Chobits

Chobits is sci-fi romantic-comedy that is aimed pretty squarely at male viewers, which is a significant departure for CLAMP. Hideki is a young adult who has recently moved from rural Japan into Tokyo to become a college student. One day he finds a beautiful persacom(android) laying in a trash heap next to his apartment complex, which is unusual seeing how persacoms are both expensive and popular. Naturally Hideki takes her home only to find her memory has been wiped clean, the only word she knows how to speak is "chi", which Hideki names her. Aided by several tech savvy friends, Hideki tries to unravel the mystery behind chi's origins while at the same time finding himself slowly falling for her. Chobits is in turns surprisingly less and just about as creepy as it sounds. As expected there is alot of fan-service and some unpleasant undertones, but as a whole Chobits is a nice, sometimes charming, slow paced piece of fluff. The series biggest weakness is the underlying plot that doesn't really become prominent until the latter half, while the revelation about chi is unexpected and interesting, the whole thing for the most part is handled clumsily, most notably in the end segment of the series which is poorly paced, leading to a forgettable climax/conclusion. Overall, I would recommend Chobits, it's a warmhearted romance, layered with humor, wrapped in a guilty pleasure.

Grade:B

Reviewed: episodes: 1-24(complete) Format: English Dub, DVD