Chobits/WMG

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?!
• "Or"? Try "and"! It goes Chobits, then Terminator, then Matrix. It makes perfect sense when you...oh God...it does make sense, doesn't it?!

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.
• And you could argue that 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, Legal Drug, Suki, and Cardcaptor Sakura; it eventually shows up in xxxHolic 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.

The entire series was one big Take That to all otaku out there.

• 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 Fetish Fuel 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 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.
• A CLAMP series with no hidden deeper meaning or symbolism? Yeah right.
• Alternately, it wasn't for the money, it was For The Lulz. Also, this was when they introduced the Dartboard O' Random Symbolism, and got carried away. So it had tons of symbolism, none of which meant anything. Also For The Lulz.
  • Bullplop! If you make something, it has to comment on something. That's how it works. Everything has a meaning.

Hideki is Kyon.

No explanation needed.

• Or maybe he's Cowboy Bebop, sitting at his cute computer with boobies.
  • Well, Hideki's computer does have boobies.
    • And they are cute.

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.
  • That's not what Kokoro-Kiseki is about but okay.

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.

Pertinent Natter from the main page:

• • Not all people have sex the same way.
  • She is told that she shouldn't let anyone touch her reset button unless they are 'the one for me and only me'. Not quite the same as never having sex.
    • ...except Hideki is explicitly told that he is not an exception to this rule, and that attempting anything of the sort will wipe her mind.
    • ...except whenever someone had tried to touch her and she went into a trance, it seems likely that it was Freya saying only "the one for me and only me" could touch her since she's the one coming out during Chi's "trances." She may have just been testing Hideki to see how much he loved Chi since she's directly contradicting what she has said previously and at some point they will learn that they can consummate their love.
    • As pointed out in this strip, other options are not mentioned
    • ... at least not on-panel. Considering how much of a horndog Hideki really is, it's only reasonable to assume that the though already crossed his mind, and will most likely explore them with Chii off-panel)
    • This is for fans who want to see them actually consumate their love
      • Okay, I'm not normally one for Dude, She's Like, in a Coma, but that was worth reading just for Chii's last line.

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 merely 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."
• This opens up a plot hole: 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? Perhaps Clamp wanted to highlight Chi's "purity" more than they cared to have a solid story. Or perhaps the bezerker is an Aesop to anyone who would even dare to defile a virgin (please imagine that in a sarcastic tone of voice).

A Chobits programming is designed to cross the Uncanny Valley personality-wise.

• You got to remember that 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.

Ridiculously Human?

• Freya states that persocoms, even chobits, can't feel.
  • And just because she is a robot does that mean that what she is saying is automatically the truth and nothing but? Robots can lie too you know, especially humanoid ones, after all, the ability to lie is one of the basic distinctive traits of humanity.
    • Since 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!!", this reader feels free to not take that statement as binding. Especially if you think Freya might still be in emotional pain, and trying to goad Hideki into triggering the truly ridiculous plot device. I'd also dispute the robots being ridiculously human: being pretty human is a clear marketing goal for persocoms in general, and the Chobits were designed as surrogate daughters by an infertile couple.
    • I always assumed what it meant was when a persocom's core directive is "seek out happiness for yourself" like Chi's is, then if that is "just her programming" then... that just our "programming" as well in so far it is what most humans do too. Which makes her not much different from a human in reality.

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...

• Nobody would be dumb enough to make a Sexbot, who goes crazy/broken/brain-formatted/insert-undesired-behavior-here, if you use him according to the purpose which he was built for! It would be a safe place, behind some kinda a hard-to-remove protecting cover, and you would have to use a key (So nobody unauthorized could mind-wipe).
  • This troper kindly reminds other ones that normal persocoms have this switch by the ear, see chapter 58/page 14. So, no problem with any regular one independent of gender.
    • So persocom companies aren't harebrained! What a relieve.
• A male persocom is seem briefly in a display window in the first episode of the anime.

Chi saying "chi."

Chi can only say "chi" at the beginning because that's the first syllable of her mother's name.

Chobits takes place in an alternate continuity of Pong.

In this world, instead of making pong, the creators decided to make computer games that look like cute women, most likely becuase the game designers were sex-deprived. They made a contract with Kyuubey in order to make the robots realistic. They were then geassed into committing suicide with a Death Note, and blamed it on Riddick. The ensuing court case of awesomeness was too much for the universe to hold, with Shikieiki Yamaxanadu as the judge, and Phoenix Wright as Riddick's lawyer, leading to the demon-summoning program to be created to combat the end.

...

That's how Disney was formed.

CLAMP is in love with the idea of amnesia as a cure for heartache

I just noticed that 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? (My bet goes to "If love has made you miserable, you are fully justified in making everyone around you miserable.")

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