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Comments

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Plot Synopsis

No plot synopsis or other information available for DearS

Story & Characters

Ok, it's been a number of weeks since I finished this series, but I'll try to recall as best I can.

I really enjoyed this series even though it tends to borrow the theme from other series (i.e. chobits??). Pretty much the DEARS are alien (robots? genetically engineered girls? who knows?) slaves that crashland on earth. Ren, the main-character-type is a "defective" DEARS that attatches immediately to Takeya, the male main-character who is refreshingly not the typical nice-guy that all the girls amazingly love, but a big a**hole who treats people, including Ren, who is his slave. He's pretty much annoyed with the fact Ren treats him as her master. This makes for an interesting character interaction which is really the guts of the story.

Of course, while being instantly (constantly) reminded of chobits the story does have it's original points... well, then again, it's pretty much the same story as chobits (boy finds slave/persocom, boy teaches slave/persocom, boy is threatened with loss of slave/persocom, boy decides he liks slave/persocom etc. etc.)

This isn't as bad as it sounds. First of all, who didn't like chobits? It's a great story, and DEARS is just told differently, and can be a lot funnier at times. In fact I've found myself laughing out loud in this series more than most. DEARS never turns too serious, which is a plus because I love good-mood animes.

I'd give the story a 10 if not for the Chobits similarity.

Rating

7 (above average)

Art

Great character design... but the DEARS are pretty ecchi as far as costumes go. It's omnipresent fan-service. And there's more subtle fan-service throughout the series, though I can't put my finger on anything specific off the top of my head.

I remember the animation is well-done and detailed, and I never noticed any over-use of SD or repeat sequences to cut on quality. (All SD is judicious and well-placed, and funny as hell!)

The DEARS are pretty extravagant in their character design, but the regular characters seem to pale in comparison. This is a minor detail, but it's something that really stood out to me. I guess it's ok as far as the story is concerned; after all it's called DEARS.

All-in-all DEARS is a cheerfully rendered bright happy anime with very few dark or dismal moments and a lot of humor, especially in the previously mentioned Super-Deformed sequences.

Almost a 10, but I can't get over Gankutsuou... that series has my 10 for art ^_^ so DEARS falls back to a 9.

Rating

9 (very good)

Sound

I LOOOOVE the OP and ED and they're playing in my car quite frequently. A whimsical, nonsensical romp through happy-land is the best way to describe "Happi Kosimosu" the ED theme. With SD characters dancing around as adorable as ever, it never fails to bring a smile to my face. The OP "I'm your slave" is unique enough to stand out , and well-suited to the series. It's really catchy and is one of my favorite anime tracks.

Voice acting is really good as far as I can tell (i'm not good at judging this as I'm not proficient in Japanese enough yet to fully understand if it's good acting or not). Lets just say the voices suit characters and leave it at that.

Rating

9 (very good)

Presentation

Originality? BLEHHHH p not original in the least. I'm surprised they came up with a different name for the robots/slaves/persocoms. It's too bad too, because the concept might work without being so totally a chobits rip-off. (see Story)

Humor? Laughed my furry little tail off. Quite easily the funniest series of the season. (that I saw, anyway) I particularly recall Ren's eyes overflowing with tears of joy as she sinks her teeth into the glory that is melon-pan (melon bread).

Enjoyablility? Oh yeah... practically my reason for living for 12 weeks. I'm definately gonna rewatch this one, and I can't say that about a lot of series, even those I love like Kenshin.

This is easily one of my favorite series (and on my top 10 list) simply because it's so funny without being ridiculous, and engaging without being overly dramatic or serious. It's just a nice, feel-good story without any filler crap or anything.

So go watch it... you won't be sorry unless you totally hated chobits... even if chobits was too sci-fi for you, DEARS is lighter on the Sci-fi and much funnier.

Rating

10 (excellent)

Final Verdict

8.67 (very good)

Reviewed by angelkitten, 3y 15wk ago