DearS Vol. #07

By Robert Harris     November 22, 2006
Release Date: November 01, 2006



Creative Talent
Writer/Artist:Peach-Pit
Translated by:Christine Schilling
Adapted by:Peter Ahlstrom

What They Say
When a fun trip to the pool turns lethal, an ill-stricken Takeya must find a way to save the day. A design convention can mean a future career for the young Neneko. But when the DearS begin to become increasingly inquisitive and potentially confused about this human thing called love, it's going to take everyone in the neighborhood to sort out the mess.

The Review
It's the second to last volume of DearS, are you ready for some poorly thought-out, hastily constructed storylines? No? Well good, because you won't get any! And I mean "any", because the storyline the last volume hinted at is... absent. There's actually less of it in this volume than last, which came as quite a surprise. What there is a lot of, a whole lot of, is relationship development between Ren, Miu and Takeya. In fact, perhaps the only real complaint I can level at Volume 7 is the job it leaves for the final volume. Well, that and the brain-exploding ending.

First the good news: virtually every chapter in Volume 7 is very strong, and peripheral character involvement is kept to comic relief. Miu becomes Takeya's slave, Ren becomes jealous, and Takeya becomes really, really aggravated. Miu gets a lot of good moments here, and Ren finally gets to switch places and try to muscle Miu out of the picture. This dynamic works really well, especially now that it takes center stage, and provides much of the humor throughout. Their relationships to Takeya evolve as well, and they both improve quite a bit as characters. There's even a Neneko chapter, which takes place at a doll convention and contains some more Rozen Maiden cameos. I always enjoy Neneko chapters; she really hasn't gotten enough attention throughout the series.

The story introduced last volume, regarding the scientists and Ren and Io (the DearS child), is mentioned for about... two sentences total? There is absolutely nothing that clears up what was hinted at last volume. The cause of the DearS ship cutting off communications is given, but it's given two pages total and may be entirely unrelated to Ren and Io. Seeing that storyline brushed to the side until the last volume may be disconcerting, but the worst part of this volume has to be the ending. Throughout Volume 7, Takeya grows closer to both Ren and Miu substantially. I'd venture to say that Ren and Takeya's relationship has never been better, even considering the added tension Miu adds to the equation. So it's quite surprising when, towards the end of the last chapter, Ren confesses her doubts and feelings of alienation to Hiro. Perhaps it's a sign of her growing maturity as a character, but it still seems strange. Even more confusing, when Hiro makes yet another play for Ren, she doesn't immediately reject him as she has before. This is, needless to say, way out of character for her, especially considering how close Ren and Takeya have become. Now, I don't actually believe Hiro has a shot, due to both the preview for the next volume and the fact that Takeya not ending up with Ren would violate The First Law of Harem Anime Cliches (namely, that the first eligible girl the male protagonist meets during the story will be the girl he ends up with). It's still troubling, though, that they decided to end the volume at this moment, and only Volume 8 will reveal whether it's drastically out of character, or a cheap attempt at creating false suspense. Neither is a particularly attractive option.

Volume 7 is a great volume that causes an equally great deal of frustration. So much of what's here is among the best the series has produced so far, which is why it's depressing to see it stumble at the end. Time will tell whether it was a wise move to leave all of the story development for the last volume, and it may have it's share of frustrations, but this is really a volume worth picking up.