Characters for the DearS series. There may be unmarked spoilers. So best to read this page after completing the manga.
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Ikuhara Family
Takeya Ikuhara
- Voiced by: Kishow Taniyama (JP), Taliesin Jaffe (EN)
He's not normally this happy.
The protagonist. When he is introduced, he is highly suspicious of the eponymous DearS aliens, based purely on a gut feeling, but ironically, he winds up living with one.
- Above the Influence: When Ren outright tries to have sex with him, he, as politely as he can, refuses her because he thinks it's inappropriate.
- Abusive Parents: His father's such an asshole, he looks like a saint by comparison; to wit, the guy thinks the perfect way to reunite with his estranged son, after being absent for most of his life, is to clobber him on the head and kidnap his primary love interest, while bemoaning said son for being "unreasonable."
- Accidental Pervert: He often winds up in compromising positions with Ren without intending to. By the time of chapter 25, nobody else in the cast even cares anymore when he's found on top of Ren with her panties in his hand. (Long story)
- Always Save the Girl: He gains the romance of his Unwanted Harem by coming to their rescue, starting with saving Ren from being run over on a highway, and rescuing Miu from having fallen down a well.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: That saves mankind.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: He chooses to go into space with the DearS only to regret it later when he learns Only You Can Repopulate My Race applies to him.
- Blessed with Suck: For most of the story, he saw his relationship with Ren this way. Yes, she's a woman who he finds very sexually attractive, and finds her greatest joy in following his every order, but she is very Literally Minded, knows nothing of the cultural norms and taboos that Takeya grew up with, can't figure out things for herself, and has the mentality of a small child, even having a very difficult time communicating in any form. Oh, and even though she really wants sex with him, if he ever takes her up on it, at least before the 5-page ending, Takeya would have found himself in serious trouble from most of the population at large, especially his landlady, Neneko who has a history of beating him up for perceived violations of common decency or attempting to sexually exploit Ren.
- Book Dumb: By his own admission, he struggles in class. So much so that he considers a grade of 56 cause for celebration, and it isn't lack of effort either.
- Broken Ace: He's noted to be handsome, and athletic, but he's somewhat bitter and anti-social.
- Butt-Monkey: If something can go wrong for him, it will.
- Calling the Old Man Out: While he admits his own shortcomings, he gloriously tells off his asshole father right before going into space. It completely flies over the guy's head, unfortunately.
- Culture Clash: He is the first character on-screen "in the know" that DearS are a Slave Race and expect to be treated as one. Raised to view slavery as a special kind of evil, he does not take the implications well. In return, most of the DearS community sees him as a horrible master, and Ren views herself as a useless slave because Takeya is highly reluctant to boss her around or exploit her, like a master is supposed to.
- Cursed with Awesome: On the one hand, he finds himself on a spaceship full of beautiful women who will happily obey his every order, and service his every need. On the other, he's well aware that he's neither a good parental figure, nor has any positive parental role models to draw from, and most, if not all, of the girls have no idea how to raise children either. Plus his rather rocky relationship with Ren has highlighted just how far he has to go to be a good master.
- Designated Hero: Combined with The Chosen One. He winds up being the crucible by which humanity is judged.
- Desperately Seeking A Purpose In Life: One of the overarching aspects of the plot is him trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life. He ultimately decides to go explore space with the DearS.
- Does Not Like Women: Yeah, his ability to deal with the opposite sex is quite poor. Considering the Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male entry below, it's no wonder.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: He is a near constant victim of this.His sister beats him up, and he can't retaliate because his mother and father would beat him up for it, and Neneko beats him up. Plus all the girls in his class are quick to verbally and emotionally abuse him.
- Extreme Doormat: He's introduced with a bandaged face because by his own admission, his boss at work beats him up, and said boss wonders why he skips work.
- The First Cut Is the Deepest: He apparently used to date his step-mother, Harumi, at one point, but she dumped him to marry his father instead, and he's had to view her as "Mom" and Natsuki as "sis" from that point on. Ouch.
- Freudian Excuse: His personality is the way he is due to how horrific his own father is, and it's implied his father specifically raised him to be that way.
- Friendly Address Privileges: Invoked. One of his first orders to Ren is to have her address him by name, as opposed to "master," for obvious reasons.
- Friend to All Children: At least when it comes to DearS, children seem to really like him for some reason.
- Heavy Sleeper: He gives Neneko a great deal of grief trying to wake him up in the morning because he doesn't respond to alarm clocks.
- Hero's Slave Harem: One of the few non Light Novel examples. He unknowing builds one when he leaves for space because he is The One Guy among a Slave Race.
- Hero with an F in Good: While he indeed continuously strives to do the right thing and live in an upright manner, he is absolutely horrible at it. When he tries to rescue Miu from a well, he winds up falling in there with her.
- Innocently Insensitive: He steps on emotional landmines almost constantly.
- Insecure Love Interest: The primary reason why he turns Ren down is that he thinks he's not worthy of her, and he has a point in that regard. Whenever Hirofumi shows up and tries to wedge himself into Ren's life, Takeya immediately sulks and withdraws into himself. When his father's introduced, he implies that he conditioned Takeya to act that way, and is disappointed when he doesn't. By disappointed, we mean, "has him arrested under false charges, and kept in jail until he's willing to give up said girlfriend." Fortunately, in Ren's case, Harumi is willing and able to veto that plan.
- Irony: In spades.
- The Insecure Love Interest who is Oblivious to Love is the one who winds up teaching the meaning of love to the DearS and quite effectively at that.
- He has problems standing up for himself (though not from lack of trying), yet he's the one who teaches a slave race, particularly Khi, how to stand up for themselves, without resorting to violence, and it works.
- Takeya believes he's not a good father figure, and he's right, but he proves himself a Friend to All Children, and is chosen to be the patriarch for the next generation of DearS.
- The character introduced is the most suspicious of DearS ends up exploring space with a harem of them.
- He tells the world that he'll return after he's become a better man than his hated father. He doesn't know it, but he already is, by far.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He has a very abrasive personality, but he generally means well, and can be counted on to do the right thing, whenever possible.
