STORY
The story takes place in the future, where humans have built personal ‘’humanoid computers’’, basically robots that look like humans. These Persocoms, as they are called, are used for any job their owner wishes.
Enter our main male protagonist, Kyon.
Er, sorry... Hideki Motosuwa. I got confused as he’s voiced by both Crispin Freeman AND Tomokasu Sugita. He kinda looks like him too... Hideki is a typical village farmer boy, whose dream is to study in Tokyo, but he fails, and ends up in Tokyo at a cram school. He begins to wish he could buy a Persocom, but due to his lack of IT skills and money, he can’t. Until he sees one thrown in a dumpster, and decides to keep it.
As he switches on his persocom, he finds out that all she can say, is “Chii”, so he gives her this name.
As the story progresses, Hideki begins to realise that Chii is not like a typical Persocom, but in fact, could be, one of the legendary advanced Persocoms, Chobits.
CHARACTERS
The characters are in my opinion where Chobits trips and falls. The main duo, Hideki and Chii are what drives the show on, however it’s the secondary characters that are off. For example, let’s take Hideki’s new friend and neighbour Shinbo, who begins as a normal side character, and Hideki’s school teacher Shimizu Takako. The few episodes that are meant to put them into the spotlight for “character development” are SO stupid,
(SPOILER!) I mean, there are so many things you can do, but because the teacher (who is an adult, just as a reminder) is married to guy who prefers spending time with his Persocoms rather than his wife, she runs away with Shinbo, who later proposes to her. WHAT THE F......?!
(End of Spoiler)
Also, this anime features the most annoying character I have ever seen, Sumomo, Shinbo’s Persocom. Her dialogue at times made me want to put my head through a wall.
ANIMATION & SOUND
For a show that was done in 2002, the animation looks pretty decent. Well, this is Studio Madhouse we’re talking about. This was the time when digital animation was beginning, but the show still managed to pull off the two animation styles for comedic moments, and serious moments.
The soundtrack of Chobits is enjoyable, consisting of orchestral strings, with synthesisers for a relaxing atmosphere... The opening song, is one of the best I’ve heard. I didn’t like it as much from the beginning, but after listening to it over and over again, it ended up stuck in my head, because of how catchy it is... The soundtrack is also able to stay with the tempo of the story, so when things get serious, so does the music. The best example is “Dark Chii’s Theme”, which is a mix of upbeat digital synths, a 90’s style dance beat and lyrical strings.
I watched this show in English dub, and I really enjoyed the performances, especially by Crispin Freeman, Michelle Ruff, Karen Strassman, Mona Marshall, Wendee Lee and Tony Oliver... a really enjoyable dub...
Evaluation:
Overall, Chobits has a great story, which (unfortunately) focuses more on the slice of life/romance rather than the whole “Relationships between Humans and Artifical Intelligence”. In short, rather bad pacing, which ended up in a fast bucketload of explanations and a confusing ending. Could have been done better, but there are worse examples. Good show, but could have done better.
