Reviews for Chobits

I gave everything about this manga a 10 because I felt that it was 100% deserving of it. I would gladly recommend this manga to anyone looking for romance, sci-fi, shonen, and an overall good read. Story~ The story was quite amazing and well-developed. It develops smoothly as the manga progress. It's well balanced as it does not have tons of dramatic events, but it doesn't progress slowly. I think it's one of CLAMP's best works, and that's quite the statement considering CLAMP often has great story line's. I also thought the writing was realistic; the 19-year-old actually sounded like a 19-year-old, and not a 30-year-old orsomething, which sometimes happens when a manga is not well-written. Also unlike some other mangas, I found the ending to be appropriate for the story and not dramatic; it was something the reader's wanted.

Art~

The art was also very amazing and pleasing. It was detailed yet not overwhelming with tons of lines and markings that make it hard for your eyes to stay on the picture. The covers were very beautiful, always focusing on one color yet the figure was always in a different outfit and in a different pose. One thing I found especially pleasing about this manga was the backgrounds and buildings. Every object and building was skillfully drawn and realistic.

Characters~

I found the characters to be wonderful for this manga. Every character has a wonderful place in the storyline. There's Hideki, the poor cram-school student that has almost no luck at all in the big city; Chi, the beautiful persocom (humanoid computer) that Hideki finds in the trash who also carries an amazing secret; Shimbo, Hideki's classmate and neighbor who always lends a helping hand; Hideki's Landlady, who is more significant to the story then she lets on and is also very kind; and Yumi, the young girl who works with Hideki and has the hots for him, but has an emotional sore due to persocoms.

Summary~

I really loved this manga, and I would gladly recommend it to ANYONE looking to start a manga. Despite it's feminine covers, I would say this manga is more shonen due to it's mature themes, woman figures, and sci-fi story line. However, this manga would no doubt be a great read for any gender. I really enjoyed this manga because of it's characters, beautiful art, and heartwarming story.

Please note that this manga is OT for ages 16+ and I don't think you should read it unless you can handle f-bombs, tasteful nudity, and mild fan service/mature themes.

Imagine: you are having fun with a robot; but not an ordinary robot; it is a robot that is human-shaped and can compete with your best friend because it does everything you need. That robot, called persocom (from personal computer), has a program that allows it to function, and of course, that program can be modified, according to the owner's wish. How would you feel? I bet that you would be glad to have someone/something that is at last useful. No more lost time, no more useless chores, everything is going just perfect!!! (get to the point!!! You liked it or not?) If I had themind of a 12 year-old girl, I would have loved Chobits. I would have liked the world populated by persocoms. I would have loved the main female character, Chi, who is so adorable because of her fragility, her curiosity, her own way of learning about the world, her pure sentiments, not to mention the main male character Hideky, who is gentle, nice, adorable stupid and uneducated. I would have been delighted about the central ideea of this manga, expresed in very simple words "the person just for you" (an extraordinary definition of soule partener). And maybe, I would have agreed to marriage between humans and robots.

But, unfourtunatly for this manga, I am almost 20 years old. And Chobits didn't send me a strong message. I wasn't socked, I wasn't in tears at the end, I wasn't impressed at all. It seemed to be illogical (why create 2 twin persocoms to make them 2 sisters in a family where the mother could not have babies? was it that hard to adopt some kids? It feels unnaturally to behave like that, not to mention, illogical), very stupid in some parts.

(so... shall I read it or not?)

My case: I didn't like Chobits because I am a very rational person and this manga didn't give me enough arguments to believe in it. Still, I do not regret reading it, because I found out some very fun and interesting ideeas, that delighted me for a few moments.

I suggest you to read it: you never know what kind of feelings Chobits might wake up in your soule!!!

I have to say, when I started Chobits I didn't really like it that much. The art was good, sure, but the premise seemed like something that had been done before and all that had been done to try to make it stand out was they'd added a lot of dirty humor. I decided to try to stick with it though as I'd heard that it got better. As it turned out, it did. As I mentioned, the plot has been done before. On the outside, it's a fairly typical yamato nadeshiko series. Guy finds and takes in a girl with special powers who he startsto develop feeling for, etc etc. The only outwards difference about this one is that the girl happens to be a computer, not a living creature.

