to consider that the story was made back there in 2000, and the point of view about machines and humans was completly diffrent than nowdays, also it was kind of rushed, but if was a bit longer, it was going to be pretty boring and exhausting, The characters was pretty mediocre, it didnt progressed much, but the enjoyment overall was good and peacefull, not a hardcore and deep story at all, but it makes you thinks a little bit about love and technology.

One last thing that i wanted to say is that the fanservice of this mangas was pretty pretty bad, and i kind of understand it, they needed to make a light sexual content toward Chii to make people read and buy it, thats pretty sad.

Story: This manga was pretty good. It was told in a nice steady pace. It didn't feel rushed and/or episodic. There were some fillers but they were nice and not annoying in any way. The flashbacks of some minor character’s storylines in the manga were absolutely amazing. I think the story was very complex and the fact they held on to the mystery of Chii and Persecoms overall was great. The ending was a nice wrap-up. I definitely thought it was going to be predictable but it absolutely wasn't at all. With that being said, I was a little sad for Hideki but I guess love is the most important thing.

Art: I'm not really an art critic lol. I did enjoy it however. It was perfectly detailed. The animation from the show was great. It didn’t feel dated even 15 years later.

Character: I loved Hideki and Chi. But compared to the secondary characters, their story didn't become complex until the very end. You see the different points of view when it comes to the effect of humans interacting with Persocoms and how it effects their own relationships with other humans in the whole series. However, the main character’s effect of this interaction isn't shown until the very end of the series. But overall, I think everyone was great.

Enjoyment: I really enjoyed the anime and I still had some questions I wanted answered so that's what made me read the manga. I thoroughly enjoyed this. I thought it was better than the anime. I used to own volumes of this manga and I know I would've enjoyed it had I completed it then instead of now. I would recommend this anime for a more mature audience only because I felt like the ending might leave our less mature readers a little more disappointed LOL

This is the first manga I ever read; a true masterpiece that hooked me immediately and created my manga addiction. The art is beautiful, as is to be expected from anything by CLAMP. The characters are likable, believable, and surprisingly deep. There is a delightful blend of comedy, romance, fanservice, and thought-provoking story. You will laugh, cry, get excited, and think. There truly is something for everyone here.
Chobits has a wonderful story about diversity in relationships- you love who you love, and the happiness you share is what counts, not other people's ideas of what a couple should look like. This is a manga one can read over and over again without ever tiring of it. If you haven't read it yet, get to it right away.

(PS: Originally posted on December 15, 2010)

Well after finally reading the acclaimed manga known as Chobits, I came to the conclusion that this manga, just like Akira (I plan to get to that one eventually), was completely overrated and does not deserve the praise it gets. Of course I have my reasons and that is why I have decided to write this review (warning: this review contains spoilers).

Before I get to my complaints I would like to point out the positive aspects. The first thing I loved about Chobits would definitely have to be the characters. They were well developed and the story made me care about them because despite their faults, they are still very likeable people. Some of the different themes introduced were pretty good too. Unfortunately the story kind of breaks a part when looked at more closely and even the themes get ruined in hind site.

The first major complaint in the story would have to be the love relationship between Yumi and the bakery boss dude (forgot his name). When Yumi is first introduced it is made completely clear that she has a crush on Hideki because of the various dialogues exchanged between the both of them. An example of this would be literally the first conversation Hideki and Yumi have which is filled with sexual tension and flirtation on her part. However this obvious crush is completely removed when we find out that she was really in love with the bakery boss dude and she only viewed Hideki as a kind of brother…BULLSHIT!!! She was so obviously all over him, how the hell did this happen or even begin to make sense? Was she teasing him the entire time? If that’s true then, wow, what a b****!

The next complaint I have is the story about the bakery boss dude falling in love with his Persocom. In his flash back he tells the story about how he fell in love with his Persocom and then married her. That is all very nice but how did this happen? Did he buy her and then when he got to know her and spend time with her, finally realize that he loved the Persocom since she made him happy? Do Persocom actually have feelings and it was those feelings that made him fall in love with her? Well it was actually none of that. The real way it went was that he bought the Persocom because it was love at first sight. So let me get this straight, the guy fell in love with a non activated robot that was sitting on a shelf…that has the exact same emotional effect of me falling in love with my toaster because I thought it looked more beautiful than all the other toasters at Wal-Mart. I think the bakery boss dude has problems and should seek help before he marries his fridge.

