First, let's talk about the best part of this manga: the art. Simply put, it's amazingly beautiful ...and anyone familiar with me knows I do not say that lightly. Even I can hardly find a flaw in it... it's just as it should be, each line in the ideal place... even the men, wonder of wonders, are drawn in an attractive way. What's more, Clamp manages this outstanding quality consistently, page after page, for eight whole volumes.

Okay, now the worst part: All that ecchi trash that was put in to jazz it up for the audiences susceptible to such things. It's just low. The worst part is that they even have the main character acting like a hypocrite, and they treat it like there's nothing wrong with that. Having readers like and empathize with the main character is very important to a story, and shameless hypocrisy just isn't likeable... Clamp really missed the mark there. Also, good taste is essential for a good manga, and all that ecchi nonsense is the opposite of that.

The character of Chii, on the other hand, is quite another story. I think Clamp did a good job balancing a lot of things with her: she had to be ignorant like a child but not stupid, pensive but not a space cadet, tragic but not mopey, innocent but not shallow. I also thought the scenes where Chii read the storybooks were very sweet and just esoteric enough to add some nice flavor to the manga.

Next, about the message... for the real world which we live in, the message doesn't work... a machine, no matter how advanced, is only a machine... it's not a living thing, it doesn't have a soul, it's not a person, so it can't have a real love (sexual love) with a human being. However, the universe the story takes place in is not necessarily this one, so you can easily imagine it being a fantasy world where an inanimate object can be a person, and since a person is capable of love, then the idea works. If you adopt that idea, the series is much more enjoyable, because then you'll be able to appreciate the pathos of the concept the story explores.

Now, the plot. It isn't very dynamic--it's more along the lines of a slice-of-life manga, so those who prefer action or something fast-paced may not like Chobits. But in my opinion, it gets the job done. It probably could have been better, but it's functional.

Okay, so there are some very good and some very bad parts to this one, but all in all, I think I'd still recommend giving it a try. Even it turns out you hate the story, at least you got to see some beautiful drawings, right?

... Last updated on January 22nd, 2014, 10:43pm

Im sick of seeing the comments about how bad this series is. The art is great, it has an original storyline(no vampires here!), the characters interact well with each other. Of course it also has heart. I recommend this manga to people of all ages. It shows the corruption of a technology dependent society thats forgetting humanity. Even though the MC does fall in love with Chi, he recognizes her on a human level. While other characters feel that persocoms are unfair to other humans.

This one would do better, I think, if it was shorter [which isn't something that I normally would say.] At times, it tries to be very profound and serious but things can also degrade down to superficial nonsense.

Love between human and a sentient mechanical being can be pictured profoundly and meaningfully. It is what i expected at first, but this manga is NOTHING LIKE THAT.

I will begin with the only saving grace,the art.The drawing is pretty clean,the characters figure is quite proportional, and the best part is facial expression, especially of the male characters in showing how incompetent/ petrified they are.
About the story, someone wrote that Chobits is lacking something,well , i know exactly what it is lacking,it's the depth of the plot and the basic consistence between characters. First of all, i almost can't believe the future world could be that underdeveloped,there 's almost no innovation although the computer science has reached the stage of android AI, i mean that's just too shallow for an automatic world it should be, as if Clamp think just add some female humanoid figures and everything looks like we are in the future.
I already knew that this manga has a stereotype typical protagonist with typical low intelligent quotient like tons of other ecchi manga but sometimes his lack of normal knowledge still surprises me.
For short, all the characters in this manga that look smart are actually average or below average in intelligence and those who do not are thus worse. That is probably because of the superficial storyline, you can think that i demand too much from a short manga, but believe me, this manga can be alot deeper even without those mushy scenes and "pseud-intellectual" dialogues. However, the best character is Chi, mainly because the picture books she read. Other than that, nothing significant, even the desire for love of android is just too plainly written.

Overall, a mediocre manga, and i can't see how it is categorized as Seinen. Practically, aside from the ecchi part, the story is suitable for readers under 13.

... Last updated on July 2nd, 2009, 8:57pm

Well, first let me give some background information. Years ago I read in an anime/manga magazine a quick review of clamp's work. The best rated mangas were Tokyo Babylon, (the inconclusive) X/1999, and Chobits. At that time I have read and seen the anime of X, they were similar. Later I bought the Chobits anime, which was a let down for me since it seemed like the anime did not concluded anything important, or otherwise said it was like the full story was not told (like another manga-to-anime conversion, without the manga ending).

