"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 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 this 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.

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 four or more episodes on the DVD or at least 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: 2nd 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.

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 or complete, containing a few of the characters in skimpy outfits.

Final Thoughts: DearS: 2nd Contact proved that the lack of subtleties in the generic harem show will cause the cream to rise to the top. I can't say it was my favorite title of the month but I look forward to seeing the further exploits of Ren, Miu, and Takeya as they sort out the mess they're all in; especially with regards to the larger plot that seems ready to spring forth in the next volume. The technical matters were solid, the story was better than average for the usual harem show, and my anticipation for the next volume is likely causing me to be slightly generous but this is all about escapist male fantasy time with the perfect women seeking out males to lead them so how could I not be intrigued by where it will all lead in the coming volumes? Check it out and I think you'll see why the combination of humor, sexuality, and compelling story make DearS: 2nd Contact a winner worth a rating of Recommended.

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