The third complaint I have is the repetitive dialogue that this manga seems to spew out all the time. Chii is in love with Hideki but she’s scared that she will be rejected and Hideki is not sure if he loves Chii or not. Now mix that in with tons of dialogue about the nature of love and how it works. Then repeat everything I just said again. It gets so tedious and boring at times. Yes Chobits, I understood the first time you told me, I do not need to hear your lectures on love a million times more! The worst part is that after we hear all about Chii’s inner struggles, they have the nerve to repeat everything that was going on in her mind and in the story in the form of this picture book that Chii keeps reading. So after we finish reading the character development in the actual story, it is the characters themselves that read their own character development. I’m reading a story in the story that’s explaining the same story that is in the story…damn :P

The fourth complaint I have is probably the most obvious one, WHY THE HELL IS CHII’S ACTIVATION SWITCH IN HER VAGINA!!! Seriously what the hell! I understand that you could say that this plot point was implemented so that it shows that Hideki could fall in love with Chii without having the need to have sex with her, but still this simply makes no sense. First off what the hell was the creator of Chobits (the creator inside the manga, not the author) thinking when he came up with this brilliant idea? Second, if he did program them to be different and able to fall in love, then would it not have been better if they had the ability to have sex because even though sex is not the most important part about love, it is still "an" important aspect and depriving them of sex is kind of removing part of what makes love so beautiful and great. There may be a metaphor about the idea of having the switch down there but the problem with that metaphor is that it ruins part of the plots logic. I know some people don't look too far into manga logic, but that to me is just an excuse.

Believe it or not, even after all my complaints, I still recommend Chobits. It's quite interesting and worth checking out in order to at least see what the hype is about. Its heart is in the right place and that's why I couldn't get myself to rate it anything lower than 7/10. Despite its sometimes boring moments, I still had a fun time.

Chobits - The Manga Under The Eye of RGaspar And His First Review Ever -

Story:

In terms of story I think Chobits starts with a really good punch to gradually become more typical.
The initial setting is thrilling: In the near future the world is populated by people and Persocoms alike, these Persocoms are humanoid robots that people can get in love with. The protagonist, Hideki, is your regular young loser, without girls, without any interesting stuff to do and not enough money to buy a precious Persocom. Until he finds Chi on the way home... From then on, lots of things will happen in this eight-volume story.

Chobits definitely gives you some food for thought: Can robots really feel and think by their own? Is it ok to be more in love with robots than with humans? Will you cry if your robot gets destroyed? Will the robot cry for you if it happened the other way around? Rest assured the series won't give you an ultimately answer to all this, giving you the freedom to think what you want.

That's very good and unusual for a manga series. Now, what's not very good is the way erotics is handled. There are a bunch of ecchi situations that are not recommended for kids (including a glory-hole scene, no less) , and while the general tone of Chobits is pretty mature and serious I was expecting the same treatment for the erotic content. Now, I don't mean I wanted to see actual sex, but you can't be given the kind of ending you get, when early volumes teased more realistic behaviours (I can't spoil exactly what I'm talking about, you'll have to read Chobits to find out).

And another thing that takes some points away from the story is that the original premise slowly becomes a background setting, and all that matters at the end of the day is the relationship between the many couples presented in the manga. That would be ok for another manga with a less interesting universe, but for Chobits I'd have liked to see Clamp moving beyond genre conventions there.


Art:

I find the style to be just perfect for this. It's not as simplistic as some other shojo mangas you'd see around but not too complex either (that wouldn't fit the series). Every Persocom is beautifully detailed and their distinct traits are very well done, without any mayor changes during the whole manga, and that's a plus. You won't forget Chi's ears or Sumomo's dress in quite a while.
Also, the pages are generous with the space given to each frame, so reading them is easy.

Characters:

They are the best of Chobits, in my opinion, with the Persocoms in the stellar role. For every couple in the manga there's a background story to follow, and their feelings don't look like a forced plot device to advance the story. Almost all the characters on paper are interesting, with a few exception consisting of short lived characters used for very specific situations.
My two favorite ones are the comic duo of portable Persocoms Sumomo and Kotoko, who I find very cute and fun.


Overall:

Chobits is a recommended read for anyone looking for sweet love stories without many dark moments. It could be a letdown if you are expecting something more beyond that point. Even then, the possitive points surpasses the bad ones: Good characterization supported by above average drawings easily compensate a somewhat unballanced storyline.

