For many of us, our daily lives are brimming with technology that would have filled the pages of science fiction novels a century ago. I step outside to do a couple of errands and find myself surrounded by people with their faces stuck to the screens of their smart phones, texting fifteen friends from across the country at once, checking up on the latest news, getting directions, or maybe even jotting something down for their next blog post. As for me, I’ll let you in on a little secret; I’m technologically slow and hardly touch those sleek smart phones. However, even I rarely go a day without booting up ye olde laptop. With our world so intricately connected to technology that seems to advance overnight, it’s easy to wonder what the future holds in regards to technology. What would you think, though, if computers suddenly were made to look and act human?
In Chobits, a manga created by the famous all female team of manga artists called CLAMP, the streets are full not of people walking with smart phones in hand but instead stroll together with computers barely distinguishable from humans. They smile, talk, and interact like normal people yet can do everything a high-powered computer can do. Everyone has one–except the protagonist of the series, 19-year-old Hideki, who can only dream of these so-called “persocoms” as he works and studies to get into college. That is, until one day when he just happens across one that’s been wiped of all its memory and thrown in the trash. While Hideki celebrates his amazing fortune, he begins to realize that his persocom, Chi, may not be an ordinary persocom. So, why would someone throw away something this incredible? And how is Hideki going to keep in mind that Chi is only a machine when she seems so human?
Four volumes in on my rereading of Chobits, I find myself confronted with a mix of shallow fan service and deep discussion, a feminist’s nightmare and smorgasbord of cuteness. I have yet to pick up an uncomplicated work by CLAMP, but this has my head spinning a bit so, let me break down what I like and what I don’t thus far: 
To begin with, the premise of Chobits is somewhat troublesome for me. CLAMP is not the first to tackle human-like computers, but this story in particular is giving me flashbacks to Stepford Wives, a sci-fi/horror movie from the 70’s in which real women are slowly replaced by robots who are “perfect;” they’re obedient, beautiful, loyal, and don’t have those pesky things called real emotion and the ability to think for themselves. While there are male persocoms in Chobits, so far I have only seen glimpses of them and most of the depictions focus on female persocoms like Chi. At the beginning of the series, Hideki even describes how persocoms are “beautiful, obedient…perfection” and “softer, prettier” than real women, mirroring the disturbing concept of Stepford Wives. Yet unlike Stepford Wives, this isn’t explored as an embodying of extremely old-fashioned gender norms and, to top it off, the female persocoms are often portrayed in a sexual way: dressed in sexy outfits like kinky maid costumes, “on” switches conveniently placed in what would be a woman’s private parts, etc. Chi’s ignorant, baby-like manner is exploited constantly in the first few volumes in which she copies what she sees in Hideki’s porn magazines and more. Oh, did I mention Chi is supposed to resemble a 15 or 16-year-old girl? In short, there’s a lot of cringe-worthy content half way through the series.
There has been some discussion about the moral dilemma of persocoms. Hideki begins to wonder why people made computers that seemed so human and how they should be treated. Do they feel emotions and thoughts like people or does it only seem that way because they were programmed to be human-like? How should they be treated? Some people actually fall in love with their persocoms and even marry them, leaving other people to feel as if they’re being replaced by perfect beings they could never truly compete with. It’s moments in which more psychological aspects are explored when Chobits manages to stand above the usual manga filled with fan service. It makes you stop and think. Even Chi, although far from being a three-dimensional character since she’s little more than a cute, innocent female character touched with a hint of sadness, has moments of depth as she wonders if anyone will love her for real, as more than a fancy machine.
Unfortunately, so far the deeper aspects of Chobits aren’t dominate enough to outweigh my complaints at this point in the series. It’s too bad since the artwork is gorgeous! Anyway, I’m sure my problems with Chobits won’t bother some people nearly as much as me, but if the hair on the back of your neck is standing on end just reading about the, shall we say, questionable points of this story, you may want to stick around to read my review on the last half of Chobits and find out if it gets any better from a feminist stand point.
Gagging on Sexism 
Have you ever watched Feminist Frequency? This woman on Youtube talks about how woman are represented in the media. In one of them she talks about fembots and how damaging such a concept is for women’s representation. I’m not a manga reader, but it doesn’t suprise me that they would do this. I’m sure it’s been done many times. Liked your comparison on Stepford Wives.
I am actually a big fan of Feminist Frequency! It’s always fun/interesting to hear Anita Sarkeesian discuss tropes in fiction, although I think I might have missed the one on fembots. I’ll have to look it up. Anyway, I’m glad you enjoyed my post!
