Story (7):
The story begins with a spaceship full of aliens called DearS crashing on earth. The humans accept these aliens and they are allowed citizenship in Japan. It seems that most of society is obsessed with the DearS, offering them special privileges, and pretty much fawning over them.
One DearS in particular who is considered malfunctioned is accidentally released. This DearS who accepts the name Ren meets a high school boy Takeya, who hates aliens, including the DearS. However, seeing that she is alone and in poor shape, Takeya takes her to recover at his house. Ren accepts Takeya as her master, a fact that he is not willing to accept. Nonetheless, Ren tries her hardest to make Takeya happy, many times fueling his anger and annoyance at her failures and misunderstandings.
I think the story is pretty original. While it may come off as over the top in some cases, I think it adds to the overall story. I like the interactions between the characters.
I like the majority of the humor in this anime. It's funny to see how hard Ren tries to please Takeya, only for her to continually mess up. Also the scenes of rivalry between Ren and Miu (a more dedicated DearS) is fun to watch. While on the subject of humor, there are random scenes with two middle-aged women haggling with a fish salesman, that has no relevance to the plot, but the exchanges provide some of the best comedy.
There are a few cons with this anime. For one, it doesn't seem to fit into a specific genre. From what I viewed it can be classified as the following: science fiction, harem, romance, drama, school, ecchi, comedy, and magical. I also feel that the ecchi elements are overdone and unnecessary to the point that it distracts from the story.
Another con is the fact that literally everyone, aside from Takeya, is obsessed with the DearS. I can understand being intrigued by actual aliens, but the level of obsession comes across as unrealistic and overdone.
Also there is some confusion on the DearS' laws. I won't go into detail about this, but some of the rules, especially concerning their purpose for existence, seems to contradict itself.
Characters (5):
The characters are a hit or miss for me. There are some that I absolutely adore, and others that irritate me everytime they appear on screen.
To begin with, the main character Takeya is a typical high school student. He lives on his own, requiring him to work a part-time job after school. He is portrayed as rude and abrasive. I like this character. This is a character I haven't seen very often in anime, so I applaud DearS for having someone with this type of personality as a protagonist. Takeya stands out from many other harem anime leads.
I find the secondary character, Ren, to be likable. Due to her not having a formal DearS education, there is a lot that she does not understand. In fact, Ren actually says, "Ren does not understand," or a variation of that phrase countless times in the anime. Despite her ignorance, Ren is shown to be trying her hardest in every task assigned to her, making for a few comical moments. Even with her failures, she can still win the audience's hearts.
I like how Takeya and Ren grow together. While at first Takeya hates the thought of looking after Ren, it is cute to watch their relationship grow. It's clear that Takeya does try to protect Ren, and encourages her to think for herself.
Takeya's friend Neneko is a supporting character who helps Takeya out with his unfortunate problem. She serves as a helpful companion for Takeya, strong where he is lacking. I think it would have been difficult for Takeya to get through the beginning of his relationship with Ren had it not been for Neneko's assistance.
The other main DearS character, Miu, serves as a foil for Ren. Unlike Ren, she has been well taught, and is proud of her accomplishments. It angers her greatly to see how much Ren lacks, and how she is allowed to get away with her unorthodox behavior. At first it may seem that Miu is being unnecessarily mean to Ren, but in episode eight, the audience gets a glimpse at her backstory, which explains why she strongly believes good intentions are not enough. Of all the characters, I find Miu to be the one who develops the most throughout the story. Some of my favorite scenes are the endearing interactions between Miu and her host family.
As mentioned earlier, the nameless side characters add to the comedy and ambiance of the show.
However, there are three characters in particular that I found annoying.
The first is the catlike DearS Nia. I'm sure she is supposed to be cute, and maybe in the original audio she is (I watched the dubbed version), but I found her to be a nuisance. For one, she's all over the place, always forgetting about her mission. I can't take her seriously, which makes me unable to take all of the DearS community leaders seriously. Secondly, the constant repetition of "Nia, nia, nia" during her dialogue gets old quick. It's not cute, just annoying. Again, I'm not sure if this exists in the original audio, but I cringed everytime she spoke in the English dub.
As annoying as Nia may be, she is a mere speck compared to Takeya's little sister, Natsuki. I was ready for her to leave the instant she was introduced. Whereas Nia serves a purpose to the plot, Natsuki is completely irrelevant to the story. If she was omitted from what little screen time she gets, nothing about the plot would change. She is rude to Ren, violent towards Takeya, and won't allow anyone to get a word in before jumping to conclusions. In short, she is frustrating to watch.
Then of course there is Takeya's teacher. I think she is meant for comic relief, however I feel uncomfortable watching any scene including her. Sadly, she had the potential to be funny, but she is so exaggerated that it ruins the "humor" for me.
Art (6):
The character designs are interesting. I like how there is a distinct difference between the humans and the aliens. The humans have a more neutral color scheme whereas the DearS are full of color. The aliens have the unnatural hair colors anime is famous for, they have the colorful cultural costumes. Their eyes are larger and on the whole are designed to be more beautiful than the human characters. Even the male DearS such as Khi and Xaki stand out from the earthlings.
On the same note, I think it's an interesting choice that the protagonist is designed to look plain, even among the other humans. The other male characters in his class have more interesting designs (and personalities). I guess this choice was made so that by having him not stand out, he ironically does. Also, perhaps it was to give more attention to the aliens by comparison. It could also represent that he is the only person who is not enchanted by the DearS. Whatever the reason, I found it to be an effective decision.
I also found the animation to be pretty.
Sound (4):
I watched the English dub of this anime, so I can't say much on the original audio. I found the dub acting to be decent. Aside from Nia's dialogue, I have no complaints with the voice acting.
I found the opening song to be boring (both the tempo and the singing). The ending song is more upbeat, but nothing too impressive.
Conclusion (6):
In conclusion, I find the story of DearS to be enjoyable and original. The character designs are pretty.
I also like the wide variety of character personalities. The fact that the main character, the one person who is indifferent to the DearS, is the one who is paired with one makes for an amusing plot.
I like the humor based on the misunderstandings, as well as the minor characters who get a fair amount of screen time.
However, the overuse of ecchi in addition to a few annoying characters, and confusing concepts detract from anime.
I'm glad I viewed DearS, but I probably won't watch it a second time.
6/10.