- Love Epiphany: He comes to realize he loves Ren, as a person, near the end of the story.
- Manchild: He has to be dragged kicking and screaming into adulthood.
- Morality Pet: Amusingly he serves as one to Miu.
- Not What It Looks Like: For the first few chapters, he is the frequent victim regarding explicit misunderstandings concerning Ren. Neneko does not hesitate to hammer him on them, often with violence.
- Oblivious to Love: Downplayed and Justified. It takes quite a bit of time for him to realize that Neneko has feelings for him, but considering the fact that she's frequently quite violent towards him, it's no surprise that he fails to immediately pick up on it. He also has trouble recognizing Ren's and Miu's feelings, though in their case, they don't understand their feelings either, and they are aliens. Not having received any kind of orientation beforehand makes his rather awkward reactions somewhat understandable.
- Perpetual Frowner: He's very gloomy and greets just about everything with a scowl.
- Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Once his father's introduced, his abrasive personality makes a lot more sense.
- Squick: In-universe. For most of the series, he is seriously offended when Ren tries to have sex with him, because 1.) she speaks as if biologically compelled to respond to his sexual desire, not out of her own free will, and 2.) she comes across as having the mentality of a small child.
- Tap on the Head: His own father has police knock him out with a cudgel, while he's being fraudulently charged with abusing DearS to kidnap Ren.
- Took a Level in Kindness: The Takeya at the start of the story and the Takeya at the end are very different people, most of it comes from realizing that the DearS have thoughts and feelings very similar to humans.
- Used to Be a Sweet Child: If Neneko's flashbacks where he made her a crown of flowers and called her "princess" can be believed, he used to be a very sweet and adorable little boy indeed.
- When He Smiles: He very rarely smiles. So when he does, it's a truly heartwarming experience.
Natsuki Ikuhara
- Voiced by: Ryōko Shintani (JP), Stephanie Sheh (EN)
- Annoying Younger Sibling: To seriously unhealthy levels.
- Ascended Fangirl: Of DearS.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: She is absolutely unwilling to share her brother with any girl, especially a DearS.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: She is very physically abusive to her older brother, for no real reason.
- The Gadfly: She loves to say and do outrageous things to Takeya just to see him react. Unfortunately, most of that is very sexually aggressive teasing. Small wonder Takeya doesn't know how to relate to women.
- Keet: She's got too much energy and is constantly bouncing off the walls.
- Mood Killer: She's got some seriously impeccable sense of timing to ruin what little chance Ren has of seducing Takeya. Takeya even lampshades it.
- Spoiled Brat: Combined with Free-Range Children. She declared her intent to wander the Earth at age 10, and her parents indulged her, but when she heard about DearS coming to Japan and attending Takeya's school, she immediately flocked back and barged into Takeya's appartment, hoping to meet them.
- Strong Family Resemblance: She looks exactly like a smaller version of her mother.
- Third-Person Person: Zigzagged. She sometimes refers to herself by name, and sometimes refers to herself as "I" and there doesn't seem to be a consistent pattern.
- Wrestler in All of Us: She uses wrestling moves on Takeya when she's abusing him.
Harumi Ikuhara
- Voiced by: Mariko Suzuki (JP), Kirsten Potter (EN)
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Deconstructed. As part of her "The Reason You Suck" Speech, Neneko highlights that Harumi once dumped Takeya in favor of his own father, a guy who is infinitely worse, as in, routinely leaves his family completely unattended for years and when he returns home, acts like a human wrecking ball, and those are his good points. Small wonder they're legally separated, if not outright divorced.
- Calling Your Attacks: She hits Natsuki with the "Harumi Driver."
- Good Parents: Though she lets Natsuki beat the stuffing out of Takeya on a regular basis, and doesn't let him retaliate, she's otherwise a good and loving mother who gently guides him.
- My Greatest Failure: Though she doesn't say it out loud, her body language indicates that she really regrets marrying Takeya's father, and doesn't want to be reminded of it.
- Harumi: "And your dad will always be your dad. But he just up and leaves everyone all the time. You, and me. And today, even she..." (looks at the ground) "But..." "... He always comes back home, eventually, doesn't he?"
- So Proud of You: To Takeya, for actually being a bit more grown-up since the last time she saw him, especially in the later chapters where Takeaya has learned how to shop for food properly, and at least tries to care for his household.
- Stealth Mentor: Though she doesn't outright spell out her kid's lessons to them, she guides them by letting them learn from their mistakes.
- Wrestler in All of Us: She uses wrestling moves on Natsuki like Natsuki uses on Takeya.
Takezou Ikuhara
Takeya's father.
- Abusive Dad: He makes Takeya look like a saint by comparison. After a near lifetime of parental neglect towards his oldest child, Takeya, he reenters the boy's life to try to take his primary love interest away, without explanation. When he fails to convince Takeya with words, he has him arrested on false charges and knocked out with a cudgel, drags Ren away, and calls Takeya "unreasonable," and Takeya insits that this isn't the first time the bastard's done something like this.
- Takeya: "No. I'm not going to let Dad take something precious to me away again."
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: After going through his Breaking Speech, he gets on his hands and knees, bringing his head to the ground to plead with Ren to board a rocket and allow herself to be launched into space, hoping to send her far enough away to spare humanity from extinction. According to Io, this wouldn't have been enough.
- Breaking Speech: He goes into long, exquisite, and horrific detail regarding "The Gate" to Ren, blaming the DearS for the extinction of many other species by accusing them of being a Horde of Alien Locusts who use up a host species, and then flee to a new world when that species goes on to destroy itself.
- Eagle Land: A downplayed type 2. He leads a NASA research team in experimenting on the "zero" DearS, but it's a joint Japan and U.S. effort, so both countries are equally culpable in any nastiness that occurs in the lab(s).
- Even Evil Has Standards: Inverted. His subordinates are horrified when he tries to NTR his son, by conning Ren into abandoning Takeya, being a scapegoat for unjustified anti-DearS sentiment, launching her into orbit, and abandoning her to die. He is smugly completely unconcerned. The worst part, is that if his plan to have his son imprisoned until it was too late had worked, Io would have nuked mankind to extinction because of him. Even after finding out, he's completely unapologetic.