Good timing, since I had just finished watching the anime a few weeks ago. And while I am guilty of watching the entire show, in my defense, it was just to see if it really was as great as everybody claimed it to be. Although it wasn’t really that spectacular in my opinion, everybody seems to have a very fond image of the show. However, your review did make me think about something, since at the end you mentioned that “the deeper aspects of Chobits aren’t enough to outweigh your complaints”. What would be an example of a series in which the overall theme or arguments overpower the fan service, and can still be deemed ‘respectable’? I mean, unfortunately it’s almost impossible to find a good series with a great concept or theme, that at some point doesn’t resort to fan service of any kind, so what would be a scenario where a series, in your opinion, could still pass off as acceptable?
That’s a good question. To be honest, I hadn’t carefully considered how I differentiate before. I would say that series where there is minor fan service here and there (for example, an occasional panty shot or emphasis on big breasts), but doesn’t constantly play the fan service card and have strong plots and deep characters (of both sex) are easier to deal with. I’d be very happy if there were no fan service, but like you said, it’s rare to find shows without any fan service. Therefore, I think it comes down to this: if I find a series that has a strong plot and deep characters with occasional moments of minor fan service, I acknowledge the fan service as something that objectifies characters, but can otherwise enjoy the series. If I find a series like Chobits or worse, where fan service is rampant throughout the story and constantly objectifies characters, that becomes a focal point and tends to run over and undermine real plot and characterization. In that case, I can’t get past it. I hope that makes sense!
When I eventually bought the anime it was as a boxed set.
If I had bought the local releases as they came out I would have bounced off episode 4 HARD and never continued.
So your comments don’t surprise me at all, I think what you’re seeing is really there.
I guess you win sometimes and lose sometimes with boxed sets. 🙂
I’m calling this a minor win. 🙂 As I recall the story did end up being marginally stronger than the shounen sleaze.
For some reason, I never really felt compelled to read Chobits. The only work of CLAMP I have loved is Cardcaptor Sakura followed by Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, but I’m still working through reading the rest of Tsubasa.
I’m a bit skeptical to try out Chobits. A lot of what you have mentioned made me cringe. It borderlines between male fanservice to trying to be a manga with a deeper story at play when you get past the overt fanservice. What CLAMP does well is artwork. It is gorgeous to look at, but it’s not enough for me to pick up a series if the story isn’t really something I want to read.
CLAMP is certainly an interesting group. Like you, I love some of their works, but others… They have a pretty wide range of types of manga they create, I think, from sweet stories like Cardcaptor Sakura to dark dramas like X. This one ended up on the side of fanservice galore. I guess it just depends on your taste which works by CLAMP you like as far as plot. But you’re right; no matter what, CLAMP’s artwork is wonderful.
Very few groups have the mind breaking potential of CLAMP.
http://piratesobg.wordpress.com/2007/11/16/how-to-give-someone-mental-whiplash/
🙂
I don’t want to spoil anything for you, but Chobits was a [u]major[/u] disappointment for me. I was actually pretty intrigued by the introduction of Hideki’s teacher and the young genius, who have very particular problems with persocoms; and I was really hoping these problems would be explored, but unfortunately, they are abandoned half way through (teacher disappears, boy genius is magically able to accept everything) and CLAMP decides to go for the most obvious point and slaps you cross the face with it as if they were doing something so profound and deep. You know, I think this is the manga I hate for being pretentious because the conclusion the manga arrives at is so self evident that it becomes absurd that CLAMP thinks they are pointing out something profound. UGH. I’ll stop here because if I continue I will spoil something, but let’s just say, I don’t have very many nice things to say about this manga.
I appreciate you keeping it spoiler free. I’ve actually read Chobits before, but it’s been so many years that it’s kind of like reading it fresh again. It’s too bad that CLAMP didn’t explore the issues that Hideki’s teacher and the genius had with persocoms. I also liked those points in the story because both the teacher and the genius had issues that raised complicated aspects of human-like computers. In fact, I think those issues are the most interesting thing in the series. I can’t remember specifics about the second half of the series, but I have a feeling reading it years later isn’t going to make it any better than it was the first time. It’s a shame.
In real life, robot still don’t have feeling. And will never. End of question.
I agree that the artwork is gorgeous. I read this manga solely because of CLAMP bias, the genius kid, and lovely artwork.
CLAMP comes up with some great stuff so, it usually doesn’t hurt to pick their manga up and give it a try. And yes, the genius kid was a nice touch.