Also as mentioned, the series can be quite perverted at times, around the beginning especially. But it does get a lot better. As Chobits gets more into the sci-fi of the plot and more is learned about Chii's past the series can get very enthralling. It's main plot is probably just that the ending is fairly predictable.

The sort of side plot that goes on within the books Chii reads through out the series, A City With No People, also is very cute and interesting while giving clues about Chii's past and what it'll mean for the plot.

In terms of art, it's fairly typical CLAMP: Good with a unique style that isn't so unique that it seems alien to readers. It's very good, almost never off character model. Sadly though, I have to knock a point off as it seems to resort to chibi character models every once in a while.

The characters are probably one of the stronger things this series has going for it. Despite a good amount of them being barely more than steryotypes.

All of them are likable though and each gets their own side plot and "person just for them".

There are two persacoms who appear near the end who don't end really doing much plot wise despite it practically being shown that they were going to be the antangonists. Instead though, the only thing they really do is help resolve another side plot via a small event that could have easily been done another way. If I understand correctly, they have a bigger role in the anime, but even so they just seem unneeded in the manga.

Overall, this is a good series that I enjoyed a fair bit, but it's certainly not without it's flaws. The characters could have more original and developed further, and there wasn't as much done about the sci-fi aspects than there could have been. Also, I may have found a plot hole at the end, but I'll leave that for you to find since it doesn't really affects the series's enjoyability at all.

I give this aborable look at romantic sci-fi an 8 out of 10.

If you look at my profile, at my manga list, its fair to say that I am a CLAMP follower. Not that everything they do is perfect and is right for everyone but they generally do what they do right. But when I read Chobits I was disappointed. Story: Take Hideki. A poor, 19 year old ronin student who can't get a job, a girlfriend and who has no life. On top of that he talks to himself when his imagination gets overly excited. And one day his luck just happens to hit him square in the forehead. Meet Chii. A very naked, very curvaceous...persocom?Oh yes. I forgot the OTHER part of this story. Now meet the persocom. The humanoid computer. Complete with moe eyes, big boobs and a vagina. Where Chii's ON button just happens to be.

The thing with Chobits is that you can't seem to escape the constant back and forth between Ecchi moments and the Seinen/Romance moments. One minute Chii is searching for her one and only and then next she needs panties? Or we're reading the story about The City with No People and how loneliness is never escapable and the next Chii is wearing only a shirt and Hideki wants her to download porn.

There's a serious attempt at a social movement within the story. Our lives are ruled by computers and the web and there's a fine line between love and lust and when we make that leap. And robots being capable of love? CLAMP really, really ALMOST had it with this one. Chobits really does try to succeed. And it would have if there wouldn't have been so much Ecchi in contrast to the Seinen/Romance. It just didn't fit right. I wanted it to work but it didn't for me. In the end, the final conflict really would have had more meaning to me, if there hadn't been so much Ecchi paired with the Seinen/Romance.

Art: The only outstanding part of this work. CLAMP will always succeed as long as they stay together I believe. I loved the beauty of Chobits and really this is what kept me reading page after page. If you like CLAMP already, then I don't believe this will disappoint you. Though there's nothing special about Chii and Hideki.

Character: Oh the characters. Oh how insignificant you all really ended up being. Hideki and Chii prove to be the two most insignificant and pointless main characters I have ever encountered. Hideki may be easy to relate to but it doesn't make him very special. Hell, it doesn't even make him slightly remarkable. Hideki is simple.Chii ends up being his solution, in a not-so-easy solution. I ended up liking the side characters better than them. My rating of a 5 stands because there were only 2 that made any kind of impression on me. Zima and Dita.