- For Science!: He and his team seek to experiment on the DearS not for any pressing issue or legitimate goal, but simply because they seem "interesting."
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: He wears glasses and has little in the way of morals or ethics. He even treats the "zero" units he and his scientific team managed to strongarm from the DearS worse than the DearS themselves do, and that's no easy feat.
- Hate Sink: His role in the story is seemingly to be Takeya's Freudian Excuse, explaining why Takeya has such an abrasive personality, and to serve as a plot device to explain why Io thinks it's a good idea to exterminate mankind. The fact that he's completely unrepentant, and begins a plea to have Ren become a Heroic Sacrifice start with a Psychotic Smirk and continue with a Breaking Speech before prostrating himself doesn't help.
- I Have You Now, My Pretty: While he doesn't say it out loud, he definitely has the look after tricking Ren into custody. Including a Psychotic Smirk that borders on a Slasher Smile.
- Karma Houdini: He and his team are never called out on their immoral and illegal behavior (filing a false police report is a crime in most places). In fact, Takeya's perfectly rational decision to head into space and take Ren and China with him actually serves to make his life easier because the legal and financial ramifications of what he did to them is one less thing he has to worry about.
- Manipulative Bastard: He shows up in Takeya's school unanounced, informs Takeya that Ren will be going with him "willingly" but while Takeya's talking to Ren, trying to find out what's going on, he has Takeya arrested on false charges, and calls Takeya a "troublesome" son. Note that Takeya's being loaned the tuiton to his mandatory highschool attendance and is expected to pay it back after graduation.
- The Needs of the Many: How he justifies kidnapping Ren, launching her into orbit, and leaving her to die.
- Netorare: At least twice that we know of. First, he outright takes Takeya's once girlfriend, Harumi, as his own wife, and then has Takeya arrested under false charges, and kept imprisoned until Ren is launched into orbit and left to die (which would have doomed mankind to extinction anyway). Fortunately, Harumi was able to bail him out in time.
- Obliviously Evil: He doesn't seem to comprehend why taking his son's girlfriend away from him, at least twice, would be something that upsets him. In fact, when Takeya rushes out to prevent Ren from abandoning him, or at least try to understand why, he calls Takeya "unreasonable" for it, and arranges for him to be arrested under false charges, and then be "unavailable" so that the police can't release him, until it's too late.
- Parental Neglect: By Takeya's testimony, which he doesn't deny, he completely ignores his family, especially Takeya, unless he's trying to manipulate them into something, and then has the gall to be surprised that they don't respect him, or do what he wants.
- Small Role, Big Impact: He appears for less than five chapters in a manga of almost 50, and is directly responsible for the biggest twist in the story.
- Smug Snake: Whenever he's on screen, he struts around like he's the smartest, most rational, and most competent person in the room, and expects everyone and everything else to treat him as such and bend to his will. The only reason he gets away with it is that he's got Japan's ultra-rigid patriarchal culture backing him, and his latest sucker is Ren. Had he tried his behavior just about anywhere else, and on someone who was just a little bit less humble, subservient, and naive, the response would not have been kind.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His cruel treatment of the "zero" DearS, especially "test subject A2," has convinced Io, the gate guardian, that humanity has lost the capacity to love, and as such, to protect her fellow DearS, she intends to set off a Neutron bomb, wipe out humanity, and reset the Earth's biosphere, and since Ren is the gate, not the key, which Io controls, sending Ren into space wouldn't have helped. The smear campaign run by the unscrupulous reporter only made all this happen faster.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: By his own admission, he only sees DearS as test-subjects, including Ren. The only reason why he treats Ren any different is that he believes Ren has the power to decide the fate of all mankind. In truth, the one with this ability is Io, whom he'd already abused so terribly, that she was a hairs-breadth away from blasting mankind to extinction.
- When You Coming Home, Dad?: He spends so much time in the lab that he doesn't even appear in the story until chapter 40, and by that point, at least one full academic year has passed. According to Takeya, this is not new behavior but has been going on for most of Takeya's life, and Takezou doesn't deny it.
- Would Hurt a Child: Remember Io's horrific treatment? She endured it while having the appearance, mentality, and maturity of a very small child.
Dear S
Common to all:
- Allergic to Evil: Since they feed on love, if they're hated, they weaken and die.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Every one of them wholly believes the line that DearS are slaves and sees all of them, including himself, as nothing more than mere possessions, and "defective" slaves like Ren have no right to exist. Takeya does not take it well upon hearing it.
- Emotion Eater: They feed on love, and need it to exist.
- The Empath: They can sense the emotional state of other races, especially those that concern their "masters." In Ren's case, the link goes both ways, and Takeya can often sense her emotions.
- Endangered Species: Thanks to an interstellar war of extermination waged against them, and those who loved them, the ones shown in the story are all that exists, and the war also took away their ability to reproduce until Takeya went and unlocked it again.
- Human Alien: If it wasn't for their collars and forehead crystals, they could very easily pass for ordinary Earth humans, even considering their unusual hair colors.
- Not Quite Flight: They can move things, and themselves by controlling gravity on a very small scale.
- Overly Long Name: A DearS' name is really their serial number rendered in their native language.
- Sacred First Kiss: Quite literally. When a DearS kisses someone, it means that person is "Master" and the DearS has pledged a lifetime of loyal service as a slave.
- Servant Race: They were created to serve the needs of other races, and view themselves as nothing more than possessions. Ever since they came to Earth they've been trying to ease humanity into the idea of viewing the DearS as such. What's more, they also have a very rigid feudal caste system slapped on top of that.
- Slave Collar: All the DearS wear huge leather collars around their necks, and many have chains attached.
- We Are as Mayflies: According to Lady Fina, the average lifespan of DearS is only 20 Earth years. The implications are not promising.
- What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: While DearS are completely capable of feeling love, they fundementally don't understand what it means. The closest concept they can grasp is "the gift" where a slave chooses its master.