I loved Chobits, but, I’m not the type to bash people for opinions, and I can see what you mean. Personnely, I found the anime to be less serious than the manga, so overall, I prefer the manga. But anyways, as I am not female, I may see Chobits differently to how you do, and that’s fine, as I say, opinion is opinion. What I wanted to ask about was Death Note, a series which many say to be sexist. I wanted to know whether or not you’ve seen/read this series, and if yes, if you saw it as sexist. Personnely, I thought Death Note was fantastic, but as I’m not female, the lack of a female lead didn’t really bother me (although, it was noticeable, and perhaps a little far-fetched in that respect).
I really appreciate you being respectful. I know it’s difficult when someone is critical about a story you like. Anyway, as for your question about Death Note, I have read it although it’s been awhile. I actually thought it was a very good series, but I did find it a bit sexist. I’d like to revisit it to refresh my thoughts on it, but I think the problem was because of the way the few female characters in the series were treated and portrayed. For example, Misa, who was the most prominent female character, was pretty used as a tool by Light and wasn’t particularly strong in that, if I remember correctly, she didn’t do much on her own but rather just did what she was told. As I said, I really need to reread the series to get a better picture; I’ll try to write a post about it in the future.
Good point, and thank you for your opinion, on both series. I’ve been thinking, and there’s a distinct lack of a strong female character in anime/manga. Maybe I’m looking in the wrong places, but the only ones that come to mind are Kaname Chidori from ‘Full Metal Panic’ and ‘Haruhi Suzumiya from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya’, and even they aren’t exactly immune to fanservice. Asuna from ‘Sword Art Online’ looked like she would be, but I felt she had almost schizophrenic personality changes, one minute she was a total badass, argubly the strongest, the next she looked dependant on Kirito, and in the whole second arc, she was little more than a glorified Princess Peach. It seems that most animes force their heroines to fit into a template of sorts, one where it always seems to end the same, they become dependant on someone else.
I think that’s a common problem with female characters, not only in anime and manga but also other types of fiction. It’s frustrating because, even if one doesn’t care about strong female characters specifically, I feel it takes away from the story as a whole since it means at least one portion of the cast is completely predictable. I’m not as familiar with Kaname Chidori or Haruhi Suzumiya, but I had the same problems with Asuna from SAO that you did. If you’re looking for strong female characters in an action series, I recommend Fullmetal Alchemist. It’s pretty well-known so, you might have already seen/read it, but it’s got lots of well developed and interesting characters, both male and female.
Sorry, just chiming in from Wikipedia (as a guy), having seen only the anime…
“If I find a series like Chobits or worse, where fan service is rampant throughout the story and constantly objectifies characters”
I do hope you realize that Chobits is very mild in sexism and objectification compared to a lot of other (mainly shounen) anime/manga out there. Any so-called ecchi harem series these days would make any feminist pissed easily. I’m not saying that Chobits doesn’t have sexist themes (the maid outfits are one), I’m saying that most of the girls who watch it didn’t find anything offensive about it, so to speak.
So in a way, I feel Chobits gets a lot more flak than it deserves, when there are way more blatantly and unabashedly sexist anime/manga out there.
As for certain points you made:
“the female persocoms are often portrayed in a sexual way: dressed in sexy outfits like kinky maid costumes, “on” switches conveniently placed in what would be a woman’s private parts”
I would disagree with the word “often”, especially considering the latter half of the story. Aside from the infamous maid persocoms, they aren’t really sexualized apart from being hailed as “perfect”, “beautiful” and wearing pretty clothes (as in frilly dresses or uniforms). As for the placement of switches, it’s only true for Chii, and it has some logic behind it. Thus the interesting choice is backed up at least by some plot, namely Chii not being able to please “the person just for Chii”, but still eliciting love. (Though the anime suggests she just might be able to please that one person.)
“Oh, did I mention Chi is supposed to resemble a 15 or 16-year-old girl?”
Well, without making any controversial statements, let’s note that Japan values youth with its associated kawaiiness (as much as equating it with desirableness), and since they aren’t a Christian country, they traditionally don’t condemn the sexualization of teenagers as much as the Western world does. (I guess its Shinto to blame about this, it doesn’t really have any moral guidelines about human sexuality.) In the country of lolicon manga and enjou kousai, a depiction like Chii is mildly weird at worst.
So all in all, while Chobits is far from being devoid of sexism, it is one of the series I would actually recommend to girls of any age. In my opinion it is a very good story among all the fanservice and shounen anime out there, and many more “less meritable” shows appeared since Chobits debuted in 2002.