Chobits

Final Rating: 4.7/5.0

Ah Chobits. It is one of the animes that ruled my pre-teen years even though at that time it was not for my age at all. It was sexy, naughty and was full of innuendos but it was also compelling, adorable, romantic and heartfelt. Even though the comedy (and the fan service) was the main things that hooked me into Chobits at first, it dealt with an impossible romance between a human and an artificial intelligence and this is what made Chobits one of my favourites.

PREMISE AND STORY:
The story follows a ronin (held-back) student named Hideki Motosuwa who lives in Tokyo to attend a cram school just to get in university. His dream is to either have a girlfriend or own a female persocom, artificial intelligence shaped as humans. On the way home, he finds a female persocom in a trash dump and decides to take it home. What follows is full on adorable fan service and romance. Watching it again, I would've thought that I'd probably wouldn't like the fan service now since I have built up a disdain for this type of content over the years but surprisingly, it's very hilarious and the level of how adorable it is makes it kind of sexy, though I did find the "turning her on" innuendo a bit of a stretch but it was pretty funny overall. But behind all the fan service, there is an underlying tone of a romance not possible as Hideki is constantly reminded that he shouldn't fall in love with an artificial intelligence and the anime cleverly builds this tone up until the end. The first half of the anime is all fan service and hilarity but it becomes more of a frame as it goes to the second half as it deals with relationships between humans and persocoms and this execution makes it very compelling. While I do like the ecchi, it sometimes ruin the important tone that the anime conveys, which makes it inconsistent in storytelling but it does occur less as the series progress.

CHARACTERS:
Hideki is the archetypical ecchi male protagonist. When he sees something sexy, he gets a nosebleed. I usually hate these type of male characters but Hideki is surprisingly likeable. You can excuse his nose bleed as of course, he is a guy so what can he do but the difference in comparison to other male protagonists in ecchi animes is that he's not an absolute douche bag and he's more grounded into reality. He's kind but his kindness has limits and he makes relatable, human mistakes and I found his lack of knowledge about persocoms very interesting. Chi, the persocom that Hideki found, is hilarious and ridiculously adorable and I just cannot look past that she's not human. The side characters are also very interesting and surprisingly complex and as the series progress, they intertwine with Hideki and Chi's relationship and shows the ups and downs of a romantic relationship, which Hideki takes into heart.

PRODUCTION:
Chobits looked great and sounded great back then and it still holds up now. "Let Me Be With You" is a classic in terms of anime songs in my opinion and the other songs are really good too. The animation was very luscious and had a very unique design in terms of characters but it wasn't as impressive as the first time I saw it.

CONCLUSION:
Chobits is one of my favourite animes ever. It was at the same time funny, romantic and emotional and I can watch this anime over and over again. The theme of romance and the relationship between humans and artificial intelligence was surprisingly compelling, its characters are complexly developed throughout and its just an overall joy to watch all the way through.

Overall: A funny yet heartfelt and emotionally enjoyable anime.
Story: While at first focuses on the ecchi nature of the anime, it gradually builds into a compelling story of romance.
Music: "Let Me Be With You" is an absolute classic and the rest of the soundtrack is great.
Characters: The heart of the anime. Well developed, very complex and wholly likeable.
Animation: CLAMP's unique art design is very nice to looks at and character designs are very distinguished but the animation is not as impressive as it was back then.

I first was introduced to this anime when i was like in the 6th grade i actually read the book first and like it then i saw it was a show and started watching it on youtube and wow it was just amazing!!!
Everyone should check this out
there's so many things that will leave you speechless
like seriously

I like how that all the boys like all the robots girls some like to take care, love,and be their maids too. I also like the music they are cute song too. I wish I had one to so I like to have a sister to talk.

