Shortly after the ending, the events of either The Terminator or The Matrix occur.
- The Robot company basically made all the Persocom Robots who had been slaves (including the sex slaves) self-aware in a society completely dependent on them. Are they insane?!
- It goes Chobits, then Terminator, then Matrix.
The series was an exercise in how far CLAMP could go changing a previous work.
- Different audience than Angelic Layer; most of the characters removed; plot-important characters killed off in the backstory; Shuuko/Icchan broken up for no apparent reason; and yet, it's too good for anyone to put in Fanon Discontinuity. Obviously, this was a test to see if Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-, which is an Alternate Continuity of everything they've ever made that quickly degenerates into Darker and Edgier, would fly. It did. note
- If Chobits was a good testing ground for the Darker and Edgier concept, then the Piffle Princess company was the (less blatant) prototype for the unifying effect of our favorite CLAMP dimension hoppers. PP makes central or background appearances in Angelic Layer, Chobits, Drug & Drop, Suki, and Cardcaptor Sakura; it eventually shows up in Xxx HO Li C and Tsubasa themselves. It's almost like CLAMP said to themselves, "hmm, this reappearing motif sure is handy for story telling - let's just scale it up to an entire multiverse and run with it"!
One of the manga's messages is "Leave Otakus alone!"
- One of the things that Otaku are often accused of is loving material things (like Computers or Gaming Consoles or merchandise) more than actual humans. Chobits tries to say that there's nothing wrong with that as long as you do love. After all, the Chobits themselves were created to be surrogate daughters for a couple who otherwise couldn't have children; there was nothing superficial there. This is also why Chi's "on" button is where it is; Hideki cares more about his relationship with Chi and the memories they share than sexual pleasure.
The series is a Take That! to otaku.
- Specifically, the Moe and assorted fetish otaku. Think about it: Attractive subservient robot girl, fetish-y outfits of the Elegant Gothic Lolita variety, a childlike demeanor in an artificial being that you can't get arrested with... That's just the main character! This was an attempt to cater to as many fetishes as possible (Shota Minoru, his Big Sister Complex, Older Woman/Younger Man, the repeated images of the Persocoms in the windows, the tiny laptop Persocoms, etc.) without being as blatant as they were in Miyuki-chan In Wonderland, allowing them to sell it to markets that might not allow obviously racier subjects. The titillation is intentional, and the warm, fuzzy goggles through which the viewer sees Chobits is a subtle mockery of those who would accept it at face-value. After all, only maladjusted otaku - particularly those who feel their own fetishes are really totally normal, you guys - would buy into a series that says 'humans don't need other humans, just pliable cute robot dolls.'
- This might make more sense if you take into account of Japan's declining birth rate. What if, instead of Chobits just being a Take That! to the otaku, it's meant to get them to think about wanting human relationships by making them realise that they would prefer a robot over a real human being? Although, all of this might fall flat if you consider that at the end of the series, all Chobits ascend to true-human AI.
This series was not designed to say anything positive or negative about or to Otakus.
- It is merely meant to entertain the readers, and provide the authors with money.
- Alternately, it was For The Lulz. This was when they introduced the Dartboard O' Random Symbolism, and got carried away. So it had tons of symbolism but none of it meant anything.
Hideki is Kyon.
As the potholes explain.- Maybe he's Cowboy Bebop, sitting at his cute computer with boobies. So it's a male, computer-illiterate Cowboy Bebop sitting at a computer with cute boobies. Or probably the computer is sitting at him?
The Vocaloid Song "Kokoro-Kiseki" is about Freya.
- A robot, who obtained the ability to feel emotions, fell in love with her creator, whom she couldn't reach, couldn't handle it and died? Freya.
Hideki and Chi can and will have sex
- When Freya tells Hideki that he can never touch Chi "down there" because that's where her reset switch is, she's directly contradicting herself from things she said earlier. When Freya's personality would take over when someone else tried to touch her, she said only "the one for me and only me" could touch her there. It seems odd that their creator would make them anatomically correct, program her to seek out her one-and-only and then make it so that if she ever found her true love, they'd be stuck in Can't Have Sex, Ever territory. Part of her programming is that when her love is fully reciprocated, this restriction goes away. Freya never knew, because of her tragic circumstances, or she did know and it was just a test for Hideki to see how much he truly loved Chi - if he could stand being with her without ever being able to consummate. They'll figure it out or Freya (or Ms. Hibiya) will flat-out tell Hideki that it's ok once he's shown that he will truly stay by her side. (So I'm a big soppy romantic. Leave me alone...)
- There's also the point when Freya asks Hideki if he wants to know what Chi can do that no other persocom can. He says that unless it would affect their relationship, he doesn't need to know. It could have to do with all the persocom-shorting-out, building-exploding, flying stuff that Chi has demonstrated previously, except Hideki has seen it all so it's not like it's something Freya would have to tell him about. No, the "other thing" is that Chi can become a fully self-aware being and all she needed was to find her special someone to complete the transition.
- Maybe Chitose will have mercy and remove the "chastity belt" from her daughter... maybe.
