Chobits

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Chobits (ちょびっツ, Chobittsu^?) is a Japanese manga and anime series created by CLAMP. Unlike most CLAMP stories, Chobits is a seinen series, specifically of the magical girlfriend variety. The manga is set in the same universe as Angelic Layer, taking place a few years after the events of that story.

Plot

The story centers on the life of Hideki Motosuwa, a repeat student (浪人, Rōnin^?) attempting to qualify for university by studying at the Seki prep school in Tokyo. Besides a girlfriend, the other thing he dreams of having is a Persocom. A Persocom is an android used as a personal computer; however, they are expensive, and Hideki has no money.

On his way home one evening, he stumbles across an android in the form of a beautiful girl with long blonde hair lying against a pile of trash bags. He first thinks this to be a murder but, realizing she is an android, he carries her home. Upon turning it on, she instantly regards Hideki with adoration. The only word she seems capable of saying is "chi", and thus he names her Chi. Although Chi does not appear to have any programs installed in her, Hideki's friend's friend Kokubunji Minoru surmises that she must have some sort of learning program installed, judging from her behavior.

A major part of the plot involves Hideki attempting to teach Chi words, concepts, and appropriate behaviours, in between his crammed schedule of school and work. At the same time, Chi seems to be developing feelings for Hideki, at an emotional depth, which she is not supposed to possess, and Hideki struggles with his feelings for her. Minoru assumes that she is one of the legendary "chobits" hence the name of the series. The series explores the nature of androids, human interactions with them, and the nature of love. All sorts of characters are introduced; some of them love androids, some see them only as tools.

In the later part of the story, the characters start to explore Chi's mysterious past. Chi discovers a series of picture books of mysterious origin, that seem to awaken something deep inside of her. The book inspires her to find the "person just for me", a euphemism used in the series to refer to one's true love. Chi is also a very special android, and towards the end of the story, together with Hideki, discovers her true identity, as well as what lies within her.

Despite the comedic and ecchi moments, Chobits itself deals with several dualities concerning subject matter it shows. The most explored issue throughout the series is humans-android relationships (cf A.I.) . "Watashi", or "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, and is used to highlight issues with human-persocom relationships; drawing upon the fact that because persocoms can be programmed to imitate desirable human behavior, humans would opt-out of human relationships, resulting in obvious problems, such as the inability to further produce offspring.

The series deals with issues and ideals of virginity, and sexual intercourse in that Chi is effectively incapable of sexual intercourse (in the manga and in the series) and must therefore only entrust her body to someone who cares for her well-being. The series also hints that Chi's particular placement of her "on switch" is added after Freya's death, since her father gave her "special abilities". Along with his goal to ensure all persocoms found happiness, the placement of Chi's on switch ensures that her personality will thrive only in a relationship in which she is loved without the pressure of sex. Persocoms, like women before the women's liberation, are viewed as objects to meet needs rather than be loved. 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, in several installments of "A City with No People"; this deals with issues particularly relating to searching, and subsequently 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 and her sister, Freya; Atashi being linked to Chi, and the companion, linked to Freya.

Etymology

The name "Chobits" comes from the fact that their father, Ichiro Mihara, used the word "Chobi" to describe anything he thought was "small and hopelessly adorable". Two Chobi become "Chobits". The word "Chobits" is an anagram of "Chitose Hibiya."<ref name=MiharaChobi>Ichiro Mihara: "Chobi" means "little"... Two Chobi become "Chobits." It's a word I made up, since the password system won't take actual words. "Chobi" spelled in hiragana, with the last sound in katakana. Chitose Hibiya: Your daddy told me that anything he thinks is small and hopelessly adorable is "Chobi" to him. That's why you two are his "Chobits." Another thing... My Ichiro told me that the word "Chobits"... ... is special to him... ...because it's made up of the letters in my name - Chitose Hibiya. And that's why they're my children.Template:Cite book</ref>, and is also the password given to Elda, Freya, Plum, and eventually Chi. The spelling of the title uses a mixture of hiragana ちょびっ Chobi[t] and katakana ツ tsu. The mixed letters were chosen because a persocom's password requires a mixture of hiragana, katakana and/or Latin alphanumeric characters for increased security. Similarly, the password チょびっつ Chobittsu for Plum (also known as "Sumomo"; "Sumomo" is Japanese for "plum"), set by Hideki in episode 19 of the TV series (entitled "Chi Helps Out"), mixes katakana (チ, Ch[i]^?) and hiragana (ょびっつ, [y]obittsu^?), although in TOKYOPOP's English translation of the manga, the password is "Chobits" (with a capital "C").

