Chobits

Okay then, now is about the time when I move slightly away from the no-nonsense-at-all genre of anime into a slightly racier side of the anime industry. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA.... Okay, just to clarify, THIS anime I'm writing about is LESS child-dangerous than most Hollywood movies or Singaporean serials I have watched, so lay off, okay? Don't hate on anime just because you don't know how to appreciate it. =p

Okay, Chobits! An earlier work by CLAMP, (the five women team of mangaka, remember?) this anime's theme works around A.I. (artificial intelligence, duh) and humanity. The setting is the near future, where technology triumphs in creating the ultimate computer : the persocon, a fully-functional computer given the likeness of human form. In other words, girls and boys which can send and receive e-mails, connect to the Internet, download files and access maps... you get the idea. Not to mention, they are cute to boot. The hero, Motosuwa Hideki enters as a country boy ronin (exam retaker) aiming to enter one of the many universities in Tokyo. Being a man from the countryside, he is poor, jobless and ... computer illiterate. He sees the people of Tokyo with their cute persocons and he says : 'I gotta get myself one of those. Then I can FINALLY surf each and every porn site there is! Hahahahaha!!!' *Kid nearby* 'Mom, what is that guy doing?' 'Hush! Stay away from him.' *Hideki freezes, realizing he said it out loud...* Well, that's the general idea of his personality. Hmmmm? Chobits? Oh sorry, back to my story... He finds a nice apartment to rent and on his way back from cram school, bumps into a female persocon wrapped up in bandages, lying lifeless on a garbage pile near his apartment. He brings it back, and switches it on. It starts up, but with seemingly no programs installed inside, no, not even an operating system. So you get... a persocon that moves and acts like a human (baby), only being able to say 'Chi'. So there begins a love story, with a dark enigma surrounding Chi (the persocon) and her relationship to the top secret Chobits persocon series...

Alright, as I have said earlier, this anime is not meant for the kids in certain episodes, such as the first episode, where Hideki has to switch Chi on, and the switch is located.... okay, you get it. However these episodes are few and far in between, so kids can actually watch this anime, under the watchful eyes of their parents of course... However, this is a cute anime, with a flowing and touching story of persocons and humans, and the forbidden love between man and machine... Thought-provoking, yes? Final verdict : good anime, with a nagging question and enough feel good romance moments for those interested in love stories... Hehehehe, variety is the spice of life, you know... Try it, you may like it.