List of Chobits characters: Difference between revisions
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== Zima == |
== Zima == |
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[[Image: |
[[Image:Djima.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Zima]] |
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; [[Japan|Japanese]] [[Seiyuu]]: [[Isshin Chiba]] |
; [[Japan|Japanese]] [[Seiyuu]]: [[Isshin Chiba]] |
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Revision as of 18:52, 21 April 2006
- 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.
The spoilers are up to the end of the anime and manga.
Hideki Motosuwa
- Japanese Seiyuu
- Tomokazu Sugita
- English Voice Actor
- Crispin Freeman
Hideki Motosuwa (本須和秀樹 Motosuwa Hideki) is a 19-year-old 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 Club Pleasure (a bar) to make ends meet. He found Chi, and has taken her into his care and does his best to protect and teach her.
Hideki also has a very bad habit of thinking out loud to himself, because he spent his entire life on a farm with little exposure to other people. He is also quite perverted, posessing a very large number of pornographic magazines, which he refers to as "okazu" which means "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".
Chi (Elda)
- Japanese Seiyuu
- Rie Tanaka
- English Voice Actor
- Michelle Ruff
Chi (ちぃ Chii) is a persocom and a Chobit (an extremely advanced persocom that possesses a very powerful processor and highly developed programming) that Hideki found tied up in a pile of trash on his way home from work one night. Once activated, Chi is unable to communicate properly, being only able to say "Chii", which causes Hideki to name her that. Upon activation she remembers nothing.
Before she was found by Hideki and named Chi, her name was Elda. She was the second Chobit produced by Ichiro Mihara. Elda was created after Ms. Hibiya noticed that Freya, the first Chobit, was becoming increasingly depressed as time went by. Elda was created to be Freya's little sister, in an effort to make her happy. In the anime, it is explained that Ms. Hibiya reset Elda's memories after her husband's death. However, in the manga, Elda lost her memories as a consequence of taking in her ailing sister's heart. Some time after, Hideki found her and brought her home. Elda's memories were on the disc which was accidentally left in the garbage when Hideki salvaged her.
After she is activated, Chi proceeds to start learning about the environment around her, and makes some hilarious mistakes in the process, such as imitating a pornographic pose from one of Hideki's magazines. Eventually, when Chi starts communicating properly and learns enough about her environment to be able to function in it, she gets at job at Hiroyasu Ueda's bakery.
Chi also houses the resident consciousness of her fellow Chobit, Freya, who is also known as Dark Chi, or Black Chi. Freya occasionally contacts Chi to inform her of something important, or to comfort her in a time of need. Both Chobits possessed many remarkable abilities, including the ability to release an extremely powerful concussive blast from their bodies should the need arise for them to defend themselves, levitation, and some telekenetic ability.
In the manga, after Elda took on Freya's heart, her last request before losing consciousness was to be left alone outside, away from her family, so that there would be no possibility the same fate that befell her sister could befall her. Before doing this, however, her father gave her a "gift"; this gift was a program, designed to do one thing: If, in her new life, Chi failed to find the Person Just for Her, she would connect to every persocom on the planet, and execute a program that would delete the person-recognition abilities of every single persocom, so that they would never be able to distinguish one person from another, ever again. If Chi failed to find the Person just for Her, it stood to reason that other persocoms would suffer the same fate as well. The purpose of this program was to spare the persocoms of the world the pain of unrequited love. In the anime, this program has an alternate effect: If Chi found the Person just for her, all persocoms would be granted the ability to feel emotion.
It should noted—at least insofar as the manga is concerned—that the Chobits series persocoms do not posess emotions—at least in the human sense. This issue is touched upon in the final pages of the manga series during a conversation Hideki has with Freya, where she specifically states "We do not have emotions.", and again where Zima states "So what if this isn't the same love that a human feels! In my mind, my adorable Dita comes first." This statement appears to be an assertion that even though a persocom's subjective experience of love may not be the same as a human's, that doesn't make the love they do feel any less real or legitimate. Something within Chi's programming chose Hideki as being special, marked him as being different from others, and worthy of her greatest affections. To her, this is love; even if it is not the same love that a human feels.
(Note about the spelling "Elda": "Elda" is the official English spelling. "Erda" would have made more sense in this situation. The name is written in Japanese as "エルダ" which is also used to write the name of the Norse earth goddess Erda (or Jörd), the mother of the Valkyries.)
Freya (Dark Chi)
- Japanese Seiyuu
- Rie Tanaka
- English Voice Actor
- Michelle Ruff
Freya was the first Chobit, who was created before Elda by Ms. Hibiya's husband, Ichiro Mihara. Freya was created to be Ms. Hibiya's daughter, because she was unable to bear children of her own. Freya's development was kept secret from Ms. Hibiya; she did not know of Freya's existence until she was called down to the lab one day, without explanation. In front of her, suspended from a number of wires and cables, was a persocom. Upon awakening for the very first time, she was given the name Freya by Ms. Hibiya. Freya's first word was "Mama".
Freya lived happily with the Mihara couple for a time, until Ms. Hibiya noticed that her attitude was becoming increasingly melancholy, with no explanation as to why. At this point, Ms. 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 incredibly happy to have a little sister, and for a time, she seemed to be acting normally, although, as Ms. 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 Ms. Hibiya finally realized the source of Freya's sadness; she had fallen in love with her own father, Mr. 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 her she began to malfunction under the strain of her emotional burden. Freya was no longer able to move, and was confined to a bed from that point on. Towards the end, she could not lift a finger or even shift her focus, and also began to have problems with her memory.
