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Plot Synopsis

No plot synopsis or other information available for Diamond Dust Drops

Story & Characters

The story of Kita-he - Diamond Dust Drops is rather simple: If people see the diamond dust, they will be happy.

This belief is shared someway or another by the six stories that this series will bring you, whether it be about finding love, finding yourself, finding inner strength, finding stability, or any other turmoils that the six protagonists suffer through.

Diamond Dust Drops is about six women - Atsuko, Karin, Kyoko, Suomi, Shouko, and Akari. In two episodes for each character (or one, for Suomi), the viewer will be taken into their lives and their conflicts. I found all the girls' stories similar in some way, making it somewhat boring to go through over and over. However, the characters were all different in thought and action, which I was impressed by.

A downside to DDD is that it's only twelve episodes. While this may be good as a short-lived fun, this anime is much too underdeveloped. We see the present characterisics and ambitions of our main characters, but most flashbacks that would tell us about their pasts are hardly shown. This makes the conclusions and closures of each character hazy and sometimes even confusing. At some stories, such as Suomi's, where the story is told throughly enough that it spans only one episode, they leave it at that, not using two episodes such as the others.

We finally see some sort of connection between the girls at the ending, but even then it is hardly an ending or an explanation of their similarities - only the fact that they have all heard of and wished to see Diamond Dust. In that way, the last episode is merely a continuation of each ending.

Diamond Dust Drops is certainly an anime that is worthy of being seen the the last episode, yet I feel that it has many flaws that overshadow its good storylines.

Rating

7 (above average)

Art

I thought that the art in Diamond Dust Drops was nice, but not excellent. The face styles are somewhat too immature for the plot and mood that the show is meaning. However, the character designs allow uniqueness in clothing style, hair style, and body proportion, which many short anime such as DDD fail to do.

Something that I noticed in Diamond Dust Drops was that the minor characters were significantly different from the looks of the main characters. This created a focus to the main character, but sometimes made them look out of place.

One thing that I really loved about this anime was the background images. The scenery is beautiful in its color and realism.

Rating

8 (good)

Sound

As for the sound in Kita-he, I thought that the soundtrack could use some diversity. Every single episode, it opened with the same track and ended with the same track, and the same thing inbetween. Even though I payed attention to the music, I could not find any tracks that stood out.

The opening song is very energetic and cute - something I wouldn't usually relate DDD to. In the middle of the song, the melody fits the characters and images perfectly, but the beginning is just too catchy and unfitting for my liking.

I thought that the ending track was excellent, however, as the lyrics, as well as the melody fit the bittersweet stories of Diamond Dust perfectly.

For the seiyuus of Diamond Dust Drops, I thought that each voice actor did each character's voice perfectly. The childlike yet maturing voice of Atsuko, the fearful and unstable voice of Karin, the strict and stressed-out voice of Kyoko, the kind and calm voice of Suomi, the adultlike and soothing voice of Shouko, the determined and feminine voice of Akari - all of them held the right emotions and sincerity in their voices.

Rating

7 (above average)

Presentation

For the presentation of this series, I would have to say that I was quite impressed at how much the producers fit into twelve episodes. The plot of six women related to the tale of Diamond Dust has to be touching as well, since the difference in situations provide space for everyone who watches it to be affected by at least one of the stories.

As I have said before, however, the story itself is hardly developed, and needs a better closure, as well as some more developement with the characters' pasts.

This series is able to have many genres, though, as I found light humor, friendship, drama, romance, and slice-of-life, which created a nice balance that gave off a good feeling. I don't think anyone who has watched all of Diamond Dust Drops has ever logged off the computer with a disgusted face. While many - and most - of the endings of Kita-he is bittersweet and filled with melodrama, I truly believe that this is an anime that no one will really regret seeing.

Rating

8 (good)

Final Verdict

7.50 (good)

Reviewed by Rosegirl18, 2y 10wk ago