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Chobits is about a guy named Hideki Motosuwa [Motosuwa Hideki] who lives out in the county. He's rather poor, but wants to go to a college in Tokyo. One day when he's working in the field, a letter comes and he hurries to open it--only to find that he failed to pass the entrance exams into a university, and now he has to go to cram school to try and get in next year. When he arrives at the city, Hideki locates his appartment and starts to settle in. Later that night, when he's on his way home from the grocery store, he stumbles upon a broken persocom [some people call them persocons], a human-like robot that is designed to help around the house, store information, or provide company for people. She's tied up in the trash, and since Hideki would never dream of being able to buy one, he takes her home to start her up. Little does he know that he might be in for more than he bargained for. When he finally does get the persocom up and running, he decides to name her "Chii," since that's all she can say. When he tries to open her data bank, the screen comes up showing "no data." His new friend Shinbo, who also lives in the building, tells Hideki that Chii is probably a home-made computer. When Hideki goes to seek help from a 12 year-old genius named Minoru, he finds out that Chii might be a Chobit--computers of legend that have the ability to think for themselves, and perhaps even have feelings all their own. But with such a powerful computer comes great troubles and responsibilities--since Chii's data is gone, she has to start learning how to talk, walk, and act normally in front of people, and who better to teach her than Hideki? When Chii starts learning, she begins to unlock things hidden away inside of her memory, and that's when the trouble starts. Throughout the story, Chii and Hideki become closer and closer, and it's obvious to see that Hideki sees Chii as a person rather than a machine. But is that enough?
The storyline is a bit repetative in it's main theme: can a machine really fall in love with it's owner? Several main characters, not just Hideki, face that same question. Minoru himself, a computer genius who should know better than anyone that a machine can't feel for it's owner, grows very attatched to a persocom designed to look and act like his late sister, who died a year before. Hideki's old manager fell in love with and even married his persocom, and Miss Shimizu, Hideki's cram school teacher, lost her husband's love to their family persocom. Even though it's a very deep and thought-provoking question, the idea itself is overkilled a bit in the story. I will say this--the parts where Chii is learning to talk and comminicate are utterly adorable, and you can begin to see that she finds something special in Hideki as the story continues.
The art is definatly different. I've never seen this style before, it's quite cute. Though the people don't have pupils in their eyes... The desgins for the characters are very unique--no two characters look alike [unless you count "light chii" and "dark chii, or Elda and Freya, as they're known to be called]. The persocom's have these neat little ears on the sides of their heads that look something like cat ears. ^_^ The only problem I found with the animation was the fact that there were a lot of women without tops on--such as when Hideki is dreaming or Chii is learning to try on clothing. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I don't usually enjoy the more resque animes.
The character development was extremely obvious in this series. Each and every character changed, be it for the better or worse. Relationships deepend, secrets were answered and created, and not one character stayed the same. Even Hideki changed--but all through the plot people are calling him a nice guy, which he is and always will be. Very nicely done, in my opinion.
I'd reccommend Chobits for someone who really likes long, confusing plots with hypothetical questions. There's a bit of romance in the story too, and any hopeless romantic would enjoy the story. It's something like a soap opera anime style, though not as much as Peach Girl or Marmalade Boy. Chobits is a cute anime, and would add something to everyone's collection.
Overall rating for Chobits: 
