Chobits (Chobittsu) is a manga that was created by a girl group of artists known as CLAMP. CLAMP is one of the few groups of artists featuring just girls, and are widely known for their manga. Chobits is different than their usual style, though, as it is about a magical girlfriend. CLAMP is better known for their stories that focus on male lead characters, not female. Chobits actually takes place in the world of another of CLAMP’s stories, called Angelic Layer. Angelic Layer and Chobits both deal with the relationship between toys and humans.
Meet Hideki Motosuwa. Poor Hideki is trying, once again, to qualify to enter into the university. To do so, he is taking courses at Seki prep school in downtown Tokyo. Hideki’s fondest wish is to have a girlfriend, and an android that is known as [[Persocom]. A Persocom is an amazing android that is able to be used as a walking, talking, personal computer. They are extremely expensive, though, and Hideki believes that the only way he would get one would be if it was just lying there, thrown away. A few days after this thought, he is walking home from the grocery store when he sees an abandoned Persocom! And this is not just any Persocom. This Persocom is a beautiful young woman, who has long blonde hair, and is lying, nude. Once he realizes that it is a Persocom, and not a dead body, he takes her home.
He gets home and discovers that the “on” switch is situated between her legs! After some hemming and hawing, he finally pushes it. The Persocom turns on and looks at Hideki with love in her eyes. He tries to find out who she belongs to, and what happened to her, but all she says is “chi”. So, being a sensible person, Hideki names the Persocom Chi. He had his friends discover that Chi has no previous memories, nor does she seem to have any data installed into her system. Technically, she should not be able to move, but, to her friends’ astonishment, she can! And not only can Chi move, but she can learn. She ends up getting a job in order to help Hideki, and so that she can afford the picture books she likes to look at.
After a little while, Hideki becomes extremely curious about Chi’s past, and why she has no memory. He finally discovers that Chi used to be two people: Freya and Elda. They were two sisters that were created by a lonely man and woman to be their daughters. In the programming, the father programs the daughters to look for love. Freya ends up choosing their father to love, which is forbidden. Because of this, she goes into an emotional overload, and Elda transfers Freya’s personality into herself. Persocom’s, though, are only meant to house one personality, and Elda felt herself losing her memories. She begs her parents to put her out into the street, so that she can not make the same mistakes that Freya made. It is then that Hideki stumbles upon her. She professes to love Hideki, but fears that he does not care for her in return. Hideki finds himself falling in love with a piece of machinery, and is tortured by it.