Review of Chobits: Vol. 6

Introduction

The recap episode is a necessary evil in anime. If you are watching an episode a week on television over a typical run of 26 weeks, then an occasional clip show could actually be of benefit for a viewer with a short attention span. It can also afford animators a bit of breathing space, an extra week where they can concentrate their efforts on another episode. Unfortunately in the UK, we don`t have the luxury of watching all our anime on TV; instead we have to make do with the DVD releases. Unless the clip show is imaginatively handled, as in Samurai Champloo or Trigun, then the temptation is to skip right over it to the next episode. When discs typically only house between 3 or 5 episodes, a recap episode can seem like quite a bane. Chobits didn`t have a recap episode, it had three of them. In the US, Geneon decided that customers wouldn`t appreciate this, so they took them out, and packaged them separately on a seventh disc, along with some more extras as a bonus for fans of the show. In the UK, the customer base isn`t really large enough to support this, so through some creating shuffling, MVM have found room for all this bonus material on the final sixth disc of the show. You can watch Chobits all the way through without encountering a pesky clips show, but should you feel the need for a quick Chobits fix, they are all there on the final disc, your wallets can breathe a small sigh of relief, and you have space on your shelves for one more disc.

Chobits takes place in a not too distant future, where computers and similar gadgets have evolved into Persocoms. Designed to be companions for people, they are technological devices in robot bodies that look completely human except for the ears, with a degree of intelligence and personality, and tailored to the needs of their owners.

Hideki Motosuwa is a Ronin, that is he has failed his entrance exams for university, and is playing catch up by enrolling in a prep school to get his grades up to scratch. He`s left his home in the country and moved to the city for this, finding lodgings as well as a job in a bar to pay the bills. He`s shy around the opposite sex, though he has a healthy interest in girlie magazines, or Yummies as he calls them. He`s surprised to see the number of Persocoms in the city; it looks as if everyone has got one of the expensive items. He knows he`ll never be able to afford one, so it seems serendipitous when he finds one discarded. He`s not exactly savvy about technology, but fellow student and neighbour Hiromu Shinbo along with Minoru Kokubunji help him reactivate Chi. But Chi is a blank slate, one that miraculously appears to be operating without an OS. Hideki is soon spending his spare time teaching Chi, but Chi manifests some odd traits. Just where did she come from, and what was she before her memory was wiped?

The story draws to a conclusion in this final sixth volume, with three episodes tying up all the loose ends.

22. Chi Wears and Takes Off
Hideki`s short of cash again, so Chi offers to cook for him once more. That means earning some money, and following recent events, Hideki isn`t going to allow Chi out alone. Escorting her to the bakery where she works, they find the owner Ueda out of sorts. Chi exacerbates the situation by putting on the wrong uniform, and Yumi who has been spying on them outside gets her wires crossed and runs off in tears. Hideki follows her, and lends a shoulder to cry on. He also learns the past that Yumi shared with Ueda, while Chi does the same in the bakery. This drives Chi to make a choice with far-reaching consequences.

23. Chi Decides
Chi finds another instalment of the picture book that she has been reading, while Kokubunji finds another piece of the Chobits puzzle. All the while, two mysterious persocoms are observing this with interest. Hideki`s problem is more mundane, figuring out his own feelings for Chi, and deciding what to do about them. Before he gets the chance though, Ms Hibiya returns, and finally reveals the truth.

24. The Person Only For Chi
Chi gets the only thing she ever wanted; only it could mean her destruction.

Video

Chobits gets a clear and sharp 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer. The stylised animation has a simple pastel palette, avoiding bright primary colours for a more muted gentle colour scheme that complements the story ideally. The character designs are simple but effective. All in all, it is a more than acceptable transfer.

Audio

You get a choice of DD 2.0 Stereo English or Japanese. The subtitles are translated from the Japanese, and there is also an option to have just the signs translated. As always, I listened to the Japanese track, and it is accomplished well enough, with noticeable stereo separation. The English dub is serviceable, but not astounding, the biggest drawback of which has to be the voice chosen for Chi, which sounds monotonous and out of character. In a more and more common occurrence with anime, the music is excellent.