My overall enjoyment of Chobits is an average 7 and I was hard-pressed to give it a 6 because with the amount of Ecchi this manga should be given a minor warning to anyone under the age of 14. And really CLAMP, if I wanted Ecchi, I would read Ecchi. But I don't want Ecchi. I want Romance, and I want to see Robots be able to fall in love, and I want to see how one robot could destroy everything that they have all worked for. I want to see CLAMPs one and only work out again. I wanted CLAMP.

But this one fell just a little short.

Story - Poor guy finds a sexbot. That just about sums it up. There's something about the sexbot being some kind of weapon but I couldn't figure it out. Along the way people tell Hideki that a sexbot is not an alternative for a real human being, which I agree with, but Hideki apparently doesn't get it. The pacing is so slow it's not even funny. After about 8 hours of reading I finally gave up. I didn't find anything particularly funny. Maybe Hideki's virginity was supposed to be a joke? I didn't find it funny. Everyone makes fun of Hideki's virginity as if it'sbad, whilst I couldn't care less whether if he was a virgin or not. Oh and also I found the entire concept of "persocoms" deranged and moronic. The purpose of computers is not to be cute, we have figurines and dolls for that. Why would people use persocoms instead of cell phones? Cell phones are so much more convenient. It's so stupid.

Art - Very mediocre. Too minimalist for my liking.

Character - Dreadful characters. Everyone being obsessed with "persocoms" as if they're stereotypical lonely pathetic sex-obsessed otakus. It's not funny when it's being parodied for the billionth time. Chi acting like a retard got boring really fast. I thought she was supposed to be smart? Am I supposed to find retards cute? The female characters seem to do little other than to tease Hideki, our resident virgin, with vague hints of sex.

Enjoyment - Barely any. I really tried to finish it, but I just couldn't stand reading this nonsense and finally gave up.

Overall - Boring nonsense. If you're one of those stereotypical lonely pathetic sex-obsessed otakus that I presume this manga was targeted towards then you might find it arousing. But only if you have a lot of patience, as this manga moves extremely slowly.

What better way to kick off my manga reviews than with the first series I ever read? That’s right, at the cusp of my teenagehood, I was introduced to Chobits, a series about basically a boy and his robot. I can still remember how I was introduced to it. It was after watching Cardcaptor Sakura being rebroadcast on TV that I wondered if there were other interesting anime out there that I was unaware of. Through the power of the internet, I figured out about Chobits! The art was beautiful, the story was pretty interesting AND most importantly, the manga featured coloured pull-outs. I readthe first book and was subsequently hooked.

Chobits opens with Chii being found in the trash. Chii is a persocom, something of a robot who looks human and can do all the things a computer does. The one thing special about Chii is that she has been programmed to love. As we find out through the series, it wasn’t because Chii was deemed useless, but because there were other circumstances tearing her away from her original creators despite their deep love for her. The exploration of whether a robot can be sentient and eventually develop feelings for humans and whether it’s creepy or whether a human can reciprocate those feelings is central to the manga.

All these exploration of emotions are done in the backdrop, as Chii learn to integrate into human life under the tutelage of Hideki, the main protagonist student who can’t afford a real persocom and felt super lucky at picking Chii up. Chii eventually makes a lot of friends, gets a job and then falls in love with Hideki just like he has for her.

What CLAMP, the manga creators, excel at, is artwork and side characters, in my opinion. Their artwork is intricate with a Shoujo asthetic, and yet for this comic you can see the action shots and comedic facial expressions bleeding through to cater to the Seinen demographic. For me, this was the first story I had read which had such a science fiction theme, where robots could think and love just like humans. This manga (and another one which I’ll review soon) ignited a love for science fiction in me which caused me to devour other science fiction books, you might read this and think “What a load of crap. What’s all this airy human and robots falling in love stuff? There’s no science at all. There’s no logic.” But to me that was one of the manga’s strengths as well. I’m sure that if the manga had gone into hardcore explanations of neurotransmitters my brain wouldn’t have been able to handle it.

Instead, we have a compelling story with an over arcing plot, with side characters that support the narrative question: Can robots love?

