Chobits (with Asher Sofman) [Seinen Exception #2]

Shojo & Tell: A Manga Podcast

This episode discusses all eight volumes of Chobits by CLAMP.

We're continuing our journey through CLAMP with their most provocative, perverted, and problematic series yet: The sci-fi series Chobits, where personal computers (persocoms) take the form of cute high school girls with cat ears. Hideki, peak schmuck boy, finds a free one in the trash, and he names her Chi, and then he may or may not fall in love with her, even though she behaves like a child. Talk about awkward. Asher and Ashley have A LOT of feelings about the moral implications of the relationships between humans and persocoms that are presented by each character arc, the way artificial intelligence and computer memory is discussed, and about the handling of the sexual topics. Look. CLAMP apparently isn't saying it's okay to marry Hatsune Miku. But your love of Hatsune Miku is real love. Ashley's still waiting for the "so what?" of it all.

PLEASE NOTE: This episode is marked explicit due to being unable to avoid talking about lewd topics. Knowing that, Ashley also curses more than she ever has on this podcast. Proceed with caution!

REFERENCES

• Chobits is available in English from Kodansha Comics
• This episode is really just an advertisement for the podcasts CLAMPcast in Wonderland and Hot Money
• Other CLAMP series mentioned
  • Angelic Layer
  • Magic Knight Rayearth
  • Cardcaptor Sakura
• Other series mentioned
  • Fruits Basket
  • Naruto
  • Absolute Boyfriend
  • Marmalade Boy
• Battlebots stuff
  • Jamison Go/SawBlaze
  • Tombstone
  • Witch Doctor
• Songs/artists mentioned
  • Yuri the Only One for Me by LeetStreet Boys
  • Oxytocin by Billie Eilish
  • Snow (Hey Oh) by Red Hot Chili Peppers
  • Lil Nas X
  • Hatsune Miku
• Computer stuff mentioned
  • BBS (Bulletin Board System)
  • Defragging
  • YouTube AI algorithm failures
  • Tricking the Twitter/Microsoft chatbot
  • This ex-Google AI idiot
  • The Most Human Human
  • Three Laws of Robotics
• Outro song: "The Streatham Hill Gods" by Danosongs

CONTACT US

• Asher on Archive of Our Own: @dashery
• Shojo & Tell on Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram
• Ashley's Tales of Xillia fanfic: Well Suited