DearS

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
There are aliens among us, and they're hot.

In the not-too-distant future, humanity is minding its own business when a huge alien spacecraft suddenly makes a crash-landing in Tokyo Bay. Its passengers look very much like humans, with a few key differences: The vast majority of them are incredibly beautiful young females, and they all wear large, distinctive collars around their necks. While they appear to "come in peace", their nature and origins are a mystery they don't seem eager to reveal. Lacking the knowledge to repair their ship, they decide to integrate into human society through a government-funded "home stay" program, picking up human languages and customs with surprising speed. Their eternally friendly, helpful, and accommodating nature earns them the nickname "DearS".

One year later, Ordinary High School Student Takeya Ikuhara is still suspicious of the alien "invaders", though most of his friends are infatuated with them. Walking home one afternoon, Takeya notices a girl huddled under a blanket at the side of the road, on the verge of collapsing from hunger. Taking pity on her, he carries the strange girl back to his apartment, only to discover that she is one of the very aliens he so distrusts. But "Ren", as Takeya nicknames her, is no ordinary DearS: She seems completely oblivious to even the most fundamental human customs (e.g. wearing clothes), and she eagerly explains to anyone who will listen that Takeya is now her "master", and she is his "slave".

As more and more characters (both human and alien) take an interest in Ren and her "master", it looks increasingly unlikely that Takeya will ever get his life back to normal. It's up to him to figure out just why Ren is so different from the other DearS, and make a tough decision on whether he even wants Ren in his life at all.

So in short, Alien Nation as a romance manga with Newcomers wanting to be slaves.

Based on the manga by Peach-Pit and adapted into an anime, licensed by Geneon.

Tropes used in DearS include:

A-E

  • Above the Influence: Ren explicitly offers to have sex with Takeya when he starts to feel turned on by her presence. Yet, because she's an alien and (primarily) because he feels that Ren isn't really doing it out of love, he politely (for him, anyway) declines.
  • Adaptation Distillation: A Twelve-Episode Anime wasn't enough for the full story of the manga, but the romantic comedy elements worked just fine.
  • Adult Child: Let's face it, Takeya couldn't even survive without Neneko and Ren's help, and not just because the rent's good. One might say that the whole series displays him being dragged kicking and screaming into adulthood.
  • An Aesop: The story has a really unsubtle moral that boils down to "love only happens if you aren't trying so hard for it to happen."
  • Anime Hair: Ren and Miu, Miu's being especially noticeable in her bath scenes. That much hair should not be possible. Could be justified in that they're not human and they're genetically created for beauty. Something in their genes could be for 'impossible hair'.
  • Annoying Younger Sibling: Natsuki.
  • Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny: Nia, nya.
    • China shows this a bit at times, but not quite to Nia's level.
  • Bait and Switch Credits: Ren and Miu kiss in the OP. In the series, not so much.
  • Barbie Doll Anatomy: Just look at Ren and Mitsuka. Really. Look.
  • Big Eater: All the DearS.
  • Blank Slate: Ren, who learns (slowly) about the world as the series goes on.
    • Happens twice in the manga.
  • Bunny Ears Lawyer: Mitsuka-sensei, to the point where the students question how she got to be a teacher in the first place.
  • Butt Monkey: Takeya.
  • Casanova: The minor character Hirofuni recurs often enough to provide a contrast to Takeya, always with a girl who can't resist having 'coffee' with him. Though he attempts to seduce Ren, and later gracefully concedes, he winds up the focus of Xaki's attention.
  • Catgirl: Nia, who ends every sentence with "-ni".
  • Cat Smile: The DearS girls seem to display them from time to time, although Nia seems to have a permanent one.
  • The Chew Toy: Takeya again.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Miu, who seems a little bit jealous that Ren already has a master despite being "defective". Takeya's sister Natsuki also doesn't like it when she first finds out about his "relationship" with Ren.
  • Closet Sublet: Ren takes to staying in Takeya's closet, since sleeping there was, technically, the first order given to her. She even has a bed set up there.
    • Any other DearS that temporarily stays with Takeya usually sleeps in the bottom half under Ren.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Nia. She claims to be hunting for Ren, but then almost immediately forgets about it for various reasons.
  • Comic Sutra: In episode 9.5, Miu heads over to Takeya's house to check in on Ren, only to find her "Watching porn to study Takeya's preferences in the earthling ways of sex."

