Continuing to go by the standard harem playbook, DearS hints at a few larger story ideas but plays it safe with lots of fan service and non-events.
What They Say:
After a UFO containing 150 sexy aliens crash-lands off the shores of Kasai, the Japanese Government enlists these “DearS” into a home-stay program to help them assimilate. Typically apathetic teen Takeya Ikuhara saves one of the aliens and names her Ren, who soon “imprints” upon him as her “Master” and serves as his personal “Slave”—and hilarity and sexiness ensues.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Every time there’s a new harem style show I hope against hope that they manage to break the mold and try to do something at least a little bit different. DearS hasn’t managed to do that and this batch of episodes, as mildly enjoyable as it is, continues to prove just that as it hits up some of the regular themes found in dozens of other shows just like it. It’s always the characters that make or break the show though and that helps to soften it up some but not quite enough.
With the next three episodes here, which works against it since if they’d done it by four episodes the show would be over now, there is a bit more focus on Miu for things as she ends up becoming more friendly with Ren and not quite the adversary or outgoing mean type that she had been. So much has been going on since she started staying with her Earth family that she’s been contemplating taking everything she’s learned and heading back. There’s a feeling that she can’t learn much else and the problems are outweighing everything so it’s time to return. But she can’t bring herself to do that until she challenges Ren to a final duel and settles things with her once and for all. The duel itself takes up a large portion of the episode but it’s the small moments that matter the most as Miu and Takeya end up together for awhile and Miu realizes that there are bigger things going on than she was really aware of and Takeya now fascinates her to some extent.
Takeya’s adjustment to having Miu around a lot more doesn’t take long since Miu’s shifted from causing problems to just being there and talking a lot, though the two do have their issues at times. Takeya, in general, is adjusting in a fairly apathetic way to having three women around him at all times but a lot of it just because he continues to be oblivious in general, a true requirement of any male lead in a harem show. Miu’s being there now adds in a few more things that get said that otherwise wouldn’t, such as when in the course of walking home, the DearS talk about love and make a casual comment about Neneko obviously being in love with Takeya. This brings up some images from his past when he and Neneko were in grade school and she was a major tomboy who tried to change but ended up being teased too much about it. It’s a simple way of reinforcing the bonds the two though it was Neneko’s dream while in the bathtub that really solidified how things may turn out.
One area that’s fairly typical in this block of episodes in most harem shows is a trip to either the beach or a hot spring so we get something almost in between as Miu wins a free four-person trip to a resort hotel that has plenty of baths throughout it. The newly formed foursome find this to be an ideal thing to go and do together since Miu can’t take her foster family with her. The bath setting itself and all the usual hilarity and situations occur while there but it’s the time just beforehand that I found the most amusing as Miu comes to Ren and Takeya’s place only to find that Ren is watching AV’s there during “broad daylight”. That Ren is using them as instructional videos to learn what Takeya likes is amusing enough but then the two really get into it in being fascinated by what’s occurring. The episode is really filled with lots of high-level sexual situations and fan service as the women are constantly undressing or undressed as they get to the resort.
In Summary:
There are certainly some appealing aspects to DearS as a straightforward harem show and it plays up the fanservice very strongly instead of being coy with it like some others. The character designs are attractive for the DearS and I like the dressed down look that they give both Neneko and Takeya though I dislike how many scenes that are done like they’re overexposed and details like basic line work is lost. This set of episodes is probably the weakest so far since there isn’t a lot going on other than some background into Miu and pushing the possibility of Neneko being a more serious love interest. The rest is standard fluff and while enjoyable at times, makes the series overall fairly weak.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Viewster