I had heard of this series long before I got a chance to see it and when Funimation put the opening four episodes on their YouTube channel I decided to check it out. Even though I prefer my anime subtitled and this was the dubbed version I was quickly hooked and was left wanting more. Some time later the series was finally re-released here on DVD so I could watch the whole thing. The rest of the series was just as good as the opening episodes although the tone does shift somewhat midway through; the earlier episodes are light hearted and while never explicit often feature situations that suggest that that Hideki; the main character, is a bit of a pervert! Later on things get much darker when the 'person' he cares for disappears.
To summarise the plot; Chobits is set in a world where instead of using personal computers people use Persicoms; robots that fulfil the roles of computers but look almost human. Hideki moves to the city so that he can cram for his university entrance exam; he dreams of owning his own persicom but knows he will never be able to afford one. He is lucky though and one day finds one lying amongst some garbage. He takes it home hoping to get it working but it doesn't have an operating system installed. He manages to turn it on but all she can say is 'Chi'; and thus she is named. In the opening episodes he struggles to get her working, study for cram school and earn a living. As the story progresses it becomes apparent that Chi isn't like other persicoms; she may be a 'Chobits', this is a persicom capable of genuine emotion if so other people may want to get their hands on her.
This was a really fun series with plenty of laughs as well as one or two genuinely tear-jerking moments. While I watched the whole series in Japanese with English subtitles I saw enough of the English dub to say that is sounded pretty good; so dub-fans shouldn't be disappointed. The animation was decent although I'm not sure why Hikeki's eyes were drawn in a different way to all the other characters. The main characters were fairly likable; I especially liked Sumomo; the small 'genki girl' persicom belonging to Hideki's housemate she may be tiny but she has plenty of energy!
To summarise the plot; Chobits is set in a world where instead of using personal computers people use Persicoms; robots that fulfil the roles of computers but look almost human. Hideki moves to the city so that he can cram for his university entrance exam; he dreams of owning his own persicom but knows he will never be able to afford one. He is lucky though and one day finds one lying amongst some garbage. He takes it home hoping to get it working but it doesn't have an operating system installed. He manages to turn it on but all she can say is 'Chi'; and thus she is named. In the opening episodes he struggles to get her working, study for cram school and earn a living. As the story progresses it becomes apparent that Chi isn't like other persicoms; she may be a 'Chobits', this is a persicom capable of genuine emotion if so other people may want to get their hands on her.
This was a really fun series with plenty of laughs as well as one or two genuinely tear-jerking moments. While I watched the whole series in Japanese with English subtitles I saw enough of the English dub to say that is sounded pretty good; so dub-fans shouldn't be disappointed. The animation was decent although I'm not sure why Hikeki's eyes were drawn in a different way to all the other characters. The main characters were fairly likable; I especially liked Sumomo; the small 'genki girl' persicom belonging to Hideki's housemate she may be tiny but she has plenty of energy!