chobits

The English manga is published by TOKYOPOP, and the American translation is imported to Australia by Madman Entertainment. Also, the Traditional Chinese manga is published by COMICSWORLD.COM (天下出版有限公司) under official authorization for Hong Kong only. In Singapore, the Simplified Chinese version is published by Chuangyi. Unlike most CLAMP stories, Chobits is a seinen series, specifically of the magical girlfriend variety.

Plot

The story centers on the life of Hideki Motosuwa, 19, (in the anime, 18) a repeat student ("ronin") attempting to get into university by studying at the Seki cram school in Tokyo. An honest and unassuming teenager raised on a farm, he has little experience with women, though his imagination and libido are both quite active. Besides a girlfriend, the other thing he dreams of having is a persocom. A Persocom is an android used as a personal computer, hence the name Persocom from the Japanese shortening of Personal computer as "pasokon". Hideki discovers that persocoms are commonplace in the city. They are programmed with fairly subdued personalities; they assist their owners with chores (such as shopping, dictation, email, and accounting), are easily identifiable by the large data ports on the sides of their heads that look like ears, and surf on the internet. But persocoms are expensive and Hideki has no money, so he figures the only way he'll ever have one is if he were to find one lying on the curb.

No sooner has he thought this than it happens: on his way home from the grocery store one evening, he stumbles across a persocom in the form of a nude beautiful young girl with blonde long hair, wrapped in cloth, lying against a pile of trash bags. He first thinks this to be a murder but, realizing she had ears like the persocoms as he had seen in the window display earlier, he carries her home (dropping a disk as he walks away). He finally turns her on and she comes instantly to life and regards Hideki with open adoration, hugging him often and watching him fascinated as she often mimics the things he does, but the only word she ever says (until later episodes) is "chi", so this is the name Hideki gives her (in the Japanese anime Hideki spells it with an extra "i", as Chii, and it remains "Chi" in the manga).

Hideki recruits the help of his techno-savvy friend Shinbo to try to figure out where Chi came from. Shinbo has a smaller persocom of his own named Sumomo (Plum in manga). All they are able to determine is that she does not have any operating system installed. Shinbo is perplexed as to how she's able to be active at all with a blank memory, and this is the beginning of the mystery of Chi's origins and purpose.

Meanwhile Hideki takes it upon himself to teach words, concepts and behavior to Chi while he attends school, looks for a job, and makes new friends (many of whom have strong opinions of persocoms). He finds himself putting aside his libido and protecting Chi against people who want her for themselves; he buys her a storybook in which she seems to take an unusual interest; she shows him unconditional love and cheers him on through his studies. Before long it's clear that Chi is developing feelings for Hideki to a depth that persocoms aren't supposed to be able to have, and Hideki seems to be falling in love with her, despite friends' warnings against having feelings for an artificial person.

Themes

Despite comic and ecchi moments, Chobits itself deals with several dualities concerning subject matter it shows. The most explored issue throughout the series is relationships shared between humans and persocons. "Atashi" (Japanese for I or me), a character drawn by the character "Hibiya", is a comic book used in the series to hint at the definition of reciprocated love to Chi, but is also used to highlight issues with human-persocon relationships; drawing upon the fact that because persocons can be programmed to imitate desirable human behavior, many humans would opt-out of human relationships, as well as obvious problems, such as the inability to further produce offspring.

The series also seems to touch upon issues and ideals of virginity, and sexual intercourse; the "chobits" series being in line with the idea of only engaging in sexual intercourse with someone whom you are entirely in love with -- this is shown in the series, particularly when several males attempt to "interfere" with Chi. The idea of "love", as a concept is addressed for the denominator of the series also, in several installments of "A City With No People"; this deals with issues particularly relating to searching, and subesequently waiting for someone who is what would be referred to as a "soul mate". This is in parallel to the story of Freya, who fell in love with her father and creator, and ultimately wished death due to heartache, and is used as a means of "aiding" Chi in her quest for "A Person Just For Me", or "My One and Only". Both Chi (Elda) and her sister, Freya; Atashii being linked to Chi, and the companion, linked to Freya.

The title ちょびっツ Chobittsu uses a mixture of hiragana ちょびっ Chobi(t) and katakana ツ tsu. Similarly, the password チょびっつ Chobittsu for Plum (also known as "Sumomo", however, oddly enough "Momo" is japanese for "Peach"), set by Hideki in episode 19 titled "Chii Helps Out " of the TV series, also mixes katakana チ Ch(i) and hiragana ょびっつ (y)obittsu. The mixed letters were chosen because the persocon's password required a mixture of hiragana, katakana and/or Latin alphanumeric characters for increased security. At the very end of the manga, Hideki gives Chi the password "Chobittsu", all in hiragana, except for the last character, which is in katakana.

Chobits showcases the Gothic Lolita fashion style popular in Japan, with both Freya's and Chi's elaborate dresses.

Manga

The original Chobits manga was written by CLAMP, a famous group of four Japanese manga-ka (manga artists) and was serialized in Young Magazine in Japan from February 2001 until the manga's completion in November 2002. CLAMP often reuses (or parallel to) various characters among their manga (discussed below). Chobits is one of their first attempts at the Shōnen genre.

The manga is 88 chapters long and was collected into 8 volumes, which are published by in English by TOKYOPOP.

Anime

The anime consists of 26 episodes and was broadcast across East Asia and Southeast Asia by the anime television network, Animax. Episodes 9, 18, and an extra 27th OVA episode are used as "recap" episodes, looking back on the events that happened so far. The episodes were re-numbered for the DVD release; the original recap episodes were not included in sequence, instead being published together on the final DVD and re-numbered as 8.5, 16.5 and 24.5 making the series itself only 24 episodes.

