Customer Reviews

Chobits, Volume 1

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The ladies of CLAMP are known for two types of manga. The first is "average schoolgirl becomes magical girl, saves world," such as their most successful work to date, Cardcaptor Sakura. The other is "prettyboys with windswept hair swordfight between bouts of angst," such as X/1999. Chobits, set in real world Tokyo sometime in the near future, is something different. It has - dare I say it? - themes.

Protagonist Hideki Motosuwa is a typical college student. He's forthright and reliable, but struggles with his studies, has a lousy job, and secretly owns an enormous collection of pornography. His greatest shortcoming is a seeming addiction to porn, which is played - perhaps overplayed - for laughs in this first volume of the manga. While he's surrounded by beautiful and personable women, he becomes tongue-tied and paralyzed around them, often unable to do more than blush and silently obsess over the size of their chest. Fortunately, these women are amazingly forgiving. None of them are shocked or offended when they find a dirty magazine on his floor, or a video on his TV. Instead, they perform a philosophical shrug and assume an amused "boys will be boys" attitude.

One night, Hideki finds a small girl lying unconscious in a dumpster. He panics until he notices her unusual ears, which identify her as a "persocom." Persocoms are the home computers of the future, humanoid robots designed to be physically perfect and programmed to fulfill whatever their owners desire. Persocoms, despite their appearance, are not intelligent, and don't have feelings, although a well-programmed one can fake both. In short, they're not people, but sophisticated tools. Charmingly, the world of Chobits also has "laptop" persocoms - five inch miniature versions - and persocom PDAs the size of a key chain charm.

Astonished to find such an expensive piece of hardware, Hideki takes the snow-haired, amber-eyed persocom home. When he activates her, all she can say is "Chii," and that becomes her name. Chii has no memory, and apparently no operating system. She is sweetly childlike, quick to smile and eagerly imitating everything she sees - including the poses in Hideki's ample collection of porn. There are several scenes in this first volume in which Hideki scrambles to eliminate some new cache she's discovered; fortunately, this sort of thing becomes less frequent and obnoxious in later volumes.

This sudden change in Hideki's everyday behavior begins to speak to the themes of Chobits. Here is a young man who surrounds himself with images of imaginary, idealized, willing women, who suddenly finds himself in possession of an idealized, arguably imaginary woman. Left alone with his magazines, Chii could have become a doll. But confronted with the reality of her, Hideki's instinct is to treat Chii like an actual person. Moreover, when he finds she has the capability to learn through observation and imitation, he begins to teach her as if she were a younger sister. Hideki does not mold Chii into what he wants her to be, as most men do with their persocoms. Instead, he fosters her individuality and self-worth.

Persocoms appear to have had a profound impact on society. "A City With No People," an eerily symbolic children's book read by Chii, seems to refer to them when it says, "Being with 'them' is fun. More fun than being with people. Nobody comes outside anymore." Hideki's friends are troubled by Chii. His teacher, upon meeting her, murmurs, "Are all persocoms that cute? No wonder so many people would rather live with persocoms than real people." His coworker tells him, "My sister has (a persocom) shaped like a guy... I had one like that before. It's just... I got really sad." Most tellingly, a young persocom engineer warns, "No matter how cute she is, no matter how human she seems... Don't fall in love with her. She'll just make you cry."

Mere character study is often not enough to interest readers, so CLAMP quickly stirs in the mystery. Who made Chii, and why was she in that dumpster? Why can she run without an OS installed? Why can she, unlike most persocoms, learn rather than rely on reprogramming? Near the conclusion of this volume, a discovery implies that Chii may be better off leaving her past forgotten.

Although Chobits is often laugh-out-loud funny, the parts I appreciate the most are those that resonate with the themes CLAMP is exploring in the work. Hideki is a commentary on men who pursue the company of the imaginary "ideal" women in pornography and Japanese "dating sim" games instead of flesh-and-blood women. That this is explored through a cute robot girl, compelling that very male audience to read Chobits, is deviously ingenious. Meanwhile, Chii - so heartbreakingly earnest in her attempts to comprehend the world and herself, naively fumbling into painful comprehension of human relationships, sexuality, and her own identity - puts those male readers into the shoes of a young girl reaching maturity in a world obsessed with appearance.

