List of characters in Chobits

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This article about Chobits characters is part of the Chobits group of articles. Names are in Western order, with the surname after the given name.

Contents


[edit] Hideki Motosuwa

Japanese Seiyū
Tomokazu Sugita
English Voice Actor
Crispin Freeman

Hideki Motosuwa (本須和秀樹 Motosuwa Hideki?) is a 19-year-old (in the anime, 18) repeat student (ronin) attempting to get into university by studying at Seki cram school, which his parents have sent him to. They have also severed his allowance, which means he has to work at Yorokonde (My Pleasure), an izakaya, to make ends meet. One night, while walking home from work, he finds a persocom lying in a pile of garbage. He takes her home, and upon activating her, finds that the only word she can utter is "Chi". Because of this, he gives her the name "Chi" (in the anime, "Chii") and takes her into his care, doing his best to protect and teach her.

Hideki could best be described as "a fish out of water." Living in the country his entire life, Hideki has trouble adjusting to his new life in Tokyo. Due to this, he is prone to outbursts of confusion and frustration. Also, because of the time spent by himself on his family's farm (which in the anime is revealed to be in Hokkaidō), Hideki has a habit of thinking out loud and talking to himself. This leads to some very entertaining moments between himself and the women he meets. Like many young men, Hideki has an active libido, possessing many pornographic magazines which he refers to as "okazu" ("side dish"). (In the English manga translation, Chi refers to one of the magazines as a "tasty side dish"; in the anime's American translation, Chi refers to these magazines as "Hideki's yummies"). When he moves to Tokyo, Hideki desires a persocom so that he can finally surf the internet for pornography. It should be stated however that he isn't the only character who thinks this way. In fact Shinbo himself proudly admits that Sumomo is also equipped to perform these tasks when he first meets Hideki.

Despite his shortcomings and occasional moments of awkwardness with the bustling environment of Tokyo, Hideki is a genuinely kind and honest person, whose habit of thinking of others' well-being before his own can cause many problems. When a friend is in trouble, especially Chi, he is always there to help. Although many characters in the series often tease him for being a "nice guy", they turn to him for advice with their problems, knowing he will always hear them out and do his best to assist them.

In an extra 27th episode included on the Chobits anime DVD, it is shown that Hideki is finally admitted to college after studying for a year at the prep school.

[edit] Chitose Hibiya

Japanese Seiyū
Kikuko Inoue
English Voice Actor
Bridget Hoffman

Chitose Hibiya (日比谷 千歳 Hibiya Chitose?) is the landlady at the apartment where Hideki is staying. In the manga, she was previously an employee of Piffle Princess Enterprises and participated in the development of Angels and later, persocoms. She was married to the president of the company, the late Ichiro "Icchan" Mihara, who used the data gathered from the Angelic Layer research to create the Chobits to be Chitose's children, because she was unable to have children of her own. She also authors the "A City with No People" series of books to help Chi find the Person Just for Her.

[edit] Hiromu Shinbo

Japanese Seiyū
Tomokazu Seki
English Voice Actor
Tony Oliver

Hiromu Shinbo (新保弘 Shinbo Hiromu?), also spelled "Shimbo", is Hideki's best friend and is also studying at Seki cram school. In the anime, Shinbo lives in the same apartment complex as Hideki and is his next-door neighbor. Shinbo is usually the first person Hideki turns to for help with persocoms. Shortly after beginning school he becomes romantically involved with his teacher Takako Shimizu, after finding her in a park late at night because she had been unwittingly locked out of her house by her husband, who was too busy with his persocom. He later elopes with her and convinces her to marry him.

[edit] Sumomo

Japanese Seiyū
Motoko Kumai
English Voice Actor
Sandy Fox

Sumomo (すもも?) (Plum in the Tokyopop translation of the manga), whose name means "plum" in Japanese, is a miniature "mobile persocom" – the equivalent of a laptop computer. Wearing an outfit that makes her resemble a genie, she is programmed to be cute and tends to be quite hyperactive, for example leading Hideki in wakeup exercises each morning and dancing when she is standby mode. Shinbo was the original owner of Sumomo, but left her with Hideki after leaving with Takako. He later transfers Sumomo's registration to Hideki, giving him permanent ownership. At the beginning of the series, Shinbo uses Sumomo in an attempt to analyze Chi, and Sumomo is nearly broken in the process, requiring new main memory, and in the manga, a new video card as well. Once Kotoko joined Hideki, she quickly came to the conclusion that Sumomo was mad, with her nonsensical ways.

