How Chobits Taught Me I Was a Gray Lesbian (Pt. 1)
Alice Scarlet Death
I know this is a bit out of left field, but hear me out. I have a story to tell!
DISCLAIMER: I will be spoiling major Chobits plot points. Go read the manga and come back if you’re really that invested in my story about anime shit making me gray gay.
So first off, lets discuss Chi. Chi is arguably the main character of the show.
But first it starts off with a young man finding a service android in the trash. He had been too poor to afford one previously, and in the manga owning them is a status symbol of success. Think of it similarly to the British TV show on Channel 4 called “Humans.”
Basically all the androids are used for almost any computer based work we do today. Emails, phone calls, etc etc.
But when Chi is unwrapped from the trash bag she doesn’t seem to work right, and they spend the first parts of the manga trying to figure out how Chi works. When they finally get her to work, we begin to learn how powerful she is, and they try to deduce her origins.
As it turns out she is a “Chobit” which is like, a superior android. And they later learn that if you touch her genitals, every android on the planet will get shut down.
Over the series, the main character begins to fall in love with Chi. Near the conclusion, when he finds this out, he chooses to continue dating her even though they can never have sex.
I read this in the manga, and it kind of boggled my mind. Granted, back when Chobits manga was first released, I was in high school raging with hormones. I wasn’t sexually attracted to anyone even then, but a high libido and social construct that everyone needs sex convinced me to behave otherwise. It wasn’t until much later, that I began to realize that you can love a person and not have sex.
I will still engage in sex if people want. Sometimes during the winter months, I feel lonely or something and think I need it. I never actually feel sexual attraction. But I do feel lonely and invalidated, and society has it ingrained in me that sex is the answer.
And that’s why I identify as a gray asexual. Stay tuned for the next in the series. Next time we’ll learn about how Chobits made me a lesbian. See you space cowboy!
