Series: DearS Collection was the boxed set of all four volumes of the harem series that showed a time in the very near future, when an alien spacecraft crashed to Earth. Its cargo was a number of female alien love slaves, each so beautiful as to defy description. As slaves, the aliens had no means to repair their damaged craft and end up stuck here, which was probably a good idea since they were, after all, slaves. Going home means returning to a live of servitude. Unlike the mainstream movie though, the gals aren't called newcomers, they're called DearS for the endearing mannerisms they possess as much as the meaning of the word being "beloved friend". The similarities abound as the gals are extremely intelligent too; mastering the Japanese language in a day or two as well as various technologies that we take for granted. While most of the world treats the DearS with kid gloves, there are a few holdouts that don't trust them. (Sound familiar?) The main focus of the anime series is a young teenager named Takeya who is in the minority of folks not trusting the lovely aliens.

The cultural situation is that the DearS want to assimilate into our society as quickly as possible so the Japanese government grants a series of visas for the aliens to begin joining homes across the country, going to school and otherwise becoming more like the population at large. Takeya will have nothing to do with them, even as his friends and classmates slobber at the thought of a DearS gal joining their school. So, while the premise is almost a carbon copy of the movie mentioned above, where it takes the audience is in a completely different direction (and a direction I had long pondered so many years ago).

DearS: 1st Contact was the first of four volumes that explore Takeya's relationship with a mysterious DearS gal he comes across one day is the focal point of the series. Her name is something akin to Laylu from The Fifth Element so it gets shortened down to Ren and Takeya's initial dealing with her is when he stumbles across her after a life pod containing her somehow breaks free of the main ship. The governing body of DearS discovers the pod and while it was only touched upon in the first four episodes, it was easy to figure out that some kind of conspiracy is taking place involving Ren (and perhaps others like her). Takeya takes her home and the trouble ensues as she misunderstands what he tells her to do, with a whole lot of sexual overtones to the couple's misadventures."

The second volume in the series continued to expand upon the themes the first episodes had, stating the following on the back DVD cover: "Like Takeya, even Ren doesn't know that much about the DearS. This fact alone is enough of an insult to the DearS heritage to push Miu over the edge. So Miu decides to take it upon herself to properly educate Ren in all that it means to be a DearS; much to Takeya's dismay. Then Takeya's world-travelling sister, Natsuki, stops by for a visit putting her wrestling moves on her older brother. How much physical pain can Takeya endure?"

The episodes that time were 5) Partners?, 6) I'm Frustrated, and 7) Pervert. The back story about Ren being an escaped DearS got a little bit of play this time but it was very slight as the Miu versus Ren story took center stage. Miu, being the epitome of the highly sophisticated, educated, and talented DearS, continues to get upset at Ren's apparent lack of training, socialization, and other characteristics that the aliens are supposed to possess. She takes it as a personal affront and sets out to chastise not only Ren (by belittling her) but also Takeya since he should have been educated in what is expected of him as a master of a DearS. Needless to say, since he literally saved her off the street and has no working knowledge of such training, he is dumbfounded by her accusations but falls short of telling her what happened. Ren gets lessons from the pain in the perfect neck Miu on what she should be doing (including that sex is important to satisfy her master) and the misunderstandings escalate from there. The insidious plot concerning the DearS hasn't come out at this point but it gets more attention, making Takeya's conspiracy theories seem ever more realistic as Ren tries her best to do the right thing.

The third and fourth volume provided more of the two plots converging; the one with Ren and Takeya figuring out their relationship as those around them interact with the dynamic. Takeya is the envy of the males at school as well as a target for Neneko, his life long gal pal (that of course has a huge crush on him as is standard in anime), just as Ren is subjected to attack from her own kind for being a defective model. Complicating matters further, Miu takes Ren's limitations personally and continually initiates contests where Ren miraculously comes out on top by luck, all of which amounts to little when the leaders of the DearS decide to reel Ren in; much to the chagrin of those who have come to adore her in the community. The episodes in those volumes were 8) M..My Ball, 9) It Hurt A Little, 10) Is It A Golden Ball, 11) Let's Have An Orgy, 12) Do You Want To Experience It? and 13) Furthermore It Was Hot. By the titles of a few of the episodes alone, you know how many sexual innuendos were present but the adult nature of the show was best proven by the classroom teacher wearing fetish lingerie and starring in her own line of amateur porn videos that Takeya's video store rents out (not to mention his own impressive list of personal rentals being brought up).

Personally, I couldn't care less about all the nudity displayed in the show (I'm an adult and if I want to see naked women, I'll stick with real women; either with porn or in my real life). The rating of "16 Up" should be mentioned for those uptight about animated nudity, although there was far less here than in Girls Bravo, and the same could be said about the adult situations. No, the highlight of the show was how the silly aspects of a harem show were combined with the usual space alien falls for local boy plot. I see a lot of anime and while there were plenty of clichés used here, they added up to something more than the sum of the parts. That's why I rated it as Recommended for folks that enjoy similar material. I would've greatly preferred seeing a lot of cool extras but I liked the characters and their situations enough to appreciate the show more than once, laughing each time. I can't say that about all such series so compared to similar shows, it looked good to me.

Picture: Dears Collection was presented in the original 1.33:1 ratio full frame color it was shot in for presentation on Japanese television. The majority of the action is done with bright colors and some interesting visual effects that made me think someone put a lot of work into the show on the little details that so many other companies seem to dismiss as cost ineffective. My only complaint in this regard was how the characters were drawn with that truncated style when they were surprised (you know, the sketchy form of outline seen in Excel Saga so often). Otherwise, there was no video noise or compression artifacts, making it an eye pleasing series to enjoy much of the time.

Sound: The audio was presented with the usual choice of 2.0 Dolby Digital with either the original Japanese track (and English subtitles) or an English language dub. I know most of you have your minds made up whether one or the other is better but each track managed to impress me as entertaining, adding some replay value either way. The dynamic range wasn't the best I've heard lately and the separation between the tracks wasn't all that wonderful except in some of the action sequences but the vocals and music combined well with the special effects on both tracks.

Extras: Sadly, the lower cost of the boxed set meant that there were few extras of note. The paper inserts from the initial releases were not present and there were the usual trailers and clean opening and closing but that was it. I wish companies would at least consider providing a new extras disc with some cool stuff, maybe original Japanese extras translated (or not) for fans to enjoy for these boxed sets but it would show they were on the ball in their marketing departments.

Final Thoughts: Dears Collection was a light hearted comedic show that also had some strong sexual themes on top of some deeper (and darker) material involving the place of the individual within the construct of modern civilization. By pointing out the rights of the individual over those of the community at large, it makes a strong case for the freedoms most would like to have with their decisions, balanced against the needs of society. I could see where Japan, with it's rigorous culture of conformity, would be the perfect backdrop for such a show to allow people to see that there are many ties that bind one to their social compact and circles of family but also to the idea that slavery inherently forces square pegs into round holes (not just the physical sale or bodies type either). So, like all good anime, DearS works on several levels at once, allowing the LCD types to ogle the eye candy anime nudity while allowing those who like to think room to explore the conceptual themes touched upon enough to give this admittedly flawed but fun show a rating of Recommended.

If you enjoy anime, take a look at some of the recommendations by DVD Talk's twisted cast of reviewers in their Best Of Anime 2003, Best Of Anime 2004, Best of Anime 2005, and Best of Anime 2006 articles or their regular column Anime Talk.