Review: Chobits

On his way to his new rental apartment, he finds a Persocom in the trash of the building next door. Persocoms are basically android personal assistants - usually in the form of cute girls (and Chi is definitely a cute girl) - but Chi has a few oddities... while very powerful, Chi is also a blank slate, bereft of previous knowledge or common sense.

The series describes the growth of Chi and Hideki's trials in dealing with them, as well as his other problems (some of which might not be best described as problems...) and echoes of Chi's unknown past.

The concept of Chi herself (and to some extent Persocoms in general) is a bit creepy. Personal androids willing to do any bidding of their master - this could easily have slipped into deeply hentai territory. The fact that it doesn't is probably something to be thankful for. (And if you think Clamp never touched on hentai... watch Miyuki-chan in Wonderland which while not Hentai, is also not even vaguely... "wholesome".)

The fan service in Chobits is usually more hinted at than blatantly revealed, but it is spread on a bit thick at times. Chobits so far is very shounen. It's enjoyable in its own way; Chi's innocence is used to great effect, offset enormously against Hideki's extraordinarily dirty mind.

Overall I would say it is enjoyable, but my enjoyment was tempered by the excessively ecchi elements.

Animation quality is extremely high; the characters all have their own highly distinct personalities and appearances. Motion is free-flowing and smooth, and the only digital artefacts were obviously deliberately emphasised to underscore the "computer" character of Persocoms.

The theme song is quite nice, probably one of the top four or five anime songs that I can recall. (The others that I prefer offhand - Ranma series 1 intro theme, the closing theme for Phantom Quest Corp, and the theme for Steel Angel Kurumi). Sound effects in general I didn't much notice, so I'll call them average. :-)

Voice acting in the English dub is a bit of a mixed bag. The voices generally seem to fit the characters; while I don't much like Chi's voice, that's probably because I find her too soft as a character - the voice is actually a good fit. The Japanese track I have not yet watched.

Packaging by Madman is excellent - the first volume may be bought with a collector's box (and free T-shirt). The box is sturdy, has good artwork, and the T-shirt features a prominent picture of Chi (but is too small for me, I wish they woukd stick to XL sizes).