In an alternate present day, there are computers known as Persocoms that can be made to look like toy figures, animals and even people. The story focuses on a Persocom named Chi and her new owner, Hideki Motsuwa. Hideki is too broke to buy one but is lucky enough to have found one in the trash. When Hideki turns Chi on for the first time, she is able to move and act, despite the lack of an OS. What is Chi? Why was she in the trash? Where is Hideki going to find time to solve the mystery and still pass his classes?

Take one hapless, overly excitable ronin (a student attending cram school to retake the college entrance exam), give him his own robot girl and put them in an apartment together; hilarity ensues, right? Maybe for you...

For the most part, I like CLAMP. I've seen many of their works and found nearly all of them to be in top form with regards to art and storytelling. That said, I do not like Chobits. The art of Chobits is great, don't get me wrong; the characters are all typical CLAMP fare; the girls are more lithe than lusty, and the boys still stand squarely in the realm of Bishonen. The only exception to this is Hideki, who looks a bit like One Piece's Monkey D. Luffy.

What I did not like about Chobits is the story. Hideki is a pervert who spends too much time playing with his pet robot to notice the real girls around him hitting on him. While this may be poignant commentary about the otaku generation's obsession with computers and pornography, dolled up with cute character designs, it does not appeal to me in the slightest. Hideki's constant internal monologue about how cute Chi is doesn't help matters much, nor does CLAMP's other occasional suggestive subtleties, such as Chi smearing natto slime on her face (use your imagination). I honestly found myself muttering, "She's a robot, guy... just ask the cute apartment manager out already."