Chobits

Well, after having read xxxHolic and Tsubasa, I wanted more of Clamp, not feeling ready yet to enter the "shoujo world", I chose the most obvious choice, Chobits, and I do not regret it.
Chobits tells us the story of Hideki, a poor, poor guy who finds a persocom in the garbage. Persocoms are sorta like our computers, except they are made in form of a human, and can mimic our emotions. Luckily, the persocom he founds works... and now the story begins.
All in all, I find it hard to fit Chobits in the "comedy" category, sure, it has it's comic moments, but the whole story is a bit depressive, and deals with topics a bit hard to swallow.
When things are more human than human, how will we fit with them? Chobits never really answer that question completely, and that is one of the great things about it, it leaves you thinking long after you finish reading the story, because Chobits is not just about Hideki and his morals about Chi, but also about many other stories in the middle. People who felt in love with persocoms, people who were traded by persocoms, every story deals with a problem that may happen with the eventual evolution of Artificial Intelligence and robotics.
This is a story that will grab you from begging to end, and long afterwards, and that is what makes it great. Recommended to everyone. Just don't go expecting a common ecchi comedy, for Chobits does not fit in that category, it is a much more complex story!

Imagine: you are having fun with a robot; but not an ordinary robot; it is a robot that is human-shaped and can compete with your best friend because it does everything you need. That robot, called persocom (from personal computer), has a program that allows it to function, and of course, that program can be modified, according to the owner's wish. How would you feel? I bet that you would be glad to have someone/something that is at last useful. No more lost time, no more useless chores, everything is going just perfect!!!

(get to the point!!! You liked it or not?)

If I had the mind of a 12 year-old girl, I would have loved Chobits. I would have liked the world populated by persocoms. I would have loved the main female character, Chi, who is so adorable because of her fragility, her curiosity, her own way of learning about the world, her pure sentiments, not to mention the main male character Hideky, who is gentle, nice, adorable stupid and uneducated. I would have been delighted about the central ideea of this manga, expresed in very simple words "the person just for you" (an extraordinary definition of soule partener). And maybe, I would have agreed to marriage between humans and robots.

But, unfourtunatly for this manga, I am almost 20 years old. And Chobits didn't send me a strong message. I wasn't socked, I wasn't in tears at the end, I wasn't impressed at all. It seemed to be illogical (why create 2 twin persocoms to make them 2 sisters in a family where the mother could not have babies? was it that hard to adopt some kids? It feels unnaturally to behave like that, not to mention, illogical), very stupid in some parts.

(so... shall I read it or not?)

My case: I didn't like Chobits because I am a very rational person and this manga didn't give me enough arguments to believe in it. Still, I do not regret reading it, because I found out some very fun and interesting ideeas, that delighted me for a few moments.

I suggest you to read it: you never know what kind of feelings Chobits might wake up in your soule!!!

I do have to say, the manga is way better then the anime. Where as the anime was pretty much highly fan based, the manga wasn’t. We get much more in depth to the story instead of playing around with random side stories and the ---ugggg--- panty storyline. Sure we have the little bits of fan service but at least they are done artistically and mostly add to the story, it isn’t outside the storyline they are going through and isn’t for a stupid side story such as the panties thing. There isn’t much else to talk about on the storyline sadly without spoiling anything except that the build up is much better in the manga.

So everywhere I looked online said that Chobits was a Seinen. For those of you that have no clue what that means, it means that this manga was targeted to 18-30 year old males… ya… I don’t get it either. I know that the manga has some rather perverted moments, and naked women but I feel that this was completely miss written. The storyline is much too sweet and gentle to be for a male audience, and I’m talking about this compared to other Seinen mangas. This story is all about finding your true love, finding the person you are destined to be with, and above all, letting no one else take what is precious to you. Normally, the precious thing they would talk about would be more along the lines of ‘virginity’ in a sense for the female android character. Unless it’s an anti-rape story for males, I see no reason for it to be written for a male audience. That’s my thought on the matter but I could be wrong.

