Search - DearS - 1st Contact (Vol. 1) on DVD

Cute, but not very original

Edward Swing | Laurel, MD USA | 04/28/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Here we have a story where a teenage boy finds a beautiful female, who is mostly a blank slate. The girl therefore decides to live with and serve the boy, subjecting him to various awkward situations. Since the girl is also incredibly beautiful, sexual innuendos (and fan service) abound.

Chobits, er I mean Steel Angel Kurumi..., Elfen Lied..., no wait... DearS - that's it, is a tale where Takeya finds Ren, a DearS. The DearS are aliens, who apparently crashed on earth about a year before the series starts. The DearS are evidently bred/conditioned/engineered to be a slave race, though this isn't immediately obvious. The DearS are (of course) all incredibly beautiful, and have superhuman abilities.

The plot is pretty typical for this genre of anime. Ren joins Takeya at school (inciting classmates' jealosy), a rival DearS also shows up, Takeya's female childhood friend helps Takeya deal with Ren's naivety, etc. There's even a young catgirl DearS making a token appearance.

Ren spends most of the first disc without a good grasp of clothing, giving the show its chunk of (mostly teasing) Fan Service. One of the teachers is also overly fond of sexual innuendo, much to the annoyance of her students.

One of the few distinguishing traits of this series is that Takeya ISN'T attracted to Ren. In fact he finds her annoying, and suspects the DearS to be an alien invasion. Of course, most of the rest of the school treat Ren like a celebrity.

In short, the first disc is similar to quite a few other series out there. I haven't found a lot of original ideas in this series, and the characters seem recycled. I picked up the first disc, but I'll probably rent or wait for the boxed set to see the rest of the show."

Aliens Exchange Students?

Derik I. Bradford | 09/06/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"DearS is a show that through me for a loop. I read the first chapter in a manga sampler, and the review for it made it sound like "Alien Nation". A spaceship of alien slaves crash lands on Earth and the country they landed in "Japan" adopts them in to their society. The country sets up an exchange program, where Families take care of these beautiful alien visitors as they go to school to learn more about our Planet. The aliens are given the name DearS, which means "beloved friend", and one high-school student Named Takeya ends up taking care of a girl named Rin. This story sounds innocent enough right. Wrong!
In the first episode we find out Takeya's teacher is a Nymph and more or less forces her students to read the Erotica she wrights out loud in class. She also acts inappropriately in class as they're reading. Rin, who arrived 1 year after the other DearS, has no understanding of anything. Our languages, our cultures, when and when not to wear clothing (Your not suppose to wear your school uniform in the Shower.) is naked in most of the show.

Whether you like shows like this or not, its got a certain charm in a "Girls Bravo" sort of way. I'd recommend this show to any "Girls Bravo" fans and not to Parents who want to buy their kids a Cartoon.
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