Ren: Holy cow, that looks pretty complicated...
Miu: IS SHE SPINNING!?

  • Compressed Adaptation: The anime more or less takes a chainsaw to the sci-fi plot and turns it into a straight romantic comedy.
  • Continuity Cameo: China pops up in the last episode of the anime to say hi on a TV screen.
  • Cursed with Awesome: Seriously, Takeya, what is wrong with you?
  • Cypher Language: DearS language (a substitution cypher for hiragana) is used for episode titles and at various other times. Example: Ren's serial number in episode 1.
  • Dancing Theme: The ED. All the main girls in the cast are doing very simple dancing, but it qualifies since that's ALL that they're doing.
  • Deconstruction: Two of them. One is of the concept of a slave race, which the DearS set themselves up to be, and the reasons why are rather disturbing. The other, somewhat less serious one is Mitsuka-sensei, a deconstruction of the Hot for Teacher trope. She is, objectively speaking, good looking, but in both the anime and manga she takes hitting on her own students so far even the hormone addled males find her to be Fetish Retardant, and it's heavily implied that she might actually get somewhere if she wasn't trying so hard.
  • Depraved Bisexual: Mitsuka-sensei.
  • Double Standard Abuse (Female on Male): Takeya's sister, Natsuki, cannot stand it when she finds out that Ren and Takeya are living together. While she's implying using physical force or wrestling moves on Ren, she actually does it to Takeya instead. Apparently Natsuki learned it from their mother, who also punishes her similarly from time to time.
  • Drives Like Crazy: Mitsuka-sensei in chapter 23.
  • Dude, She's Like, in a Coma: The ambiguous wording of some of Ren's statements in episodes 5 and 6 can be taken to imply that she tried to boink Takeya while they were sleeping together.
  • Ecchi:
  • Even the Girls Want Her: Ren. Subtext plus Skinship Grope with Neneko, subtext plus opening-credits kiss with Miu, and explicitly the case with Mitsuka-sensei. ("I don't care if you're a girl, that body was made for love!") Also, she gets several fangirls at school who constantly urge her to leave Takeya and hang out with them instead.
  • Expy: Mitsuka-sensei acts a lot like Shikijo-sensei from Mahoromatic, even sharing the same English seiyuu.
    • Miu sure looks a lot like Meroko, minus the green eyes - The hair is spot on!

F-J

K-O

  • Landlady: Neneko Izumi
  • Latex Space Suit: All DearS have one, and they leave little to the imagination (this includes the male "Biters").
    • Also an example of Clothes Make the Superman: The suits contain a powerful "gravity manipulation device", allowing for effortless Telekinesis and Flight (though these are only used when absolutely necessary). Presumably this is also the source of the DearS' healing powers. When not needed, the suits turn into Pure Energy and are stored inside the DearS' collars.
      • While the clothes do turn into energy for storage (depending on the anime or the manga, the clothes either swap completely or it only affects the standard latex suit, requiring a change of normal clothes anyway), the forehead crystal are responsible for controlling the DearS' gravity manipulation, as well as other abilities not further mentioned (although it is active during the time that Ren learns Japanese). Wearing the latex outfit is not required.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Mostly the show behaves normally, ignoring the viewer. But the over-the-top Fan Service Hot Springs Episode skirts the edge when they discuss who else to bring.

Miu: 'Since it is a bath house, a woman would be better than a man.'
Ren: 'A woman would be better?'
Miu: 'Of course,' turns to look directly at the viewer.
Ren: 'Is that so?' moves in front, also looking at the viewer.
Takeya, Art Shifted: 'Um, who are you talking to?'

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U-Z