Mysterious but beautiful aliens called DearS (“Dear friends”) arrive on Earth after their malfunctioning spacecraft forces them to make an emergency landing. They decide to embrace the situation, and attempt to live with their Earthling hosts by learning Earthling ways and entering Earthling society. However, an errant and “unprogrammed” Dear called Ren somehow ends up wandering the streets of Tokyo, and falls into care of average high school guy Takeya after he offers her Melon Bread. Next thing he knows, Ren’s followed him home and is addressing him as “master”. It’s up to Takeya and his unflappable gal-pal Neneko to feed, dress, and integrate Ren into normal Japanese life. But is there more to Ren and the DearS than what meets the eye?
When I first took a look at this series, it struck me as being reminiscent of the classic Uresei Yatsura – i.e., an over-amorous female alien latching onto reluctant teen boy. That series’ female protagonist Lum was far more crazy and bad-ass than Aturu, the human guy she followed around; Ren, on the other hand, seems pretty submissive and devoted toward Takeya, and that put a bad taste in my mouth. It could be argued that it’s a Japanese cultural “thing”, but still, I don’t feel comfortable with depictions of women of some sort of willing slaves. However, it appears that Ren’s submissiveness may be some sort of cover, and I'm told that the series apparently takes a turn away from the comedy of the early episodes toward a darker theme…so, seeing how it's a somewhat short series (12 episodes on 4 dvds), I'm willing to give the series another chance.
DearS isn’t bad, but if simply must watch a series involving a female alien chasing a human guy, I think you might be better off with the afore-mentioned UY.
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