Monday, June 28, 2004
Further thoughts on Chobits and CLAMP...
From afelia.blogspot.com
Chobits
<_absent> I wish j00 could modify chicks like you can do to pc's all plug and play and shit
<_absent> if she talks to much
<_absent> pull out her sound card
heh
nah man
have a control panel
mute the complaint and talkative channels
<_absent> j00 could upgrade her tits
install linux on her and customize away
and change her appearence =)
overclock her sex drive O_O
<_absent> she could playback mp3's too
ja
and rip dvds on the fly
you'd probably add ports and drives to her :P
heh shes already got the port im interested in O_O
<_absent> women really should conform to standard pc architecture
<_absent> it'd own
yeah it would
Was this what CLAMP was really thinking about? I wonder...
The more I think about this, the more I believe that what CLAMP was trying to say in
Chobits is that: "Don't go after those boys who're not going to accept you or want you for who you are but what they fantasize what they want you to be."
I guess the lesson they want us to draw is that we shouldn't try to change other people... or modify us so that they can fit us into their perception of what they want us to be... Is this why the main character keeps wondering "What exactly
is a Chobit?" This is the guy who doesn't sleep with his Personcon but tries to understand her and help her and
in the end fall in love with her... He really treats her as a person (instead of use her like she was a robot) as no one else in the story does (barring our good baker but he seems to be another one of those rare cases)... Hmmm...
At the center of
Chobits is a love story, of course... but the issues they raise, of how technology starts to replace humans and real human emotions, and whether robots programmed to act human
are human, the perspective they present is quite interesting... (Uh... one of the reasons why I only read a
few of Issac Asimov's books is that... they're kinda dry and, dare I say?, boring)...
Man, I love CLAMP's works...
Back to
Chobits: CLAMP also seem to have issues about "being wanted"... What I mean is, Chii in the story was left near a rubbish bin and in the course of the story, she starts wondering if she was abandoned and (therefore unwanted)... She wishes to know whether, she, like in the storybook, is all alone, with no one... because everyone is so caught up in a reflection of themselves (through the Persocons who has replaced human companionship and emotions), they no longer care about each other or want to commit to real people in a real relationship...
Her exploration and experience of being human is through her new 'master'... But this 'master' is not like anyone else... He takes interest in her, takes care of her, helps her grow, bit by bit... He definitely views her as another person (and not robot) which can be seen in the way he helped her find a job and, instead of taking the money that she had earned and offered him, tells her it's
her money and he can't take it and tells her she can do whatever she likes with it... because it's hers... I often think that this was something like a 'turning point' in the story, where Chii seems to realize more that she is an individual, autonomous from her 'master'... Her awareness of self has grown...
This, of course, furthers helps her to achieve her goal, what she had wanted to find out before she was deactivated and left near the rubbish bin... In some ways,
Chobits remind me of
RG Veda, though in a more subtle way... I shall think more on this though...
Back to human relationships: I also suppose they want to say that "Look! This is the results of forgetting that the other person
is another person! A person is hardly static (or a Persocon), you need to nurture your relationships! Otherwise, it would lead to heartache..." One of the best things about Shinji and the teacher is that they never pretend everything's fine... Nothing like Persocons... They go against each others' wishes (nothing like Personcons)... They fight, they kiss, they make up and fight some more until the problems between them are solved...
M. Scott Peck said that, without difficulty and struggle, our resolution of whatever difficulties in ourselves are not truly deserved (in a way)... He says we cannot take shortcuts but must face the problems bravely and reach a kind of resolution so that it is
truly resolved... something like that anyway...
It's somewhat appropriate that CLAMP uses this genre (echii with suggestions of hentai) to get their point across... Pr0n, I think, dehumanises the people but here,
Chobits goes the other way around... It's like saying those hentai characters are robots... They are just going through the motions in the same way as always, with no thought other than to... er... stimulate the audience... -__-;; Anyway, I think they did a good job... Okok,
Chobits is a really 'fluffy' kind of story (though their target was supposed to be shounen manga since it appeared in one?)... No matter if it's shounen or fluff or anthing, I think they're still great...
I wish I can watch the anime again and compare it with the manga... sigh... I really should have burned it when Jun Song lent it to me... ah well, too late...
Other than
Chobits: One of the things I do not like about yaoi is that most of it is
just like romance manga... I know, I know, playing to the readers, etc since most yaoi mangaka have female readers in mind... I just wish their were
more well-written ones... At least CLAMP keeps things interesting, hahah... But then again, there's a kind of adrogeny in their shounen ai/yaoi... Like
Wish,
RG Veda,
Lawful Drug, etc... Err... or maybe a kind of heterosexuality in their homosexuality? I mean, the guy that
always need protecting is very feminine while the strong guy is the more macho kind... Of course, this is CLAMP we're talking about so their idea of macho is limited to the very chivalric kind and not abusive ^_^;;;...
OMG I just realize that that's the pattern they always follow!!! Knight and Damsel in Distress! OMG! OMG! To be fair though, the 'weaker' character is also strong in some ways and the 'stronger' character is weak in others... They always seem to complement each other, I think... But
CCS seems rather short on that... -___-;;... Sakura is just... so... so... dependent on other people... I don't know, but I think she's rather passive in the CCS story... And in Tsubasa, even MORE so, can you believe it... Sigh... Sakura is THE Damsel in Distress in the CLAMP world...
What's ironic is,
CCS is the one that made them famous... dammit, doesn't that just
say something about mainstream culture? Man, this just ups my contempt of it further... sigh... You know, my favourite mangas are the ones which overturns all these kinds of romantic conventions in mangaland... I just love
Saiyuki...
Gokujoh-Tenshi... even
Fruits Basket because Tohru is their saviour, so to speak (even though she appears to be the typical 'weak' high school girl, etc etc)...
And I love
Fruits Basket too... But that one I have to leave until another day... Bye!
[blogged] by ashke
at 9:15 pm
