Chobits (2001): Entre el cuento folclórico japonés y la inteligencia artificial

In this article, we argue that the manga Chobits (CLAMP, 2001-2002) revisits the structure of the Japanese folk tale and animistic thought, drawing on elements of the economic and cultural integration of late capitalism. This allows the tradition to survive in the contemporary world by generating a narrative that integrates themes of technology and artificial intelligence. At the methodological level, we base this on a hermeneutic interpretive analysis based on the paradigm of indicative inferences of microhistory (Ginzburg, 1999), which emphasizes attention to seemingly insignificant details that construct and reflect salient sociocultural and historical aspects. At the theoretical level, this proposal is based on the approaches to folklore developed by Foster (2005), Díaz Alché (2019), and Petkova (2017). Finally, on the topic of artificial intelligence, we draw on Masahiro Mori's (1970) approach to the Uncanny Valley and Anne Allison's (2006) approach to techno-animism, which she called techno-animism. Finally, the primary sources are the eight volumes of Chobits (CLAMP, 2001).