Ren
- Voiced by: Ai Shimizu (JP), Karen Strassman (EN)
The first DearS introduced to the audience. She is found by Takeya lost, confused, and disoriented, completely unable to comprehend the Japanese language, and he saves her from being run over when she was jaywalking on a particularly high-traffic road. She rewards him with a kiss, which in their culture is a sacred oath of lifetime enslavement to said person.
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head: One of the few things Takeya does right in his relationship with her, is lovingly pat her on the head, or cup her face when she does well and he wishes to praise her. More than anything else, this is what she likes about him. When he fails to do it, Neneko does it in his stead, even if she has to stand on tiptoes to do it.
- All the Other Reindeer: Being labeled a "zero" unit, she's an outcast from her own species and is treated quite cruelly. While Miu does slowly and surely get better about it, eventually treating her as an equal, the vast majority of the others are completely unapologetic, even after the reveal that she's "the gate."
- Baby Factory: Played for laughs. When she learns that she can get pregnant, she loudly declares her intent to give birth to as many of Takeya's babies as possible.
- Bedmate Reveal: In the manga, Takeya wakes up with Ren in his bed with no idea how she got there, thinking that his prior encounter where she kissed him was All Just a Dream, and she keeps sneaking into his bed until she offially sets up the closet as her bedroom. Even then, she still likes to sneak into his bed on occasion.
- Book Dumb: Inverted. While she is otherwise developmentally challenged, even without the aid of her near-magical implant, she's capable of learning things from books with incredible speed and ease. Even managing to get a perfect score on her end-of-year test.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: She has the largest breasts of all the DearS shown and numerous characters point it out, especially Neneko. Takeya is pretty much the only one who doesn't grope them, at least not intentionally.
- Closet Sublet: After bringing Ren home, without any ulterior motives, while Takeya's considering his options, Neneko knocks on his door. He panicks and hides Ren in his closet. Ren remodels it into her bedroom, and gets very uncomfortable being asked to sleep anywhere else, aside from sharing Takeya's futon.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Is on the receiving end of this, from her fellow DearS no less, after they kidnap her from Takeya, and then have the gall to say he abandoned her, and blaming her for it. When Takeya shows up to rescue her, the torturer only gets a gentle verbal scolding, while Takeya is outright forbidden from taking any action except picking Ren up and taking her home, upon threat of violence directed at himself.
- Do You Want to Copulate?: Whenever she senses Takeya's sexual desire, she immediately offers herself up to him, regardless of the time or place. Takeya seldom takes it well.
- Even the Girls Want Her: Neneko thinks she has nice breasts. Mitsuka-sensei thinks her body was "made for love!" And several of the girls in the class think she should be hanging out with them instead of Takeya. This isn't counting the opening credits, where she and Miu actually kiss.
- Extreme Doormat: Takeya, abrasive as he is, is one of the people who treats her best in the series. Even her own species looks down on her, at best, for most of the story.
- Fish out of Water: Unlike most other DearS shown, she is completely clueless about any Earth norms, cultures or taboos. This is justified by the fact that she was not part of the three year orientation campaign put forth by the U.N. because she was marked "defective" as a "Zero" unit and slated for experimentation, finding herself in Takeya's service due to pure chance.
- Game-Breaking Injury: The special mechanism that allows her to osmose cultural and technical information from books and her surroundings is damaged beyond repair by the torture she received while separated from Takeya, and all her understanding gained in that manner was lost. Takeya and Neneko had to retrain her, from kindergarten up, over three days of non-stop tutoring to get her back up to speed, in the anime. The manga has a different plot line.
- Hair Antennae: Combined with Expressive Hair She's got two very prominent bangs that slope backwards poking out from the top of her forehead. In the anime, they tend to twitch whenever she senses Takeya's sexual desire.
- Happiness in Slavery: Deconstructed. While Ren is genuinely happy that Takeya saved her from being a victim of a traffic accident, and took her in without ulterior motives, she's chagrined and confused that he sees her as a burden, and is reluctant to give her orders, not to mention that she simply cannot comprehend why he's constantly turning her down for sex despite being able to detect that he finds her very sexually attractive.
- Innocent Fanservice Girl: Having no concept of Earth taboos, she sees nothing wrong with being underclothed in public, or discussing/engaging in what could be considered erotic acts with Takeya regardless of time or place.
- Instant Expert: Zigzagged. At least until her Game-Breaking Injury, she had a special implant that allowed her to basically "machine translate" technical manuals, language books, and so on with minor gramatical errors. Afterwards, Neneko and Takeya had to tutor her back to competence from the Kindergarten level up, though she still learned it with super-human speed, at least in the anime.
- Intimate Healing: When Takeya catches a summer cold, and develops a fever of 39.9 degrees Celcius (approx 103.8 Farenheit), thanks to saving her from drowning, while he's unconscious, she strips herself naked, and curls up around him until he's cured. While Takeya is somewhat suspicious of his quick recovery and seeing that Ren's visibly shaken, he ultimately decides not to look a gift horse in the mouth after Ren declares that she's alright.
- I Owe You My Life: Quite literally. Due to the fact that Takeya saved her from traffic, and from a visit to a lab as an unwilling test subject, she gives herself over to him for a lifetime of slavery.
- Lethal Chef: To humans, her cuisine is highly toxic, to the point of crying Tears of Blood. Other DearS, like Miu, find it heavenly. Over time, with a bit of teaching from Miu, she gradually improves to the point that she can serve restaurant quality meals, which Takeya genuinely appreciates. This gets reset due to the Game-Breaking Injury entry, until she eventually settles on being a Cordon Bleugh Chef.
- Lust Object: Most of the cast sees her as a living sex doll, even Neneko, though she doesn't say it out loud. To her constant frustation, the only one who doesn't, because he tries to respect her, as a person, is her master Takeya, to whom she near-constantly offers herself, and she has great difficulty understanding why he's always turning her down.
- Magical Girlfriend: She reveals herself as a DearS to Takeya's class by using her alien powers to stop him from falling to his death when he was accidentally pushed out a window by his classmates.
- Magnetic Girlfriend: Thanks, in part, to Ren entering Takeya's life, several other women start growing attracted to him.
- Morality Pet: She's the reason Takeya grows into a better person.
