Hideki is despondent over not being able to afford a PC like everyone else, when he scrounges one discarded in an alley dumpster. His computer-literate classmate and new friend, Shinbo, tells him that this PC (which they name “Chi” because that is all she can say at first) is not a commercial model; it must be an experimental PC that some amateur inventor tinkered together. It only gradually becomes evident just how unique and “impossible” Chi is. There is an urban legend about a new kind of PC called “chobits,” which look like ordinary PCs but are intelligent and have independent personalities. Could Chi be a chobit?

Hideki makes friends, finds a part-time job, does “guy stuff” like ogling porno magazines, crams for tests and meets girls. Three girls in particular: Chitose Hibiya, the young-widow manager of his apartment building; Takako Shimizu, his young prep school teacher; and Yumi Ohmura, the high-school student daughter of the family-run restaurant/bar where he works. All are old enough to be possible romantic interests. Amidst these activities he “programs” Chi for everyday use, which involves many amusing situations (since Chi is physically a 16-year-old girl, Hideki must buy lingerie for her) and contradictory advice from his friends.

But as Chi develops a puppy-love crush on Hideki, it becomes a serious matter. There are horror stories about computer geeks who became too attached to their PCs instead of real girls. Hideki is a healthy male, with three women who are seriously interested in him. Chi is merely a cute machine — except that she has an increasingly sophisticated personality and can be emotionally hurt by rejection. What if she is a chobit? What if she is not less than human, but equal to or more than human?

Chobits is rather like the Paddington Bear stories for shy teen boys, with examples such as how to look for a part-time job and how to act on your first date rather than how to help Mommy go shopping. It is also a gently humorous guide for the computer-clueless like Hideki into the world of PC technobabble: OS, I/O ports, BBSs, RAM, freeware and so on.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure © Super Techno Arts.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. V.1 - V.6
OAV series (13 episodes), 2000-2001 & 1993-1994. Directors: Hideki Futamura and Noboru Furuse; Hiroyuki Kitakubo. V.1, three episodes/90 minutes; V.2-6, two episodes/60 minutes. Price & format: DVD bilingual V.1 $29.99, v.2-6 $24.99. Distributor: Super Techno Arts.

This cross between Dracula and videogames like Street Fighter has been known by reputation for over a decade. An American video release has been promised and postponed since before there were DVDs. Now it is finally coming.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken) has been a super-popular manga serial by Hirohiko Araki in Shonen Jump magazine since 1987. There are 80 reprint volumes of about 200 pages each to date. French and Italian editions have given it a good international reputation, and it has spawned bloody video games. It is a multi-generational saga about a secret war between Dio, an evil vampire and an international team of macho vampire hunters led by members of the Joestar family, all of whom have names beginning with “Jo” (the British Jonathan, his son Joseph, a half-Japanese grandson Jotaro) and the nickname JoJo.