History Manga / Chobits

That being said, it's a near-certainty there are differences in the subjective experience of emotion between humans and persocoms, but honestly that's irrelevant, and it certainly doesn't make the feelings of persocoms any less real or valid. ''What'' emotions feel like doesn't matter, what matters is the actions they drive you to. [[Film/TheMatrixRevolutions Rama Kandra's]] thoughts on love are relevant here: "''[Love] is a word. What matters is the connection the word implies.''" Persocoms in love don't ''behave'' any differently than humans in love. All of Hideki's friends knew Chii was in love with him long before the oblivious Hideki himself did. Why? ''Because her behavior made it unmistakable.'' This troper feels Freya is seriously selling herself, her sister and her people drastically short.]]

* RidiculouslyHumanRobots: Debated -- one robot explicitly states in the manga that [[spoiler:even the Chobits of legend do not "feel" because they are only machines.]] It is interesting to note that she says this to Hideki after having told her sister mere hours before that being trapped in her own body, alone with her sorrow, felt like dying. Chii reminds her that because they are not technically alive, they cannot die. She says that it doesn't matter, because their awareness is so advanced it ''feels'' like they can die. It doesn't seem like something a non-sentient android would be discussing, let alone experiencing firsthand.

* ContemplateOurNavels: Can persocoms feel, even though they only act out of human programming? Can a human and persocom [[KissMeIAmVirtual love each other]]? Does such love mean anything if it's just programming? Whether they can love or not, what do such relationships mean for society as a whole?

''Chobits'' is a manga and anime series by Creator/{{CLAMP}} that starts out as a MagicalGirlfriend comedy and transitions to a ContemplateOurNavels debate on the relationship between humans and Persocoms, machines programmed to serve humans (and look human too). It takes place some years after ''Anime/KidouTenshiAngelicLayer'', although the only [[CanonImmigrant canon immigrants]] are of the "dead with an impact" variety.

%%Zero Context examples are not allowed on wiki pages. Please add context before uncommenting.

Compare with ''Anime/KowarekakeNoOrgel'' or ''Manga/Yuria100Shiki''.

** Chi flat out averts this with Kojima (AKA Dragonfly). Not only does she telekinetically restrain him with the cables attached to her (which would have been pushing the absolute limits of tolerance for a "Three Laws Compliant" robot), but she then proceeds to ''knock his Robotics unconscious'', ruining his house in the process and spraying shards of broken glass everywhere.

* RidiculouslyHumanRobots: Debated -- one robot explicitly states in the manga that [[spoiler:even the Chobits of legend do not "feel" because they are only machines.]] It is interesting to note that she says this to Hideki after having told her sister mere hours before that being trapped in her own body, alone with her sorrow, felt like dying. Chii reminds her that because they are not technically alive, they cannot die. She says that it doesn't matter, because it ''feels'' like they can. It doesn't seem like something a non-sentient android would be discussing, let alone experiencing firsthand.

** If you harm Chi, Hideki [[spoiler:and Freya (while possessing Chi)]] will kick your ass. Badmouth Chi and Hideki will be very angry.

* ShoutOut: Mod The Sims, a DownloadableContent site for fans of ''Franchise/TheSims'', has one of its download manager bots named Chii. The site's Chii bot also used to perform various functions in the chat room, such as "gets you coffee" when the command "!coffee" was typed.

* TheChooserOfTheOne: The ''Me'' is ''Chi''.

* LittleMissSnarker: Kotoko, a snarky loli ''robot''.

** Hideki Motosuwa -> Hwi-su Lee
** Chitose Hibiya -> Dana ([[ItsPronouncedTroPAY pronounced as "duh-NAH"]])
** Yumi Omura -> Yumi Kang
** Takako Shimizu -> Myeong-hwa Cha ([[TheDanza she has the same name as her voice actress]])
** Minoru Kokubunji -> Jeongmin Deokgo
** Yoshiyuki Kojima -> Yeongman Do
** Hiroyasu Ueda -> Yeongjae Woo

** Hideki Motosuwa -> Hee-su Lee

** Hiroyasu Ueda -> Yeongjae

'''''Chobits''''' is a manga and anime series by Creator/{{CLAMP}} that starts out as a MagicalGirlfriend comedy and transitions to a ContemplateOurNavels debate on the relationship between humans and Persocoms, machines programmed to serve humans (and look human too). It takes place some years after ''Anime/KidouTenshiAngelicLayer'', although the only [[CanonImmigrant canon immigrants]] are of the "dead with an impact" variety.

* GoodOldRobot: [[spoiler:Hiroyasu Ueda]]'s persocom. He could have transferred her memories to a new hard drive but refused because the transfer might not have worked. He couldn't let go of any part of her.

* DistressedDamsel[=/=]BigDamnHeroes: Played with. Every time Chi is kidnapped or [[NearRapeExperience whatever]], by the time Hideki is close to finding her, Chi [[spoiler:aka Freya]] has already [[CurbStompBattle stomped their asses]], but when Hideki shows up at the scene, Chi [[FallingIntoHisArms falls into his arms]], thanks him for rescuing her, and ''[[{{fainting}} faints]]''.

** Hideki scaring Sumomo with his overblown reactions. "Master, he's scary!"

* ShowWithinAShow: The children's book series which plays a significant part in the story.

* ShowWithinAShow: ''A City Without People'', a manga drawn by [[spoiler: Chitose]] lampshading all of the problems that Persocoms are causing and {{Foreshadowing}} key plot points.

* SuperPrototype: [[spoiler: Elda and Freya]] are legendary 'chobits' whose specs are higher than the standard issue persocoms. They were also the first.

* FailedASpotCheck: Hideki apparently thought that it was normal for an ordinary apartment block (with rent affordable to the dirt poor Hideki) to have an internet connection fast enough to stream videos without stuttering, or for Chii to dial Yumi's persocom without the persocom ringing. These two events aroused Kotoko's suspicion that [[spoiler: the landlady]] and Chii are not who they appear to be.

* SecondLove: [[spoiler: Yumi for Ueda]]. Unusual in that the guy's first love is a non-human.

* TryingNotToCry: [[spoiler: Yumi, when she saw Chii wearing her old uniform while working at the bakery.]]

** Ueda[[spoiler: is a widower who got married to a persocom (Both the wedding and the funeral were reported in the press). This affected his relationship with a girl half his age, who felt that she would never be able to match up to a deceased persocom in his heart. The pair do love each other despite all this.]]

** Kokubunji is a LonelyRichKid [[spoiler: who created a persocom as a ReplacementGoldfish with his late sister's personality. However, he cannot decide whether to treat her as a surrogate elder sister, or as an individual distinct from said late sister.]]

* DysfunctionJunction: Boy howdy. Wouldn't be a CLAMP work without this.

** Hiroyasu [[spoiler: is a widower who got married to a persocom (Both the wedding and the funeral were reported in the press). This affected his relationship with a girl half his age, who felt that she would never be able to match up to a deceased persocom in his heart.]]