The only weak side of the story is… the fucking ending. That ending that starts in chapter 87 and makes me want to bash my head on a wall, It left me with a really unsatisfied feeling I was when I first read it, even though I couldn’t really explain why until now. Everything else about the story, from the premise, to the plot, to the art, to the detailed side characters was perfect. ALL PERFECT. And then the ending… felt like a rug was pulled out from under mebut that's fine, it doesn't change my love for Chobits whatsoever.

Chobits is one of the classic proofs wherein people believe that robots are indeed able to love. The manga series may be more mature than what is recommended for my age, which is twelve-- like the fact that Hideki is used to seeing Chi without clothes on, or that he wanted a persecon to be able to download internet porn, or maybe even the fact that he wanted a girlfriend to lose virginity. I may even say that I wasn't able to read the series fully, because I had to shield my innocent eyes during those "mature" scenes. Apart from that fact, this story is reallyheartfelt, and from somewhere in the middle, I realized that it was impossible for it all to end perfectly--- EVERYBODY happily living forever after. At some point in the story, Hideki had no choice, he had to give Chi up, or give up what Chi held dear. It surely was a tough choice, but he made the better one, nonetheless, since, in the end, he chose to make Chi "the one just for him", and was able to start over. The artwork of CLAMP was breathtaking, and my first sight of Chi left me almost speechleess. She looked as pure as an angel, and she was stunningly beautiful. The plot may have been complicated, but CLAMP found a way to untie every knot.

I thought that in the end, Chi would turn into a human, like most happy-ending love stories go by. But in the end, she just forgot everything that had happened previous, and this is one of the reminders that everything in due course finds its next beginning.

I do have to say, the manga is way better then the anime. Where as the anime was pretty much highly fan based, the manga wasn’t. We get much more in depth to the story instead of playing around with random side stories and the ---ugggg--- panty storyline. Sure we have the little bits of fan service but at least they are done artistically and mostly add to the story, it isn’t outside the storyline they are going through and isn’t for a stupid side story such as the panties thing. There isn’t much else to talk about on the storyline sadly without spoilinganything except that the build up is much better in the manga.

So everywhere I looked online said that Chobits was a Seinen. For those of you that have no clue what that means, it means that this manga was targeted to 18-30 year old males… ya… I don’t get it either. I know that the manga has some rather perverted moments, and naked women but I feel that this was completely miss written. The storyline is much too sweet and gentle to be for a male audience, and I’m talking about this compared to other Seinen mangas. This story is all about finding your true love, finding the person you are destined to be with, and above all, letting no one else take what is precious to you. Normally, the precious thing they would talk about would be more along the lines of ‘virginity’ in a sense for the female android character. Unless it’s an anti-rape story for males, I see no reason for it to be written for a male audience. That’s my thought on the matter but I could be wrong.

The artwork is beautiful for a shojo-style manga. I know that it’s a Seinen but seriously, the art style says shojo. Almost everything is really well detailed down to the clumps in chi’s hair and her Lolita clothing. Sadly, it makes many of the other areas that aren’t well detailed feel as though they were done in a rush or without as much love to the characters. While there is a lot of fan service in the women, the art feels a bit more modest and artistic then the stuff you would see in the anime. They did a lot of shading in those parts or had a reason behind the design of the characters and the sexual nature of them. What bothered me slightly was the large ‘ears’ that most of the persocoms had that made them look a bit like furies. I don’t know why, I just had a little bit of a problem with them though they did not mess with the story.

