Chobits

Title:  Chobits
Mangaka:  CLAMP
Length:  8 Volumes (Completed)
English Translation?  Yes, all have been released by Tokyopop AND Dark Horse Comics.
Demo/Genre:  Seinen/Sci-Fi/Romantic Comedy

How did I find out about it?  It caught my eye on the store shelves, and I decided to give it a try.  This was the first manga I ever collected in full!

In the future, everyone has their very own persocom (a walking, talking, humanoid computer).  Everyone except for Hideki, that is.  Hideki is 19 years old and barely scraping by.  He works seven days a week to pay his bills and attends cram school by night in hopes of getting into a college some day.  He knows there's no way he'll ever be able to get with the times and buy himself a persocom.  Luckily for him, he catches a break one night and finds one lying in a garbage heap.  Once he gets her home and boots her up, it seems that she's not fully functioning.  As all that she can say is "Chi," that's what he decides to call her.  After taking her to a 12-year-old computer whiz kid, he learns that she just might be one of the legendary Chobits, a super-advanced persocom that never made it to market.  While his friend does more investigating, Hideki must teach Chi all about the world.  As his feelings for Chi grow, he talks with the people in his life and learns about the different kinds of relationships people have had with their persocoms.  But is it okay to fall for a machine?

I've read a few different series by CLAMP (none of their long ones yet), and so far, this is my favorite.  The art style is precise and cute.  Actually, the whole thing is cute.  And charming.  Yeah.  "Cute and charming" are the words that best describe Chobits, methinks.  Hideki is your all-around nice guy, and Chi is sweet and innocent (fortunately, not obnoxiously so).  The exchanges between them as Hideki teaches her about everyday things are often quite funny.  In general, all of the characters are nicely done.  I enjoyed hearing each person's tale involving the persocoms in their lives.  It really breathed some life into them that each of them had such interesting pasts.

I knew I would like Chobits because I tend to go for these types of stories.  I don't care what the critics say, I loved the films Bicentennial Man, A.I., The Matrix (whole trilogy, mind you!), and I, Robot.  Notice what all of those have in common?  They're all about robots that exhibit their own emotion and/or logic, and the consequences that come with that.  I've always found that to be a very intriguing concept.  While two of those (Matrix and I, Robot) explore what happens when we create artificial beings that realize they are superior to us, the other two are more closely related to Chobits.  Do robots feel love?  Is it wrong to love them?  I love that those films (and Chobits, of course) explore the moral and emotional implications of creating humanoid robots.  Chobits doesn't ever really get deep or anything.  It's more playful with the concept, but it presents an interesting argument, nevertheless.

Chobits is a nice, fun romp that might not be significant enough to stick to you forever, but it really is a delightful read.  As I mentioned before, I own all eight volumes.