While Chobits is not as good as CardCaptor Sakura,still stands as a enjoyable manga to read.

when i first found this manga i still have a little bit of hesitation whether i should read it or not and since i'm already out of manga to read, i decided to read this and guess what i enjoy it.

it has a little bit of spoiler read at your own risk
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so the story is all about hideki who decided to live in modern society to study in order to prepare for his entrance exam. born from a province where technology are rare sight specially computer/persocoms. so when the first time he saw a lot of persocoms around he wasn't able to contain he's excitement making him shout "i want a persocom too", sadly our protagonist can't afford these persocoms since it is so expensive, one night while walking on the road he saw a abandoned persocom which is extremely cute and decided to take it with him thinking that it was his lucky day for meeting he's fated persocom.

The art is great and it's very enjoyable.

Not everyone will empathize with Hideki, and I pretty much understand why.

He's not a very complicated character, in my opinion he was just supposed to represent the Everyman in this case and that's why he was so milktoast, but there's certainly room to argue that. The story didn't suffer from his inclusion but I think it could have benefited from a more realistic characterization instead of a broad, general one.

Chii is a very obviously easy person to empathize with and love instantly, given the nature of her personality, though I'll agree with some who say she was used as eyecandy and ended up being a bit of a Dibby at times, even though there's legitimate character under her very naked body.

It's not a remarkable story, nothing you don't really see coming, but it's so astronomically better than its off-brand, template anime adaptation. If you like the characters or you like the anime, you'll love the manga.

Story - Poor guy finds a sexbot. That just about sums it up. There's something about the sexbot being some kind of weapon but I couldn't figure it out. Along the way people tell Hideki that a sexbot is not an alternative for a real human being, which I agree with, but Hideki apparently doesn't get it. The pacing is so slow it's not even funny. After about 8 hours of reading I finally gave up. I didn't find anything particularly funny. Maybe Hideki's virginity was supposed to be a joke? I didn't find it funny. Everyone makes fun of Hideki's virginity as if it's bad, whilst I couldn't care less whether if he was a virgin or not. Oh and also I found the entire concept of "persocoms" deranged and moronic. The purpose of computers is not to be cute, we have figurines and dolls for that. Why would people use persocoms instead of cell phones? Cell phones are so much more convenient. It's so stupid.

Art - Very mediocre. Too minimalist for my liking.

Character - Dreadful characters. Everyone being obsessed with "persocoms" as if they're stereotypical lonely pathetic sex-obsessed otakus. It's not funny when it's being parodied for the billionth time. Chi acting like a retard got boring really fast. I thought she was supposed to be smart? Am I supposed to find retards cute? The female characters seem to do little other than to tease Hideki, our resident virgin, with vague hints of sex.

Enjoyment - Barely any. I really tried to finish it, but I just couldn't stand reading this nonsense and finally gave up.

Overall - Boring nonsense. If you're one of those stereotypical lonely pathetic sex-obsessed otakus that I presume this manga was targeted towards then you might find it arousing. But only if you have a lot of patience, as this manga moves extremely slowly.

If you look at my profile, at my manga list, its fair to say that I am a CLAMP follower. Not that everything they do is perfect and is right for everyone but they generally do what they do right. But when I read Chobits I was disappointed.

Story: Take Hideki. A poor, 19 year old ronin student who can't get a job, a girlfriend and who has no life. On top of that he talks to himself when his imagination gets overly excited. And one day his luck just happens to hit him square in the forehead. Meet Chii. A very naked, very curvaceous...persocom? Oh yes. I forgot the OTHER part of this story. Now meet the persocom. The humanoid computer. Complete with moe eyes, big boobs and a vagina. Where Chii's ON button just happens to be.

The thing with Chobits is that you can't seem to escape the constant back and forth between Ecchi moments and the Seinen/Romance moments. One minute Chii is searching for her one and only and then next she needs panties? Or we're reading the story about The City with No People and how loneliness is never escapable and the next Chii is wearing only a shirt and Hideki wants her to download porn.

There's a serious attempt at a social movement within the story. Our lives are ruled by computers and the web and there's a fine line between love and lust and when we make that leap. And robots being capable of love? CLAMP really, really ALMOST had it with this one. Chobits really does try to succeed. And it would have if there wouldn't have been so much Ecchi in contrast to the Seinen/Romance. It just didn't fit right. I wanted it to work but it didn't for me. In the end, the final conflict really would have had more meaning to me, if there hadn't been so much Ecchi paired with the Seinen/Romance.

