Chobits-
Volume 5: Disappearance
Volume 6: My Own Person
(MVM Region 2 PAL DVD)
(2005)
review by Blackgloves

Volumes 5 and 6 of "Chobits"-- this anime adaptation of all-female Manga team CLAMP's sugar-coated meditation on love & relationships in a technological communications society -- bring the series to its poetic conclusion; all plot questions are answered and the central existential questions and themes of the show come well into the foreground as each of the other characters in student, Hideki Motosowa's, persocom filled life are connected in a hidden web of relationships that explore the attitudes of Japanese society towards technology through the metaphor of love between humans and their computer gadgets.

When Chi is kidnapped by a member of Minoru's message-board group, Hideki is forced to confront his feelings for the mysterious Persocom who has been revealed by Minoru's online investigation to be a member of the mythical Chobits class -- a type of Persocom created by the developers of the all-purpose, human-form computer communications devices as a check on the demands of their clients (a conglomeration of companies known as The Syndicate). How they are able to do this is a mystery, but The Syndicate have sent two Persocoms called Zima (a Data-Base on Persocoms) and Dita (a security system for the Data-Base) to keep a watch on Chi -- programmed to prevent her finding "the one just for me" which will activate a programme that may threaten the very safety of all Persocoms.

While Hideki searches for Chi, he learns all sorts of new things about his friends which help to make him come to some conclusions about his own feelings. An astonishing relationship (already hinted at) between Chi and Hideki's beautiful Landlady, Miss Hibiya is uncovered, and Chi's true nature and purpose is finally revealed; Hideki's work-mate, Yumi and her diffidence about Persocoms and her fear that they will replace all human relationships turns out to have its roots in her relationship with Mr Ueda -- the Baker who employs Chi as an assistant. In turn, we find out about Ueda's previous marriage to a female-form Persocom, and the tragic circumstances surrounding its end. Minoru's Persocom Yuzumi's physical resemblance to his dead sister is addressed and Minoru's affection for Yuzumi as a distinct individual rather than a copy of his sister becomes a big issue when the Persocom puts herself in danger. Finally, Hideki's best friend Shimbo returns to help Hideki set his mind straight about his elopement with their school teacher, who left her husband because of the man's Persocom addiction.

This series draws some thought-provoking and mischievous parallels between our ever-increasing dependence on technology and the way human relationships depend upon and are affected by our changing communications culture, expressed in a unique way that perhaps only the Japanese would contemplate. As Hideki and Chi are drawn into a bizarre, technologically derived form of spiritual union which brings all Persocoms together, the series comes to a close with a curiously surreal form of romantic techno-love revelry that rounds things off in a touching, strange and clever way.

The final volume of the series is unique in that it features more than just the usual extras of trailers, artwork and credit-less title sequences. Most long-running series feature the occasional recap episode which allow newcomers to get into the show. MVM have wisely removed these interrupting episodes from each of the other DVD volumes and grouped them together as an extra on the final volume. There are three of them, which take the form of a conversation between two members of the cast, interposed with clips from previous episodes. There is also a short comic episode featuring miniature Persocoms Kotoko and Sumomo.

Fans of this series wont be disappointed by its imaginative conclusion.