The Internet Is for Porn - Avenue Q

Chobits

Author: CLAMP
Volumes: 8
Publisher: Tokyopop

Brief Summary:
In a future where personal computers (persocoms) look like people, the line between human and technology is blurred. Hideki, a ronin (didn't get into college, so he's spending a year studying to take the exams again), barely makes ends meet with his part-time job, so he's one of the few people in the city without a persocom. He desperately wants one, so when he finds one on the top of a garbage pile outside his apartment building, he is thrilled. However, he has difficulty making her do anything except say the word 'Chii,' which he decides to name her. After consulting some technologically savvy, he finds out that Chii might be a Chobits, a persocom of legend with powers unlike any other.

Review:
If you're familiar with CLAMP, then you already know that they write some seriously crazy, confusing stories (See: Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, XXXholic). They're good, but they're almost always convoluted, creepy and downright strange. Chobits is actually one of the more straightforward examples of a CLAMP work, based on my experience with this manga artist group.

The artwork in this series is completely gorgeous, done in the same style as the two series already mentioned. Everything is beautiful, dark (yes, I know it's black and white, but it conveys a dark mood as well, smart alec!), and ornate.

Of course, it's also really creepy. I mean, look at that picture. Gorgeous, yes. However, the whole series is about these sexualized personal computers, essentially robots. Not only that, but there is a ton of fan service. Chii has no qualms about nakedness, so she undresses all of the time (not to mention what one has to do to turn her on). Plus, even when she's clothed, she has outfits like the one shown above, which shows off her underwear. Gross!

This is my second time reading this series, since I wanted to review it. Even now, I am unsure what to make of it in a lot of respects. The philosophical questions therein are incredibly fascinating. Humans fall in love with persocoms, and there's a question of whether, apart from their programming, persocoms are capable of true love. That is cool. But...there's also the creep factor.

CLAMP's mangas may not be for everyone, but if you enjoy lavish art and a complex story that will undoubtedly make you think, then you may enjoy them.

Rating: 3/5

Only One - Lifehouse

The Fox Inheritance
Jenna Fox Chronicles, Book 2

Author: Mary E. Pearson
Pages: 294
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company

Brief Summary:
In The Adoration of Jenna Fox, Jenna thought she destroyed the boxes containing the minds of her friends, hoping to save them from the torture she went through in the brief years she spent contained therein. She did not, however, calculate for the fact that people might have made copies. After 260 years, Locke and Kara have been recreated, using new and improved materials like BioPerfect, better than what Jenna has. Dr. Gatsbro made new bodies for them, using tiny bits of DNA. Unfortunately, he plans to use them as walking mannequins to sell the technology to wealthy individuals. Locke and Kara are determined to escape, find Jenna and figure out who (or what) they are now.

Review:
Last year, I read The Adoration of Jenna Fox. When I heard there was going to be a sequel I was surprised and excited, especially since the viewpoint would be from someone new. One of my biggest problems with book one was that Jenna was not an especially likable narrator. Alas, sometimes it would be best for an author to let a story close without writing a sequel; this is one of those times for me.

Locke did not make a better narrator for one thing. He never really coalesced into a real person. There just doesn't seem to be much to him; he may actually consist only of his love/obsession for Kara and Jenna. Rather than being focused on the ethical dilemmas involved in these technologies like the first book, I felt that the melodrama upstaged those questions.

The love triangle just creeped me out. I agree with Alyss that it's not possible to be in love with two people at once, so I just could not care about Locke and his desperate need to please and be with both girls. The society is what's so interesting here, but the focus isn't really on that.

Much of the plot was predictable, especially the climax. The unexpected things, like Jenna having a daughter, were not happy surprises. Reading over what I've written here, it definitely sounds like I hated this; I didn't, but it was hugely disappointing.

Rating: 2.5/5

"She's got a pretty smile
It covers up the poison that she hides
She walks around in circles in my head
Waiting for a chance to break me chance to take me down
Now I see the burden you gave me
Is too much to carry too much to bury inside"

Extraordinary Machine - Fiona Apple

Karakuri Odette

Author: Julietta Suzuki
Volumes: 6
Publisher: Tokyopop

Brief Summary:
Odette is a robot, made by an incredibly brilliant professor. He's so brilliant, in fact, that Odette is human in almost every way. So human that she wants to go to high school like other girls her age (or at least the age she appears). Odette, though admittedly odd, makes some good friends, has fun adventures and has to avert some evil deeds plotted by mad robot scientists (not like her awesome professor).

Review:
Robot plots, especially in a genre with romance at the core, are not my favorite by any means. I read Chobits a couple of years ago, one of many manga by CLAMP. In that one, the robot relationships are by no means pure. The story wasn't bad exactly, but it was creepy as all get out. Karakuri Odette is not the same at all, thankfully.

Although a lot of time is spent discussing romance and in some ways most of the plot lines did resolve around it, there is actually very little romance in this manga series. Ultimately, friendship and what it means to be human are the central subjects. Odette constantly has to make requests of her maker for enhancements or changes, so that she can be more human and function better with others.

There are also some delightful comedic moments, generally caused by Odette, who is delightfully deadpan. She says and does the most outlandish things with a straight face. Her friendship with a delinquent also makes for amusing times.

I did not love this series, but there was something pleasant about it that made me keep reading to the end. The series definitely went downhill as it went along, though, culminating in an indecisive and lame conclusion.

"If there was a better way to go then it would find me
I can't help it, the road just rolls out behind me
Be kind to me, or treat me mean
I'll make the most of it,
I'm an extraordinary machine"