In the original Japanese version, her seiyuu (Kumai) once worked together with Kotoko's seiyu (Nogami) in Cardcaptor Sakura (another anime adapted from CLAMP's works, as Li Syaoran and Li Meiling respectively). Ironically, in CCS, Syaoran was the more "mature" one of the pair.

[edit] Chi (Elda)

Japanese Seiyū
Rie Tanaka
English Voice Actor
Michelle Ruff
Main article: Chi (Chobits)

Chi (ちぃ Chii?) is a fictional character in the manga series Chobits, and its anime adaptation. She is a Chobit, a type of persocom that is far more technologically advanced than regular persocoms, and who are said to possess true machine intelligence rather than relying on the execution of pre-loaded software programs like other persocoms.[1] She is also a minor character in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle[citation needed]

[edit] Minoru Kokubunji (M)

Japanese Seiyū
Houko Kuwashima
English Voice Actor
Mona Marshall

Minoru (国分寺 稔 Kokubunji Minoru?) is a wealthy twelve-year old genius, whose specialty is persocoms. In particular, he has built a custom persocom named Yuzuki, designed to look like his late sister, and has given her self-teaching software, meaning that she can learn things on her own instead of having to have programs loaded into her as if the case with most persocoms.

For the most part, Minoru is a very reserved and soft spoken individual who surrounds himself with persocoms. His curiosity over Chi's origins leads to him becoming one of Hideki Motosuwa's closest friends. Minoru does what he can to help his friends whether it be technological help, such as tracking things down or allowing Hideki to make video phone calls, or advice on relationships with persocoms. Although he is known for being calm and collected most of the time, Minoru's attitude completely changes when Yuzuki is present. Similar to Hideki's behavior toward Chi, Minoru is very protective of Yuzuki and is prone to outbursts whenever she is in trouble. He is also very forgiving, always comforting her on the fact that it is never her fault if something goes wrong.

Minoru is also known as "M" on the bulletin boards, where he is considered one of the leading experts in the field of persocom development. Minoru's late sister is Kaede Saito, a character from Angelic Layer.

[edit] Yuzuki

Japanese Seiyū
Fumiko Orikasa
English Voice Actor
Karen Strassman

Yuzuki is a persocom created by Minoru Kokubunji roughly two years before the start of the series. Yuzuki was created to resemble, physically and mentally, Minoru's late sister, Kaede, who had died from an illness two years earlier. Yuzuki is programmed with all of the data that Minoru could remember about his sister; what she liked, what she disliked, as well as her habits and behaviors. However, Minoru still realizes that no matter how realistic she may be, she is still only a persocom that is following her programming. Yuzuki also possess an awareness of her own limitations.

Toward the end of the anime and manga, Yuzuki loses a large portion of Kaede's personality data as a result of trying to hack into Zima and being counter-hacked by Dita. However, Minoru declines to reenter this data, because he has grown to love Yuzuki for who she is; because she is Yuzuki, rather than because she is a replacement for his sister.

[edit] Takako Shimizu

Japanese Seiyū
Ryoka Yuzuki
English Voice Actor
Wendee Lee

Takako Shimizu (清水多香子 Shimizu Takako?) is Hideki and Shinbo's teacher at the Seki cram school. Like Yumi, Shimizu has had a negative experience with persocoms: Her husband bought a persocom, and eventually she became unimportant to him compared to the persocom. He spent more and more time with it until he forgot about his wife completely, locking her out of the house one night because he was so enamored with it. Because of this, Shimizu is no longer able to trust human men. Later, she elopes with Shinbo. In the end, she returns to the cram school, married to Shinbo.

[edit] Yumi Oumura

Japanese Seiyū
Megumi Toyoguchi
English Voice Actor
Julie Maddalena

Yumi Oumura (大村裕美 Ōmura Yumi?) is a seventeen year old girl who works at the Japanese pub [My Pleasure] alongside Hideki. In the anime, she is the daughter of the club's owner, but in the manga, she is only an employee. It is initially implied that Yumi is interested in a relationship with Hideki, but as the series progresses it is revealed that she initially approached him because he also worked at Club Pleasure, and that she thinks of him as an older brother. Throughout most of the series Yumi has an inferiority complex toward persocoms, and becomes upset at any mention of a human-sized persocom.