Chii makes me smile. She also makes me cry. I can count on one hand the number of manga characters that regularly have that effect on me. Chobits is a strong character piece written as a metaphorical comment on society. As a series, I give Chobits four stars. It's not a timeless work of art, but it *IS* very good. This volume gets only three because the art and storytelling are still settling in, which results in some rougher drawings and an irritating superabundance of "fan service." By volume two, both are up to snuff.

Be aware that Chobits contains mature content. This volume includes language and partial nudity.

Just when you think that CLAMP has dished out all their best manga, when you think that all creativity must have been squeezed out of them due to their other titles hogging it all, they throw Chobits at you.

At first, I was skeptical. I mean, an unlucky teen who has no real life staggers across a Chi, the coolest thing in robot-girl techonology and suddenly his life turns around? Haven't I seen this before? But once I delved more into the story, I was surprised to find there was more to it than meets the eye. There are many hilarious scenes in where Chi tries to learn how to act more "real" or human. It's a constant struggle between the two main characters to stay incognito because Chi is no normal robot. Yes, inside all the (mature) comical scenes, there are more serious ones. So far, it's been foreshadowing and nothing more, but it's quite enough to leave you hanging and wanting to know more about Chi's origin.

Overall, I think any manga fan would enjoy this one, but I recommend you pay attention to the "16+" rating on the back. Some people may find it offensive, but I personally don't think it's that big of a deal. Some of the more...immature jokes that made me laugh are a sign of the great translation job done on the series. Definitely something you would want to look out for.

Read Chobits and CLAMP will surprise you once again with their remarkable story-telling. This is manga that everyone should at least look into.

"Persocoms-beautiful, obedient...fully functional. They're perfection."

"You hear about it all the time. A guy finds a nice girl, takes her home. Then it turns out she has some sort of special powers, and she'll fall madly in love with the guy."

So in Chobits, presumably set in a future where persocoms are computers created like beautiful women, seems to be a next stage in evolution, kind of like the Stepford Wives. And persocom designers have to be men, given the location of the on-switch. Yes, it is down there! Yet there is the mention of a man persocom, so who knows, maybe women design those!

Struggling cram school student Hideki Motosuwa wants one; they are darned expensive, but as everybody has one, he feels out of touch. He says, "I want someone to read me my e-mail. I want to play games. I want to download the latest porn!" Ok, calm down, Hideki! But it's frustrating, and besides, as he says, "It's not like you find persocoms lying around."

Well, that's exactly what happens! He finds a cute-looking persocom with amber eyes and long wavy platinum blonde hair thrown amongst the garbage. He finally activates her, but all she can say is "Chi." He names her that, but despite being unable to speak much, seems to understand him, and even hugs him after a flying leap when he compliments her on how she looks in her clothes or .

In consulting with his cram school classmate Shimbo, the beginnings of a mystery emerge. Persocoms are unable to move without an OS, yet Chi does. And when Hideki tried to plug her in, he got "No data" as a response. Shimbo tries to connect his own laptop, Plum, a cute pint-sized persocom with Arabic style pantaloons, for some first-hand diagnostics, but Plum gets fried. The same happens to the persocoms of Shimbo's computer-literate prodigy colleague, twelve year old Minoru Kokubunji. It's Kokubunji who thinks Chi might be a Chobit. Chobits are supposed to be artificial intelligences who can operate without an OS, meaning that they are as autonomous as people, not reliant on outside programming, but that's more an urban legend. Whatever she is, she's still an unregistered persocom, so is she a homemade unit? Yet, there is some self-installed teaching software in her, as she accurately recites Hideki's phone number.

Chi's blank slate innocence and sheer cuteness is one the appealing things about her that makes her yet another of my favourite manga/anime characters. Her tendency to imitate Hideki's gestures of frustrations is funny. Hideki's attempts to teach Chi lend to the comedy. When Hideki tries to tell her his name, by pointing to himself, she equates pointing at objects to "Hideki" and pointing at everything in his room, says "Hideki" much to his exasperation. But Hideki gets help from his landlady Ms. Hibiya, who gives Chi some hand-me-down clothes. One scene is followed by Chi imitating a scene from a porn DVD, pointing to the actress and saying, "This is a tasty side dish (okazu in Japanese)." She then points to the landlady, "Is she a tasty side dish?" Hoo-boy!