The artwork is beautiful for a shojo-style manga. I know that it’s a Seinen but seriously, the art style says shojo. Almost everything is really well detailed down to the clumps in chi’s hair and her Lolita clothing. Sadly, it makes many of the other areas that aren’t well detailed feel as though they were done in a rush or without as much love to the characters. While there is a lot of fan service in the women, the art feels a bit more modest and artistic then the stuff you would see in the anime. They did a lot of shading in those parts or had a reason behind the design of the characters and the sexual nature of them. What bothered me slightly was the large ‘ears’ that most of the persocoms had that made them look a bit like furies. I don’t know why, I just had a little bit of a problem with them though they did not mess with the story.

I gave everything about this manga a 10 because I felt that it was 100% deserving of it. I would gladly recommend this manga to anyone looking for romance, sci-fi, shonen, and an overall good read.

Story~

The story was quite amazing and well-developed. It develops smoothly as the manga progress. It's well balanced as it does not have tons of dramatic events, but it doesn't progress slowly. I think it's one of CLAMP's best works, and that's quite the statement considering CLAMP often has great story line's. I also thought the writing was realistic; the 19-year-old actually sounded like a 19-year-old, and not a 30-year-old or something, which sometimes happens when a manga is not well-written. Also unlike some other mangas, I found the ending to be appropriate for the story and not dramatic; it was something the reader's wanted.

Art~

The art was also very amazing and pleasing. It was detailed yet not overwhelming with tons of lines and markings that make it hard for your eyes to stay on the picture. The covers were very beautiful, always focusing on one color yet the figure was always in a different outfit and in a different pose. One thing I found especially pleasing about this manga was the backgrounds and buildings. Every object and building was skillfully drawn and realistic.

Characters~

I found the characters to be wonderful for this manga. Every character has a wonderful place in the storyline. There's Hideki, the poor cram-school student that has almost no luck at all in the big city; Chi, the beautiful persocom (humanoid computer) that Hideki finds in the trash who also carries an amazing secret; Shimbo, Hideki's classmate and neighbor who always lends a helping hand; Hideki's Landlady, who is more significant to the story then she lets on and is also very kind; and Yumi, the young girl who works with Hideki and has the hots for him, but has an emotional sore due to persocoms.

Summary~

I really loved this manga, and I would gladly recommend it to ANYONE looking to start a manga. Despite it's feminine covers, I would say this manga is more shonen due to it's mature themes, woman figures, and sci-fi story line. However, this manga would no doubt be a great read for any gender. I really enjoyed this manga because of it's characters, beautiful art, and heartwarming story.

Please note that this manga is OT for ages 16+ and I don't think you should read it unless you can handle f-bombs, tasteful nudity, and mild fan service/mature themes.

Warming this review may contain spoilers.

First impressions, so when i first heard about this seruies in my rookie days,
I first thought in passing that it was about a county hillbilly and the used sexbot he found in the trash bin. Which don't get me wrong the series is anything but like this in the slightest it just during the rookie days I was very willing to judge things with quite the superficial leans rather than judging the content a series provides.
Chobits is one such example for me of how you never should judge a book by its cover.

Story, 7/10

So in our modern day society where almost everything is connected to the internet that allows us to talk with people from all over the world and have endless information at the edge of our figure tips or smartphones that can download terabytes of porn at the speed of light, what is going to be the next big leap in technology.
Well,the answer is obviously sexbots robots with wi-fi capacities but in all seriousness and jokeing aside. The next step in technology would be humanoid robots and advanced A.I that look and act almost human and how would that development affect humanty and socialty as a whole well we are about to find out?
So the story of Chobits begins being is about a poor as fuck college student named Hideki who trying to make it in the big city, one day while coming back from work he comes across an abandoned persocom unit laying in the trash, seeing this as his only chance to get a persocom he takes the unit home with him, hoping to reap the benefits of owning his very own computer. While trying to activate his new persocom he soon finds out that his new persocom is completely blank and can only say the word chi. after seeking help from local computer geeks he learns that he has to teach his new persocom unit ( who he has named chi) everything she needs to function day to day life, while a bond starts to form between the two.

So Chobits is basically clamp honest attempt at talking about human and robot relations and how they affect society as a whole. Which in all honesty I have seen the concept done better in series like time of eve and ghost in the shell which not only talked about this concept with more maturity and depth but also talked about the psychological, physical and social issues that came with it.
Now When it comes to a social commentary I feel this is where Chobits fall flat on its face as its more a less focuses on emotional impact than anything else Rather that any meaningful social commentary, beside people likeing teacholgy a bit to much.
Like for one example Hideki teacher Mrs Shimizu who husband has become obsessed with this persocom unit that their marriage is falling apart as a result, and if your married or in a relationship i think that can really hit home and have a lot of impacts, because the thought of being in a relationship with someone and one day your basically replaced by a machine. (That is pretty fucked)
But being a rational bioGundam who has given up most of his humanity I am not exactly impacted or impressed by this emotional, narrative by any stretch of the imagination, now i feel that chobits heart is in the right place but it's just doesn't resanate with me as much as it should have.
But even though I may dislike this narrative style in its entirety I feel that when it comes to Chobits that criticism in itself is a double-edged sword.
As Chobits is possibly one of the best series talking about a human and a robot bonding and falling in love I have ever read to date so far and I feel that the focus on the more emotional side is what makes chobits work so well.
Becuase at the start of it, Hideki doesn't really know how to approach her, dose he treat her like a robot or does he treat her like a person, as time gose time the lines start to bur heavily. Which brings me to my biggest priase of the series is how they develop and explore the relationship. Becuase they could have easily turned this into some sort of ecchi series with robots like beatless or over bloweted malow drama like plastic memories. But Chobits plays it simple and sweet like a Disney movie about a human trying to understand his feelings and a robot who is looking for the person just for her and I can't but help wants to pat studio Clamp on the back for a job well done.

Characters, 6/10
When it Comes to main character Hideki, I like his goofy, farm boy personality and while it he isn't that deep or complex as some characters can.
But what really sell me on him is the fish of water aspect to his character, becuase he is in the big city and dealing with things that are way out of his elament.
Seeing him try to adapt and overcome these different situations is really cool and they explore this a lot with his interactions with chi. Becuase compters and robots aren't really his thing considering he is a farm boy who lived way out in the stix and seeing become more tech aware is just great.

Now when it comes to chi, in modern fiction there is only two ways to write robot characters. They are ether just a robot that are all logical or a robot who is trying to become more human with the feels and i feel that chi has a nice bulince between the two, even if she has the personality of the perfect wifuu bot.
Because she isnt to robotic nor is she full on with personality.

When it comes to side character most of them have a an OK personality and desent backstory that hand in hand with the messages that chobits like to voice its view point about. But my only problem with the side characters as a whole is that there more a less used more as vehicles for Chobits message and themes rather than people with actual lives, because a lot of the characters aren't fleshed out enough beyond the personality, backdrop and hobby. Which makes up their entire character in this series and even if I find the characters interactions a bit more interesting than most series I have read so far, but the underlying problem is if you take these characters out of the series and place them in another series they would probably easily pass of as background characters.


Art, 7/10
When it comes to artwork chobits has a very simplistic Shoujoish art style, and while isnt that detailed or polished when compared to some other series i have read.
But the artwork has a consistent quality althoughout the entire series and as the series gose on there are some palnels that have more details in them.
Especially all the colour pages that the series has every now and then that look really nice. I thought the design chioce for Chobits was cool when it came to the robots, and because they all came in different sizes and styles which I thought was really cool.

Enjoyment, 6/10
When it comes to enjoyment I enjoy this series more as an emotional driven love story between a human and robot than social commentary aspects of people becoming coming way too obsessed with technology and I enjoy every page of this series from top to end, because I love robots, mecha and romance series so love at first sight for me. The only thing that lessens my enjoyment is that there was a few plot points and elaments that are a bit undercooked for by likeing.


Overall, 7/10

Now I feel that Chobits does deserve some of the critical acclaim it has received, because it's a pretty decent romance series and if shojo-ish romances storeys are your thing then totally check this series out.
But if your looking for more social commentary or a series that show cases the inhumanity of technology i am sad to say you will not find it here.
But overall I highly recommend this series and if you're looking that talk is about more intense themes I would recommend ghost in the shell and time of eve.

I /just/ finished reading Chobits, and I have to say it was amazing! I absolutely loved every minute of it! I couldn't put it down, and I read all 8 books in less than 24 hours ^^ The story was great although a bit weird at first, but once I got to know the characters I enjoyed it very much :D I can't wait until I have time to finish watching the anime!