The voices are alright, some work well and others in both the English and Japanese dub are not that good. Chi is really cute but her voice hurts my ears when I have to listen to her for long periods at a time like when she is walking down the street saying underpants. It’s funny, but ugg… my ears! The comical part is actually pretty funny and the only Romance I see is Hideki's problems with women. It's rather bothersome sometimes. The art style is beautiful, no duh, it is clamp that first created it and the style matches the manga pretty damn well.

http://www.crunchyroll.com/forumtopic-598344/angels-review-anime?pg=7#39011959

Chobits centers around an 18-year-old named Hideki, who has moved from the country to take a year of cram school after failing his entrance exams for college. On his first night in the city, he found a persocom in the trash (a persocom is an android/personal computer). He was able to turn it on only after pressing a switch between her legs, a blatant sexual reference which has some repercussions during the series.
At first, this persocom, named Chi, cannot speak anything beyond her name. While she later learns more words, she still needs to be taught a lot of basic rules of society. Throughout all this, Chi starts to develop feelings for Hideki, and vice-versa.
While the series is cute with plenty of humor and great animation, the point of it is to explore the relationships of computers/humans and the meaning of love/emotions. Don't let that deter you! It's a really great anime and it's a lot of fun. Well worth watching for the animation along, but the laughs AND a very good story makes it almost perfect.

The biggest thing that bothered me about the anime was that the storyline didn't really lift off till the 18th or 19th episode. I felt like most of the anime was just fluff. I began to think why the actual story didn't take till then, and my only conclusion was to give time for the books to come into effect, and for the viewer to grow fondly with the relationship between Chii and Hedeki. Instead of 26 episodes, it should have been 12 or 13 at most.

The music for the opening and closing wasn't changed at all, and the music throughout the episode wasn't very significant, however there moments when it reflected well.

The characters were very like-able. I wish that Zima and Dita were in the anime more frequently than they were.

The animation was decent, but not great.

This anime was originally the first manga that I ever read the whole series through. The art is amazing and completely without rival or comparison. The characters are interesting and unique - the plot twists and believable and exciting. Also, we'll probably have our own chobits in a few years (we're quite close. So whenever I think of how technology is changing and advancing I can't help but think of PERSOCOMS!)

I know that this is something that usually do not care about or choose to cover, but I can no longer pass it up anymore. Normally I would never review a manga/graphic novel but I have a special reason for doing so. It has been ten years since the initial release of manga in Japan thus giving me reason to celebrate the ten year anniversary of the series. I also have some personal reasons, do due in part this is the first magna that I have read all the way through, due in part it was given to me from a dear friend in my senior year of high-school.

Okay getting all of my personal feeling of this series aside lets get on with an overview for it. Chobits is a series created from the well known group "Clamp", who have done such great series like "Card CaptorSakura" and "Code Geass ". The manga was first serialized in “Young Magazine” and published by “Kodansha” from Feb. 14th 01 until Nov.29th 02. Later eight paper-back volumes was released in Japan and where localized/published in English by “Tokyo Pop” in 2003 released bi annually through out the year.

Now due to the fact that Tokyo Pop is no longer being in business "Dark Horse Comics" decided to pick-up/renew the license and is releasing it in big "Omnibus" collections with re-translations as well. As usual there is a an anime adoption as well that aired on "TBS" from April 2002 until September 2002, with a total of twenty six episodes. Funimation has just recently released the series on DVD/Bluray set. I highly suggest picking the anime as well, but I will not be reviewing that as of now guys/gals.

Getting this out of the way lets focus on the plot for the series, which by today's standards is rather generic due to harem and ecchi elements. The setting takes place in science fiction type world where all computers have persona's or human form called "Persocoms". They are mainly like any other type of PC but with the ability to talk, give directions, play games with their master "no not those type of games you sick bastards". There is also talk of a rare kind of Perscom which is able to think, learn and has the ability to love as well "but is this love real?". Now you might of guessed that the main focus of our story is just a typical shojo romance manga/anime.To be honest I usually avoided this genre until now and I am highly regretting it for doing so.

Moving to a short synopsis of the main story which is about our average male lead “Hideki Motosuwa” who has to move from the country side to Tokyo. He moved here due in part that the college he applied for, thus forcing him to go an “Cram-School” for a year. On Hideki's visit to the big city he is astonished to see "Persocoms" or personal PC's everywhere and how expensive they are thus dashing his hopes to ever owning one "I do think 5,000 dollars for a basic model is tad much."

