Chobits-Volume 6: My Only Person (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Anime	Main Menu Audio Main Menu Introduction Credits-Japanese Ending #3 (1:31) Trailer-Madman Propaganda (7) Gallery-Art (15) Bonus Episode-3 re-cap episodes Bonus Episode-Chibits mini-episode DVD Credits
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	73:08 (Case: 100)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Morio Asaka
Studio Distributor	Geneon Madman Entertainment	Starring	Rie Tanaka Tomokazu Sugita Tomokazu Seki Motoko Kumai Houko Kuwashima Fumiko Orikasa Kikuko Inoue Megumi Toyoguchi Ryôka Yuzuki
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	Keitaro Takanami

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	Yes
Subtitles	English Titling English	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, next episode previews

    We've reached the sixth and final volume of Chobits (in Australia). If you are new to the series, I strongly urge you to start with my review of the first volume, called Persocom — it provides some background material that I won't repeat. You might follow that by reading my reviews of the second volume, called The Empty City,  the third volume, Darkness Descends, the fourth volume, Love Defined, and even the fifth volume, Disappearance.

    At first glance, this disc contains three episodes, the last three in the series. However, closer examination reveals that this disc actually holds six and a bit episodes! This discrepancy will be explained in the extras section.

    The (obvious) episodes on this disc are:

    We've been waiting a while for these episodes, and the wait has been worth it — these are quite satisfying.

    This volume has a really gorgeous cover, with Chi (who always looks pretty in pink) surrounded by pink flowers. Very sweet, and quite apt.

    The subject of persocom addiction and human-persocom relationships continues to be important, and comes up a number of times during these episodes. Indeed, you could call it the vital subject of these episodes, although this series raises other big questions: "what is happiness?", and "what qualities are required for someone/thing to engender true love?".

    We learn all of the hidden truths, and that's a relief. I was worried that some things would remain unresolved, but for once everything gets sorted out. We even get to learn about the mystery black-garbed pair (Dita and Zima / Jima). We even learn some things about the apartment block that clarify a couple of technical questions I had.

    The comic relationship between Sumomo and Kotoko plays out to some extent in these episodes, but gets its best exposure in the Chibits mini-episode.

    This is a nicely realised conclusion to a series that I've enjoyed immensely, which makes up for the fact that there won't be any more discs.

Video

    This DVD transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. It is 16x9 enhanced. The wide frame is used effectively.

    The image is crisp, clear and sharp, and beautiful to look at. There's no film grain and no low-level noise. There's no trace of edge enhancement, either.

    Colour is rendered superbly. There are some bright colours, but there are lots of more subtle ones, too. This series is coloured with taste and discretion, rather than being splashed with undiluted primary colours. There are no colour-related artefacts on this disc.

    There are no film artefacts. Aliasing is only visible on panning shots, and not even all of those. There is no moiré and no MPEG artefacts. This is a clean and attractive transfer.

    The usual two subtitle tracks appear: both in English, with the first being a "signs only" track, while the second is full subtitles. The subtitles are easy to read (yellow in a rounded font).

    The disc is single-sided and dual layered. That might seem excessive for three episodes, but there are really six plus a mini-ep. The layer change does not occur during any of the episodes — each episode lies entirely on one layer.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The soundtrack is provided in English and Japanese. Both soundtracks are Dolby Digital 2.0, not surround encoded, at 224kbps. I watched all the episodes in English, and then again in Japanese (although I only watched the "official" episodes in Japanese, due to time constraints).

    The English dialogue is easy to understand, and there are no obvious discrepancies between the animation and the dialogue. The Japanese dialogue sounds clear enough, and is probably as easy to understand. The one unpleasant part comes in episode 23, where there are two voices while Chi reads the book. The second voice sounds quite distorted, however, this effect is heard in both the English and the Japanese dialogue, so one must assume that it is an intentional effect, albeit not a nice one.

    Keitaro Takanami has provided an excellent score for these episodes; it's gentle at underscoring emotional sequences, sometimes in solo piano. There's a new closing song for the final episode, and it's appropriate; although the singing credit is only given to Rie Tanaka (the Japanese voice of Chi), it sounds like the Japanese voice of Hideki is attempting (not too successfully) to sing with her.

    This disc makes no use of the surrounds or subwoofer. It is definitely stereo though — voice do show up on either side from time to time.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are lots of extras on this disc. Perhaps the best is three (and a bit) extra episodes — rather a cool bonus on a disc holding three regular episodes...

Menu

    The menus are static with music and transitions. They are easy to operate, and attractively themed to the series.

Bonus Episodes

    This is really good. I was a little surprised that there were only 24 episodes (normally there'd be 26). It turns out that there were 26 (or even 27), but they omitted two recap episodes from the regular sequence. This was a clever thing to do, because they would be unnecessary to people watching the series on DVD — on DVD you can watch the episodes one after another and not lose the thread. But I'd hate to miss out on the recap episodes altogether, so it's neat to get them here. In this section we get:

• Preview 9.5 (0:41)
• Shinbo and Sumomo Chat (23:52) — a recap that was originally between episodes 9 and 10 — justified as Sumomo bringing up files that could be deleted to free space on her hard drive
• Preview 18.5 (0:41)
• Minoru and Yuzuki Chat (23:50) — a recap that was originally between episodes 18 and 19 — justified as the two of them reviewing Chi's behaviour looking for hints to the Chobits mystery
• Hibiya and Kotoko Chat (23:51) — a recap or denouement episode that comes after the end of the series — a rather nice "what happens to them" piece, and well worth watching

Bonus Mini-Episode: Chibits — Sumomo and Kotoko Deliver (6:08)

    This is a nice little mini-episode, mostly about Sumomo and Kotoko. Lots of fun. It makes me wish there were a couple more Chibits episodes...

Japanese Ending #3 (1:31)

    The ending of episode 24, but with Japanese credits on it, rather than English. This has the third theme (I Hear You Everywhere).

Gallery — Art

    Another fifteen images from the series, drawn from the episodes on this disc.

Madman Propaganda (11:00)

    Seven trailers that run one after another (not the usual Madman Propaganda format):

• Crest of the Stars
• Neon Genesis Evangelion (Director's Cut)
• Kiddy Grade
• NieA Under 7
• Sakura Wars the movie
• Yu Yu Hakusho
• Yukikaze

DVD Credits

    A single page that shows credits for the folks at Madman who worked on this disc, nicely styled to fit with the show

    The Region 1 version of this disc uses similar artwork, but holds episodes 21 to 24, instead of the 22 to 24 that we get. Hey, at least they caught up! But they get next to no extras: just the Japanese ending and a short art gallery. Here's the big difference between the Region 1 and Region 4 offerings: in Region 1 there's an extra disc (disc 7: Chat Room) that holds the three recap episodes and the Chibits mini-episode. We don't have to buy disc 7, because all that's on this disc. Gotta say that that sounds like a win to Region 4, even if it does mean that we miss out on the attractive cover art on that disc.

    By reports, their transfer is as good as ours.

    Because of the different arrangement of episodes on discs, you really must buy all your Chobits discs (well, except volume 1) from the same region. I'm happy with my Region 4 discs, but feel free to spend more and get the Region 1 discs if you want.

    An excellent anime series comes to a satisfying, and touching, conclusion. It is presented very nicely on DVD.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is very good for a stereo soundtrack.

    The extras are extensive, more than doubling the episode count on the disc.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall