List of Chobits characters
This is a list of characters from the manga and anime series Chobits by Clamp.
Main characters
Hideki Motosuwa
Hideki Motosuwa is a 19-year-old repeat student attempting to get into a 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, an izakaya, to make ends meet. One night, while walking home from a convenience store, he finds a persocom lying in the trash outside his apartment building. He takes her home, and after much searching, switches her on and finds that the only word she can utter is "Chi". Because of this, he gives her the name "Chi" and takes her into his care, doing his best to protect and teach her.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, Hideki has a habit of thinking out loud and talking to himself which is a not infrequent source of comedy. He has an active libido, possessing many pornographic magazines which he refers to as "okazu".. When he moves to Tokyo, Hideki desires a persocom so that he can finally surf the internet for pornography and he is not the only character who thinks this way. In fact Shinbo himself proudly admits that Plum 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", mostly by saying that is why he is a virgin, 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.
Chi
Chi is a "chobit," a technologically advanced persocom rumored to possess true sapience, unlike other persocoms. She is found by Hideki one night in the trash, as he makes his way home from work. Her on-off switch is located in an unusual location. CLAMP has stated that this was done to create a major plot point. Upon Hideki finding the switch and turning her on, she is only able to say the word "chi," remembers nothing of her past life, and is unable to perform even simple tasks. Because of this, Hideki names her Chi and undertakes teaching her how to function. Because her system cannot be scanned by other persocoms, Minoru Kokubunji suggests she may be one of the legendary Chobits. Through the course of the series, Chi learns basic skills and eventually takes a job to help support Hideki.As Chi and Hideki learn more about her, Chi begins to have visions of another persocom who is identical to herself. Hideki eventually learns that this is Freya, her twin, and that Chi was originally called Elda; after Freya fell in love and broke her heart, her memories were downloaded into Chi, before her system stopped. While Ms. Hibiya was telling Hideki about Chi's earlier life Freya was telling a simpler, less detailed, version of the same story to Chi.
During the series, Chi reads a series of children's picture books, A City with No People, about a character searching for the "person just for me," which were written pseudonymously by Chitose Hibiya as a way of reconnecting Chi to her past self as Elda, and to guide Chi's search for love. At the end of the series, Hideki finally admits that he loves Chi, and is her special person.
Major supporting characters
Chitose Hibiya
Chitose Hibiya 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 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.Hiromu Shinbo
Hiromu Shinbo 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 finds his teacher Takako Shimizu 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 falls in love and becomes her husband.Plum
Sumomo 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 in standby mode. Shinbo was the original owner of Plum, but left her with Hideki after leaving with Takako. He later transfers Plum's registration to Hideki, giving him permanent ownership. At the beginning of the series, Shinbo uses Plum in an attempt to analyze Chi, and Plum 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 Plum was mad, with her nonsensical ways.Minoru Kokubunji / M
Minoru Kokubunji 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 is the case with most persocoms.For the most part, Minoru is a very reserved and very gentle 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.
Yuzuki
Yuzuki is a custom-built persocom created by Minoru Kokubunji roughly two years before the start of the series. She is very tall with long braids and blue hair. Her main outfit is a maid's uniform and at times outdoor civilian clothing. Yuzuki was created to resemble, physically and mentally, Minoru's late sister, Kaede, who had died from an illness two years earlier 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 is the case with most persocoms. 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 possesses an awareness of her own limitations, although she doesn't share it when conversing with Yumi and Yumi has told of her own feelings of limitation with respect to persocoms.Yuzuki is shown to have good interaction with other persocoms around her. She is very sweet to Chi when they first met and even helps her learn along the way. To Yuzuki's surprise, Chi even helps her discover her true feelings for Minoru and thanks her for it.
It is shown in the manga that Yuzuki can also be very insecure. She always worries that she is not perfect enough for Minoru, just like how Yumi feels she cannot compare to a persocom.
Yuzuki, like every other persocom, was incapacitated twice in the story when Chi is in danger. After one of those Minoru asks what she experienced while she was incapacitated.
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.
Yumi Oumura
Yumi Oumura is a seventeen-year-old girl who works at the Japanese pub called 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 My 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. However, she does carry a small persocom, shaped like a rabbit, on a key chain that can only do basic functions. In the manga she says that she has a larger persocom, also shaped like a rabbit, at home. In one episode of the anime it is revealed that one of those functions is a cell phone, which is later used by Chi to determine her location.The reason for her inferiority complex 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 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 would not have started anything if he did not love Yumi for who she was, and he and Yumi resume their relationship.