Minoru warns him, "No matter how cute she is, no matter how human she seems, don't fall in love with her. She'll only make you cry." Yet Ms. Shimizu, Hideki's cram school teacher sadly says, "No wonder so many people would rather live with persocoms than with real people." Heck, it wouldn't take me a minute to choose between a persocom and a real person.

This classic manga spawned an equally classic anime series. One variation is that Hideki is already working at the "With Pleasure" in the manga, whereas he gets hired in the anime. But they parallel each other closely. The beginning of a cute sci-fi/technology comedy which presumably influenced A.I. Love You.

I love Chobits, it's my favourite manga ever at the moment and it pains me that some people out there disregard it as 'unoriginal' or even 'pornography'. ANYONE who says that this manga is porno simply because it contains some (minor) nudity are along the same lines as the people who wont let their kids watch Harry Potter simply because it contains witchcraft.
Anyone who likes mystery and comedy should go get Chobits now, and if you have a brain you wont be disappointed.
More about the characters.
Hideki may appear to be your typical shonen git but he's actually pretty hilarious!
Chii is the very definition of 'kawaii' and 'innocence'.
Sumomo stretches the kawaii factor off the limit!
I'd give this ten thumbs up...if only I had that many thumbs.

At the first glance, Chobits seems to be just another shounen manga that exists solely to provide eye candy for the readers. However, it gets much better, so if you aren't sure whether to get this, my advice is to read more before making a decision. After the first couple chapters, which are *filled* with fanservice- irritatingly so- it becomes a very thoughtful, philisophic read. Chobits is not all about sexual humor and embarrassing situations, it raises questions about human nature and the future of society and technology. It also has a gripping plot- why was Chii's memory erased? What is her purpose? Who is the other Chii (Dark Chii) who appears to her? Although Hideki is the typical porno-obsessed,few-bricks-short-of-a-load, male protagonist, he does have touching affection, respect, and a sense of responsibility towards Chii, which make him stand out from most formulaic male protagonists. Chobits is not perfect -is any manga?- but it's pretty close. Since I am reviewing the first volume, which has the most sexual humor and fanservice, I'll give it a 4, but the other volumes I'd give a 5...

Like many entries in this genre "Chobits" is funny, sexy, cute, dramatic and romantic all together. Clamp has a particular formula and they do it very well.

There is nothing original in "Chobits." Nerdy struggling student hopeful accidentally finds a beautiful, naive non-human girl, (in this case a personal computer who looks like a girl.) who then takes up residence in his small apartment. Hijinks ensue. Shortly there after, insert an actual human potential love interest, add a dark, dramatic history for non-human girl, a generous dash of panties and you are off on a Clamp-driven anime adventure.

So there is nothing original. It is still fun. The jokes are good, the drawings are pretty and the formulaic plot is a good time. Most people who enjoy Japanese manga are going to enjoy "Chobits." I do.

Let me begin by saying that this is NOT your typical CLAMP work. While CLAMP is known for writing nice shoujo manga that is appropriate for almost any age, Chobits completely surprised me by being a piece that is definitely not in that classification. First of all, most of the female cast of this book is now scantily-clad, large-breasted eye candy that is probably included to hook more men into reading. Of course, knowing CLAMP, this could also be a veiled social commentary on how the women of today are viewed. Also, the main character is a male...and a dirty one at that. He enjoys porn and staring at women's chests. There is also gratuitous nudity of the female torso, and mature dialogue everywhere.
Now that I've finished the children's warning, I'll put in some good words for the book. It is, if you can look past the raunchiness, another excellent CLAMP production. The storyline promises to be very intriguing, and I expect to see much more of the supporting characters later on. Hideki is a lovable loser, and Chii is an adorable young lady with a penchant for copying things, whether it be Hideki's anguished antics or the ladies in the porn magazines. You really begin to sympathize with Hideki's troubles and Chii's bittersweet cluelessness. Well, I won't give away any more spoilers. Read this manga if you can handle seeing naked breasts (a whole lot of them,) swear words, and porn.
Verdict: Besides the gratuitous and sometimes unnecessary nudity, CLAMP has produced another masterful story with breathtaking art. Read it!

