It’d be easy to dismiss Chobits as a oddball “robot maid” fantasy; if only it weren’t so thoughtful. Hideki Motosuwa is a “farm boy” who moves to the city to study for his college entrance exams. The world he finds is filled with persocoms, droids used for just about everything real personal computers are used for (yes, this includes surfing the internet for porn) and just about anything else robots have ever been imagined to do in science fiction.

Hideki instantly decides that persocoms are just “so cool” and has the incredible “luck” to find one wrapped in bandages in the trash. He takes it home, activates it, and is surprised when it says nothing but “Chi!” over and over again. Some of his friends attempt to help him learn more about “Chi”, only to have their own computers crash when attached to her. Their conclusion is that Chi is an extremely powerful computer whose software is installed, but inaccessible. Fortunately, Minoru Kokubunji, a persocom expert, notices that Chi has the ability to learn, even if the mysterious nature of her operating system makes it impossible for her to have software installed.

Chobits is unique in that it not only examines a social issue, but examines it at an individual level, highlighted with a touching side-story of a shop owner whose life is changed by a persocom forever. The conclusion that Chobits reaches regarding the connection between people and technology is unique, but explaining it in detail would ruin the story; which is just another reason, besides the liberal doses of humor centered around Hideki’s poverty and interest in dirty magazines, that I suggest watching this series.

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Buy Chobits at Amazon.com

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