Chobits is quite the ride, 7/10 is a generous rating. The first 30 chapters are frankly, awful. The characters are boring, it's stuffed to the brim with unecessary sexualized humour (lit seems the publishers were convinced no one would read this unless Chii was initally marketed to the reader as a sex bot? It was so hard to take seriously), and the plot goes absolutely no where for some time. It takes nearly half the series for Chobits to reveal its value and explore the heart of the manga. I think Chobits had some interesting ideas: the theme of loving people (or persocoms) for whatthey are, that people and persocoms are capable of different things in different ways, and that there is no person or persocom that can replace the other. It's a shame that it takes so long to explore these themes, because I think the manga would have been much better getting to this earlier and exploring some of its side concepts more, or developing their characters, rather than spend 30 chapters on repetitive humour and fan service. I would have liked to see some more on the danger of technology and human error, which was briefly explored in some sideplots. While many of the characters are bland, I did sympthatize with Chii and Yumi in particular, though I wish there was more to the characters in this series than their relationships (to either persocoms or people). Lastly, I did find the art gorgerous, and that was a huge factor in giving this manga a chance.

If you are interested in the idea of love, challenging societal ideas of relationships, and technology, this might be worth finishing, though I blame no one for dropping this prematurely (I almost did). I found the last 50 chapters far better than the beginning (thankfully the pace picks up, and much of sexual tones are left behind), but Chobits is not without its flaws, and it does take patience for it to show its colours.

The premise is great and, at first, the story feels quite unique, in my opinion, and it does have a bit of that mature air that I simply love but I also feel like it evaporates with each volume. Since the first thing you see is art, that's what I will touch on first too—it's very good, I enjoyed the visual part a lot; the backgrounds, the expressions and the general layout are clean and convey what they need to. Now, for the characters, the male protagonist, Hideki, is... not unlikeable. He doesn't really stand out as a main character and he does feel plain to thebone. But is by no means an unsocial jerk, no, far from it; in fact, he is often said to be "a good guy" but there's not much story to either back that statement up or debunk it. He's just a decent human being but somehow gets glorified into a saint–the trope I sincerely despise. Also, Hideki is utterly useless and halfway through the story and on he basically says only three things over and over again:

1) What does it mean?

2) What is Chii to me?

3) I don't get it

which is simply bad writing.

The female protagonist, Chii, on the other hand, I like a lot. Her introduction is nice and it does seem like she develops, matures and learns.

The side characters, however, are a mixed bag, in my opinion. Not only were their stories more engaging than the main plot, but also those characters were the ones who drove the main plot forward, which shouldn't happen because, well, the side characters are supposed to support the main cast, lie on the side, right? Well, not according to the authors, apparently. I guess it turns out okay, in the end, because if it weren't for the stories of the bakery guy, the computer genius kiddo and the teacher, I would've likely dropped the manga at one point or the other.

The premise overall is nice and engaging, as I've already said, but the development and execution of the story is where it falls short. It's all quite predictable, there's nothing particularly ingenious there. The addition of the picture book narration was nice and innovative at first but it was overused to the point of becoming obnoxious. In general, the story tries to be philosophical and touch on the nature of the human heart and love itself but I think it takes on more than it can handle and ultimately crumbles under its own weight.

It's an okay read. Nothing too bad but nothing too great either. I definitely wouldn't say it's a must but I think it's still worth giving a shot.

Chobits - The Manga Under The Eye of RGaspar And His First Review Ever - Story: In terms of story I think Chobits starts with a really good punch to gradually become more typical. The initial setting is thrilling: In the near future the world is populated by people and Persocoms alike, these Persocoms are humanoid robots that people can get in love with. The protagonist, Hideki, is your regular young loser, without girls, without any interesting stuff to do and not enough money to buy a precious Persocom. Until he finds Chi on the way home... From then on, lots of things will happen inthis eight-volume story.

Chobits definitely gives you some food for thought: Can robots really feel and think by their own? Is it ok to be more in love with robots than with humans? Will you cry if your robot gets destroyed? Will the robot cry for you if it happened the other way around? Rest assured the series won't give you an ultimately answer to all this, giving you the freedom to think what you want.

That's very good and unusual for a manga series. Now, what's not very good is the way erotics is handled. There are a bunch of ecchi situations that are not recommended for kids (including a glory-hole scene, no less) , and while the general tone of Chobits is pretty mature and serious I was expecting the same treatment for the erotic content. Now, I don't mean I wanted to see actual sex, but you can't be given the kind of ending you get, when early volumes teased more realistic behaviours (I can't spoil exactly what I'm talking about, you'll have to read Chobits to find out).