A few weeks pass by Hidieki gets an apartment and job so lets move on to that. He finishes up a late night shift at his part-time job, at a pub called my pleasure. He works with a young high school senior named " Yumi Omura" that has a crush on him "thus the reason why she calls him "Senpai". On Hideki's on the way home he finds a beautiful girl in the trash, that he happens to think is a murder victim.Upon closer inspection it turns out the girl is a "Perscom" and decides to take her home instead of letting her rot away in the garbage. When Hideki gets home, he looks all over her body, for a way to turn her on.. "yes this pun is intended" and finds that her on switch is.. well between her legs "I suppose this is one way to turn a lady on". After she wakes up the said girl hugs Hideki only saying the word "Chi" which is also her name by the way.. "I guess it better than blond bimbo". This turn of events will change Hideki's life forever.

On to a little more on Hideki's personal life, he lives in single room apartment which make things more fun due in part, that will be next impossible to keep something like this a secret from his land lady " Chitose Hibiya" and his neighbor " Hiromu Shinbo". Hideki goes the same cram school and Shinbo has his own personal mini persocom, named " Sumomo" which is basically just a laptop computer. There are many other characters and story elements that I would love to introduce but I do not feel like spoiling the rest of the story for you. I have set up the basics for the plot and it's up to you if you want to read/watch this or not.

Alright people even with these hugely used generic tones and flaws that are present the industry today, I will say this at the time this was new and interesting for me. Even after ten years since the entail release of the series in Japan, I still find Chobits to be amusing, funny and charming to read due in part of how the characters and story is handled. This could have been another cheap/generic harem at the time but looking back I am happy that Clamp took the high ground and said no. Everyone in this series and I do mean everyone ends up with some else in the end, which is something I have yet to see again. I am willing to admit that there is a lot of fan service shots "epically with Chi and Yumi" focusing on their panties/swimsuits but I am willing to look past this, mainly due in part even I need some eye candy time to time.

For now I only own the original release from Tokyo-Pop and despite my collection setting around for nearly ten years. The art-work for the series still holds up and even surpasses current manga that are coming out now. Through all of the series not once did I notice a quality drop from chapter to chapter. I do realize that I am giving it to much praise but one flaw I can point out is how some of the story has serous plot holes here and there. This also take a lot of understating in computers/technology to get a lot of references that are used so you might need to re-read some parts more than once. I have to also give props due in part that every character ends up with some-one thus negating the sour taste from a harem ending.

One of the huge reasons I re-read this manga is due in part of the story, and the lesson that it teaches. I usually do not care for lessons or what a show has to teach but this still has a big impact on my life, even till this day, "yes this going to be corny so just deal with it". I learned that you should love some one for who they are, not for what they are. You have to look pass they people look and try to love them despite them of their race, culture, and religious beliefs. This had a huge impact on me at the time in 2004 and I just wish that I could find "the only one meant for me". Okay that's enough ass kissing my only problem with the series is that it ends in a cliffhanger, I wish that clamp did a better job on this but at least it wasn't a "Bitter-Sweet Ending" making me personally happy.

That's all I have to say on this people, there is nothing else I can add or take away from my thoughts on this manga series. Yes I have such a huge biased on this series I do realize this but I needed to get this review out of my system. I know it seems that I only review shows that I like so far but believe me you, will see some non kiss ass reviews soon enough. Chobits is just shuch a huge nostalgia trip me that this review needed to be done. I will some more reviews up soon, right now I am working on review for one of the worst eroges I have ever played.

-Cecil The Dark Knight

-Rating 4/5

-Age Rating 16+

chobits is a story about this ordinary person who wanted someone to take care of him and look after him so he was just walking down the street than he saw something in the trash so he looked at and it was this persecom.so he wondered how to put the on switch and it suddenly just woke up.than later in the story she was curious about whats going on and in the end they had a bond.

This is the first animes I actually saw! this anime has everything! I forgot the ending...but i no its awesome! XD Chi is so cute!!!!!! She is just a very special girl/robot/persocan!~!~!The music is good in Chobits! Overall..is awesome! Its sad at times...but then it gets funny!! Whoever like warmth,comedy, and sadness!! Should watch it!!