- Naked First Impression: In the manga, Takeya stumbles upon her wearing only a blanket which briefly falls away when Takeya tries to come to her aid. Takeya reacts like most people would and tries to distance himself from her immediately, until she stumbles into traffic on a busy road...
- New Transfer Student: Thanks to her sudden appearance in Takeya's class and the fiasco that went with it, she gets officially enrolled as a student of his class.
- No Social Skills: She is completely clueless on how to relate to anyone even fellow DearS.
- Only You Can Repopulate My Race: The Gate's true purpose is to find a race both genetically and emotionally compatible with the DearS so as to give rise to the next generation. It's not until the five-page epilogue chapter that anyone learns of this.
- Overly Long Name: Combined with You Are Number 6. DearS don't have names but serial numbers. When Takeya tries to coax her name out of her, she responds with Ren Ren Ren Nagusaran Rensia Rodoonren Nakora (000-3901). Being too much for him to keep up with, he affectionally dubs her Ren.
- Phlebotinum Overload: While the anime has her lose her extra-terrestial super-powers, including the ability to osmose information from books, etc due to a Game-Breaking Injury as a result of torture, in the manga, her special crystal overloads causing her to regress, and it has to be reconfigured by putting her back in her special container. This proves to be a Dangerous Forbidden Technique as the container was damaged in the beginning of the story, and it could destroy her mind completely instead.
- Rei Ayanami Expy: Blue hair, red eyes, mostly alien, but appears human, has difficulty emoting, but warms up towards the main character over time.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Miu's red.
- Secret Test of Character: Unknown to everyone, including herself, her purpose as "the Gate" is to give one of these to all of humanity. It was a close shave, but humanity earned itself a reprieve, thanks to Takeya.
- Sex Slave: Khi reveals in a throw-away line that she's a "breeder," and Ren later confirms that she's been trained in offering sexual services after detecting Takeya's desire. Even after he, clumsily but politely, turns her down, she still innocently does erotic things to him. (Like licking salt water off his neck or kissing him to suck up soy milk off his lips.)
- Single-Target Sexuality: She wants Takeya, and only Takeya, though she gets serious, serious unwanted attention from the local casanova in Takeya's school, from a rival classroom.
- Third-Person Person: She refers to herself as "Ren" not as "I."
- Trademark Favorite Food: Melon bread. It's the first thing Takeya gave her to eat, so it's given her precious memories as his slave, and she will eat a lot of it.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Invoked. Becoming an Extreme Doormat while testing the worthiness of sapient host species is her purpose, and if said species fails to pass, extinction ensues.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: She tells this to Takeya when he's feeling down about himself in chapter 37. He heartwarmingly goes on to prove her right.
Miu
- Voiced by: Mai Nakahara (JP), Michelle Ruff (EN)
- The Ace: Contrary to Ren, she's gone through the orientation program so she's highly intelligent, well-cultured, athletic, and savvy to Japan's cultural norms.
- Alpha Bitch: She initially comes across as this. She gets better as the series goes on.
- Baby Factory: Like Ren. Played for laughs. When Ren declares her intent to have as many kids as possible, she immediately decides to do the same.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: She grows fond of Takeya and her homestay families because they're kind to her. Unlike with Ren, Takeya doesn't find her annoying because she's more or less self-sufficient, and can think for herself.
- Break the Haughty: Downplayed. She expected to be treated like a celeberity on her first day. When she was mostly ignored, she didn't take it well.
- Cassandra Truth: At first. The students in Takeya's school considered her a fake because Ren wound up being enrolled first.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Her previous beloved master shoved her into a closet and ordered her to be quiet just before armed antagonists broke into his home and brutally killed him. While this did save her life, by the time she managed to get out, and return to her beloved master's side, he was a cold, bullet-ridden corpse, and there was nothing she could do for him. This all happened when she was a small child.
- Foil: To Ren. They're both DearS, both wind up in the same class, have human homestay families, but while Ren is stuck with a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who means well, but doesn't know how, and never received Earth orientation, Miu has undergone orientation, has two loving adoptive grandparents, and doesn't have to be told, or ordered to be compliant with Japan's norms because she already knows them. Moreover Ren is named after the first syllable in her Overly Long Name while Miu is named after the last. They also both have memories of being hidden in a closet by their masters. While Ren's experience is overwhelimingly positive, so much so that she converts one to her bedroom, Miu's experience is something out of a horror film, to the point where she's terrified of dark, enclosed places.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Upon meeting Ren, she's highly jealous that Ren has a "master" and has received "The Gift" before her.
- Hair Antennae: Like Ren, she's got two very prominent bangs sloping backwards on her head like antennae. Unlike Ren, they haven't been shown doing anything unusual.
- Happily Adopted: For all intents and purposes. Her homestay family treats her like the grand-daughter they never had, but always wanted, and she's grateful.
- Harmful to Minors: She was shoved into a closet and ordered not to come out by her beloved master, and she found his corpse after she broke out, when she was a small child.
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: Her initial haughty attitude is later revealed to be a cover to hide that she's actually very insecure about herself and feels inferior to Ren who has what she wanted most before herself.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: She was ready to give up on Takeya because she was going to space... and then she learns that he's going to space too.
- Mercy Kill: She gets requested this by her terminally ill host "grandpa." Unfortunately, an unscrupulous reporter who did not catch the full context of the conversation, and was there without notice or permission, goes on to publish a scathing article on the DearS as a whole.
- New Transfer Student: She enters Takeya's class, after Ren gets officially enrolled.
- Overly Long Name: Her full name is Sianostal Renagregyug Tanast Usem Ryuki Miu.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Ren's blue.
- Rescue Romance: She falls for Takeya because he rescued, or at least tried to rescue, her when she fell down a well, and kept her company until real help arrived.
- The Resenter: She resents the fact that Ren stole the spotlight from her by being the first DearS to enter Takeya's high-school.
- Unknown Rival: She sees herself as Ren's bitter rival, in all things, including love. Ren couldn't care less.
Khi
- Voiced by: Miyuki Sawashiro (JP), Yuri Lowenthal (EN)
- Extreme Doormat: He's the target of extreme physical abuse from his homestay family, but being a DearS he has a hard time reporting it, so he is always wearing bandages.