Art: The only outstanding part of this work. CLAMP will always succeed as long as they stay together I believe. I loved the beauty of Chobits and really this is what kept me reading page after page. If you like CLAMP already, then I don't believe this will disappoint you. Though there's nothing special about Chii and Hideki.

Character: Oh the characters. Oh how insignificant you all really ended up being. Hideki and Chii prove to be the two most insignificant and pointless main characters I have ever encountered. Hideki may be easy to relate to but it doesn't make him very special. Hell, it doesn't even make him slightly remarkable. Hideki is simple.Chii ends up being his solution, in a not-so-easy solution. I ended up liking the side characters better than them. My rating of a 5 stands because there were only 2 that made any kind of impression on me. Zima and Dita.

My overall enjoyment of Chobits is an average 7 and I was hard-pressed to give it a 6 because with the amount of Ecchi this manga should be given a minor warning to anyone under the age of 14. And really CLAMP, if I wanted Ecchi, I would read Ecchi. But I don't want Ecchi. I want Romance, and I want to see Robots be able to fall in love, and I want to see how one robot could destroy everything that they have all worked for. I want to see CLAMPs one and only work out again. I wanted CLAMP.

But this one fell just a little short.

I have to say, when I started Chobits I didn't really like it that much. The art was good, sure, but the premise seemed like something that had been done before and all that had been done to try to make it stand out was they'd added a lot of dirty humor. I decided to try to stick with it though as I'd heard that it got better. As it turned out, it did.

As I mentioned, the plot has been done before. On the outside, it's a fairly typical yamato nadeshiko series. Guy finds and takes in a girl with special powers who he starts to develop feeling for, etc etc. The only outwards difference about this one is that the girl happens to be a computer, not a living creature.

Also as mentioned, the series can be quite perverted at times, around the beginning especially. But it does get a lot better. As Chobits gets more into the sci-fi of the plot and more is learned about Chii's past the series can get very enthralling. It's main plot is probably just that the ending is fairly predictable.

The sort of side plot that goes on within the books Chii reads through out the series, A City With No People, also is very cute and interesting while giving clues about Chii's past and what it'll mean for the plot.

In terms of art, it's fairly typical CLAMP: Good with a unique style that isn't so unique that it seems alien to readers. It's very good, almost never off character model. Sadly though, I have to knock a point off as it seems to resort to chibi character models every once in a while.

The characters are probably one of the stronger things this series has going for it. Despite a good amount of them being barely more than steryotypes.
All of them are likable though and each gets their own side plot and "person just for them".

There are two persacoms who appear near the end who don't end really doing much plot wise despite it practically being shown that they were going to be the antangonists. Instead though, the only thing they really do is help resolve another side plot via a small event that could have easily been done another way. If I understand correctly, they have a bigger role in the anime, but even so they just seem unneeded in the manga.

Overall, this is a good series that I enjoyed a fair bit, but it's certainly not without it's flaws. The characters could have more original and developed further, and there wasn't as much done about the sci-fi aspects than there could have been. Also, I may have found a plot hole at the end, but I'll leave that for you to find since it doesn't really affects the series's enjoyability at all.

I give this aborable look at romantic sci-fi an 8 out of 10.

(just for the record, this is a slight alteration of my anime review)

Chobits is to its core a romantic comedy like so many others. It is about a rather typical teen male lead and his life with a girl that suddenly had to stay at his apartment. If you have seen or read enough harems and ecchi comedies you can see the cheese of the premise present from the very first episode. A guy with zero talent and zero experience with women all of a sudden gets swarmed by pretty gals who for one or another emotional reason need him.

But a few tips about the story are in need. It’s the near future, technology has reached a point where personal computers now look and act like people and many real humans turn to them in order to find happiness. Some are just assistants on various jobs, others are bought friends or pets, or even lovers. And in all this chaos our hero finds one such robot thrown in the garbage and decides to keep it for himself. Which of course ends up being a beautiful girl that knows nothing and learns like a child even the most basic things. Soon many others who are involved with this new breed of machines interact with him and a lot of things are revealed or proven not what they seem.

The premise of the show could very easily turn to some hentai, as it involves robots built to resemble beautiful people and who are programmed to obey their masters down to the last detail. And yes, there is a lot of focus given to the aspect of these robots being used as substitutes for romance, friendship or even sex partners. So yeah, in theory this is the stuff from which a mountain of ecchi and hentai recycle their ideas form through the decades.

