Review Statistics

Times Read

1,854

Comments

17

Reviews

Tv

Plot Synopsis

Based off the shounen manga by Clamp, "Chobits" is set in the near future where persocoms (human-like computers) are common in the world. Cue in your average nice guy Motosuwa Hideki, 18 years old, a retester and a virgin at that~ He sets off to Tokyo to study at a prep school in order to get into college and on the way finds an abandoned persocom in the trash pile. Reasoning that he's reducing industrial waste, Hideki brings the the persocom back and switches her on.... At first it may seem like another boy meets mysterious girl kind of story, but Chobits goes much deeper that your average shounen story. The storyline explores some of the more mature aspects of an imminent future with machines replacing humans, of love, friendship, and what it really means to be "alive." Though even with it's mature themes, the overall look of Chobits is lighthearted at best. The comedy is very funny, though a bit ecchi at times it's done tastefully enough that anyone can enjoy it! All in all, Chobits plays out as a well written and thoroughly enjoyable love story.

Story & Characters

17-year-old ronin Motosuwa Hideki comes to the big city for the first time, and is astounded by the integration of persocoms, walking talking computers made to look like beautiful people, into society; and being a dateless teen, wants one of his own(to be fair, he wants one so he can look at dating sites on the net). Out of his price range, he is fortunate enough to find one in a trash dump. Taking her home and activating her, all she can say is the sound ‘chii’, and so she is named Chii. What follows is a oft-times funny, sometimes touching tale as he teaches her the ways of the world, he learns of her now-forgotten past, and slowly fall in love with each other.

Persocons (editorial note: "persocons" actually means PC or personal computer in Japanese). Hideki Motosuwa is a poor student who failed his entrance exams to get into college. So, Hideki is forced to move to the city, get a job, and attend cram school in hopes of passing the next college entrance exam. He of course, wants a Persocon for himself, but is way too poor to afford one. One day, while passing a building, we finds a Persocon in a trash heap. However, his new find doesn't seem to be like the others he's heard about. She doesn't seem to have any operating system at all, and only says "Chii". As Hideki learns more about his Persocon (aptly named "Chii"), he finds that she is not of any known type, and most likely some sort of homemade model. He also learns of the rumor of the "Chobits", Persocons with the ability to think for themselves, instead of running only complex programs. Find out what happens between Hideki and his new Persocon, as she learns more about her environment, people, and life.

Rating

9 (very good)

Art

Listing all the characters would give away too much of this (I felt) deep storyline, but a quick view of the main players will suffice.

Chii – The female lead, she’s usually either very quiet and introspective, or VERY happy and energetic. Always wanting to learn more, especially about relationships. Is very attached to Hideki.

Motosuwa Hideki – Poster boy for “the nice guy”. Always has good advice for his friends about love, but has “never been kissed”. Doesn’t know what he’d do without Chii, and doesn’t know what to think of that, either.

Shinbo Hiromu – Next door neighbour, classmate and best friend. Helps out Hideki with beginner persocom-owning questions. Owns a laptop model, Sumomo.

Sumomo – Comic relief. Would make the Energizer bunny blow a fuse.

Add to this his cute co-worker, his sexy cram school teacher, and his comely landlady, and you’ve not seen this much blood loss since Ninja Scroll. As the story progresses, other characters surface, adding even more depth to the story, and to the existing characters.

Rating

8 (good)

Sound

Without understanding a word, the Japanese voice acting does very well. All the emotions come across, and nobody sounds all that wooden. The English dubbing isn’t as much to write home about, including some script slip-ups, like Hideki referring to Chii as Chii before the scene where he names her.

Sound: I LOVE THE THEME/END SONGS! I have the OST and it always puts me in a good mood to listen to "Let me be with you." It's a great song. The in-anime music is also very well-paced and goes with the theme at the time. Great blending.

Rating

10 (excellent)

Presentation

Being the first series I saw on DVD, I’m left to compare it to downloaded fansubs, but it is really a nice job. The CGI elements aren’t as integrated as you would think would be possible in this day and age, but never really distracts. The breaks into children’s book stills are nicely-drawn as well, but rarely count as ‘animation’.

Although quite average, the females are very beautiful and the males are handsome. The thing that I enjoy about this anime is that the animation never gets sloppy. It stays consistant throughout the anime.

This anime has beautiful artwork and a sweet storyline. I would not recommend it for a younger viewer, or for an extremely conservative viewer, however, I thouroughly enjoyed following the characters of Hideki, the grad school student, and Chii the naively adorable persocon that he finds in a trash heap and takes home. There is quite a bit of fanservice throughout, such as Hideki's enjoyment of "side-dishes" but it is still a very sweet story and all of the characters in it are likeable and fun.

Rating

6 (average)

Final Verdict

8.00 (good)

Reviewed by athrun07, 2y 38wk ago