- If It's You, It's OK: A non-romantic, non-sexual example. He develops enough respect for Takeya that he asks Takeya to give him orders. Takeya gives him just one fundemantal order, "stand up for yourself." Seemingly this is what ends his Extreme Doormat status.
- Man of Wealth and Taste: He's always classily dressed.
- Mr. Exposition: He's the one explaining the DearS situation to Takeya, granted, it happens eleven chapters after the story starts, but it gives Takeya a much needed Jerkass Realization.
- Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: His homestay family, particularly the youngest child abuses him while happily reminding him that he's a slave.
Shisyo/Xaki
- Voiced by: Hiroaki Hirata (JP), Patrick Seitz (EN)
- Delinquent Hair: Combined with Anime Hair. A hairstyle that unkempt is all but impossible in reality without extreme, deliberate effort.
- Dumb Muscle: He's exceptionally strong, but he's so stupid, Ren can easily out-smart him.
- Face of a Thug: He looks and acts like a complete delinquent.
- I Was Beaten by a Girl: Subverted. While he's deeply offended that Ren was able to outmaneuver him, constantly, it's more that he was defeated by a "defective" slave than he was defeated by a girl. After all, he sees no problem sparring with Nia, who is also a girl.
- Knight Templar: He goes out to capture Ren before Takeya even is informed that the DearS community wants her back, and without even getting Takeya's consent first.
- Rabid Cop: He's the closest thing the Dears community has to a police officer, and he's certainly quite unstable while on the job.
- Violence is the Only Option: He's quick to resort to force when dealing with "failure of compliance."
Nia
- Voiced by: Yukari Tamura (JP), Carrie Savage (EN)
- Adorably Precocious Child: How Takeya sees her. This is definitely justified in that she looks and acts like a child aside from her feline features.
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Takeya loves to pet her on the head to cheer on her ambitions to become the DearS equivalent of a police officer, and she really appreciates it.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: She is very easily distracted. Numerous times, Ren manages to elude her because she got sidetracked by some shiny object and forgot what she was doing.
- Blush Sticker: She sports these whenever she's happy, which is often.
- Cat Girl: She has the personality of a common housecat as well as several cat features, like cat paws instead of hands and feet. (Though these turn out to be gloves and shoes.)
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: So much so that she can hardly be called a villain. She is so inept at trying to capture Ren that she doesn't even register as a threat, aand she's actually quite adorable.
- Little Bit Beastly: Unlike most DearS, she has quite a few animal traits as opposed to human ones, cat paws (on both hands and feet), cute little fangs, and she sometimes sports a tail.
- Spirited Competitor: One of her favorite things to do is spar with Xaki, and she manages to fight him to a standstill. She does this to try and improve herself.
- Tastes Like Friendship: When she meets Takeya, at the bakery where he works, lost and hungry, she grabs his garbage bag, intending to eat the garbage, until Takeya feeds her some fresh-baked bread instead, to her eternal joy.
Rubi
- Voiced by: Megumi Toyoguchi (JP), Victoria Harwood (EN)
- Cold-Blooded Torture: She delivers some to Ren after capturing her, and separating her from her master Takeya.
- Despair Event Horizon: She jumps right over it into the Five Stages of Grief when Lady Fina goes into her tube to sleep for the last time, and doesn't wake up at the end of chapter 38.
- Evil Gloating: Torturing Ren for no reason isn't enough for her. She's got to insult Ren and gloat that Takeya abandoned her for being "defective" too, despite knowing full well that it's a lie.
- Evil Redhead: She's got red hair, and is particularly brutal, vicious, and cruel. Without Lady Fina reining her in, there is no depth of depravity that she'll ignore.
- Fantastic Racism: Not towards people of Earth, which she sees as "clients," but to her fellow DearS. If she had her way, any "Zero" number would be summarily executed. No questions asked, or allowed.
- Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: Despite not getting punishment for her jerkass behavior, Takeya has neither forgiven nor forgotten what she's done, and doesn't want to go anywhere near her.
- Hannibal Lecture: Gives these like they're going out of style to both Takeya and Ren.
- Karma Houdini: The worst she suffers for her horrific treatment of Ren is a gentle rebuke.
- Kick the Dog: She not only tortures Ren, she tells Ren that Takeya abandoned her, and blamed Ren for it, just to break her down.
- A Taste of the Lash: She uses a whip on DearS that fail to comply with her exceedingly strict standards.
- Tautological Templar: She honestly believes her desire to protect the "dignity" of the DearS is a noble cause, so everything she does in pursuit of that goal is itself noble. Even if that includes kidnapping, fraud, and cold-blooded torture.
- Tears of Remorse: When she learns the truth of The Gate, and how her beloved Lady Fina's passing on the torch, she weeps a single tear as she begs Ren to save her race.
Lady Fina
The "leader" of the DearS people aboard the spaceship that crashed off Japan's shore.
- The Alleged Boss: Since she's prone to falling asleep without warning, Takeya wonders if she's really in charge of the DearS spaceship.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: She's the leader of all the DearS, at least those on the spaceship, and the most powerful, capable of effortlessly lifting the entire spaceship, by herself.
- The Ditz: She makes Ren look mentally sound. She's not exactly stupid, but her thought process is... odd.
- Morality Chain: She's Rubi's.
- A Mother to Her Men: Although DearS don't understand the concept of "family" the same way humans do, she regards her fellow DearS as if they were her children.
- Passing the Torch: Invoked. When she can no longer put off the end of her life she passess on the title of "Watcher" to Io who winds up in a coccoon.
- People Jars: She's been in one on board the ship until chapter 24.
- Secretly Dying: The reason why she sleeps so much is that she's long past the end of her lifespan as revealed at the end of chapter 38.
- Time Dissonance: She considers three years in a people jar "a nap."
Ayu
A DearS introduced from the beach trip.- Ambiguously Brown: Her skin tone is far darker than any other DearS shown.
- Boyish Short Hair: Despite being very feminine, she wears her hair quite short.
- Genki Girl: She is wildly energetic.
- Idol Singer: She is introduced acting as one.
