I remember liking this show a whole lot back in the day, and unfortunately it hasn't lived up to what I remember. Chobits starts off well enough, but by the end it gets lost in trying to be profound.
The animation is good. It was consistent and fluid throughout the show, so no complaints there. The artwork.....I'm hesitant to say it was bad, because I don't think it was, but much of the character designs are all pretty much the same with different hair plonked on to distinguish them, and even there.....they all had the same sort of scraggy haircut. The only ones who are unique in design are Chii and Sumomo. Chii's design is extraordinarily cute, and all the various lolita outfits she get dressed up in enhance her cute factor, by quite a lot.
As for the characters, our main leads were disappointing. I found Chii to be mostly bland, and Hideki was a colossal idiot. He really did get on my nerves at times with his ludicrous outbursts. I just couldn't feel the chemistry between Hideki and Chii, it felt somewhat forced. The side characters were more interesting than those two. Sumomo was easily the best character there, she was energetic and unique. Consequently the side characters had more interesting stories as well. They did have some themes about the relationship between technology, society and people and while they weren't outstanding they were interesting to watch. The better episodes are the fillers, but even they wear down after a while because the same jokes are recycled over and over.
Now the bigger problem is the main plot. It starts out well enough, with the usual 'what is Chii?' stuff, and I was actually interested by how it was presented. But as it moves along it just gets confusing. By the end we had some new and important characters pop out of nowhere and I thought some of the plot points were outright contradictory, and the entire ending left me with that bitter 'wait, what?' feeling. I honestly have no idea what was suppose to happen in the end, the show just doesn't tell us.
On a good point, I really do like the soundtrack. It's got a wonderful retro sound to it, and it fits the show very well. There's nary a track out of place throughout Chobits, it's been timed quite well. The OP is quite a catchy pop song, and the EDs are a good listen. Though I do prefer the first ED to the second one.
The dub was alright. The actors did a good job (though, no offense to Monica Rial, but there wasn't much to Chii in the first place), a couple of the guys were a little bland at times, but there's nothing really more to comment on it, there's nothing wrong with it. Oh, Sandy Fox did a fabulous job as Sumomo, she does the squeaky voice exceptionally well.
I'm finding it hard to say that it simply sucks, because despite it's flaws I was at the least entertained most of the time. Chobits isn't a terrible show, it's cute, and quite a few of the episodes are fun but it gets tangled up and ends up confusing itself which drags the show down as a whole. It's another one of the switch of and enjoy type shows, if you don't pay to much attention to the attempts at being deep.
