KiraRin's avatar

KiraRin

  • Bournemouth, UK
  • Joined Apr 2, 2008
  • 42 / F

DearS

Aug 31, 2009

Story

I’m slowly starting to understand why so many people detest ecchi anime, and DearS is an example of just how low a typically fun genre can stoop. Now, I’m as far from a raging feminist as you can get, but I was still shocked to find that this horrendous trash was written by a pair of women. With the fairer-sex portrayed as either clueless sex objects or raging nymphomaniacs ready to rip off their clothes, the male protagonists are always feckless guys who click their fingers and can choose whichever beauty he wants for the night. Thankfully, not all ecchi is this dire.

Using the “unique premise”, the story consists of a top-heavy beauty arriving on Earth, devoting herself to a complete loser and moving in to become his housewife and lover. DearS runs with recycled off-cuts of many other ecchi shows, adding its own lousy spin. With fan-service that makes you cringe, there is at least one scene in every episode that will have you shaking your head in disbelief and wondering why you should bother continuing this tripe. From a teacher with home-made erotica as a classroom aid, to a sleazy bishounen who uses coffee to seduce his “koneko-chan”, the perversion is freaky – and not in a good way.

Jumping from the blossoming romance between two clueless lovebirds to the plans of those trying to hinder their relationship, the story includes too many characters with neglected motives thrown into the mix. Instead of using what they have, the writers rely on tried and tested quips from successful ecchi shows, such as risky sleeping arrangements and rivalry between two beautifully buxom babes. The show can’t decide if it wants to be a bondage dream or a fun-filled harem, setting itself up to be both but never fully committing to either.

The awkward scenes between the horny schoolboy and reject slave-girl-cum-alien barely manage to even raise a smile. DearS fails to exploit the humour in this potentially adorable situation, instead ending up falling flat on its face with a nonsensical plot that opens numerous avenues and inevitably explores none. I know storylines are not usually the focus of a kinky minded show, but it’s nice to actually have closure when there is attempted narration to accompany the curvaceous cleavage and plethora of panty shots.


Animation

On the plus side, you could distinguish male and female. The downsides will take much longer to list. For an anime series but 5 years old, DearS is worse than substandard. Suffering from lousy lip-synching, poorly proportioned faces and an inability to blend characters with backgrounds, the artists are sadly more interested in some mediocre costume transformation scenes and drawing boobies. The impossibly proportioned aliens have saucer shaped eyes, a very pert derriere and an overspill of cleavage all poured into an impossibly fitted spacesuit – another thing that makes me believe the writers are living in their own insular world.


Sound

Taking its cue from DearS’s repulsive portrayal of women, the opening track is full of trashy lyrics likie “I am your slave”, sung by what sounds like a pair twelve-year-old J-pop idols. Aiming for cute, and coming off as irritatingly vile, I value my quick fast-forward finger that prevents the band, UNDER17, from lamenting their submissive bile. The closing track is also performed by the same annoyingly perky childish-sounding duet and did not impress me enough for a second playing.


Characters

Populating my entire top-five list of “characters you want to kill”, none of the brazenly stereotyped cast found a place in my heart. Takeya flip-flops between stealing porn for his randy male friends and giving females the cold shoulder as he struggles with his immature emotions. Giving out signals to both alien bed buddy and best-friend Neneko, his naivety switches to idiocy as he breaks the hearts of those closest to him. Hardly worth even mentioning, Ren is a hollow shell who unquestioningly obeys her Goshujin-sama. If her personality developed even a smidgen throughout the show, she may be considered a passable character, but she unfortunately stagnates and remains unchanged throughout.

The only character with any humorous potential was the sexually aggressive teacher, Yoshimine-sensei. Completely skipping good taste, the harlot frequently strips down to practically non-existent underwear and lewdly gropes her own breasticles. Comedy gold plummets into the realms of deviant fantasy as she attempts to seduce her horrified students into punishing her for being a bad girl. And this is even before the pointless and mindless loli cat-girl prowls onto the screen, adding to the already astronomic list of atrocious characters.


Overall

No, just no. I can’t think of any section of the anime community that DearS would appeal to. With a cringingly flimsy and stereotyped plotline, the ugly animation and characters you would rather choke than befriend will give even fans of ecchi a hard time. Both the fan-service and comedy are misplaced from the get-go, leaving an overall feeling of exasperated frustration. Instead of even attempting this two bagger*, try Chobits, Girls Bravo or even Ah! My Goddess for the same story that unfolds in a successful ecchi romp. Perhaps changing the title to “DearGodWhy” would be a step in the right direction....

* A chick so ugly that you put a bag over your head just in case hers falls off – urbandictionary.com

3/10 story
2/10 animation
2/10 sound
2/10 characters
3/10 overall

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Nanikagaarimasuka Sep 22, 2013

Well I, for one, agree with you whole-heartedly. :3

Doomoo Jul 18, 2012

You were definately not neutral on this review. You can say you are not a raging feminist all you want but when you write reviews like this it just proves you are. I like the part where you said the animation is a 3/10 and the songs were terrible just because you're a bit butthurt. I voted this review as funny because it was very entertaining to watch you make an ass of yourself.

Kadmius Jul 2, 2012

I like DearsS and will continue to do so, why does everyone pay attention to ecchi parts at all, I just roll with and completly ignore it, it makes watching anime that just much better.

noswear09 Jun 25, 2012

Right now I could come up with many offensive words that could describe my felling on your final verdict, but instead of that I am going on the mature side and just saying that this review made me sad.

Maybe... yeah, I haven't seen many of some great anime series and I guess later on I will laugh on what I have written here, BUT if an anime or a movie or even a video game made me care about the characters, laugh and feel for them in sticky situations, then it was worth the while.

Personally, I recommend this series, but I guess we all have our opinions on it, some see it as a female gender discrimination others love it as it is.

Cheers.

Unclelucas Jun 5, 2012

"now im far from a raging feminist but..." but I contradict myself in every section of the review.Sorry for starting off my comment with that ^, but it's true.I might be wrong when I say this, but isn't the point of reviewing animes (besides a personal assesment) to give the readers SOME positive aspects and qualities that can be appealing and give reasons for why someone (not ALL but some) should consider watching the anime? Especially as one of this websites "official reviews" you would like to think that some effort would be put into trying to appeal this anime to SOMEONE instead of completely writing it off as "No, just no. I can’t think of any section of the anime community that DearS would appeal to" and making it seem like this anime sucks and should be buried for all eternity. Just because your own feelings suggest that?After reading your review, it's obvious you didn't like the anime. Fair enough, not everyone is going to enjoy an anime like DearS, or all animes for that matter. But I for one read your review and couldn't help thinking, "How can this even be a review?" Others have posted their sympathies towards your review, and how you've stopped them from trying DearS, some like myself, found your review to be too critical and unfair for people who would want to at least give it a try. The overall point of this comment I guess is to suggest that you shouldn't have your personal opinions take away from what others might find appealing in this anime. Reviews(especially official ones) should be done with an open mind and can point out what you personally didn't like in the anime, but also what could be enjoyed from spending the time to watch the 12 episodes.Either way, my feelings aside. If you or anyone happens to read this comment, I would like to thank you for the time you took to read it and would also like to thank you for even making a review in the first place.Cheers.