The reason for this is that while Yumi was working at Chiroru she fell in love with the manager, Hiroyasu Ueda. She gathered the courage to tell him, and found out that he reciprocated her feelings. However, Yumi later discovered that Ueda had previously been married to a persocom that he had named Yumi (see Hiroyasu's entry) and she thought that he would compare her to the persocom Yumi and find her inferior.

However, Hideki eventually manages to persuade Yumi that Hiroyasu wouldn't have started anything if he didn't love Yumi for who she was, and he and Yumi resume their relationship.

[edit] Freya

Japanese Seiyū
Rie Tanaka
English Voice Actor
Michelle Ruff

Freya was the first Chobit, who was created before Elda by Hibiya's husband, Ichiro Mihara. Freya was created to be Hibiya's daughter, because she was unable to bear children of her own. Freya's development was kept secret from Hibiya; she did not know of Freya's existence until she was called down to the lab one day, without explanation. Upon awakening for the very first time, she was given the name Freya by Hibiya.

Freya lived happily with the Mihara couple for a time, until Hibiya noticed that her attitude was becoming increasingly melancholy, with no explanation as to why. At this point, Hibiya asked her husband to build a little sister for Freya, in an attempt to make her happy again. From this request, Elda was created. Freya was happy to have a little sister, and for a time, seemed to be acting normally, although, as Hibiya would later tell Hideki in the anime, "there were still these odd times when she looked as though she was thinking very deeply about something."

Some time after, Freya suddenly lost consciousness and collapsed to the ground. In the anime, the impetus for this event was witnessing her mother and father flirting with each other in the compound's courtyard. It was only then that Hibiya finally realized the source of Freya's sadness; she had fallen in love with her own father, Mihara. Freya knew that her father still loved his wife, and did not want to disturb their happiness, so she pained her heart with efforts to suppress her feelings. Over time, her pain became so great that she began to malfunction under the strain of her emotional burden. Freya was no longer able to move, and was bedridden from that point on. Toward the end, she could not lift a finger or even shift her focus, and began to suffer from memory malfunctions.

In the anime, Freya never found the courage to tell her father how she truly felt; in the manga, she resigns herself to the fact that because of the damage to her body, all hope is lost regardless of the outcome, and chooses to tell him her true feelings. Eventually Freya's pain became so unbearable, that she chose to self-terminate, rather than continue to exist. Before this could happen, Elda offered to take Freya's heart into her own, so that she would not disappear completely, and so that her memories would be preserved. In the anime, nobody knew that Elda had taken in Freya's heart; conversely, in the manga, both Hibiya and Mihara learned of this only moments after it occurred.

Now that Elda has become Chi, Freya does everything she can to ensure that Chi will find the person just for her. Freya comforts Chi when she is in distress, guides her to understand her feelings for Hideki, and intervenes when she is in danger.

(Note about the spelling "Freya": "Freya" actually appears in the Japanese Chobits merchandise. In Norse mythology, Freya was a goddess of love, sex and attraction.)

[edit] Hiroyasu Ueda

Japanese Seiyū
Yuji Ueda
English Voice Actor
Steven Blum

Hiroyasu Ueda (植田 弘康 Ueda Hiroyasu?) is the owner of Chiroru, a local bakery which Yumi (and in the manga, Hideki) once worked in and which Chi ends up working at. He is thirty-eight years old, although he looks as though he is only in his mid-20's, at one point noting jokingly that he has a "baby face".

He too has suffered a trauma involving persocoms. When he first opened his bakery, he bought a persocom to help with math and accounting, which he admits he is terrible at. He eventually fell in love with this persocom and then married her, but she developed a hard disk fault which resulted in the gradual degradation of her memory, until she remembered almost nothing at all.

Rarely, she would suddenly recall small fragments of memories from her life with Hiroyasu. He could not bring himself to have her repaired because her memories might be lost completely in the process of transferring them to a new hard drive, and he felt she would not be the same person if this happened. Soon, her memory degraded to the point that she could not remember anything for more than a few seconds at a time, and Hiroyasu had to keep a constant watch on her to prevent her from wandering away. One night while walking with his persocom, Hiroyasu, lost in thought, walked into the middle of the street, unaware of an oncoming car. In a final moment of clarity, his persocom pushed him out of the way and was herself run over. Her last word to Hiroyasu was "Konnichiwa"; the default greeting for a newly activated persocom with no memories.