Clamp has turned out of its normal way to create something totally new: a male targeted manga that still appeals to its young girl fans. Simply put, it is Clamp's biggest accomplishment since Cardcaptors. Although the animation is also good, (I've seen up to episode 11), the manga is a worlds away in quality and detail. I've read up to manga no. 4 in Korean, and I find it drawn to the very minute detail.

Our main character comes to the big city in order to go into university. What's more, he's a country kid, unaccustomed to Persocoms, robots that are designed like humans, ranging from simple mobile phone funcitons to life size human jobs. Poor and sturggling, he finds a Persocom thrown away, who knows only the word Chi. There begins our story of Chobits.

A rather unique way for love flourishes in Chobits, another signature detail tailored carefully by Clamp. And not only that, they did a cross checking of science fiction along with the romance, as well as dash in both dry and cute humour excersized in Cardcaptors. The art remains true to Clamp stylistics as well as the story crafting. However, whereas before girls before were expressed naturally, Clamp has changed that into placing many female characters as fan service girls.

But that's besides the main point. :)

Any young Clamp fan can tell you that she is pleased with Chobits. She will point out to you that Clamp still remains as one of the classic heartthrob manga creators, following the tradition of, "Of girls, for girls, and by four girls." She probably could also explain to you that Chobits is a love story, no matter what kind of twist that Clamp chucked in. The ever popular theme of impossible love is still what keeps those girl fans in line for next month's manga release.

So, don't fret over your money because this is a worthwhile manga. Whether this is your first or your 50th manga (there is no last, by the way), you won't regret it unless you have bad taste, which ruins everything. As for the rating of 16+, disregard it please. That is a LIE, a DECEPTION. As I said, most of the readers are girls ages 10-16, not just 16 and over. Just hope that the anime also gets released here. :)

(Please pardon any little typos in this- I sort of typed it in a hurry without bothering to proofread)

I first found out about Chobits when looking at the back of Magic Knight Rayearth Volume 3- there was a one page ad about Chobits. I had no idea that this series was designed for a slightly more mature age than any of CLAMP's other works.

WHen I was in BORDERS one day, I saw Volume 3 of Chobits, I was surprised (and rather shocked) to find that it was rated "Older Teen" (ages 16+). I popped the book open to the middle, but I couldn't really understand what was going on.
(Unlike most of the other series, with Chobits, you can't just grab any volume and start reading- you'll be confused! I tried to read book 4 right after book 1, and I had no idea which character whas who, and who had this name...)

THe artwork isn't as detailed, but the storyline is still very interesting. I might also add that the art is generally better than Angelic Layer. However, there is some semi-nudity and other mature themes in Chobits that young people might not understand.
THere is a lot of um...language in Chobits that might not be suitable for younger readers, but my friends and I managed to try to ignore it.

Overall, Chobits is one of the more imaginable ideas of CLAMP, and despite the mature material, my two friends (both 7th grade) seem to really enjoy reading it. THe 100% authentic manga format seems easier to read than the left-to-right version. A great series! Even if you don't like CLAMP's stuff usually, please give Chobits a chance!

Well, Chobits won't turn out to be your ordinary manga, I suspect. It starts out just a touch cliche - boy finds super duper computer girl (a la Battle Angel). However, the cliche is just a set-up for what will come later - a commentary on the amount of time and emotions people spend on their computers, rather than interacting with humans.

There is a little bit of nudity (upper body) and slightly naughty wording (one swear word), but no harm comes from this and it really does propell the story forward.

It's quite interesting, really, and there are a lot of funny jokes and situations - at first, the computer girl, Chii, mimicks what she sees people doing, whether it's people on TV, the guy who found her, or even poses in girlie magazines. Yet she displays emotion a little later, which is something computers can't do - right? And how will the guy who found her deal with this fact, since "she's only a machine, like a toaster"? Interesting questions are raised...

I enjoyed this first volume a lot despite the slight nudity and look forward to the next volumes.