Chi (Chobits)

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Chi (Chii) is a Chobit, a super-advanced persocom with true machine intelligence, from the manga series Chobits and its anime adaptation. She’s found by Hideki Motosuwa, a high school graduate who doesn’t know much about persocoms. At first, Chi can’t speak and has no memories. She learns to talk and do simple tasks with Hideki’s help, and people begin to suspect she might be a legendary “Chobit” with special abilities.

Chi later takes a job at a bakery, but she’s kidnapped by Yoshiyuki Kojima who uses a program to break through her defenses. Freya, the first Chobit, intervenes to protect Chi. In the backstory, Chi’s true name is Elda. Elda and Freya are twins created to comfort a mother who loved another child. Freya’s feelings create a crisis, and Elda takes Freya’s memories into herself to preserve her. Their father gives Chi a memory-trigger program to delete recognition if she can’t find her soulmate. The story weaves in how Chi’s past shapes who she is.

In the anime, government persocoms Zima and Dita try to stop Chi because of her potential power. Hideki loves Chi, and the big idea behind Chi’s “special program” is that if she finds someone who loves her, all persocoms could feel emotions like humans do.

The endings differ a bit between the manga and the anime, but the core is the same: Chi’s love story with Hideki is about what it means for machines to feel and connect. In the end, Chi’s journey leads to emotional growth for herself and the persocoms around her, and she and Hideki affirm their feelings for each other.

Chi is voiced by Rie Tanaka in the Japanese version and by Michelle Ruff in the English version. She also appears in crossovers like Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, where she’s shown as a guardian figure. Chi’s character has been well received for being cute and endearing, and she’s a popular cosplay subject at conventions.