[Solceal]

Does anyone else find the moral of this story to be disturbing? I thought I was going to be pleasantly surprised with something insightful and interesting, but no. Hideki honestly fell for a robot.

Chi is a thing. I really don't get how this manga thought it was going to fool a reader, but I felt no sympathy for Chi or the other persocoms or the people who loved the persocoms. All that stuff in Chi's head wasn't real, it was some programmed, fake personality inside a robotic body.

This is a HORRIBLE lesson about loving intimate objects like you would real people. Maybe I'm taking it too seriously, but wow. I can't believe a story with this kind of message really exists.

It wasn't even really romantic. What will Hideki do for the rest of his life? Grow old while his computer-wife stays 16 until he dies wrinkly and in love with a robot? That's so sad!

This is honestly a little creepy.

[PrincessSmallLadySerenity]

I see your point, but Chii was actually programmed to fall in love meaning she actually does have feelings.
She will more than likely die before Hideki, take the bakers wife for instance. She's dead so what are the odds chii will last

[Kipcha]

It's kind of like 1/2 Prince... She has artificial intelligence, so technically, she has emotions.

[Solceal]

No she doesn't have feelings. First of all, Freya said it herself when Hideki asked if Chi had emotions. She DOESN'T. And even if she was programmed to love, that's not real love. She's a machine with no brain and no soul. She isn't alive. This story has nothing of substance to teach aside from encouraging people to love objects the same way you would love a human being. And that to me is kind of messed up.

[keristars]

I don't know. It's definitely some weird philosophical shit, and I'm annoyed that the story ends the way it does, for similar reasons (Chi never growing old, for example, and also the fact that she's a frigging robot), but I can't really argue that she can't love or have feelings. Not completely, though it's my gut reaction.

See, if you're saying that Chi was only programmed to think/feel, then what about real people? The chemistry and whatnot in our brains is a lot like a program that teaches us to think/feel. Chi learns and responds to her experiences just the way our brains do. But I don't believe that "souls" exist, so for me, the main difference between a Persocom like Chi and a human being is that someone physically programmed the A.I. into Chi whereas humans develop intelligence automatically. Well, also, there's the difference that Chi is a frigging robot and mechanical in ways completely foreign to human bodies, but I guess that the way science and medicine is going, it's might not be completely foreign for very long (ie: fake hips, cochlear implants, &c).


So I don't think the theme of the story is about loving objects the way you can love humans. I think it's more about what makes someone human, and also a little bit about the way we project personalities and human qualities on things that aren't human. It's definitely of a philosophical bent.


But it's still weird and disconcerting and kind of like the whole uncanny valley auto-response no no no.

[RandomBabble95]

you all are analizing this too much, just cry a few tears , aww at a few scenes but stop analizing it like this....your suppose to enjoy manga....

[Solceal]

@keristars:
I guess I see where you're coming from. I'm pretty big on considering human beings of superior spiritual value to anything else in the world so that's probably why I'm unable to find the story enjoyable. I just can't see Chi as anything more than a souless mechanical being, different from a human because it's not really alive like a carbon human or animal, and certainly without feelings because she doesn't have chemicals and flesh and blood to classify her as real in my opinion. Or a traditional "soul."

@RandomBabble:
I am over analyzing because I was reading this particular manga for a story that would have a beautiful message that goes beyond mere entertainment. I didn't get what I wanted so I was just wondering if anyone else thought so. I didn't enjoy it; I guess it's a sucky manga to me. And I have the right to say so. I'm in a free country.

[princeaxel]

your wrong!!! Hideki will grow old not knowing anything about making love...!! haha LOLOL

anyway if this manga did continue we will probably see the ending similar with the movie of robbie williams 'x-cuse for the spelling of the name" the move where in he was a robot where he customized himself.. and we all know the ending..!!

[octubre21]

Well... if you take that point of view, we can also say that emotions in humans are just naturally or socially programmed reactions. What's more, we could say that it is just some kind of chemical reaction.

AND of course, that point of view would also make useless and stupid loving ppl with some kinds of brain disfunction or other kinds of disfunction.

But it is a very materialist and scientific point of view and so very respectable. Riiiiiiiiiiiiight

Addition: And if Hideki is happy to live the rest of his life sexless, that's the way he rolls o_- . He is happy.

I really think the whole point of the story is about what LOVE really is: decision, determination and courage, and not just some pathetic and fading-with-time *feeling*/*hunch*.

We'll see more of this in the future. I can bet my hide.

[Say]

I don't really view this as trying to tell us to love objects- I didn't get that, maybe i got wrapped up in the whole "but they have such human characteristics and displays of 'emotion' - programmed or not".

Here's the thing, I find a lot of manga/anime in general use the idea of robots (persocoms, dolls, washing machines what have you) to question what it is that truly makes us human, and what is humanity in general? Is it simply a matter of the organic matter that flows through our skins, or is it something more? All the way back to Astro Boy questioning his relations and feeling towards humans, to Mihara's Doll questioning replacing human relations (for better or for worse) - the theme and idea re-occurs.

Hmmm, maybe i take this s**t to seriously too