And another thing that takes some points away from the story is that the original premise slowly becomes a background setting, and all that matters at the end of the day is the relationship between the many couples presented in the manga. That would be ok for another manga with a less interesting universe, but for Chobits I'd have liked to see Clamp moving beyond genre conventions there.

Art:

I find the style to be just perfect for this. It's not as simplistic as some other shojo mangas you'd see around but not too complex either (that wouldn't fit the series). Every Persocom is beautifully detailed and their distinct traits are very well done, without any mayor changes during the whole manga, and that's a plus. You won't forget Chi's ears or Sumomo's dress in quite a while.

Also, the pages are generous with the space given to each frame, so reading them is easy.

Characters:

They are the best of Chobits, in my opinion, with the Persocoms in the stellar role. For every couple in the manga there's a background story to follow, and their feelings don't look like a forced plot device to advance the story. Almost all the characters on paper are interesting, with a few exception consisting of short lived characters used for very specific situations.

My two favorite ones are the comic duo of portable Persocoms Sumomo and Kotoko, who I find very cute and fun.

Overall:

Chobits is a recommended read for anyone looking for sweet love stories without many dark moments. It could be a letdown if you are expecting something more beyond that point. Even then, the possitive points surpasses the bad ones: Good characterization supported by above average drawings easily compensate a somewhat unballanced storyline.

While Chobits is not as good as CardCaptor Sakura,still stands as a enjoyable manga to read.

(PS: Originally posted on December 15, 2010) Well after finally reading the acclaimed manga known as Chobits, I came to the conclusion that this manga, just like Akira (I plan to get to that one eventually), was completely overrated and does not deserve the praise it gets. Of course I have my reasons and that is why I have decided to write this review (warning: this review contains spoilers). Before I get to my complaints I would like to point out the positive aspects. The first thing I loved about Chobits would definitely have to be the characters. They were well developed and the story mademe care about them because despite their faults, they are still very likeable people. Some of the different themes introduced were pretty good too. Unfortunately the story kind of breaks a part when looked at more closely and even the themes get ruined in hind site.

The first major complaint in the story would have to be the love relationship between Yumi and the bakery boss dude (forgot his name). When Yumi is first introduced it is made completely clear that she has a crush on Hideki because of the various dialogues exchanged between the both of them. An example of this would be literally the first conversation Hideki and Yumi have which is filled with sexual tension and flirtation on her part. However this obvious crush is completely removed when we find out that she was really in love with the bakery boss dude and she only viewed Hideki as a kind of brother…BULLSHIT!!! She was so obviously all over him, how the hell did this happen or even begin to make sense? Was she teasing him the entire time? If that’s true then, wow, what a b****!

The next complaint I have is the story about the bakery boss dude falling in love with his Persocom. In his flash back he tells the story about how he fell in love with his Persocom and then married her. That is all very nice but how did this happen? Did he buy her and then when he got to know her and spend time with her, finally realize that he loved the Persocom since she made him happy? Do Persocom actually have feelings and it was those feelings that made him fall in love with her? Well it was actually none of that. The real way it went was that he bought the Persocom because it was love at first sight. So let me get this straight, the guy fell in love with a non activated robot that was sitting on a shelf…that has the exact same emotional effect of me falling in love with my toaster because I thought it looked more beautiful than all the other toasters at Wal-Mart. I think the bakery boss dude has problems and should seek help before he marries his fridge.

