Chobits

tsukinohana May 3, 2023

7

This manga is about different types of love, despite however it might try to describe itself in terms of sci-fi or whatever. Love between adults and children. Love between immature people and mature people. Love between robots. Love between a human and a robot. Love between siblings (NOT sexual but maybe romantic, yes). This is not an uncommon theme in Clamp's work, although it is their first (and only) time exploring incest. Thankfully they do not go full Vampire Knight on us, but it's still quite uncomfortable. I just don't like this story. I don't like the themes. I don't like the full devotion to other people - I think romantic partners should still have their own personal lives and likes. I don't like reading about incest and grooming age gap relationships and I don't like robots in love. I just don't care for this type of story. But I do think it could've been much worse, so there's that. This being a seinen, a lot of Clamp's sparkles and frills are gone from this one from backgrounds, only making an appearance with Chii, who is very infantalised and child-like. The art is very Tsubasa-like, more plain and elongated.

RustfordJC Oct 3, 2011

7.5

Story: The story is about a world which has computers in shape of humans. Here we are introduced to a college student who can't afford to get a persocom and is "Computer Illiterate". One day he finds a persocom on a pile of trash and decides to take it home. Opinion(s): To give a general view of the whole story, it's about love. Not much I can say about that now can I? Anyhow, the story is about finding love and being accepted regardless of who, or what, you are. It's a Fairy Tale/Happily ever after sort of deals. Art: Better than anything I could draw free hand. Characters: There are only two characters that just was dropped into the story and they would be the Government persocoms. They didn't really add much to the story besides, "Who are they?", but eventually my comments changed to, "Eh, really them again.". They do appear a few times and at the climax, and serve some purpose to said climax, but before the end they're just sleeping or the dude gets yelled at. One character I like, and it's not just because she's named after food, is Plum. Plum is comic relief and does have these moments more often than the rest of the characters. She is useful but she wouldn't be the same without her expressions. I could go on about Chi's sister, the creator of Chi and the rest of the persocoms, and even the word Chobits, but I'm not one to write spoilers, say them out loud is another issue all together. Overall: If your looking for a manga with a happy ending, love/romance, or even a children's book, which is in the plot itself, that is deep then read this. Only 88 chapters. - JC

angelsreviews Oct 22, 2013

8

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 spoiling anything 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.