Title: Chobits Collection (Blu-ray)
Published by: Madman Entertainment (Australia), Funimation (United States)
Based on: The Chobits manga series by CLAMP.
Audio: English and Japanese dubs
Subtitles: English
Aspect Ratio: 1080i High Definition (SD Remaster)
Runtime: 475 minutes
Cost: $59.95
Classification: This title is rated M for sexual references and low level violence. This title is recommended for those 15 years or older.
Blurb: “This is a remastered release of the classic anime series Chobits, focusing on Hideki Motosuwa, a young man who has travelled to Tokyo with prospects of a uni life but instead finds himself with a mysterious persocom known as Chi, who is a complete mystery to those around her. Overall, the storyline is solid, with no modifications to the original storyline and I do like how they focus both on the benefits for technology, but also the implications of them. The design was initially very good, however has been remastered extremely well and displays well on larger HD televisions. Overall, if you love the series or are new to it, then you cannot go past this collection!
Special Thanks: Special thanks goes to Madman Entertainment for providing me with a review sample of this title.
“Remember Chobits? The name-brand anime series from 2001 which has spawned off countless cosplay adaptations and had characters from it appear in every CLAMP anime series since? Well guess what! You can relive the glory of it with this Blu-ray SD remastered version of the series at one low price. CLAMP have always released some interesting titles, however I think it is safe to say that Chobits has remained one of the more famous of them. For those who are interested in the series as a whole, or how the quality compares to the original DVD release, then read in for my review of Chobits Blu-ray Collection.
In an alternate present day, we have computers known as Persocoms that can be designed to look like toy figures, animals, even people… Our story focuses on one such Persocom named Chi and her new owner, Hideki Motosuwa, who is too broke to buy one and yet is lucky enough to have found Chi in the trash. But when Hideki turns Chi on for the first time, something strange occurs… Without her OS, Chi should not be able to be as cognizant as she acts. What is this mysterious Persocom and why was she in the trash? Hideki has a mystery to unfold and still pass his classes at the same time?
For those who have not had the chance to watch this series before, it surrounds a young man named Hideki Motosuwa, who moves to Tokyo with big dreams and aspirations, only to find himself without a university to fall back on and thus is forced to attend a prep school. Also, the world has now been populated with personal computers known as Persocoms, that can range in the shape of small keychains to human looking ones. Whilst these catch Hideki’s eyes, he is unable to purchase one due to the cost, until he runs into one abandoned at the entrance of his apartment block. From that, he learns that she is an impossible machine, able to run without an OS, can cause any connected Persocom to crash and can only say Chi.
With the exception of a few instances, most episodes of this series are episodic in nature and are not directly related to the previous episode. Whilst there is an overarching storyline of “Who exactly is Chi?”, most episodes focus on Hideki trying to either support Chi or improving his knowledge surrounding Chobits through the people around him. What I do like, is not only how they focus on the benefits of having a persocom, but also on the negative implications it has had on society, such as how it has broken up relationships and taken over jobs, as a Persocom can be perceived by some to be the “Perfect” human.
Looking at the primary plot driving episodes, the storyline surrounding Chi and Hideki is solid, and has enough content to make it a solid watch, however the “filler” episodes surrounding Chi and her learning experiences were varied between enjoyable and boring. At the start in particular, they seemed to enjoy filling the episodes with slight sexual inuendos, which persisted through the series on a lessening basis. Whilst the inuendos surrounding Chi got creepy at points, Hideki and his occasionally failed attempts at hiding his interest in porn actually got rather funny at times. Overall, if you are after a series with a solid story and interesting character development, especially in the later episodes then you most probably will not be disappointed with this series. Whilst the overuse of filler episodes such as spontaneous trips to a beach and the characters travelling around an RPG-esque world (Both of which reveal some secrets of Chi’s capabilities), can be annoying, the plot follows the original manga series very well.
The design has always for me been above average and nothing spectacular. The series does succeed in making Chi look very cute, even if she occasionally seems to wear the same outfits every episode, especially earlier on. The designs of the other characters are all solid and with the limited cast of characters they work with throughout the series, it has allowed the character designs to all look unique in comparison to others. In terms of environment designs, it is decent with no scenes suddenly deciding to drop the quality of the backgrounds suddenly. That being said, and this might be due to this title being released almost a decade ago, it is a no frills design which does work at times, but not at others. For those wondering about how this show turns up on a bigger screen television, I tested both this Blu-ray copy and a normal Chobits DVD (Vol. 1) on my 50″ television and honestly, the quality of this collection was by far superior to that of the original.
Opening Theme
Let me be with You by ROUND TABLE feat. Nino
Ending Theme
Raison d’Être (Episodes 1 – 12) and Ningyohime (Rest of Series) by Rie Tanaka
I have decided to review all three OP/ED songs together this time as I think my opinion stands the same for all three. All three songs are not very enjoyable. Whilst Let Me Be with You is the most enjoyable, it would only be considered average in my books however sports some moderately interesting animation, but not up to a standard that I would expect from CLAMP. The Ending Themes are both too soft for my liking and after episode 1, I actually skipped over them as the animation was bland.
The series boasts a moderately size music list for all the scenes the series throws at the viewer, however there were evidently a lack of song chocies for certain moments in the series. For example, during the faster paced climax sequences of the series, they seemed to have only one or two songs maximum for them, however at the lighter hearted moments of the series, they had more then enough. The tracks however are of a suitable quality for the time this series was first released and are overall enjoyable to listen to.
The voice acting of this series on the other hand is brilliant. I say this was some bias as Crispin Freeman who voices Hideki (Famous for voicing characters such as Zetta in Makai Kingdom) and Michelle Ruff (The sole voice actress of Etna in the Disgaea series) just happen to be my favorite male and female English voice actors. However, to keep it simple, the voice acting was good and features a number of well talented voice actors.
You might be wondering if a Blu-ray edition of the series would have many extras. The answer is yes. Is there much different from the DVD set…. not really. However, everything that was included in the original DVD release of the series is present on the third and final disc of this collection and it has all been remastered into HD. The extras include:
- Episode 9.5 – Shinbo and Sumomo Chat (Summary Episode)
- Episode 18.5 – Minoru and Yuzuki Chat (Summary Episode)
- Episode 24.5 – Hibiya and Kotoko Chat (Summary Episode)
- Chibits Special
- Textless Opening and Ending Themes
- US Trailers for the following titles: Black Butler, Rideback, Soul Eater, Sgt Frog, xxxHolic, Tsubasa, Spice & Wolf and Kaleido Star
Everything you would want is on there, however for those who watch the series through in bulk may not really need the Summary Episodes, but they are decent summaries of the episodes prior to Eps 10, 19 and 25. The Chibits Special is rather enjoyable and gives Sumomo and Kotoko an episode to shine in. The trailers were all US trailers but most if not all the titles trailered are available over in Australia as well. The one issue I did have, was that upon booting up the disc, I was presented with a non-skippable trailer….. it got annoying considering that if I wanted to watch the trailers I could have just watched them at the trailer section of the disc.
So how to summarize this series…. most fans of anime would have already seen this title, however if the quality of the DVD discs is very poor on your television, then it is easily justifiable to purchase this Blu-ray collection, as for a series almost a decade old, the remastered version if definitely of a good quality. It is an enjoyable series that whilst progressing slow at times, has a solid storyline that has something to offer all audiences…..
Final Score
Storyline: B+
Character Development: B
Design: B
OP/ED Themes: C
Music: A-
Voice Acting: A
Extras: A-
Personal Opinion: B+
Overall Score: B+
