All About DearS
by Luis Reyes on 03.31.05
We had the pleasure of sitting down with TOKYOPOP editor Luis Reyes, who chatted about DearS... and why some of us dopey guys might have a chance with an alien babe!
QUESTION: Okay, here's the million dollar question: Is it pronounced "Dear" followed by the letter "S", as in "Dear - S"...or just "Dears"?
ANSWER: It's just Dears, but Dears is used as a singular and a plural noun: "She is a Dears, and they are Dears."
QUESTION: How does DearS separate itself from other manga in which the main boy character is a hapless loser who's surrounded by hot babes?
ANSWER: Takeya isn't a nervous boy with blood spilling out his nose whenever he glimpses the soft, pink flesh of the female form. He really is irked by the fact that this alien, as beautiful as she is, has dropped into his life. He softens up a bit, but his irritability does make him a more palatable character than, say, Keitaro in Love Hina. Beyond that, the story fits firmly in the harem manga mold, which depends largely on sex farce comedy, and DearS does not disappoint in that department.
QUESTION: Is this more a boys series or a girls series?
ANSWER: Boys will like it for the reason boys always like harem manga, but girls will like the strength of a lot of the female characters. In the second book, Myu arrives, a strong, loud-spoken DearS determined to maintain the positive public image the DearS have thus far enjoyed (and which Ren threatens to tear apart). Also, Takeya's neighbor Neneko is a human girl struggling with very real issues. First of all, she is seldom if at all dressed in revealing outfits and parading around for the seemingly prurient eyes of Takeya. But she is also the older sister to several demanding brothers who she must feed and put to bed before her hard-working mother gets home. This as in many ways precluded her from enjoying her teenage years. She fantasizes about being a clothing designer, and uses her new DearS friends to model her creations. But the thought of actually wearing her own designs reveals a lot about her self image.
QUESTION: What do you think about the fascination in Japanese manga with woman teachers hitting on their male students?
ANSWER: I am damn glad that it's come time to get this issue out in the open. So many of my buxom educators would hit on me incessantly, and it's high time titles such as DearS and Mahoromatic are exposing this to the world before any more teachers expose themselves. I mean, really. The next thing you know we'll start seeing women in other professions remove their clothing at work, lawyers, firefighters, strippers...
QUESTION: How does this high school compare to your high school experience?
ANSWER: Very similar, with the possible exception of the alien infiltration, the buxom hotties, the living alone, the chibi transformation and the speed lines. Other than that, it's a perfect facsimile of my high school years.
QUESTION: In bringing the manga over to the States, what was the strangest line you had to translate?
ANSWER: When Takeya asks Ren to come out of the closet, I felt that I had to massage that away from the double meaning.
QUESTION: What's with all the collars in DearS?
ANSWER: What do you mean it ups the kink factor, of course!
QUESTION: Do you believe that the government is hiding aliens from us?
ANSWER: No, I believe that aliens are running the government.
QUESTION: A few of us are taking an office poll who would win in a fight, Chi from Chobits or Ren from DearS?
ANSWER: Neither, they'd just want to be friends these ladies are all about the love.
QUESTION: Any insider 411 about the future of the DearS series that you want to offer to our adoring fans?
ANSWER: We'll start seeing severe dissention among the DearS community in the wake of Ren's unleashing on the human world. It was a mistake that is now possibly going to cause them more embarrassment than they are willing to deal with.