Well... I was so wrong!! The anime is like the manga. The reason for the fillers there were that... actually there is very little story to talk about. Now let me clarify it, maybe it was the magazine rating what biased me, but in comparison to X or Tokyo Babylon... Chobits is lacking something.

Now, if you think that a complete Clamp manga should have at least beautiful drawings and a sign of Clamp's philosophy (if you are happhy with it, go for it), then by all means Chobits is a Clamp's masterpiece. Otherwise it is not, it is a good manga but again, seems like empty. It is worth reading since the main concept in debate (human-robot relations) is interesting.

hmph,i only watch the anime version,but i really loved it, and the story tell about Hideki found a machine that turn out to be a persacon, than as time goes on ,hideki found out he really love Chii even thought she's not human,the manga and anime is a bit old but its a good manga,you should read it.

i'm didn't read the manga coz i think anime already covered it up,other than that Chobits is the only manga that i liked from CLaMP.

Wow, it was great, a really deep manga by CLAMP who again, somehow managed to pack an *EXTREAMLY* shoujo message into a nice seinen package that moved me to tears.

It's different, that's for sure. I seemed to breeze through the chapters. The chapters are shorter than most manga in the first place, but it felt like a light read per page. The concept was interesting, though. Although the obvious theme of the story is about man loving machine, I think it's a little deeper than that.

I think it's more about being able to love knowing there would be complications. I saw an earlier review saying it's about man not being able to get with women (or the other way around) so they have sex with machines. However, if that person paid attention, they would see they are completely off base. This next part contains spoilers. Sure the background characters (the ones in the crowd) may have sex with their "persacons", but the story wasn't about them, it was about Hideki and the other characters and how even if the love seems doomed to fail or is shunned upon by society, if one wills it to work, it will work. Throw the whole man loving machine concept out the window, and try to look at it in different terms. Maybe CLAMP did want to focus on man loving machine, but it certainly can be looked at in a different light if one chooses to.

For that reason, I think it is a very good romance. Definitely not the best, but somewhat deep. I would definitely recommend it. It isn't long, it's interesting, and it has cute moments. If one likes the romance genre, one would enjoy this one.

... Last updated on June 13th, 2010, 1:13am

to be honest I watched the anime and didnt read this manga but judging by what ive read about it the anime covered everything and I have to say some people wont like it because of the whole people opting for a doll rather than a human being as a partner and I like how this beings up that weird issue that very well could arrise in the future.

It was a touching story with good twists at the end.

Recommended.

... Last updated on February 1st, 2009, 7:00pm

Cult as it may be, his manga has taken some beating from people, especially in regard to pampering to the dreams of socially inept nerds who prefer a perfect robot to a flesh-n-blood partner they're too afraid to get. This view certainly has some roots in the story, but I'd say it's not the perspective the creators had in mind here. Sure, there's a good deal of fanservice, especially emotional one - the ultra-cute girls bursting with love thing, - but you could make Chobits ten times more chaste (not that it's rowdy now) and the main idea would still be there. And that's the good ol' "love conquers all" message. In fact, the manga touches on a lot of relationships far extended from the classical "schoolboy+schoolgirl" scheme, but it's all to illustrate the idea that love is good, and as long as you're honest inside, you should go with your feelings and overcome your own fears and the horror over what would the neighbor think.

So yes, it's mushy. But it works: Chobits is a touching, sweet story able to deliver its ultra-shoujo message in a way that can be interesting to people of both sexes and, I guess, many ages, simply because it's a good story. The art is top notch - smooth and charming, but not irritating, - there's plenty of moving moments, some dramatic, some uplifting, and it's a thrilling emotional ride regardless of fanservice elements. That said, it's not perfect: the plot is pretty predictable, the doe-eyed fanservice can get in the way (it's kawaii, yes; but it's so kawaii you can overdose on it). Besides, the mangakas are hammering their main idea into you pretty intensely and leave little room for anything else, be it plot or character development - Chobits will not stand against the realistic love-themed series such as Suzuka, or even semi-realistic stuff such as Ah! My Goddess. But that wasn't the intention anyway: the manga is an intentionally idealized romantic tale, and in its own class it's damn close to perfection.