[Review] Chobits

ell, I'm more used to writing game reviews, but I guess this is my first anime review.

Anyways, before we begin, I must say, I'm a type of guy who enjoys action and dislikes most "romantic comedies" or even "romance" works.

And I don't watch too much anime and when I do, I look for quality.
But, Chobits will remain an exception in my book, because it was a romantic anime that I actually enjoyed, even after watching it a second time.

Anyways, let's get on with the review, chagaron!

Story
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Well, I don't want to really give much spoilers, but..

Our story opens to Hideki Motosuwa, a college-age farm boy drop-out, who ends up having to go Tokyo, to a prep school(He ends up getting rejected from a college in the beginning) and all of these events lead up to his acquisition of a "Persocom"(Androids made to look like humans,animals and just about anything), named Chi, and mostly, this starts out as a anime with some ecchi for the first few episodes, but then it begins to become deep and it questions the relationship between humans and computers(Perhaps a slam to Otakus? No offense).

As a result for the whole story, along with the stuff I do not want to spoil for anyone, I'd give the story a 9/10

Art
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A bit of a short section, as with video games, I don't care much about graphics, but anyways.

The art all seems to come together, well with the anime.

The backgrounds work(This IS a 2001 or 2002-ish anime, so I understand they had to work with what they had) and the characters all look great, although Hideki looks a little generic.

But, I'd have to give the art a 8/10, for good measure and with their experience, if I need anime cutscenes done for my future games, I might have MADHOUSE as one of my choices.

Sound
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The music all works well with the anime and nothing sounds out of place.
If things seems joyful, the music is upbeat and adds to the atmosphere.
If things seems mysterious, the music changes up.

One of my favorite tracks is "Breathless", which is heard in the anime a few times.
It gives off a feeling of chasing after someone who has kidnapped your girlfriend or something, but the title is well-chosen too.

The opening was a little bit too "romantic" for me, the first I watched Chobits, but it grew on me.

And the first ending theme goes fine with the anime, but the second ending theme of the second half of the anime fits well, especially with the current situation of the anime.

Compared to the original Japanese version, the dub works out alright.

The voice actors that were chosen, go just fine with the characters(although Hideki's seiyuu was a bit better, and more humorous).

My only gripe is Chi's English voice actor.
While Michelle Ruff has been in a lot of animes, her role as Chi sounds very robotic, compared to Rie Tanaka(who does her role with more enthusiasm)

It's a case of Tanaka's fitting "Pantsu,Pantsu,Pantsu" vs Ruff's monotonous "Underpants.Underpants.Underpants" in episode 4 :P

Plus... NO RIDICULOUS 4KIDS-ISH EDITS(Like that would've happened :P)


But, I'll give the sound department a 8/10.
The dub keeps almost everything intact from the original Japanese version.
But Michelle Ruff sounded too robotic.

Character
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In terms of all of the characters..

Hideki is a farm boy, and of course, he doesn't know a damn thing about computers(or electronics for that matter) and he's a bit of a pervert, especially with his humorous reactions to most of the things Chi does, along with his "yummies" collections(Ah hell, I don't care. I've seen plenty of hentai in my lifetime. Besides, it adds humor), but he changes up a bit, as the anime goes along, even acting as somewhat of a "guardian"(along with being sorta of a teacher too) to Chi.(When you watch episode 6, you'll see..)

But he's like your typical college-age boy(I'm 16 myself and I can understand these things, being a guy myself)

Chi, on the other hand, starts out like a 3-year old, barely knowing much and this definitely brings out a lot of fetishes, too, but starting at episode 5, Chi does start to change up a lot.

All of the side characters have their own personalities, with Shinbo being the computer expert and his persocom, Sumomo acting a joyous little girl, Minoru being the other computer expert and Chitose Hibiya(The apartment manager) having somewhat of maybe a "Nurse Joy" personality.

But with the side characters, you'll find substance(along with a few twists.).

There's a lot to say, but I'll stop this section here.

Anyways, I'll give the character development a 9/10

Enjoyment
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Personally, I ended up enjoying this anime from the start.

I enjoyed the humor of the series, with Hideki being a "idiot" of course, along with his mishaps with Chi in the first few episodes.

I've never seen any ecchi animes before, but when watching Chobits, I really had to laugh at some times.

I even made a few Metal Gear Solid jokes, especially with one of the characters having "Kojima" in their name.("Quit messing with that persocom and make the next Metal Gear Solid!)

However, episode 11 disappointed me a little, being a bit of horror expert/fan, but Hideki's reactions made me laugh, nonetheless.

When I finished watching the final episode, I pretty knew that this was a great anime and Chobits even revitalized my interest in anime.

However, my friends couldn't even get past the first episode, since Chi's switch is located in her "cooch"(OMG SPOILERS!?).

So, I will consider the first episode a "test".

If you can't get past episode 1, you might not like this anime much.

But, ecchi fans and some well-accustomed anime fans probably won't mind at all.

I'll have to say 9/10.

Overall
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This was a excellent anime and I really enjoyed it.

Personally, this has been the only CLAMP work I've ever seen.

I don't even like romantic comedies and yet I enjoyed this.

9/10 is all I have to say.

Now, no "OMG OVERRATED" crap, please.

~Review by Saohc.

I've seen a few episodes of Chobits . My cousin introduced it to me and I'm thinking I might continue watching it . I dunno :P

But it was really funny and I also enjoyed it ^.^

But I watched it in Japanese :D