2023 EDIT: Part of my (latest) 2023 clear-up, of books (and franchises) I no longer like, or am no longer interested in, or remember well as standing out, or find as special anymore, or I otherwise will not miss.
Final Score: 3.5/5
Original Review:
This is a sum-up of the series as a whole.
It's instances like this where, as both an anime fan and an analytical observer of pop culture, I feel like I should hand over my feminist card, because a lot of the anime I like - and even love - do have problematic gender portrayals , and these show just how stark the contrast is between male and female stereotypes.
Gender division in anime - especially in shoujo titles - usually comes right down to this:
Male = Strong. Adventurous. Reactive.
Female = Weak. Domestic. Passive.
Men act, Women are.
Anime in general is, let's face it, pretty sexist. Female characters often receive the labels of "Moe", "Yamato Nadeshiko", "Tsundere", "Clingy Jealous Girl", and other such submissive and negative portrayals of women and girls projected by the voyeuristic patriarchal fantasy/fetish. These girls tend to be sexy but innocent, young, inexperienced, capable but not too capable, demure, and in need to be protected by men all the time. Of course male characters in anime get the "Bishonen" and "Idiot/Chaste Hero" labels, but they're perceived as more of an advantage/strength than a weakness.
Yet even when taking all that into consideration, I love 'Chobits'. I adore it. Partly because of how heart-achingly lovely the story, characters and artwork are, but mostly due to how self-aware it is; more so than some people might give it credit for. Beneath its cutesy, Lolicon-lite surface, there is a thought-provoking intelligence worthy of the science fiction genre. There are subjects which discuss: the differences between man and machine; what it means to be human; and what it means to love another person unconditionally.
I'd go so far as to say 'Chobits' is CLAMP's masterpiece, and is the only story from them that I haven't outgrown from my younger, casual-anime-watcher days. Even though the robots - persocoms as they are called in this series - mostly look like sexy, Moe-type women, a feminist like me finds it difficult to not love it all the same.
I watched the 'Chobits' anime before reading the manga. I had been avoiding the series like the plague because I thought it looked ridiculous in its sexual-objectification of women (to the point where they're literally not human anymore), to cater to heterosexual men's fetishes in our mainstream, pornography-obsessed culture. But I eventually gave in to the pressure brought on by other anime fans, and by the time I'd finished watching 'Chobits', it became one of my favourite anime of all time. In fact it's in my top 5.
'Chobits' contains deep themes revolving around love and human nature, and just how far we may have come in our relationship with machines in our everyday lives, to the point where we might lose the best of what makes us human due to the convenience of technology. The persocoms in 'Chobits' are perfect: they cook, they clean, they help out in shops, they talk and make friends, they do whatever their owner programs them to, and they can perform sexual acts. The majority look like cute girls for a reason. They are like futuristic Stepford wives: they are obedient, they stay looking young and pretty forever, they don't talk back, and are completely non-challenging. Persocoms are not slaves because they are not people; never technically alive nor sentient, so that's one ethnic issue out of the fire!
In the future, as it is portrayed in 'Chobits', humanoid robots (androids) are better than pornography. But will that make them better than real people? What might happen when men and/or women start to prefer robots to other living, breathing, thinking and feeling human beings? Will men end up preferring fake women, since they are more convenient and easier to deal with than complex individuals?
Has technology made our lives better? And at what cost? Can they be a necessity? Something to fill in the empty void of loss and loneliness? In that case, are they still merely a convenience to individual humans with psychologically-stunted growths, unable to move on and interact with people, who are too complicated?
'Chobits' explores these themes within its plot and various subplots in a subtle and intricate fashion.
Talking of the plot, here's a summery:
'Chobits' is about nineteen-year-old Hideki Motosuwa, a farm boy who is moved by his parents into the big city of Tokyo to study and pass his school entrance exams so he can enter college. He is ignorant of the technologically-advanced world around him, and seems to be the only person in the city who doesn't have a persocom: new-age computers with the appearance of an attractive human being. Even with his job he cannot dream of affording one of his own.
But one night Hideki finds an offline persocom among garbage by his rental home. He carries the heavy-skinny girl-bot into his apartment, and literally turns her on via a switch in her vagina (yes, seriously). This persocom can only say "chi", so Hideki calls her that. Chi is a blank slate, devoid of all memory data, but with a learning program. So the sheltered farm boy must teach the humanoid robot about the world like an adult teaching a child.
Along the way, with the help of his techno-savvy friends, he discovers more and more about Chi, and about the legendary persocoms called Chobits. Is Chi a Chobit? What is a Chobit - a robot programmed with emotions and the need for company, like a human? To what purpose exactly? Can Chi really love? And will Hideki fully understand what he has gotten himself into upon taking her in - in a society of computers, and in his heart?
