Title: Chobits
Genre: Shoujo, Sci-Fi, Slice of Life, Romance
Publisher: Madhouse
Length: 26 Episodes
Release Date: 2002
Story: 10/10 Hideki is a young, poor college student from the country who moves into a new apartment in the city. There, one night he finds a Persocom that someone has thrown away in the garbage. Persocom is short for Personal Computer, and since this series takes place in the future; computers have evolved to take on nearly human like forms and can be customized by their owners. Persocoms are very useful; they can go to work to earn money for their owners, connect to the internet for research, or run simple errands, like going to the grocery store etc.
When Hideki turns the Persocom on she can only say one word, “Chii”, so Hideki decides to name her Chii and work on trying to repair her since he’s much too poor to afford a new Persocom. It’s discovered that she’s missing an operating system which they think is to blame for her apparent malfunctioning, but it is later learned that she is an experimental Persocom who runs without an operating system and instead can learn and evolve based on interaction.
Therefore, the series is primarily about how Chii learns, evolves, grows, and eventually develops romantic feelings for Hideki, who in turn comes to love and wish to protect Chii.
There’s a lot of comedy, and some ecchi (slightly perverted scenes), but also a lot of sweet cute moments as well. There’s also a good amount of tension, drama, fear, and sadness, especially in the second half of the series.
Characters: 10/10 High points here too for character development. We see Chii change so much throughout this series. We also watch to a lesser degree, Hideki and his friends change and grow as well. Although it is a short series, it crams a lot of character development gradually building upon layer after layer of gradual change in each episode.
Artwork: 5/5 Chii is probably the most adorable character ever. I would love to cosplay her. She is so sweet, innocent, her long platinum blonde hair, big huge brown eyes, and small frame, she makes everyone just want to hug her tight. Perhaps the best character design ever. It is definitely a unique art style too and very different from most other anime in the late 90s/early 2ks. Colorful, clean, and attractive artwork with lovely characters makes this anime very easy on the eyes.
Music: 5/5 “Let Me Be With You” is a very catchy theme song. I have this song on my iphone and listen to it often. The rest of the music, including background themes help paint a picture of loneliness, isolation, and also joy and innocence using appropriate tracks when the atmosphere shifts throughout the series.
Note: I don’t normally give a perfect 100 to any series. And Chobits, while maybe in my top “10” personal favorite anime, is not my most favorite anime ever; however, I just can’t find anything to dislike about this anime which would result in deduction of points in any way.
At time of writing, Chobits is the first, and only, anime (or anything, game, toy, technology, etc) to receive a perfect 100% from GeekySweetie.com
If you like Chobits You’ll Also Like: Plastic Memories, Absolute Boyfriend, Time of Eve, and maybe Bubblegum Crisis if you want something more “actiony” than any of the rest.