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 choses 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 she could do this, however, her sister Elda offered to take her heart into her own, so that she would not disappear completely, and so that her memories would be preserved.
Now that Elda has become Chi, Freya does everything she can to ensure that Chi will find the person just for her. Freya exists as a separate entity within Chi, and is capable of monitoring Chi's sensory input, and will intervene if Chi 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.)
Yumi Omura
- Japanese Seiyuu
- Megumi Toyoguchi
- English Voice Actor
- Julie Maddalena
Yumi Omura (大村裕美 Ōmura Yumi) works at Club Pleasure alongside Hideki. Initially it is thought that Yumi was 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 a big 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. All would have been well, except that Yumi 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 the human Yumi to the persocom Yumi and find the human Yumi 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 Hiroyasu and Yumi start going out again.
Minoru Kokubunji
- Japanese Seiyuu
- Houko Kuwashima
- English Voice Actor
- Mona Marshall
Minoru (国分寺 稔 Kokubunji Minoru) is a wealthy twelve-year old genius, whose speciality 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 like most persocoms.
Minoru provides Hideki with technological help, such as tracking things down or allowing Hideki to make video phone calls, and advice on persocoms. He is also known as "M" on the bulletin boards. Minoru's late sister is Kaede Saito, a character from Angelic Layer.
Yuzuki
- Japanese Seiyuu
- 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 Minoru's late sister, Kaede, who had died from an illness two years earlier, in every way, physically and mentally. Yuzuki was programmed with all of the data that Minoru could remember about his sister; what she liked, what she disliked, her habits and behaviors—everything. However, Minoru still realizes that no matter how realistic she may be, she is still only a persocom that is following her programming. Yuzuki, despite not having the same mental capacity as a persocom like Chi, also seems to 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.
Chitose Hibiya
- Japanese Seiyuu
- Kikuko Inoue
- English Voice Actor
- Ellen Wilkinson
Ms. Chitose Hibiya (日比谷 千歳 Hibiya Chitose) is the landlady at the apartment where Hideki is staying - or at least that is her current job. She was formerly the wife of the creator of the Chobits. In the manga, her husband used the technology from the Angelic Layer project to create the Chobits, because she was unable to have children. She also authored "A City With No People" to help Chi find her Person Just for Her. In the manga, Chitose's late husband is Ichiro "Icchan" Mihara, also the creator of Angels in Angelic Layer.
Takako Shimizu
- Japanese Seiyuu
- 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, Ms. 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 his persocom 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, Ms. Shimizu was no longer able to trust human men. Later, Ms. Shimizu elopes with Shinbo. In the end, she returns to the cram school, married to Shinbo.
Hiromu Shinbo
- Japanese Seiyuu
- 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 involved with Ms. 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.
Sumomo (Plum)
- Japanese Seiyuu
- Motoko Kumai
- English Voice Actor
- Sandy Fox
Sumomo (すもも) is a mobile persocom - which is the persocom equivalent of a laptop computer. She is programed to be cute and tends to be quite hyperactive. 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.
Hiroyasu Ueda
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 too has had 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 her memory gradually becoming worse and worse until she remembered almost nothing at all. Rarely, she would suddenly recell small fragments of memories from her life with Hiroyasu. He couldn't bring himself to get her fixed because her memories might be lost completely in the process of transferring them to a new hard drive, and he felt she wouldn't be the same person if this happened. She ended up dying (that is, being beyond repair) when she pushed Hiroyasu out of the path of an oncoming car, and was herself run over.
Hiroyasu and Yumi Omura were in love in the past, and still are. Through the help of Chi and Hideki, he and Yumi got back together.
Yoshiyuki Kojima (a.k.a. Dragonfly)
Yoshiyuki Kojima (小島 良由起 Kojima Yoshiyuki) is a man of few scruples and another custom persocom-builder, like Minoru, but unlike Minoru, 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, using telekinesis to restrain 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.
Kotoko
- Japanese Seiyuu
- Yukana Nogami
- English Voice Actor
- Kari Wahlgren
Kotoko (琴子) is another laptop persocom, like Sumomo, but is custom-built by Yoshiyuki and has much higher specifications than Sumomo. Kotoko originally belonged to Yoshiyuki, but following the kidnapping of Chi, he is forced by Hideki and Shinbo 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 mad, especially Sumomo. Kotoko is programmed to always tell the truth, no matter what.
Zima
Zima (ヂマ Jima) is one of two persocoms who are looking for Chi. They do not want her to execute her final program, which they believe would destroy the person-recognition abilities of every persocom on the planet. It is believed that the program will execute 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 lies to Dita about Chi's whereabouts and stalls as long as possible before finally going to stop her. In the manga, Zima physically restrains Dita from attacking Chi. Zima is also the Japanese national data bank (a databank connected to all persocoms), and during the course of the series an attempt is made by Yuzuki to hack into him to gain information on Chi.
In both the anime and the manga, Zima is referred to as "The King of Persocoms".
Dita
Dita (ディタ) is the other one of the two persocoms looking for Chi. Her role is to act as protector of Zima both physically and as an anti-cracker, back-hacking into any persocom who tries to hack into Zima and shutting them down (this is what happens to Yuzuki during her attempt to hack Zima). Dita appears to be in love with Zima, but is unable fully realize these emotions, because she was not designed to be able to experience them.