- Supreme Chef: She is able to make sushi, on the fly.
Mocchi
A bizarre alien that crashes into Takeya's apartment like a meteor in chapter 27.- Bizarre Alien Biology: Even in universe, nobody knows how it functions, and it osmoses food.
- Equippable Ally: It can attach itself to DearS and become wings that allow them to actually fly.
- Extra Eyes: It has four eyes.
- Flight: It can fly by flapping its large "ears."
- Fusion Dance: It eventually fuses with Io so both become one being when Io goes into her cocoon.
- Head Pet: It loves to sit on Ren's head, it eventually settles on Io's, permanently.
- Plot Coupon: It does something that allows Ren's chamber to heal her safely, though It Only Works Once.
China
- Voiced by: Haruko Momoi (JP)
- Anywhere but Their Lips: Knowing how sacred a kiss to the lips is for a DearS Takeya kisses her on the forehead when she asks him for one. Little does he realize it's a Now or Never Kiss.
- Big Eater: She eats enough food to feed six people, and is still hungry. She even eats Takeya's portion after he hands Ren hers, from food he went out and purchased.
- Blush Sticker: To show how happy she is, she sports these all the time.
- Cheerful Child: Despite, by her own admission, seeing herself as nothing more than a test subject, on a mission for the scientists, she's surprisingly happy and energetic.
- Chuunibyou: Her imagination really runs wild. Her exaggerated expectations are weird even by DearS standards.
- Dramatic Irony: She fails in her search for "test subject A2," and gets put back in her people jar, only for said DearS to appear in the very next chapter, right at Takeya's school.
- Girlish Pigtails: She wears her hair like this.
- Green-Eyed Monster: She's insanely jealous of Ren because Ren has a master, and she doesn't.
- Hates Being Alone: The thing she fears most is being left alone and unattened.
- Line-of-Sight Name: Takeya names her China because he happened to be looking at a package of "China" delivery service which delivered the meal that she ate. Considering her Qipao type outfit, it's not a bad choice.
- Precocious Crush: She's fond of Takeya because he gave her a name, and quite possibly is the first human that treats her as a person, not as "test sample B7."
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: Possibly her greatest weapon.
- Spoiled Brat: She comes across as this, especially as she steamrolls over Takeya and Ren. She does not respond to discipline very well.
Io
- Broken Bird: Whatever treatment she went through at the lab where all the "zero" units were taken has left her quite traumatized. Amazingly, Takeya, of all people, is the first to pick up on it. Ren does not hesitate to praise him on this.
- Food as Bribe: Takeya coaxes her off a ledge with food. He later tries to coax her off his apartment's roof the same way, but she bites him due to him unwittingly calling her "test subject A2" which, unbeknownst to him, has very negative connotations to her.
- Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: Although Takeya ultimately chooses to go with her at the end, she still senses that he fears and hates her for putting him, and all of mankind in danger. She calls him ridiculous in response.
- Guardian Entity: She's the self-proclaimed guard of "the gate" and has alien powers stronger than Ren's.
- Head Pet: She sometimes like to lie on the heads of others, often Nia.
- Ironic Echo: When she was in her child form, she freely gave Takeya a pocky stick because he made her happy. In the final chapters, a small human child does the same to her. This small act was enough to convince her that mankind doesn't deserve extinction, but she still thinks humanity is not worthy of the DearS.
- Madden Into Misanthropy: The cruel treatment she received as a "zero" unit under Takeya's father and the smear campaign against the DearS launched by a very unscrupulous reporter that put the rest of her species in mortal peril has given her a very bleak view of humanity as a whole. So much so, that even after Takeya's Anguished Declaration of Love, and the return of mankind's good will, she still doesn't see humanity as worthy hosts for her people, though she did give them a choice in the matter, and most chose to stay.
- Overnight Age-Up: Almost literally. When Lady Fina's role as "Watcher" came to an end, she entered a cocoon, and emerged a week later, fully grown.
- Small Role, Big Impact: In a manga of almost 50 chapters, she appears in less than 10, yet she's a major part of the story.
- Token Mini-Moe: She looks like she's younger than 10 years old, and she's adorable.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: While most of the time she acts like a very shy little girl, there are moments when she says and does some deeply disturbing things, like calmly and stoicly saying "the gate will soon open" meaning humanity is facing Judgement Day.
- Used to Be a Sweet Child: Before her overnight age up, she showed that she could still respond quite well to positive treatment as the child she was.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: To protect her fellow DearS from extinction due to hate poisoning, thanks to the smear campaign run by a very unscrupulous reporter, she planned to set off a neutron bomb that would have wiped out mankind, and then reset Earth's biosphere.
Others
Neneko Izumi
- Voiced by: Chiwa Saitō (JP), Megan Hollingshead (EN)
Takeya's childhood friend and the landlady for the apartment where he lives.
- Abomination Accusation Attack: She is very quick to think the worst of Takeya in any given situation, rarely, if ever, giving him a chance to explain himself.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Her attraction to Takeya stems entirely from the fact that he defended her from bullies when they were both children.
- Boyish Short Hair: She keeps her hair very short, and unkempt.
- Covert Pervert: She's very quick to associate any interaction Takeya has with Ren in the most sexually explicilt manner possible. When Ren proclaims Takeya her master, Neneko immediately presumes S&M terminology.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: When Ren makes her unexpected entrance into Takeya's classroom, and the teacher called Ren his girlfriend, Neneko made the situation worse by shouting out that Takeya and Ren live together.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: She's frequently beating up on Takeya.
- The Fashionista: She's had the hobby of designing and tailoring clothing since elementary school. She's become a Famed In-Story fashion designer for dolls as a result.
- Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Unlike most intances of this trope, Neneko delivers it with a german suplex!
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In the final chapters, she turns down Takeya so he can go profess his love to Ren, suspecting she'd be giving up on him forever.
- Lady Looks Like a Dude: Through no fault of her own, feminine garments don't fit her body-type, at all. When she entered elementary school, bullies horrifically picked on her for wearing a dress. She's been dressed as a tomboy ever since.
