Anime Info

Creator: Clamp
Genre: Romance, Comedy, Drama
Length: 26 Episodes
Purchase: Here

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Summary

+ Loveable characters
+ Hilarious moments
+ Deep and meaningful story
– Somewhat rushed ending

Overview

I was drawn to Chobits by the wonderful animation, the interesting plot, and by the very funny moments early on. I was impressed by how deep the series actually is; I was rooting for the characters by the end. Chobits does a great job emphasizing the point of "Can robots fall in love?" This series might be scrutinized by people who can't imagine humans falling in love with robots, but I feel it did everything right so why shouldn't I recommend it? It's a fun watch that is actually pretty deep.

Public Rating

Our Rating

Score of 4 out of 5
4 out of 5 · Highly Recommended

Chobits Anime Review

Written by: James Lin on 1/19/2004

Introduction

Clamp has done it again. The four women who run Clamp sure know what they're doing because I am again fixated on another of their series. Chobits, a love-comedy-drama series, is one of the more interesting stories I have seen. In fact, Chobits is a series that has finally put some of my philosophy studies to good use. The question of whether or not a mind exists is really put to the test in Chobits. Of course I barely had time to think about this as I watched this humorous love story unfold. I personally rarely watch anime love stories since I have so many other genres to view first, but I am glad that I picked Chobits this time. What scares me is that I've done some snooping around and I hear that the manga is even better! With all that said, let's find out what makes Clamp one of my favorite creators out there, and why Chobits is so good.

Chobits is about a young man, Hideki Motosuwa, 18, who has failed his college entrance exams and moves to the city to study at a cram school. Hideki goes to the city and finds something that he has never seen before; an aritificial intelligent machine called a persocom. These personal computers are extremely smart, life like objects that can do pretty much anything a human can. The distinct feature that persocoms show are unique machine like ears. Hideki wants one for himself unfortunately large persocoms' cost more than he has.

The first day that Hideki moves in to his new apartment he finds a very unique "treasure" as he is walking. His nose nearly starts bleeding as he is confronted by a cute girl, barely covered, who is laying in the trash unconscious. As Hideki looks closer he sees the unique machine ears, and discovers that it is actually a persocom! He scans his surroundings then brings the cute persocom back to his apartment. Hideki doesn't know much about persocoms, what him being from a farm and all, so it takes him a while to turn it on. When he finally does, the persocom wakes up and the only thing she can say is "chii?" Hideki asks his neighboar for assistance and finds out that this persocom doesn't have any data; it doesn't even have an operating system installed. However, that doesn't stop her from moving and saying "chii!" Since all persocoms are computers, they need to have data installed otherwise they can't function. Of course there is a rumor that there is a legendary persocom who was made better then all other persocoms, and that model is called "Chobits".

Review

I could only really point out some minor problems that Chobits has since I found this series enjoyable. One obvious problem is that this series includes 2 recap episodes! Of course Chobits is 26 episodes long so the 2 recap episodes don't hurt it that much. Another issue was what felt like filler episodes. Frankly filler episodes are usually viewed as negative, but in Chobits' case, I found each episode funny and worthwhile. Could it have been better by not including some of the filler episodes? Of course, but what here is here, and I don't have complaints. Each filler episode, which mostly occurs during the first half of the series, develops the characters, which is important.

Some other things I can poke at are a few of the characters looked a lot similar to previous Clamp series I have seen. They aren't identical but you can definitely tell who they were modeled after... not necessarily a bad thing. Then there is the whole "split personality" Clamp does... where there is a good side and a bad side to a character. It gets a bit confusing and I never really liked that whole aspect in Chobits, but its not something serious. Also this could work both ways (positive or negative depending on your opinion), but there is definite fan service in this series. I hear it is toned down in the anime compared to the manga but it's probably not something you want to show to kids.

Another minor issue I felt in Chobits was a somewhat rushed ending. The filler episodes and recap episodes near the midway point of this 26 episode series could probably have been used to lengthen the ending. Basically the final 6 or so episodes are the main story of what Chii is, what the legendary Chobits is, and so forth. I rushed through these episodes really fast since the cliffhangers in them left me wanting more and more. I was pleased with the ending and was glad that I watched Chobits. If anything, I would like to have seen more, but I could probably say that for just able any series out there.

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If you've read up to this point, then you probably have seen all of the good things I could say about Chobits. First off, I'll start by saying that Clamp always creates great stories and even better characters. Chobits is no exception! The characters all have their own unique personalities, and they all work well together creating humor that isn't forced. (For example, you'll know something funny is going to happen, but you'll laugh regardless!) The design of Chii and other persocoms in this series are very well done. Clamp is notorious for its super cute/sexy designs and this series shows it all. The sound and animation are better then most series out there. I am not one to really admire and say a lot about those two minor aspects in a series, but I can easily say there was nothing wrong with them.

The complexity of the story in Chobits also impressed me. After watching the introduction, I thought I was in for a boy meets girl, fall in love, yada-yada-yada-type series, but Chobits is far from that. It takes the entire series to understand everything. All of the mysteries and development of characters unfold. All of Hideki's friends have a nice story behind them. Their stories are told while the main story of Hideki and Chii is created. I liked the different focuses on this series. The human characters in Chobits have realistic emotions and almost everyone should be able to relate to the drama going on. This leads to a characteristic that many other great anime series have. And that is, you actually care about the characters! Especially in a love-drama story, the characters must be loveable otherwise the conclusion doesn't matter to the viewer. Chobits does a great job getting me to like the characters, and I only wish there was more to watch.

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Conclusion

Male, female, it doesn't really matter - if you like anime, check out this series. I think you'll enjoy it. It's definitely one of the funniest series I have seen, and at the same time it pulls off a great story. After watching Chobits, I was hyped to go and read the manga, but then I found out it was only 8 volumes long, and pretty much has the same contents found in the anime. Still, I will pick it up if I happen to run into it since I hear the manga does have a different approach to the story, which is better then the anime, since the anime has many filler episodes. I may have scored this series higher then most people would have, but that is because I really find no flaws in it to score it lower. I loved the animation, sound, story, and characters... what else is left to disapprove of? It isn't the most groundbreaking story but it isn't trying to be one either. It is entertaining and I recommend it to everyone even if you aren't interested in unique love dramas.