Yet it is not really an average ecchi comedy and by no means a hentai, despite bordering it subtly at times. It also is in fact full of social criticism and metal awareness that actually leave some food to the mind amongst all the cheese of the erotic humor. Very few such shows bother to add something other than an excuse of a story and random situations where people bump on each other naked.

Although it never gets too deep or philosophical, it still has the guts to criticize the very tropes its genres are supposed to deify in order to appeal to the target audience. And by the end of the day that is what makes this anime to deserve a spot on the tops of romantic comedies. It aims to make you laugh with sex jokes on one hand and make you think if all this utopia of dreamy artificial people is that good to begin with. So it shows things from both sides of the spectrum, making propaganda and anti-propaganda at the same time. It is post-modern yet anti-post modern as well.

Most of course hardly notice such overtones and focus mainly on the cast or the quality of the humor. Which again I must say have far more interest than most casts in such shows. The social and mental overtones gave room for immersion to each ones mentality, allowing character coloring and development to come along. They even offered catharsis and a satisfying closure instead of just leaving it stale and open to a sequel; the bulk of what romantic comedies turn to almost every time. No sir, here we have a complete story with developed characters. By the end of the show you really feel sympathy for most of the characters, as each one has his or her own set of worries. None feels out of place as every issue involves the humanoid machines. There is uniformity and not random ideas thrown blindly here and there.

I must point out that this series is by no means Ghost in the Shell. Most episodes work fine as stand alones and their storylines are in fact quite common in ecchi comedies. It’s just that since the lead robot girl is steadily learning, you feel there is actual progress amongst all the cheese. Plus, the secondary cast also reacts differently based on previous events and thus you never get a filler episode in the strict sense of the word.

As much as I liked the characters and the story premise, I still don’t give a very high mark on the actual storyline. To the most part it builds a mystery and a global conspiracy that makes you feel the end of the world is near, yet by the end of the series nothing really terrifying even happens to the world. So all the mystery is basically a fake lure to keep you worried about the end of the show. It otherwise resolves matters in quite the anti-climactic way, but not necessary a sloppy one. It is good but not serious or rewarding enough to deserve more.

The artwork is very appealing to the eye, without needing to be extra detailed or filled with computer generated filters. The environments feel almost minimalistic and in comical moments the characters and the backgrounds simplify extremely. Yet, this does not ruin the overall feeling as the jokes still get through. The character figures, although rather simplistic in body and facial structure still maintain an air of cuteness and beauty, boosted further by the rather extravagant uniforms they usually wear. Plus, those touches with the fairy tale book and its weird symbolisms gave an artchy feeling that makes you think it’s a work of non-ecchi erotic art.

Overall, this is one of those rare cases where I fully enjoyed a romantic / ecchi comedy. It was not just random jokes, it had a story, it had development, it had an ending, it had some food for the mind. And above all, nothing felt completely retarded, like out of this world reactions to a situation or ass-pulled plot twists. Reread value is high, and so is enjoyment.

This book is kind of hard for me to rate because there are some really hilarious moments and then there are other times when the characters aren't making sense. I like the idea about having persocoms, computers in the shape of a human, and the pictures are very detailed. I also like Chi, one of the main characters who is a very "special" persocom, because of her kid-like innocence and she's darn cute!!!!!!! Yet even so, sometimes her innocence can get annoying (too much of a good thing isn't always good). Anyhow, this is an interesting manga, certainly one of a kind but with a little bit too much pervertedness for my taste.

-kemmec

88 capítulos pra eles dizerem que se amam e nem se beijarem, sinceramente...
Senti falta de desenvolvimento de personagens, várias coisas ficaram sem respostas, tipo, o amigo dele ficou casado com a professora?
Achei muita sacanaem o cara não poder comer a menina por causa da localização do botões. Além disso, tem muita coisa e personagem jogado que não contribuiram nada para a história. Gostei bastante que os peitos são bem explícitos aqui, deve ser coisa de mangá. As persocoms portáteis são incrivelmente fofas, o autor tá de parabéns nesse quesito. Foi um belo passatempo para as aulas chatas.
Por essas razões minha nota é um sólido 7.