- No Sense of Personal Space: She sees nothing wrong with barging into Takeya's apartment with little warning. Initially, this was justified as Takeya was very difficult to awaken to get ready for school. Once Ren moves in, and she starts making sure he wakes up in time, it becomes less and less justifyable.
- Parental Substitute: She serves as a mother, of sorts, to little Io. To Takeya, she's more of an adopive peer parent despite also being a love interest and harem nanny.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: She gives a rather epic one to Takeya to snap him out of his Heroic BSoD so he'd go rescue Ren, and confess his love to her.
- Satellite Character: She has little to no characterization. She just appears as a plot device to facilitate Takaya and Ren adjusting to their "master-slave" relationship, and to help Ren acclimate to Earth.
- Skinship Grope: One of the first things she does after learning that Ren is a DearS, is grope the latter's breasts.
- Troll: She loves to provoke Takeya by saying and doing outlandish things to him.
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: She's Takeya's childhood friend, but despite having feelings for him, she doesn't have a chance in romance. She even goes on to lampshade it.
- Wrestler in All of Us: She admits that she's been taking wrestling lessons from Harumi.
Yoshimine Mitsuka
- Voiced by: Kikuko Inoue (JP), Wendee Lee (EN)
Trust us, it's hard to find an SFW image of her.
The teacher who runs Takeya's foreign language class.
- Accidental Truth: When she first meets Ren while Takeya's taking her clothes shopping, she immediately deduces Ren is Takeya's girlfriend. She is ultimately proven right.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite sexually harassing all her students, she's somehow still gainfully employed as a teacher.
- Depraved Bisexual: Not only does she sexually harass every student in her class, regardless of gender, but she will twist herself into pretzels to conclude that any activity they engage in is of a sexal nature, to the point of Malicious Slander. After seeing Ren, Takeya, Miu, Neneko, and Hikoro grouping together to study for the exam she announced, knowing it's a major part of their grade, and might determine if they can proceed to the next year, she's convinced, and tells anyone who asks that they're going to an orgy party. Natsuki's bad impression of the DearS is a direct result of this.
- Drives Like Crazy: In addition to all her other faults, she's a complete lunatic behind the wheel.
- Hot for Teacher: Invoked and deconstructed to the point of revulsion. Despite being quite attractive, she's so sexually agressive that she repels her students instead.
- Idiot Houdini: For some unexplained reason, she is never called to task on her actions. If this wan't a manga/anime, she'd be in serious legal trouble, as a sexual predator.
- Lovable Sex Maniac: YMMV on "lovable," but she's certainly obsessed with sex and erotic acts, to the point of making her students translate erotic novels in class, out loud. And when's chastised for making Ren, a new transfer student who had not yet learned enough of the foreign language to even try, she demands her students spank her.
- Pet the Dog: Two very notable occasions. 1.) She takes a break from her usual pervy antics to give a very young girl a swimsuit so she can play in the pool with the P.E. class that she's teaching, and 2.) she honestly gives Ren practical advice so Ren can fully comprehend her feelings for Takeya.
- Sensei-chan: Deconstructed. She tries so hard to be overly cute and appealing, that she repulses even the most Hormone-Addled Teenager in her class. In fact, just about everyone considers her Fetish Retardant.
- Stripperific: She routinely teaches class in her underwear or clothing very close to it. Forget keeping her job, how the heck is she not in jail?!
Hikoro Oikawa
- Voiced by: Kappei Yamaguchi (JP), Sam Riegel (EN)
- Flat Character: He gets absolutely no characterization, and only shows up every once in a while to perv out over the DearS.
- Hormone-Addled Teenager: He not only borrows porn from Takeya frequently, but when he thinks of the DearS, he loudly proclaims their sex-appeal.
- Otaku: He is obsessed with DearS information, sightings, and paraphernalia.
Hirofumi Nanako
- Voiced by: Jun'ichi Suwabe (JP), Jason Miller (EN)
- Attempted Rape: He pulls Ren to the ground and tries to have his way with her. The only reason he gets away with it is that Ren didn't understand what he was doing. Fortunately, Takeya shows up and rescues her, taking her back to class.
- Bishie Sparkles: In-universe. When the cast is attending the local beach, he shows up and blinds his classmates with them.
- The Casanova: Until near the end of the series, he's constantly surrounded by girls that he romances and exploits.
- Foil: To Takeya. While Takeya is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who Does Not Like Women, Hirofumi is The Casanova who constantly tries to seduce any girl in his field of vision, even children, with the sole exception of Mitsuka-sensei. Further while Takeya is an Insecure Love Interest who thinks very poorly of himself, Hirofumi is a Narcissist.
- Graceful Loser: Amazingly. Unlike most narcissists in fiction, when he finally realizes that Ren has feelings for Takeya, and only for Takeya, he bows out gracefully, and stops trying to force himself on her.
- I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Because Ren is the one girl in his field of vision that isn't interested in him, he keeps trying to wedge himself into her life.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Played for laughs. Near the end of the story, because he tried to steal Ren from Takeya, and couldn't be bothered to read, or follow the directions on the DearS mother-ship, even after Takeya points them out, he gets stuck with Xaki, and all the girls that swarmed around him, only due to his looks, dumped him like a hot potato, and avoid him like the plague. And no, Xaki isn't going anywhere.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: He has shoulder-length hair, and Neneko explicitly calls him "pretty boy," which is a term he answers to.
- Narcissist: The only person he loves is himself. He's unbelievably vain, and constantly touts his own beauty, proclaiming himself more attractive than the DearS who are universally regarded as celebrities, in-universe, not just because of their alien novelty, but due to their exceptionally attractive appearence.
- Oblivious to Love: Alarmingly, he manages to invert this. He views his constant attempts at seduction of just about every woman in his field of vision as "harmless" flirting, and has to be told that his constant attempts to wedge himself into Ren's life is "being serious." Neneko is enraged at Hirofumi because while Takeya's bumbling ineptness with the opposite sex is genuine, Hirofumi is shallow, vain, and purely superficial to the point that he doesn't see girls as people, but just as pretty things that smell nice, so he can exploit them.
- Skipping School: He skips classes and naps in an unused broom closet.