Features

Apple Mac style menus, the Japanese ending for the final episode, trailers for Tenjho Tenge and Burst Angel, as well as an art gallery containing 15 stills, and there is also a simple jacket picture that displays when the disc isn`t spinning, which all seems par for the course for a Chobits disc.

However this time around, there is more, much more, as the final volume of Chobits also gets the recap episodes. Originally inserted into the run were clips shows that brought viewers up to date with events up to that point. Here you get the previews for two of those episodes, as well as the three full-length shows, Shinbo and Sumomo Chat, Minoru and Yuzuki Chat, and Hibiya and Kotoko Chat

It`s obvious why these aren`t in the main run, as they are pretty dry recaps which present the events quite straightforwardly, with a thin framing story in each case. There`s little imagination to them, they lack the flair and personality of similar efforts by other shows, and once you know the episodes from which the clips are taken, then there is little reason to watch them. But, they are part of the series proper, and it would have been a shame to leave them out. In that respect they are a welcome bonus feature, and for completion`s sake, essential. It`s also worth mentioning that the final episode, Hibiya and Kotoko Chat is set after the events of the series, and the framing device acts as something of a coda to the story.

Finally there is the Chibits featurette, Sumomo and Kotoko deliver. The Chibi, super deformed phenomenon is an anime staple, one of my favourite series is The Adventures Of Mini Goddess, and it`s a rare comedy series that doesn`t have an appearance of a cute impish diminutive character. Chobits is especially rare, in that the persocom idea offers a real world reason for the existence of such tiny characters, and as the series moved into more serious territory in the final episodes, it was the mini-persocoms Sumomo and Kotoko that provided much of the comedy. It`s fitting then that they get a mini episode of their own, and the Chibits featurette offers 6 minutes of mayhem, as the two mismatched friends have to face another underwear emergency.

Conclusion

Chobits started six volumes ago as a light, ephemeral comedy with little depth to it. There was plenty of awkwardness, as a teenaged boy found himself living with an attractive persocom who knew little of the world. It all seemed destined to go down a rather typical harem anime route. Yet the story concludes in Volume 6 with a level of emotional depth and maturity that those early episodes would never have hinted at. It`s been a fairly subtle growth through the episodes, but as Chi learnt more about the world and herself, the potential grew for a darker conclusion to the series.

When the characters began realising what the prevalence of persocoms was doing to society, this added a level of intelligence that contrasted Hideki`s slapstick antics. With Ms Shimizu`s relationship with her husband disintegrating because of a persocom, Yumi suffering from angst because of one, and Minoru`s relationship with Yuzuki coloured by his grief over his sister, it became apparent that the happy-go-lucky relationship that Hideki had with Chi was unlikely to last. Yet as their relationship developed, it was easier to care about the characters, and hope that they succeeded despite the odds. The series turned the corner in terms of comedy, with Chi`s abduction and the focus became one of the Chobits mystery, and Hideki and Chi`s relationship. The comedy seemed relegated to the minor characters, but by this point I was so involved with the main story that the darker turn in events seemed natural and gripping. At the start of this disc, it seemed that the only sticking point would be Yumi, but the first episode resolves that.

All that is left is to see if Hideki and Chi can work out or not, but the sense of dread that has been growing through the series culminates in the final episodes. Despite wanting to see the two get together, everything points to disaster for the relationship. Not to be spoilerific, but the story manages to work both sides, and provides an emotionally satisfying conclusion.

Chobits has been a grower. The early episodes tended towards the zany and daft, with plenty of slapstick and teenaged hormones overwhelming the emotional depth, but as the series progressed, that strength came to the fore, with the show surprisingly complex when it came to the social quandaries it posed. It has been a gradual growth to the story that has drawn me in, and the show`s strength is that it made me care about that characters. That`s half the battle for any series, but Chobits accomplished this with a blend of silliness and serious thought that seems implausible. I wouldn`t have said this five volumes ago, but Chobits has grown to be one of my favourite anime series. Not through animated splendour and graphic chicanery, but through a simple story told eloquently. The nine out of ten certainly applies to this volume, but it is also an indication of how I regard the series as a whole.