The third complaint I have is the repetitive dialogue that this manga seems to spew out all the time. Chii is in love with Hideki but she’s scared that she will be rejected and Hideki is not sure if he loves Chii or not. Now mix that in with tons of dialogue about the nature of love and how it works. Then repeat everything I just said again. It gets so tedious and boring at times. Yes Chobits, I understood the first time you told me, I do not need to hear your lectures on love a million times more! The worst part is that after we hear all about Chii’s inner struggles, they have the nerve to repeat everything that was going on in her mind and in the story in the form of this picture book that Chii keeps reading. So after we finish reading the character development in the actual story, it is the characters themselves that read their own character development. I’m reading a story in the story that’s explaining the same story that is in the story…damn :P

The fourth complaint I have is probably the most obvious one, WHY THE HELL IS CHII’S ACTIVATION SWITCH IN HER VAGINA!!! Seriously what the hell! I understand that you could say that this plot point was implemented so that it shows that Hideki could fall in love with Chii without having the need to have sex with her, but still this simply makes no sense. First off what the hell was the creator of Chobits (the creator inside the manga, not the author) thinking when he came up with this brilliant idea? Second, if he did program them to be different and able to fall in love, then would it not have been better if they had the ability to have sex because even though sex is not the most important part about love, it is still "an" important aspect and depriving them of sex is kind of removing part of what makes love so beautiful and great. There may be a metaphor about the idea of having the switch down there but the problem with that metaphor is that it ruins part of the plots logic. I know some people don't look too far into manga logic, but that to me is just an excuse.

Believe it or not, even after all my complaints, I still recommend Chobits. It's quite interesting and worth checking out in order to at least see what the hype is about. Its heart is in the right place and that's why I couldn't get myself to rate it anything lower than 7/10. Despite its sometimes boring moments, I still had a fun time.

This is the first manga I ever read; a true masterpiece that hooked me immediately and created my manga addiction. The art is beautiful, as is to be expected from anything by CLAMP. The characters are likable, believable, and surprisingly deep. There is a delightful blend of comedy, romance, fanservice, and thought-provoking story. You will laugh, cry, get excited, and think. There truly is something for everyone here. Chobits has a wonderful story about diversity in relationships- you love who you love, and the happiness you share is what counts, not other people's ideas of what a couple should looklike. This is a manga one can read over and over again without ever tiring of it. If you haven't read it yet, get to it right away.

Well, after having read xxxHolic and Tsubasa, I wanted more of Clamp, not feeling ready yet to enter the "shoujo world", I chose the most obvious choice, Chobits, and I do not regret it. Chobits tells us the story of Hideki, a poor, poor guy who finds a persocom in the garbage. Persocoms are sorta like our computers, except they are made in form of a human, and can mimic our emotions. Luckily, the persocom he founds works... and now the story begins. All in all, I find it hard to fit Chobits in the "comedy" category, sure, it has it's comic moments, but the wholestory is a bit depressive, and deals with topics a bit hard to swallow.

When things are more human than human, how will we fit with them? Chobits never really answer that question completely, and that is one of the great things about it, it leaves you thinking long after you finish reading the story, because Chobits is not just about Hideki and his morals about Chi, but also about many other stories in the middle. People who felt in love with persocoms, people who were traded by persocoms, every story deals with a problem that may happen with the eventual evolution of Artificial Intelligence and robotics.

This is a story that will grab you from begging to end, and long afterwards, and that is what makes it great. Recommended to everyone. Just don't go expecting a common ecchi comedy, for Chobits does not fit in that category, it is a much more complex story!

Chobits presents a very nice take on the "can robots fall in love" subject that I think does the topic justice. For a light sci-fi that focuses on the increasing role of human-like assistants in a 20-minutes-from-now society, it avoids being too opinionated or trite. In fact, Chobits succeeds in exploring the subject matter in both breadth and depth. The characters of the story are a vehicle it uses to explore the topics, and not the central focus of the story. That's an increasingly rare approach in manga. To achieve this, it uses a pretty light touch. It presents the situations while letting you (for the mostpart) draw your own opinions and conclusions. That really lets you identify with the characters, rather than trying spoon-feeding you annoying cues.

That's not to say that the characters are flat or unappealing. They grow with the story, and their motivations and backstory are drawn upon as a canvas, rather than a blunt instrument. Of course the characters in the most "normal" relationship are pretty flat, but they are meant to be used as a foil and as support.

