I spent the last couple of weeks rewatching Chobits again. You know, keeping up with the season is such a bother. It's much easier to load a DVD. I am not a big fan of the series overall, but its production values sure are something to see.

To begin with, I think Chobits is where I caught the obsession with double-shading. The modern conventional visdom is to reduce the divisions and ramp up gradients. It is not always bad, and raises the average level of anime production, but when compared with top of the line cell series like Chobits, the comparison is not kind to the modernity.

Chobits were made with very slight computer postprocessing, a bit of steam here and there, and very little of per-layer defocusing. I did not see any offensive 3D anywhere. BTW, special shading on the plastic ears.

Backgrounds were not what I would call "lavish", but most were serviceable. Unfortunately, the best was reserved for character-less stills.

Animation lapses in Chobits are not widespread (hellooo Crescent Love). Most of them are woven into fast motion, or done on purpose for comedic effect. I saved just one lapse across 26 episodes, and no geometry or layering errors. Chobits share the honors of the most error-free series with Azumanga. It is a rather exclusive club!

Not everything in old-style anime is to my liking though. For some reason the "far side hair forward" convention always annoys me (both Yumi and Chi suffer from it in Chobits). I can understand the "mouth on the side" thing, to an extent. The alternative is not too appealing, I saw it attempted. But the hair really is not needed. Just cut the damn thing.

Here's just a bit more candy for desert.

Aren't they cute? Also, fake film overload or saturation (not sure what the right term is). BTW, female characters have the classic hair reflex, but male do not. Chii's one is only missing here because of the light from behind.

Just cute.

And this too.