But can she run Linux?

After starting the series 6 years ago, I finally picked up the last two volumes and have finished reading the Chobits comic. I liked it a lot, and I’m glad I gritted my teeth to read eight graphic novels backwards. (I usually take in an entire comic page in a glance or two, and reading unflipped manga for me is a bit like taking your car up to 55 mph in second gear. You can do it, but it’s not comfortable.)

Y’know, only the Japanese could combine 1) a serious examination of computer emotion and sentience, and 2) innocent, adorable robot girls running around unself-consciously in mildly fetishy outfits. It kept confusing me, because between the clothing choices and the male lead’s humorous over-reactions to every situation, I wasn’t sure I was meant to be taking this seriously, but then the authors would drop back into the real distress experienced by several characters because of the difficult emotional situations they faced.

The ending doesn’t contain any real surprises, but the purpose of this tale is the journey, not the destination, and the last book makes sense of several points that I’d expected to be conveniently forgotten. I no longer trust 21st century creators to do this, so it’s a welcome change to be able to believe “we were planning this all along” for once.

In completely unrelated news, Midori has found the basket of laundry that I’ve just pulled from the dryer, and is at this moment the happiest sleeping cat in Portsmouth.

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One Comment

  • meiran says:

    That’s CLAMP for you ; ) They’re really good at stuff like that. A lot of their stories have an underlying theme that is much more serious than you would expect when you pick it up. Card Captor Sakura is all about the different types of love and finding your “ichiban.”

    The sad thing is that lately CLAMP seems to be starting more things than they can finish. XXXHolic is fun, but I don’t see where it could possibly be going, and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles feels more like fanservice than a complete story. They’ve got like three series on hiatus (X/1999, Legal Drug, and I think one other).

    I’m going to stop rambling about CLAMP now *grin*

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