- In the manga, at least. This plot point does seem to be virtually absent from the anime: Dragonfly did touch Chi there when he activated her after he abducted her, and when Chii (or was it Freya?) awoke, she didn't lose her memory at all (except of this particular specific event itself), she just went homicidally berzerk, stating that only her Special Someone could touch her, but since Dragonfly wasn't that person, he never should have even tried. She then proceeded to beat him with a suprise-set of hidden tentacles appendages that suddenly appeared from her back, seriously (or probably?), and she would most likely have killed him if Hideki hadn't arrived in time.
- Freya specifically says to Dragonfly that "Only the person for me and only for me can go inside me." Seems pretty cut and dried, assuming Freya knows what she's talking about, which seems like she should since she knows Chi's "real" programming.
Chi is designed to be a permanent virgin
- The location of her reset switch is meant to keep Chi eternally virginal. Any sexual experience she has will be wiped from her memory by the mere act of it. Freya's/Chi's bezerker over an attempt to touch Chi "down there" fits in perfectly with how a virgin is traditionally supposed to act—that is, she is supposed to defend her virginity to the death. Similarly, "the only one for me" is part of the traditional narrative of "only one man for every woman."
- Why defend to the death the virginity of someone who can essentially never lose it, and why save sexuality when she can never give it away? It's because Clamp wanted to highlight Chi's "purity" . The bezerker is an Aesop to anyone who would dare to defile a virgin.
A Chobits programming is designed to cross the Uncanny Valley personality-wise.
- Unlike other persocoms, Chi and Freya were designed to be substitute daughters and as such, they went to great lengths to make them as human as possible by adding subtle nuances which can fool a human's senses.
The main character's species in A City Without People is a reference to The Velveteen Rabbit.
If you love something, it becomes worthy of being loved. CLAMP knew exactly where they were going with the series. Freya was lying when she said Chobits don't have emotions
- Freya states that persocoms, even chobits, can't feel but Robots can lie too you know, especially humanoid ones and the ability to lie is one of the basic distinctive traits of humanity.
- the same persocom had previously 'died' of unrequited love, and other persocoms had engaged in unexpected emotional-seeming behaviors, including "I DON'T HAVE A TEMPER!!".
- It's possible that when a persocom's core directive is "seek out happiness for yourself" like Chi's is, then humans are "programmed" that way as well in so far it is what most humans do too. Which makes her little different from a human after all.
- It's possible that she mean that her emotions are the results of programming that is intended to convincingly simulate the real deal found in humans with varying degrees of success. In this case you could argue that human emotions ultimately aren't more than neurotransmitter chemicals and electrical impulses either, but that does not seem to have occurred to the authors.
Chobits is set in our future.
The moment we reach artificial intelligence, Power Perversion Potential will be in effect,and there'd be a market for persocoms. There's a market for male persocoms.
Because All Men Are Perverts and All Women Are Lustful,one could expect the production of male persocoms for women. One wonders where their switch would be though...- Well, Chi/Freya were Chobits, not standard-model persocoms, which don't come with Chi's reset-switch. Most seem to have the equivalent buttons on their ears, which is presumably where the male persocoms have it as well; we do see a few male persocoms, mostly in crowd scenes, but they do exist.
- Adding onto this, I'd like to think there's a market for heavy duty/construction oriented persocoms that invoke Stout Strength to house the extra horsepower and thus end up as Bara styled hunks to contrast with the more standard Bishōnen looking "Home PC" models. Given what was mentioned above, there's no doubt got to be re-purposed or custom made models for those who want to indulge without the risk of...complications...
- I mean there are 100% male persocoms in this series. Yumi even mentions explicitly her sister has one that's a guy.
- Don't we see a male persocom aiding an old lady in the very first episode?
CLAMP is in love with the idea of amnesia as a cure for heartache
Chi's "ultimate program of doom" (at least, the manga version that is prevented from being activated) is almost identical to Yue's "disaster" power at the end of the first arc of Cardcaptor Sakura. In short, it causes everyone around them (all persocoms, in Chi's case) to forget their relationship with the one they love so that the one activating the power can forget that they loved someone who wasn't worthy of that love. So what exactly are they trying to say? "If love has made you miserable, you are fully justified in making everyone around you miserable." Chi used mind control to make Zima turn on Dita and stop her from attacking Chi
Zima "just wanted to see what would happen" is unlikely. Zima and Dita were programmed by a syndicate for the sole purpose of protecting Zima's data. There's no way anything in his programming should allow him to relax the way he did against such a clear threat to their existence. His decision to stop Dita was very curious. In fact curiosity is the key word. He was curious what would happen. My, isn't that a very...human reaction to the situation? Zima appeared to operate based on free will, which, being a persocom, he can't have. This was before any possible consciousness change Chi caused when unlocking the program (In the anime). Therefore, it's very feasible that Chi, being as powerful as she was, telepathically messed with Zima's programming and caused him to be 'curious' enough to restrain Dita, Chi's greatest remaining threat to finding "the person just for Chi."- There's evidence that Zima and Dita are higher functioning than regular persocoms and Zima had shown several times beforehand that he had an interest in seeing what the program would actually do and wanted Chi to be happy in the end. It may be that he was programmed to seek out more information to add to his database and since he had no data on what the program was, that was where his interest came from.
