Anime Reviews: Chobits
I have no idea who translated Chobits from Japanese to English, but give them a medal. (Update: Anime News Network’s encyclopedia credits the English translation to Rika Takahashi, with the ADR script by Fred Kennamer and, for episodes 5-8, Michael McConnohie. Medals all around.)
Quite a bit of the anime imported from Japan tries to be funny, but normally something gets lost in the translation. Most jokes fall flat or get one smirk out of the audience. Chobits is not one of those anime.
Every episode is full of delicious humor, and most of it is flat-out belly laughs. Admittedly, most of it is slapstick and schoolyard humor, but it was funny enough for my oldest daughter to fall out of her chair from laughing so hard. The music is springy and upbeat, and it supports the storyline well. As with almost all of CLAMP’s and Madhouse’s work, the video is very smooth and the colors are expertly handled. Both audio tracks (English, and Japanese with subtitles) feature excellent voice acting.
The DVD
The packaging is fine. I like the clear DVD case Pioneer selected for this release. The menus are decent, and you can go directly to a particular episode right from the top menu, something I wish other studios would do. The extras are ho-hum: a textless opening and an image gallery. Unfortunately, the gallery is very limited (8 images in total), and only a couple are in color. Production sketches would have been cheap to include and would have increased the value.
The story
This DVD includes four episodes. The storyline is well laid out and easy to follow.
The basic plot follows a farm boy who applies to college and gets rejected. He is determined to go, so he leaves the countryside and heads for Tokyo, where he is certainly out of place. The hot commodity is the persocom, a computer built to look like a person, ranging from human-sized to little pocket models. Hideki notes the abundance of breasts on them, then notes the price, which is way out of range for a poor cram school student.
Hideki finds his apartment, meets a couple of people (every female seems to think he’s cute in episode one), and finds a mysterious persocom in the trash. It looks new, and it is very cute. He finally gets it turned on, and all it can say is “chi.” His neighbor tries to help, but Chi ends up frying the neighbor’s persocom. Hideki gets referred to a specialist, a kid who handcrafts persocoms. Chi fries all of his units, too. All anyone can tell is that Chi is custom-built and has some heavy security in her programming.
The story continues as Chi learns how to communicate. Episode four is basically about Chi going out to buy underwear, and it is by far the funniest episode on the DVD.
There are a fair number of underage-looking characters, such as a high-school-aged girl who notes that her breasts are D-cups and not hard and cold. Chi, the persocom at the center of the story, looks a bit underage, too. All of the females are drawn cute. “Cute” particularly describes Chi, especially as she learns to communicate.
Is Chobits appropriate for kids? Age rating and parents guide
Short answer: not for young kids. The official US releases rate it for teens and up, with ratings ranging from 12+ to 16+ depending on the edition. Most of the ratings fall between 14+ and 16+.
Official US ratings
Anime (TV series, 2002):
| Release | Rating |
|---|---|
| Pioneer Entertainment DVD, Vol. 1 (2003), the volume reviewed here | 16+ |
| Geneon DVD box sets (2005) | 16+ |
| Funimation Complete Series Blu-ray, Anime Classics (2011) | TV-14 (ANN lists it as 14+) |
Manga:
| Release | Rating |
|---|---|
| Tokyopop, 8 volumes (2002-2003) | OT, Older Teen, 16+ |
| Dark Horse omnibus, 2 volumes (2010) | 12+ on Dark Horse’s product pages; ANN’s release database lists 16+ |
| Kodansha 20th Anniversary Edition (2020) | 13+ |
Other ratings and guides
| Source | What it says |
|---|---|
| MyAnimeList (anime) | PG-13, Teens 13 or older. Genres include Ecchi; demographic is Seinen. |
| Anime News Network encyclopedia | Objectionable content: Significant, for both the anime and the manga. ANN’s anime entry lists “fanservice” among its themes. |
| Crunchyroll content advisory | Suggestive Dialogue, Sexualized Imagery, Smoking. |
| Common Sense Media | No Chobits review found as of November 2, 2026. |
What’s in it
- Audience: The manga ran in Kodansha’s Weekly Young Magazine, a seinen magazine aimed at adult men. Per Wikipedia, it was CLAMP’s first manga aimed at older male readers.