The word persocom (パソコン, pasocon^?) is a Japanese contraction of personal computer (パーソナルコンピュータ, pāsonaru conpyūta^?). In Japan, it is used to refer to personal computers in the same way as the initials PC are in English. In Chobits, it is used with no distinction between modern and humanoid computers. In the final chapter of the manga, Chitose Hibiya explains that humanoid computers are not named "robots" because Ichiro Mihara did not include the Three Laws of Robotics in them.

Differences Between the Manga and Anime

• Hideki is 19 years old in the manga, and in the anime he is 18.

• In the manga, when Hideki introduced himself, he was not unemployed, whereas in the anime, he was unemployed when he found Chi.

• In the manga, Yumi Oumura is not the daughter of Manager Nekoi at Club Pleasure.

• In the anime, Hideki moves to Tokyo and meets Chitose Hibiya, his apartment manager. In the manga, Hideki is already living there upon the time of his introduction.

• In the manga, Sumomo is 24 centimetres tall. In the anime, she is 16 centimetres.

• Several major events in the anime (such as the trip to Minoru's beachhouse, Chi and Hideki playing the Netgame, Hideki becoming afraid of an online urban legend regarding his apartment being haunted, Chi and Hideki helping Ms. Hibiya clean up the apartment complex, Chi buying underwear, Chi needing to be charged up and Chi cooking for Hideki) do not happen in the manga.

• Shinbo Hiromu lives in the same apartment complex as Hideki in the anime, however, in the manga, he does not.

• In the manga, Hideki finds out about Ms. Shimizu and Shinbo having an affair when he attempts to search for Chi, who went looking for a job. In the anime, he found out much later.

• In the anime, Yoshiyuki Kojima suggested to Minoru that in order to find out more about Chi, they hack the syndicate's main computer using Yuzuki. In the manga, there is no evidence that Minoru knew that it would be the most effective way to get information. Yuzuki does this act in the manga based on her programming.

• In the anime, Chi gets an outfit from Chitose Hibiya that was from her past life after she and Hideki helped her with cleaning the apartment building. In the manga, Chi got the outfit the night after Takako Shimizu stayed at Hideki's apartment.

• In the anime, Chitose Hibiya does not go to the publishing office, whereas in the manga, she does. However, we can assume that she must have in the anime as well, because in the episode in which Chi and Hideki fall off a ledge on their way to My Pleasure, Ms. Hibiya is in a taxi wearing the same outfit that she does in the manga when she is in the publishing office.

• In the anime, Chitose Hibiya's late husband Ichiro is not mentioned by name, nor is his affiliation with the creation of Angelic Layer.

Manga

The original Chobits manga was written by Clamp, a famous group of four Japanese mangaka (manga artists) and was serialized in Kodansha's Young Magazine in Japan from February 2001 until the manga's completion in November 2002. Clamp often reuses (or parallels) various characters among their manga. Chobits is one of their first attempts at the seinen genre.

The manga is 88 chapters long and was collected into 8 volumes, which are published in English by TOKYOPOP. TOKYOPOP's translation is imported to Australia by Madman Entertainment. 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.

Anime

Template:Further

See also: List of Chobits episodes

The anime consists of 26 episodes and was broadcast across Japan, East Asia and Southeast Asia by the anime satellite television network, Animax and the terrestrial Tokyo Broadcasting System network. Episodes 9, 18, and an extra 27th OVA episode are used as "recap" episodes, looking back on the events that happened previously. 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.

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

The series was directed by Morio Asaka and animated by Madhouse while Hisashi Abe acted as character designer and chief animation director. The ending to the anime series is different from the manga on many levels; perhaps the most notable being removal of all true allusion to Hideki never having Chi because of her switch location, and of Freya taking over Chi's body and asking her mother Chitose to shut them down, saying the Chobits series is a failure, and the activation of the program after all, although the effect on Persocoms is not the same as described in the manga.

Reception

Media

Theme Songs

Opening: "Let Me Be With You" by ROUND TABLE featuring Nino

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 available bundled with a clear blue Game Boy Advance with a decal of Chi above the A+B buttons and a Chobits logo above the D-pad. [1] Their Chobits: Crystal Kingdom is also a PlayStation 2 game that was released exclusively in Japan.

Notes and References

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See also

• Chobits media information
• List of characters in Chobits

External links

• Chobits Manga Official TOKYOPOP site
• TV Animation Chobits TSB official site (Japanese)

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