CLAMP's Chobits
by Mike Kiley on 11.19.02
Chobits began its weekly run in Japan's Young magazine in February 2001. This latest manga treasure from CLAMP is being collected in tankoubon (graphic novel) form by Kodansha. The 8th - and concluding - volume has just been published in Japan. There is also an extremely popular anime series based on the Chobits manga which is due to be released in the U.S. sometime next year.
The 'look-and-feel' of Chobits represents a sylistic departure of sorts for the CLAMP team. First, the art employs cleaner, simpler lines than some of their more ornate, neo-baroque masterpieces like X and Tokyo Babylon. Second, the content of Chobits represents a definite shift into shounen (comics mainly written for guys) territory. But the manga-ka of CLAMP have not simply produced yet another comic for boys featuring titillating shots of buxom young women - their take on the genre is ironic, more than occasionally VERY funny, and even laced with the tragedy that sometimes typifies conflicted love affairs.
While this futuristic tale of Hideki - a hapless technophobe who desperately wants his own sexy robot girlfriend - and Chi - the strange and beautiful cyber-girl he finds in the trash one day - certainly has it moments of comical misunderstanding, unbearably cute super-deformed mania, and lustful innuendo, Chobits is perhaps most remarkable for its portrayal of the poignant awakening of self-awareness in the character of Chi. While she may be 'merely' an AI, her attempts to come to terms with her own origins and with what it means to be human represent yet another dazzling example of why the women of CLAMP are commonly regarded as among the most talented manga artists working today.
TOKYOPOP® is proud to bring Chobits to English-speaking audiences everywhere as part of there