- Nudity and fanservice: There is brief nudity and frequent fanservice. Crunchyroll’s advisory flags sexualized imagery.
- Sexual humor: There is very heavy sexual innuendo. Chi’s power switch is located between her legs, so you can guess how turning her on (no pun intended) plays out. Hideki’s interest in porn is a recurring gag, and one early episode centers on buying Chi underwear.
- Themes: Under the comedy, the series is about loneliness and whether people can have real relationships with machines. Critics have pointed out that the persocoms are written as obedient, idealized women, which is worth talking through with older teens.
- Violence and language: I didn’t note any violence on this disc. The ratings above, and the ANN and Crunchyroll notes, are about sexual content, not violence.
My take as a parent: the ratings track with what I saw. Preview it before letting younger kids watch, and save it for older teens and adults. Overall, it is a fun and quirky story, and I’d certainly recommend it to appropriate audiences.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Chobits rated?
It depends on the release. Pioneer’s and Geneon’s DVDs are rated 16+, and Funimation’s 2011 Blu-ray is rated TV-14. Tokyopop rated the manga OT (Older Teen, 16+), Dark Horse lists its omnibus at 12+, and Kodansha rates its 20th Anniversary Edition 13+.
Is Chobits OK for a 12-year-old?
None of the anime releases is rated below 14. The only 12+ rating is on the Dark Horse manga omnibus, and other databases list that edition at 16+. The show has brief nudity, frequent fanservice, and heavy sexual innuendo, so most parents will want to wait or preview it first.
Does Chobits have nudity?
Yes. There is brief nudity and frequent fanservice. Crunchyroll’s content advisory lists suggestive dialogue, sexualized imagery, and smoking.
Is Chobits an ecchi anime?
MyAnimeList tags it Ecchi, alongside Comedy, Drama, Romance, and Sci-Fi. ANN rates its objectionable content as Significant.
Is the Chobits manga different from the anime for age rating?
The manga editions are rated 12+ to 16+ depending on the publisher, while the anime releases are rated 14+ to 16+. Both come from a seinen manga aimed at adult men.
Sources
Anime News Network encyclopedia, Chobits (TV): https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=357
– Anime News Network encyclopedia, Chobits (manga): https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/manga.php?id=1553
– ANN release database, Geneon DVD Box 1 (16+): https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/releases.php?id=3691
– ANN release database, Funimation Complete Series Blu-ray (14+): https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/releases.php?id=18068
– ANN release database, Dark Horse omnibus vol. 1 (16+): https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/releases.php?id=14919
– Blu-ray.com, Pioneer DVD Vol. 1 (16+): https://www.blu-ray.com/dvd/Chobits-Volume-1-Persocom-DVD/227935/
– Blu-ray.com, Funimation Complete Series Blu-ray (TV-14) and Jeffrey Kauffman’s review: https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Chobits-Complete-Series-Blu-ray/18021/
– Dark Horse product pages, Chobits Omnibus Vols. 1-2 (12+): https://www.darkhorse.com/books/16-633/chobits-vol-1-omnibus-edition-tpb/ and https://www.darkhorse.com/books/16-634/chobits-vol-2-omnibus-edition-tpb/
– Tokyopop OT 16+ rating, as printed on the volumes and recorded in library catalogs and the Grand Comics Database: https://archive.org/details/chobitsvol10000clam and https://www.comics.org/series/20086/details/
– Kodansha, Chobits 20th Anniversary Edition Vol. 1 (13+): https://kodansha.us/series/chobits-20th-anniversary-edition/volume-1/
– MyAnimeList, Chobits (PG-13): https://myanimelist.net/anime/59/Chobits
– Crunchyroll, Chobits content advisory: https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/G9VHN97K8/chobits
– Wikipedia, Chobits: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chobits
Ratings checked November 2, 2026.