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	3 Review of Chobits by Mitsugu

Mitsugu Mouryou’s Anime Review

I enjoyed Chobits much more the 1st time I saw it long, long ago in a land far, far away… I just viewed it again and all I see is flaws, so bare with me. Chobits is a cute story about a country farm boy, who moves to Tokyo to attend a college prep school. Our farm boy, Hideki, is voiced (EN dub) by Crispin Freeman in his most over the top winy voice ever, strike one. After realizing that he can never afford a Persocom(humanoid computer) he stumbles across one lying in the garbage. Once activated, she seems to have no memory, OS, or communication skills. A blank slate if you will, though not uncommon in anime. I like these scenarios: A cute, kind hearted female lead, who’s distressed and/or injured and needs help. She’s not a natural moron, she’s either: not of this world; injured; and/or in this case has her memory erased. Either way with some time, patients, and effort she should recover. In the mean time, this scenario makes for some smashing good comedy.
Getting back to it, Hideki has his new friend Shinbo take a look. He can’t find anything wrong with her or any info on her either, as she can only sit there and say: Chii, so this becomes her name. Shinbo refers Hideki to a persocom expert friend of his, Minoru. After Minoru takes a look, he’s just as baffled, and the legend of the Chobits are explained.
With no more plot spoilers lets get to it… As I stated before this is a cutesy tale, just a little too much at times. Chii is cute, but not nearly as much as all the characters make her out to be. All the characters are designed with big plain dull eyes, this does not bode well with me. It makes them look empty, hollow, and soulless.
There is some character development, but I’d say that it is limited to Shimbo, Yumi, and the landlady… everyone else is either one-deep or very predictable. Then there is Chii's bizarre picture books that tell a story using only 5 pronouns and are read by Chii in that monotone voice. I just found that to be vague repetitive drivel.
The music of the series follows the same path cute, too cute, and far too repetitive. We can’t forget the cliché of all cutesy anime: Everyone must always “Do their best!” I think I should wrap this one up real quick before all the Chobits fans out there mobilize, grab their torches and pitchforks, and lay siege to my home for completely alienating them.

So with no blood, violence, or foul language to speak of, and just a few adult themes Chobits has earned a 2.6(out of 10) Recommended for viewing by those who like anime in which a dumphy fellah has a cute girl quite literally fall out of the sky to make things awkward and interesting, or those who enjoy a light romantic comedy… light on the romance, light on the comedy. Mostly, not bad… not great, but not bad.

Thank you
MMAR32

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May 10, 2014

Admin Shadow Lurker Nori13	Score:3, Insightful (Again, I'm at this.) The anime wasn't too bad, but a lot of the plot seemed really rushed for the anime since CLAMP jam-packed a lot of info into the 8 volumes of the manga. The manga itself, from what I remember of it, is kinda "enh" since none of it was horribly memorable (and the fact taht i only read it once). There's also the heavy symbolism overtone that gives the series the sort of darkness to it... Basically, Japanese call a "PC" (personal computer) a "perso-com" and because there's ruined relations here and there because people "fall in love" with their PCs... More so that people pay more attention to their PCs than the person they're in a relationship with. The whole point of Chii's character is (put aside that weird program thing) that she is the model of how people should be with their PCs, which is that you can't romantically fall in love with your PC since it doesn't have sentience (normal perso-com in chobits, because Chii technically is sentient), and that physical consummation isn't real consummation since it's only one-sided (hence why Chii's switch is placed where it is). Darkness aside though, it's one that gets you thinking a bit if you understand the symbolism and what's actually going on.

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Nori13

Score:3, Insightful (Again, I'm at this.) The anime wasn't too bad, but a lot of the plot seemed really rushed for the anime since CLAMP jam-packed a lot of info into the 8 volumes of the manga.

The manga itself, from what I remember of it, is kinda "enh" since none of it was horribly memorable (and the fact taht i only read it once). There's also the heavy symbolism overtone that gives the series the sort of darkness to it... Basically, Japanese call a "PC" (personal computer) a "perso-com" and because there's ruined relations here and there because people "fall in love" with their PCs... More so that people pay more attention to their PCs than the person they're in a relationship with. The whole point of Chii's character is (put aside that weird program thing) that she is the model of how people should be with their PCs, which is that you can't romantically fall in love with your PC since it doesn't have sentience (normal perso-com in chobits, because Chii technically is sentient), and that physical consummation isn't real consummation since it's only one-sided (hence why Chii's switch is placed where it is). Darkness aside though, it's one that gets you thinking a bit if you understand the symbolism and what's actually going on.