Hideki Motosuwa is one of my favourite anime heroes. He isn't a sword-wielding, muscle-pumping, martial artist shonen warrior. He is ordinary; very flawed but likeable, like a real nineteen-year-old guy. He is into porn and is sexually attracted to at least three women (four if Chi the persocom counts) in the story. Yet he is very kind and compassionate, and knows the difference between real women and the women portrayed in his porn magazines. He treats them as people instead of objects, and even though he'll keep saying to himself that he shouldn't treat Chi as an equal because she is just a computer (who happens to look and act like a girl), he finds he can't help showing her respect. She is too innocent, sweet and kind to him to not treat fairly.
His relationship with Chi starts off like that of a parent-and-child - or big-bother-and-little-sister - but the romance develops steadily and naturally throughout the manga volumes. Both characters find that they are happy being together, and are sad and worrisome when apart. For the heart is something that cannot be controlled, even in a computer programmed to explore the meaning of love.
A love between a man and a machine has never been so cute, and feel so right, weird as it sounds. If Hideki falls in love with the persocom he found in the trash, he may have to sacrifice his sexual desires and needs (he is a virgin, as many characters in the series keep pointing out) for her well-being and happiness; for she is alive and precious to him. That is the mark of a real hero there, and a real man.
Chi is an adorable creation, there is no denying that. I might even dare anyone to try and hate her. I personally find the act impossible. Sure, she is a cute, demure, obedient male-dependant Moe stereotype found in most anime and manga - similar to a Japanese Snow White, right down to her pale complexion. But who she is and how she interacts with Hideki make her surprisingly complex and interesting to observe, and not just for the maid outfits she'll be wearing. Part of her appeal is her determination to help Hideki pay his bills and make his life easier - to see him smile - which is genuinely sweet. I think you have to see the anime or read the manga to understand how grand this statement is, because I know it sounds like I'm re-enforcing the women-serves-man - or the Manic Pixie Dream Girl - trope. But it is more complicated than that.
Chi is so freaking cute - the artwork more than succeeds in showing off her charm - and there is nothing to hate about her. And it's not like Hideki is the only person she interacts with - she talks to both men and women, who treat her like a machine, or a sex object, or a living person, depending on the characters and circumstances.
Love - maternal, paternal, sisterly, brotherly, romantic, sexual; all forms of human affection are explored in 'Chobits' to wondrous effect. It deconstructs the relationship between man and his needs of convenience in both technology and his sex life; and what might happen if the two things should be interchangeable. It can be a thing of beauty, if the man does not lose sight of what love is, and of his humanity, as a result. But if he does, it can lead to disastrous consequences upon himself and other people in his life.
People do not need obedient, personality-less objects to make their lives richer and meaningful. To love and be loved in return is a blessed gift to be treasured, and if the person loving and needing love happens to not really be human after all, should that make a difference?
The reason why 'Chobits' doesn't get 5 stars from me is due to there still being the aforementioned sexist character archetypes. All the women are beautiful, not just the persocoms: the domestic landlady, the busty high school girl, and the lonely promiscuous schoolteacher; even though those characters have good personalities and contribute much to the series' themes. At least the landlady, Chitose Hibiya, is revealed to be more multi-layered than she first appears.
The relationship between Hideki's school friend Shinbo and said-teacher Takako Shimizu is highly questionable and might turn out to be abusive. It is the man who decides what the woman needs and everything she says and does. Sounds controlling to me. I mean I know Takako is in need of close human companionship after her husband practically abandoned her for a persocom, but she should still be allowed to make her own decisions, and get into a new relationship at her own pace.
And I'm still not quite sure who Zima and Dita are, and of course Zima is more knowledgeable and decisive than the fiery Dita, despite them both being advanced persocom models.
Though I'm too wrapped up in the cuteness, the levelly-paced-storytelling and the deep, psychological themes concerning humanity's relationship with technology to care that much.
A great science fiction and shoujo manga, I highly recommend 'Chobits' to anyone, even feminists. Decide for yourself whether the sexism is only a front, and discover the genre-deconstructing layers - and the heart - underneath the circuitry.
Final Score: 4/5
P.S. I just realised, there is another reason for why I love this series. What separates 'Chobits' from many other science fiction stories about robots nowadays? It doesn't use violence or elimination as a solution to a problem. As little action as there is, genuine love and humanity are present in every volume. A.I. is not so bad in this version of the future that Will Smith has to pop up wielding a gun and smashing robots' faces in. Humans are not so stupid or perverse that they’ve created a horde of monsters, even when they’ve created ones that look like sexualised human beings.
No comments:
Post a Comment