Chobits is one of the classic proofs wherein people believe that robots are indeed able to love. The manga series may be more mature than what is recommended for my age, which is twelve-- like the fact that Hideki is used to seeing Chi without clothes on, or that he wanted a persecon to be able to download internet porn, or maybe even the fact that he wanted a girlfriend to lose virginity. I may even say that I wasn't able to read the series fully, because I had to shield my innocent eyes during those "mature" scenes.
Apart from that fact, this story is really heartfelt, and from somewhere in the middle, I realized that it was impossible for it all to end perfectly--- EVERYBODY happily living forever after. At some point in the story, Hideki had no choice, he had to give Chi up, or give up what Chi held dear. It surely was a tough choice, but he made the better one, nonetheless, since, in the end, he chose to make Chi "the one just for him", and was able to start over. The artwork of CLAMP was breathtaking, and my first sight of Chi left me almost speechleess. She looked as pure as an angel, and she was stunningly beautiful. The plot may have been complicated, but CLAMP found a way to untie every knot.
I thought that in the end, Chi would turn into a human, like most happy-ending love stories go by. But in the end, she just forgot everything that had happened previous, and this is one of the reminders that everything in due course finds its next beginning.

Though the art is absolutely adorable and the idea is interesting enough, I was disappointed with this manga. Believe me, I'm all for romance, but I personally found the conclusion to be quite rushed and dissatisfying, especially after such an intriguing build-up.

Furthermore, what's with the representation of women in this manga? The only characters who were slightly realistic and relatable were Chitose Hibiya and Takako Shimizu. The younger females were clingy, weak and, to be horrifically frank, irritating. What was even more annoying was the almost constant sexualization of these and other female characters. Let's just say that I found the forced-upon male gaze discomforting. Such a large amount was unnecessary.

However, if you're looking for a piece of light-hearted entertainment that's quick and easy to read, go for it! After all, it's important that one makes their own decisions about whether or not something is good! （‐＾▽＾‐）

Chobits presents a very nice take on the "can robots fall in love" subject that I think does the topic justice. For a light sci-fi that focuses on the increasing role of human-like assistants in a 20-minutes-from-now society, it avoids being too opinionated or trite.

In fact, Chobits succeeds in exploring the subject matter in both breadth and depth. The characters of the story are a vehicle it uses to explore the topics, and not the central focus of the story. That's an increasingly rare approach in manga.

To achieve this, it uses a pretty light touch. It presents the situations while letting you (for the most part) draw your own opinions and conclusions. That really lets you identify with the characters, rather than trying spoon-feeding you annoying cues.

That's not to say that the characters are flat or unappealing. They grow with the story, and their motivations and backstory are drawn upon as a canvas, rather than a blunt instrument. Of course the characters in the most "normal" relationship are pretty flat, but they are meant to be used as a foil and as support.

The story develops at a good pace, keeping a decent amount of momentum. If you are the type that likes to marathon, beware! 88 chapters only sounds like a lot, but Chobits can fly by pretty quickly if you expect it to be drawn out. There is almost no time for filler, which is always a bonus (although I did find the "storybook" sequences a little drawn out at times).

As a consequence of the tight pacing, even mundane details can actually play a role. It doesn't generally use "Big Flashing Lights" to point out important details, because almost everything can be important in such a well-paced story. The end result is that it pays to get into Chobits.

The art isn't anything overly memorable to me, but it does the job well enough to not be confusing. There are some nice spots as well where the art is quite lovely. Of course they could not help but pander a little with fanservice, but at least it wasn't groan-inducing.

Ultimately Chobits succeeded for me because it didn't go overboard. Things were explored in a fairly realistic manner. Nothing was really sugarcoated. There are some interesting twists and turns, and some contrivances, but overall there was a successful suspension of disbelief that I rarely get from sci-fi stories about robots.

I recall watching (and loving) the anime adaptation of this manga back when I was a young and socially awkward nerd in fifth grade. But now after reading the entire manga, I can conclude that the Chobits manga is in fact far superior to the anime.
CLAMP manages to write a beautiful love story contained within these eight volumes. There is absolutely no filler within these volumes, which was something that the anime adaptation had far too much of (especially in the first half). The romantic development between Hideki (the male protagonist) and Chi (his lady android love) is remarkable, and actually managed to move me (which rarely happens to me in almost every romance I've seen). Aside from the development between the two main protagonists, I also found myself genuinely moved by the interactions and relationships of the supporting cast. I also appreciated the somewhat philosophical bits dealing with love and technology.
(And also, Sumomo wasn't as unbearable in the manga as she was in the anime, and I think that alone is deserving of a full star.)
The artwork is also a merit of this manga. CLAMP doesn't overdo it with details, but also doesn't make their art too bland and lacking.
Some may be turned off by the fan-service (there isn't TOO much, but still some), but I would highly recommend reading all eight volumes regardless.