Originally a manga created by CLAMP that was released from February 21, 2001 to November 29, 2002, the anime version was directed by Morio Asaka & released by Madhouse from April 2, 2002 to September 24, 2002, then acquired by the now defunct Geneon studio from 2003 to 2007 and later released by Funimation just last year, Chobits is the story of Hideki Motosuwa, a farm boy from Hokkaido trying to get into a Tokyo college. He doesn't get in, so he goes into a cram school instead. During this time, he comes across persocoms, which are computers that look exactly like people (except for their access ports where their ears should be). These machines can do anything a normal computer can do, and more. Due to his situation, Hideki cannot afford one, so he despairs about not being able to buy one. Then one night, he passes a pile of trash on his way home to his apartment, when he spots what he falsely thinks is a dead body. After some clarification, he realizes that it's a female persocom wrapped up in cloth. He decided to take it home, and turn it on to see if it works (to reveal how he turns it on would run some of the humor). He turns it on, and the persocom comes to life. However, the newly activated persocom isn't acting normal, as the only thing she says at first is "Chi". Hideki attempts to work things out, as this new persocom is now an important part of his life. The rest of the tale is filled with humor (both clean & innocently dirty), suspense, drama, sci-fi, and a host of other genres.
Starting off Chobits's positives are the visuals. Despite being a show from the early part of last decade, everything looks really good, especially the people & persocoms that populate Tokyo. The characters move rather fluidly, and the environments have a realistic look to them. There's even a couple references to western pop culture sprinkled around, such as the Col. Sanders statue in episode 4. Little things like that make the world seem a bit more realistic, and it just adds more to the charm.
Chobit's second positive are the characters. It doesn't matter whether the character is good or evil, they all seem to be likable in some way. Right off the bad, you'll come to appreciate Hideki's charm & clumsiness, and enjoy the pure innocence of Chi. The other characters are lovable as well, like Hideki's friend Shimbo and his persocom Sumomo, a rather spastic and adorable mini-persocom. There really isn't any focus on the minor characters, as they're just around to propel the story further, but once in a while they'll do or say something that may be stuck in your head for a little while.
The third positive of Chobits is the voice acting. All I can say is that everybody tries their hardest, and adds a lot of depth to the characters. They all sound like people that you'd meet in real life, and their voices show off what goes on inside their heads & hearts. That "hearts" mentioning sounds a little silly, but trust me when I say that it's an accurate description.
The fourth positive of Chobits is it's availability. Having been re-released just last year, you can find copies of both the blu-ray and regular release in stores and online. Over on Amazon they still have tons of copies, including the original release & re-release. Despite the pricing (more on that later), this is a show that nobody should pass up.
Chobits's fifth positive is the extras. I don't know if they're all included on the normal release, but there are a ton of extras on the blu-ray release. The list included interviews with some of the voice actors, a "Chibits" mini-episode, a textless opening and closing, and trailers for some shows. There's enough extras on the blu-ray to keep you occupied for a day, or maybe a day & and half.
The sixth positive of Chobits is how well it mixes the various genres it uses. Like I said earlier, the show is a mix of comedy, suspense, sci-fi, and drama. Usually, a loot of genres can sometimes bog down a show, but not Chobits. Each episode perfectly balances these four genres, although there are certain situations where a genre may have more time than the others.
The final positive of Chobits is how long it is. Most standard anime (with a few exceptions) come in at 12 or 13 episodes, but Chobits has the distinction of being a 26 episode series, 22 to 24 minutes in length. I watched this show over the course of a week, but if you're a big anime fan, you'll probably finish it in 4 to 4 and a half days. Maybe even less time if you're really interested in this show.
Despite all of these positives, Chobits does have some thing looming over it. The show is still a masterpiece, but these things can't be ignored, and the first is the voice acting. I know that I said earlier that the voice acting, but they used the exact same voice and sound effect tracks from the original recordings. I don't necessarily have a problem with this, and I'm actually going to give Funimation the benefit of the doubt on this issue, cause it probably would have been expensive for them to use new voice actors, and to create new sounds. For anime sticklers, this will be something that will bug them.
Second negative of Chobits is how different the story is. I've read the manga, and I've obviously watched the show, and there are a bunch of differences between the two mediums. Some are big and some are small, but they're all noticeable. I can't say what they are just yet, as that would ruin my Chobits anime/manga comparison later this week. Once again, I don't necessarily have a problem with this, but there are some things that strike me as odd. More on that later this week.
The final negative of Chobits is pricing. More than likely, the cost of the blu-ray and normal release in a place like Best Buy or FYE is going to be relatively high, possible in the 50 dollar range. Over on Amazon, however, things are a bit different. The standard price for the normal release of the entire show is about 50 dollars, while the blu-ray release is 55 dollars. That's a bit high, if you ask me. Luckily, the site is selling them cheap at the moment, as the normal release costs 27 dollars, and the blu-ray release is just two dollars higher. Buy as many cheap copies as you can, cause they probably aren't going to last much longer.
Chobits gets a 8.5 out of 10. The visuals look great, the characters are likable, the voice acting sound good, it very available, there's a lot of extras, there's a balance among the genres used, and the shows last for a while, but the sounds are exactly the same, the anime & manga are relatively different from each other, and the pricing can be steep for some people.
See you later this week when I take a look at the anime & manga, back to back. Until then, stay Otaku!
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