CHOBITS

ANIME AND MANGA REVIEW:

CHOBITS

Story

The story centers on the life of Hideki Motosuwa, a repeat student attempting to qualify for university by studying at Seki prep school in Tokyo. Besides a girlfriend, he dreams of having a persocom (パソコン^?): an android used as a personal computer, which is expensive. On his way home one evening, he stumbles across a persocom in the form of a beautiful girl with long hair lying against a pile of trash bags, and he carries her home. Upon turning her on, she instantly regards Hideki with adoration. The only word the persocom seems capable of saying is "chi" (ちぃ, Chii^?), thus he names her Chi. Hideki assumes that there must be something wrong with her, and so the following morning Hideki's neighbor Hiromu Shimbo tries to analyze her with his mobile persocom Plum, and after Plum crashes concludes that she must be custom-made.

Shinbo introduces Hideki to Minoru Kokubunji, a twelve year old genius who specializes in the field of custom made persocoms. Minoru's persocoms, including Yuzuki, a fairly exceptional custom made persocom, are not able to analyze Chi either, and thus they conclude that she may be one of the Chobits, a legendary series of persocoms rumoured to have free will and emotions. Although this could be a possibility, Minoru is confident that it is only a rumour. Yuzuki also adds that she does not resemble any persocom model in any available database and so she must be custom made after all.

A major part of the plot involves Hideki attempting to teach Chi words, concepts, and appropriate behaviours, in between his crammed schedule of school and work. At the same time, Chi seems to be developing feelings for Hideki, at an emotional depth, which she is not supposed to possess, and Hideki struggles with his feelings for her. The need to figure out more about Chi and her mysterious functions and past becomes a stressing pull for the characters in the series.

Hideki discovers that his feelings intensify for Chi whether she is a persocom or not, despite other horrible experiences involving persocoms that happened to his friends. Chi becomes aware of her purpose through a picture book series called A City with No People which she finds in a bookstore. The books speak about many different things involving human and persocom relationships: persocoms and their convenience towards people as friends and lovers, how there are things that they cannot do and questioning whether a relationship between a persocom and a human is really one sided. It also speaks about the Chobits series; that they are different from other persocoms, and what they are not capable of doing unlike other persocoms. These picture books awaken Chi's other self, her sibling Freya who is aware of their past and helps Chi realize what she must do when she decides who her "person just for me" is. Together, Chi and Hideki explore the relationship between humans and their new technological advantage, the persocom, as well as their friends' and their own.

Main characters

Hideki Motosuwa (本須和 秀樹, Motosuwa Hideki^?)

A 19-year-old (in the anime, 18) repeat student attempting to get into university by studying at a cram school, while working at a izakaya to make ends meet. One night, while walking home from work, he finds a persocom lying in a pile of garbage. He takes her home, and upon activating her, finds that the only word she can utter is "Chi". Because of this, he gives her the name "Chi" (in the anime, "Chii") and takes her into his care, doing his best to protect and teach her. Despite his shortcomings and occasional moments of awkwardness with the bustling environment of Tokyo, Hideki is a genuinely kind and honest person, whose habit of thinking of others' well-being before his own can cause many problems. When a friend is in trouble, especially Chi, he is always there to help. Although many characters in the series often tease him for being a "nice guy", they turn to him for advice with their problems, knowing he will always hear them out and do his best to assist them. Voiced by: Tomokazu Sugita (Japanese), Crispin Freeman (English)

Chi(ちぃ, Chii^?)

A "chobit," a technologically advanced persocom rumored to possess true machine intelligence, with the ability to feel emotions and act on her own will, unlike other persocoms.^[2] Hideki finds her in a pile of trash as he makes his way home from work one night. Upon turning her on, she is only able to say the word "chi," remembers nothing of her past life, and is unable to perform even simple tasks. Because of this, Hideki names her Chi and undertakes teaching her how to function. Chi reads a series of children's picture books, A City with No People, about a character searching for the "person just for me," which were written pseudonymously by Chitose Hibiya as a way of reconnecting Chi to her past self, and to guide Chi's search for love. As the series progresses, Chi begins to have visions of another persocom who is identical to herself. This "other Chi" advises and protects Chi, and as the story nears its climax tells Chi something about her history before she was restarted; that Chi had been named "Elda" by her loving parents and had an older sister. When the older sister broke her heart for unattainable love for her father and would die Elda had offered to take all of her older sister's memories, at the cost of her own memories. Her older sister thus became the guardian of Elda's memories and Elda's protector. See the entry for Freya in the list of Chobits characters. At the end of the series, Hideki finally admits that he loves Chi, and is her special person. Voiced by: Rie Tanaka (Japanese), Michelle Ruff (English)