The Cast:
Genre:
Drama, crossed with a little softcore hentai and mech.
Series Info:
There are 26 episodes (each about half an hour long).
Soundtrack Info:
There are two soundtracks and a character song collection, as well singles for the opening song and the two ending songs. The opening song is "Let Me Be With You," by Round Table featuring Nino. The first ending song is "Raison D'etre" (French for "reason to live"), performed by Tanaka Rie. The second ending song is "Ningyo Hime" ("mermaid princess"), also performed by Tanaka Rie (and now my personal favorite anime song of all time). There is a third ending song-- Tanaka Rie's "Katakoto No Koi" ("awkward love")-- which is played at the end of only one episode, so it doesn't get its own single.
Random Fact:
A persocon (pronounced roughly like "paw so cone") is a robot. It's like having a laptop, but in the shape of a human, a weird little bunny thing, etc. You can tell when a person is a persocon by the ears-- persocon have data ports on the sides of their heads that look like dog/cat/rabbit/whatever ears.
Summary:
Motosuwa Hideki is a farmboy, who moves to the big city in hopes of getting into college by taking a summer exam prep course. As he's wandering the streets, trying to find his way, Hideki sees a lot of persocons. After slandering the boarding house he's staying at in front of the landlady (he says it has a really strange name), Hibiya Chitose, Hideki meets the other tenants-- Shinbo and his persocon, Sumomo. Shinbo explains to Hideki what a persocon is, making Hideki want to buy one. The only problem is that Hideki spent all of his money on the trip to the city and has to get a part-time job just to pay the rent-- how will he buy a persocon when they cost about a million yen? Well, as luck would have it, he doesn't have to buy one-- he finds one in a pile of garbage. Being drawn to the idea that if she's just sitting abandoned in a garbage pile, he can take her, he struggles to pick her up. A disk clatters to the ground, but he doesn't notice it. After he lugs her incredibly heavy body back to his apartment, he realizes that he has no idea where the power button is. After some searching, he finds the power button and she wakes. Hilarity ensues when Shinbo turns up to take Hideki to the bath house and Hideki must hide the naked persocon (did I forget to mention that she was wrapped in what looked like toilet paper and that Hideki tried to cover her in the towel he was going to take to the bath house? oops.) without getting a nosebleed. Things get worse when Hideki realizes that the only thing that the persocon can say is "chii"-- wait, aren't persocon supposed to be like souped up computers? Why can she only say, "chii?" Well, it turns out that that disk from way back when was sort of important... No matter-- Hideki resolves to teach the newly christened Chii (since that's all she can say) the ways of life. Eager to find out more about his persocon (that would mean both Shinbo and Hideki), Shinbo tells Hideki to talk to his friend Kokubunji Minoru, a persocon-know-it-all-- he even designs his own persocons. Unfortunately, Minoru says that he's never seen anything like her before and hints at the idea of her being one of the fabled Chobits series-- a series of persocon so advanced that they could think on their own and...??? (Sorry, can't spoil it for you.) Things start looking up again, however, when Hideki finds a part-time job (Oumura Yumi accidentally throws water on him and, while he waits for his clothes to be cleaned, he gets mistaken for the new waiter and, after the mistaken identity gets cleared up, gets hired by Yumi's father at the restaurant Yorokonde***). But now that he has classes to attend and a part-time job, how is he going to have time to teach Chii? And what's with that weird photo Minoru found? And what's up with that book-- the one with the little pink bunny people about finding your one? And how come Hibiya-san keeps coming to Chii's rescue?
Review:
4.5/5 stars
I really really *really* wanted to give it a perfect score-- the music is great, the plot is great, the characters are well developed, there is a minimum of filler episodes, and the ending doesn't leave you hanging. However, I had a couple of problems with it. First of all, Hideki and his okazu**... wha... ergh... why? There are a lot of really funny situations that result out of his hentai craving... well, actually, I guess it's not so bad. Alright, scratch the first problem. The "second" problem is that (warning: semi-major spoiler ahead) the ending is a deus ex machina-esque ending so that it can end happily. Yes, I love happy endings, but... I didn't like the method they used to achieve it. I guess that's really my only qualm... hmm... hardly seems worth half a star. Maybe I'll give it a perfect rating... Anyway, the major strengths of the series include well-developed characters with morals (e.g. Chii won't let anyone touch her between the legs unless he's her one), episode endings that really make you want to watch the next one immediately, really good music, the excellent artwork of the famous group CLAMP, and a plot that features side stories that gives you a well-rounded perspective on persocons. I would definitely recommend this series.
*Tadaima- It's the greeting you say when you return home after being away-- it's like saying, "I'm back."
**Okazu- Literally, it means, "side dish." There are two definitions: 1) a side dish in a meal, 2) hentai (in this case, mostly magazines with pictures of girls in underwear, swimsuits, or the nip).
***Yorokonde- It's a very universal greeting that can mean anything from "welcome (to this place)" to "you're welcome." I'm not sure that it has a set meaning. However, if you want to prove me wrong, by all means, sign my guestbook and tell me what it means.
Want More?
Waiting For A New Day
Chobits Chobits
Chobits: The Anime
Innocence
No Data: A Chobits Center