The story develops at a good pace, keeping a decent amount of momentum. If you are the type that likes to marathon, beware! 88 chapters only sounds like a lot, but Chobits can fly by pretty quickly if you expect it to be drawn out. There is almost no time for filler, which is always a bonus (although I did find the "storybook" sequences a little drawn out at times).

As a consequence of the tight pacing, even mundane details can actually play a role. It doesn't generally use "Big Flashing Lights" to point out important details, because almost everything can be important in such a well-paced story. The end result is that it pays to get into Chobits.

The art isn't anything overly memorable to me, but it does the job well enough to not be confusing. There are some nice spots as well where the art is quite lovely. Of course they could not help but pander a little with fanservice, but at least it wasn't groan-inducing.

Ultimately Chobits succeeded for me because it didn't go overboard. Things were explored in a fairly realistic manner. Nothing was really sugarcoated. There are some interesting twists and turns, and some contrivances, but overall there was a successful suspension of disbelief that I rarely get from sci-fi stories about robots.

I'll keep things brief. Chobits has great art, full stop. Unfortunately, it also has annoying main characters and a disappointing, lackluster story that only gets worse the closer we get to the end... an ending that severely lacks payoff to boot. Oh, and the mystery? Gets solved as part of a multi-chapter info dump. I did go into reading this without any preconceptions and with an open mind, but I honestly don't understand why this is considered an outstanding manga. It does bring up some interesting questions about relationships and personhood, but the execution is severely lacking. It's bad enough that the art simply can'tcompensate.

This book is kind of hard for me to rate because there are some really hilarious moments and then there are other times when the characters aren't making sense. I like the idea about having persocoms, computers in the shape of a human, and the pictures are very detailed. I also like Chi, one of the main characters who is a very "special" persocom, because of her kid-like innocence and she's darn cute!!!!!!! Yet even so, sometimes her innocence can get annoying (too much of a good thing isn't always good). Anyhow, this is an interesting manga, certainly one of a kind but with alittle bit too much pervertedness for my taste.

-kemmec

I read it and loved it! Story 10/10 Characters (main) 9/10 Charaters (sup) 9/10 Art 10/10 Read 9/10 ------------------------- Overall 9/10Story: was pretty exclusive and exciting

Main Charaters: chii was a good charater but hideki was for me just dumb and a pervert, in general i don't have anythig against perverted charaters but Hideki was too much for me.

Sup Charaters: some were funny and made me laugh a lot in particular Hirumo

Art: look and the cover do i need to say anythig

Read: THe start was boring but then the story kicked in it was so fun to read. I read five vol. in a day.

Though the art is absolutely adorable and the idea is interesting enough, I was disappointed with this manga. Believe me, I'm all for romance, but I personally found the conclusion to be quite rushed and dissatisfying, especially after such an intriguing build-up. Furthermore, what's with the representation of women in this manga? The only characters who were slightly realistic and relatable were Chitose Hibiya and Takako Shimizu. The younger females were clingy, weak and, to be horrifically frank, irritating. What was even more annoying was the almost constant sexualization of these and other female characters. Let's just say that I found the forced-upon male gazediscomforting. Such a large amount was unnecessary.

However, if you're looking for a piece of light-hearted entertainment that's quick and easy to read, go for it! After all, it's important that one makes their own decisions about whether or not something is good! （‐＾▽＾‐）

when i first found this manga i still have a little bit of hesitation whether i should read it or not and since i'm already out of manga to read, i decided to read this and guess what i enjoy it. it has a little bit of spoiler read at your own risk . . . . . . ..

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so the story is all about hideki who decided to live in modern society to study in order to prepare for his entrance exam. born from a province where technology are rare sight specially computer/persocoms. so when the first time he saw a lot of persocoms around he wasn't able to contain he's excitement making him shout "i want a persocom too", sadly our protagonist can't afford these persocoms since it is so expensive, one night while walking on the road he saw a abandoned persocom which is extremely cute and decided to take it with him thinking that it was his lucky day for meeting he's fated persocom.

The art is great and it's very enjoyable.