Hiroyasu and Yumi Oumura were in love in the past, but broke up when Yumi quit her job at the bakery after discovering that the persocom he was previously married to was named "Yumi" and feared she could never live up to the other Yumi. Through the help of Chi and Hideki, he and Yumi resume their relationship.

[edit] Yoshiyuki Kojima (Dragonfly)

Japanese Seiyū
Jun'ichi Suwabe
English Voice Actor
Terrence Stone

Known in online circles as "Dragonfly", Yoshiyuki Kojima (小島 良由起 Kojima Yoshiyuki?) is a man of few scruples and another custom persocom-builder. Unlike Minoru Kokubunji, he is more obsessed with persocoms and even kidnaps Chi at one point. He tries to hack into Chi, using all of his persocoms in a massive parallel processing network. During this time, he makes an ill-advised attempt to inappropriately touch Chi, and Freya takes over, restraining him with all of the cords attached to her. She then attacks him with a concussion blast, blowing out the windows in his house and knocking him unconscious. Afterwards, to make amends for his actions he lends his help to solving the mystery of Chi and the Chobits.

Yoshiyuki is the original owner of Kotoko.

[edit] Kotoko

Japanese Seiyū
Yukana Nogami
English Voice Actor
Kari Wahlgren

Kotoko (琴子?) is another laptop persocom like Sumomo, but she was custom-built by Yoshiyuki and has much higher specifications than Sumomo. Kotoko originally belonged to Yoshiyuki, but following Chi's kidnapping, Hideki and Shinbo force Yoshiyuki to transfer ownership of Kotoko to Hideki so that her memories of Yoshiyuki kidnapping Chi cannot be erased. Kotoko is far more serious than Sumomo, and thinks that everyone in the Motosuwa household is crazy, Sumomo in particular. Kotoko is programmed to always tell the truth, no matter what, even when it works to her owner's disadvantage.

In the original Japanese version, her seiyuu (Nogami) once worked together with Sumomo's seiyu (Kumai) in Cardcaptor Sakura (another anime adapted from CLAMP's works, as Li Meiling and Li Syaoran respectively). Ironically, in CCS, Syaoran was the more "mature" one of the pair. Incidentally, Kotoko and Li Meiling have similar hairstyles.

[edit] Zima

Japanese Seiyū
Isshin Chiba
English Voice Actor
Kirk Thornton

Zima (ジーマ Jima?) is one of two government persocoms who are looking for Chi and is the Japanese government's national data bank; during the course of the series an attempt is made by Yuzuki to hack into him to gain information concerning Chi. In the anime, Zima remarks that he and Dita were created from the same basic system that Chi is, rendering them immune to her ability to immobilize persocoms.

Zima and Dita have been assigned to prevent Chii from executing her final program, as it is believed that the program would cause a tremendous amount of electronic damage and data loss to all persocoms on the planet. The program, which would actually destroy the person-recognition abilities of all persocoms, is believed to executre when Chi finds the "person just for her". Zima, however, believes that this may not necessarily be true, and genuinely wants Chi to find happiness. He believes that if Chi can find her own happy ending, he can have happiness with Dita. He loves Dita but she doesn't understand this because she thinks that persocoms are unable to have anything considered to be true feelings. He lies to Dita about Chi's whereabouts and stalls as long as possible before finally going to stop her. However, upon arriving Zima physically restrains Dita from attacking Chi.

In the anime, Zima is referred to as "The King of Persocoms".

[edit] Dita

Japanese Seiyū
Yuka Tokumitsu
English Voice Actor
Dorothy Elias-Fahn

Dita (ディタ?) is the second of the two persocoms looking for Chi. Her role is to protect Zima both physically and as a pro-active firewall, hacking into any persocom who tries to hack into Zima and shutting it down. Dita loves Zima and wants him to stay safe, but tries to deny it, believing the persocoms cannot or should not experience such feelings. In the manga, when Zima asked, "Do you love me?", she replies, "We're persocoms! Be serious!"


[edit] References

  1. ^ Chobits Volume One