More manga from Clamp! SHOCKER! I watched the anime quite a few years ago and I've been wanting to pick up the manga for comparison. As per usual, the manga is far better. Only eight volumes in all, Chobits is a great sci-fi/romance.
Plot Summary
Hideki Motosuwa is a guy (in his late teens?) going to cram school in Tokyo. Taking place in the near future, the world has been introduced to persocoms: human-looking androids used as personal computers. On his way home from work one evening, he spots a persocom in the form of a girl laying in a pile of trash outside. He takes the android home and after she has awoken, has no memory of anything. Only being able to say the word 'Chi', Hideki names her Chi and decides to take care of her and teach her as much as he can. Chi's mysterious past is slowly revealed throughout the series and Hideki begins to fall in love with her.
This series has many interesting relationships, a major one being love between a human and a persocom. More examples are a boy who has built a persocom to replace his deceased sister, a woman who is abandoned by her husband after he buys a persocom, and at the end, a developing relationship between two persocoms.
The art is Clamp, so I loved it. It's a very different style compared to other Clamp works. It's very sketchy compared to the art of xxxHolic, which is all smooth, even lines. Also, I noticed the noses of males in Chobits are all just a few sketchy lines on the bridge of the nose. Very different compared to other works by Clamp.
One thing that really bothered me about the Tokyopop (douchebags!) translation was that the amazingly awesome persocom, Sumomo, was given the name Plum. What the hell? Everyone else has their normal Japanese names: Hiromu Shinbo, Minoru Kokobunji, etc. WHOSE IDEA WAS 'PLUM'?!
One thing I'd like to mention about the anime: There was an entire episode dedicated to Chi getting her first pair of underwear. In the manga it was about two pages. Wow.
I noticed in a bookstore recently that Dark Horse started publishing Chobits in massive volume formats. I thought this was pretty awesome. Even though it seems kind of unnecessary, I have a lot more respect for Dark Horse than Tokyopop. Overall, this series is very well put together. Not too long and not too short. Since it's only eight volumes, it moves pretty quickly. Very enjoyable series with good romance and lots of great humor!
Chobits: 8/10
