When it comes to discussions or recommendations of classic looking to dive deeper into the medium. Series like Cowboy Bebop or Neon Genesis Evangelion are consistently pushed onto the masses and for good reason. Both are timeless works of art that also offer glimpses into a now-distant period of anime. One series, though, which has faded over the years since its initial release is Studio Madhouse's Chobits, a severely underrated sci-fi anime that deserves more shine.

Based on the manga with the same name, Chobits was originally created by the artist collective, Clamp, also responsible for other well-known works like Cardcaptor Sakura and xxxHolic. Along with providing character designs for Code Geass, the all-female art group has cemented itself as one of the most successful and influential in manga history. However, after becoming popular enough to spawn several video game spin-offs during its initial run, Chobits hasn't quite been able to hang around with the other 'classic' anime all these years later.

Set in an alternate early 2000s time period where personal computers take the shape of humans, the blend of sci-fi and romance found in Chobits is reflective of the public's growing anxieties about the rapid advancement of digital technology during that time. It just so happens that the show is also brimming with the cute anime girls and the fan service that defined the era of anime. A little cheesy but genuinely fun, Chobits is a wildly underrated glimpse into the art form's past, and one that deserves more attention among the era's best.

A Product of Its Time, and All the Better For It

Chobits Makes Use of the Era's Tropes

So many classic anime series have thrived for decades because they either avoided many of the tropes that otherwise would have dated them, or established tropes that shows would continue to make use of for decades to come. Chobits doesn't do much of either, and instead relies on several of the time period's most popular clichés. While this may be a major reason why the once massively popular series has faded into obscurity, the anime is a rare instance of those tropes serving the story well.

Chobits initially aired in 2002, during a time when the potential of computers and the internet seemed limitless. Like Serial Experiments Lain before it, the series uses that 'anything is possible' attitude people held towards the rapidly advancing digital world as the basis for its plot. Hideki Motosuwa, a poor, struggling student, comes across a discarded persocom lying among trash bags.

He names the persocom Chi, and begins to teach her how to speak and function at a level that will get her through everyday life. Despite thinly-veiled commentary on the nature of human and computer relationships, Chobits uses an abundance of fan service scenes in order to shed light on the abnormality of the relationship blooming between the protagonist and Chi, as well as the uncomfortable use of persocoms that may or may not be able to feel emotions toward their owners.

Chobits and the Fear of the Digital Unknown

The Series Plays On the Growing Digital Anxiety of the '90s and '00s

Sci-fi anime experienced what many would argue was its golden age during the 1990s and early 2000s. Titles like Evangelion, Ghost in the Shell, Serial Experiments Lain, Cowboy Bebop, and many more were all released during this period and remain the genre's very best works. What many of these shows have in common is a central threat caused by humanity prying too far into technology of which they have little understanding. Chobits uses that very same premise, while posing a threat we as humans created.

It isn't a new or revolutionary idea. In fact, several of the genre's most popular works focus on the same issues. However, Chobits acts as a sort of dying breath for the Lain generation of sci-fi that placed our shallow understanding of computers and the internet as the series' central thesis. As time has ed and the rate that technology is advancing has slowed, the concept of walking, talking, and feeling computers doesn't come off as all that realistic. When Chobits premiered, though, it seemed like anything was possible.

The series uses that anxiety about the rapid growth of the digital space as fuel for its examination of potential romantic relationships between humans and computers. Is it right? Are they simply a replacement for those who cannot form relationships? If they can return those feelings, what makes it any different from loving another human? Is it taking advantage of a being who cannot refuse its creators' commands? While attempting to answer such questions, Chobits entertains the viewer with over-the-top comedic slice-of-life scenarios. If nothing else, the series is a fun look at past predictions of the future.

Chobits Is More Than Early 2000s Nostalgia

The Anime Still Has Something to Offer More Than Two Decades On

While much of what makes Chobits work comes from the era in which it was created, being one of the final major Lain generation shows before Elfen Lied ushered in anime's edgy period, it remains highly entertaining more than two decades later. Now, with the ever-growing moral dilemma surrounding the use of AI in matters strictly reserved for humanity, the once dated premise of cute computers gaining emotions seems to have eerily regained some of its relevance.

Chobits never quite dives to the depths that Evangelion or Serial Experiments Lain earned fame from exploring, yet that unwillingness to commit to its own seriousness gives the series charm. It may pose some thought-provoking questions, but does not hesitate to just as quickly pull the audience's focus towards its fan service-y persocoms. The series is a product of its time, but one that is still worth a watch.

If anime fans are tired of being given the same recommendations for classic anime, Chobits is deserving of some extra attention. Plenty of shows dive into more heady subject matter, but not many are as willing to have as much fun with themselves as Chobits does.