Okay, for the clueless, here's a brief description of the premise: Sometime in the very near future, 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 is the first of several 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 first four episodes were 1) I Want To Nibble Sweetly, 2) Was It Too Small?, 3) Ball! Ball!, and 4) Wipe Your Mouth. From the set up to their first meeting to the point where Ren learns Japanese, the story seemed to split into two distinctive factors; the immediate story involving Takeya and Ren dealing with their home and school life and the larger picture where the DearS hierarchy sends out hunters to reclaim their lost minion. Making life difficult is that Ren has imprinted herself on Takeya and Takeya's landlord (or at least her daughter) interfering in the growing relationship between the couple. For her part, Ren is as pure as can be but more than willing to follow out her conditioning to serve him in any way possible and for his part; his perverted nature is at odds with his disgust for the aliens who he sees as part of something potentially hideous, perhaps even like the lizard aliens in "V".

So, with lots of nudity and sexual situations, including a host of supporting crazies, DearS: 1st Contact actually gave me pause for thought (as well as forcing me to mentally need a cold shower) given the source material. I have no idea where it will go from here but I know what I like and the deliberate pacing was a far cry from the skip and dance too many other shows with adult themes seem to use these days. I get the feeling that there'll be a big payoff if I stick with the show and the first four episodes were well written enough that I hope to see this one through. I'm going to rate it as Recommended for all the fun I had watching it but keep in mind that there were a lot of adult ideas going on here (Geneon rates it as a 16 Up title for those who follow that system) and it may not be appropriate for some younger anime fans.

Picture: DearS: 1st Contact 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 a bright color palate 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). Otherwise, there were no video noise or compression artifacts, making it an eye pleasing series to enjoy.

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. As far as the dub track goes, there were some issues with the audio not being in stereo (my equipment indicated a stereo signal but my ears, using headphones, didn't seem to notice any separation at all but that was just the English track).

Extras: The only extras this time were some trailers, a clean opening, a short sketch gallery, and a double sided DVD cover. Fans will be pleased with the cheesecake paper insert but it wasn't overly large of complete, containing a few of the characters in skimpy outfits.

Final Thoughts: DearS: 1st Contact was worth a rating of Recommended for the thematic concepts as applied with a sense of humor and creativity that most adult anime titles simply don't have. This was a half season show (13 episodes) and is slated for four volumes so I'm crossing my fingers that later volumes will have better extras to make up for the lack of episodes (I'm thinking there'll be 3, 3, 3 in subsequent releases) each will have. Whatever the case though, I look forward to exploring the mysteries of Ren and the DearS with regard to Takeya's suspicions.

Editor's Note: Apparently, Don wasn't going deaf, there was a problem with the English audio track and a recall has been issued. Geneon has a replacement program for those who care.

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