The series was supervised by Morio Asaka while Hisashi Abe acted as character designer and animation director. Additional media information can be found at Chobits media information.

There also is a 6-minute special episode: "Sumomo and Kotoko on a Quest", or "Chibits", concerning Sumomo and Kotoko.

Connections with other works

CLAMP has been known to connect their works via crossovers, of which Chobits is no exception. Some of the connections exist only within the manga and do not occur in the anime version of Chobits.

Angelic Layer

Chobits has a direct connection to the earlier CLAMP work Angelic Layer. The two works occur in the same universe and the events of Chobits occur after the events of Angelic Layer. Hideki, when Chitose finally reveals her connection with Chi, remarks that the Angelic Layer game had been popular up until a few years ago.

Chi's creator and Chitose's late husband is Ichiro "Icchan" Mihara, who was also the person responsible for Angelic Layer. The anime has removed the connection between the two stories. Minoru's sister is Kaede Saitou, also from Angelic Layer. In the manga during Minoru's flashback of his sister's death, you see three other characters, who are Kaede's friends from Angelic Layer: Misaki Suzuhara, Sai Jounouchi, and Ohjiro Mihara.

Although it is implied in the anime that Kaede Saito is Minoru's sister, there is no explanation of why their family name is different. Only in the manga is it mentioned that their parents were divorced.

Cardcaptor Sakura

In the manga version, Tomoyo Daidouji's mother, Sonomi, makes a brief cameo appearance in Chiroru bakery, owned by Hiroyasu Ueda, in order to buy some sweets.

Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE

In Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE: another CLAMP manga, Chi makes a cameo appearance as the creation of Fay D. Flourite, a wizard from the country of Celes. Unlike in Chobits, Chi is presented as an artificial lifeform instead of a robot, and her ears have a more organic look similar to a fox. Sumomo and Kotoko also make an appearance in Ōto country, although they are much larger than normal. Chitose also appears as the director of Edonis' Fairy Park.

Chi,Chitose, Kotoko, and Sumomo reappear in original episodes of the anime. In episode 32 (season 2), Chi re-appears as the King of a fairy tale like country with Kotoko and Sumomo as her messengers and assistants. She was selected as king by the people, where in the selection process is that the one person everyone dreams about in the end of the year will be anointed as king. Chi was chosen and her memory was erased so that her impartiality and purity would be ensured until her stint as the King ended. It was also explaned here that she was created by the most powerful magician of that country (Chitose) and was an artifical being. Fay and Chi went out together on a very heart warming date where in Chi fell in love with Fay. Chitose re-appears in two subsequent anime-only episodes where she works as an engineer who has taken some time off work to travel across a desert by bus to determine what she truly desires. Along with the other passengers on the bus, she helps defend the bus from a motocycle gang and help recover Princess Sakura's feather.

xxxHOLIC

Volume 3 of XXXHolic shows Watanuki and Yūko communicating with each other using a pair of headphones that look exactly like Chi's ears. Also present in Volume 3 is a shot of Maru and Moro reading "A City With No People", a book featured prominently in Chobits. One scene also has Mokona saying "Chi!" (This happened in Episode 3 of the anime adaptaion).

Kobato

In the chapters of Kobato that have been released so far, it is revealed that Kobato's landlady is Chitose Mihara (Chitose Hibiya), who lives with her husband (presumbly Ichiro Mihara, who has yet to appear in the manga) and her twin daughters, Chiho and Chise (Chii/Elda and Freya). Chiho and Chise are human girls and not artificial lifeforms of any sort.

Like Tsubasa, the characters in Kobato are not the same ones found in Chobits, but are separate incarnations.

Suki: Dakara Suki

In the manga, Suki, the character Tomo writes a children's book that mirrors the lives of the two main characters, much like Ms. Hibiya does for Chi and Hideki. The class in Suki also visits a museum where there is a statue of three "Mobile Persocons", much like the one Yumi has.

Multiple Works

The apartment complex managed by Chitose Hibiya, where Hideki lived in Chobits, appears in several of CLAMP's other works.

Another version of it appears in Tsubasa's Hanshin Republic, where it is managed by Sorata Arisugawa and his wife, Arashi Kishū, who both originally appeared in X/1999. The complex also appears in xxxHOLIC as the childhood home of Kimihiro Watanuki, who recalls the kindness of the apartment managers, the "Landlady" and her husband, the "Tutor" (implied to be Chitose and Icchan).

Perhaps the most notable reappearence of the building occurs in universe where Kobato occurs. The building is run by Chitose Mihara and home to her family, which includes her twin daughters.

Games

In 2002 Marvellous Entertainment Inc. released a Chobits game for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance. This game has not been released outside of Japan. The game was also available bundled with a clear blue Game Boy Advance with a decal of Chii above the A+B buttons and a Chobits logo above the D-pad.

The online forum Gaia Online features an item equipable to one's avatar called "Doll Ears" which are replica's of Chii's "ears". The item comes bearing the description: "A master dollmaker of Gaia once designed a small clockwork doll girl. He put all his heart into making her the most beautiful doll ever. He would wind her up and she would walk with him through town. Many say she was prettier than a real girl."

Trivia

• In the English language version of Episode 4, the words "Underwear" and "Underpants" are said a total of 116 times (111 for "Underpants" and 5 for "Underwear").

See also

• Characters in Chobits
• Chobits media information

External links

• Chobits DVD Official English site for the anime
• Chobits Manga Official TOKYOPOP site
• TV Animation Chobits TSB official site (Japanese)
• INNOCENCE (fansite)
• Chobits (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia