Kita e.: Diamond Dust Drops

I have been eyeing this series for a while but always put it towards the bottom of my to-watch list due to its obscurity. Now that I finally managed to watch it, I have to say I'm very surprised this series hasn't had more recognition.

The series is a collection of several virtually unrelated short stories each spanning 1-2 episodes and a final episode tying them all together (sort of). It may seem a bit off-putting to some, but I found that this partitioning was a great decision on the part of the team and managed to keep the whole series lively. I can confidently say ... that there isn't even one scene that feels dragged on, which is a fact that many longer series could learn a lot from.

Story

If you're looking for original plot, prepare to be disappointed. All of the stories in this series follow classic romance/drama plots - there's a young girl fleeing from arranged marriage, a hard-working girl taking care of her drunkard father, a stalker story - in short, it's the same plots used in tens if not hundreds of romance stories for centuries. However, you shouldn't judge the book by its cover, as each of these stories is not only very well polished, but also has a little unique twist somewhere that sets it apart from the sea of mediocre romantic fiction. Of particular interest are the endings; I'm yet to see a series with ending as well-fitting as Kita e's. They're neither universally sad nor universally happy, but every one of them felt just right - as if it was meant to be and the story couldn't have possibly ended any other way. The only reason this is not a 10 is that some of the stories have a little bit more drama than romance, which is not necessarily bad, but not what I personally prefer.

Art

The animation is certainly good, and the colours in particular strongly enhance the serene atmosphere. However, there're two problems: first is the character proportions being a bit unnatural for adults which the characters are supposed to be. The second is that the details quality seems to jump wildly every once in a while. Some scenes feel very awkward - as if the artist had a great vision and selected the best colours for the job but ended up not being able to put them into shape so the whole scene is flooded with distorted lines, strange camera angles, blurry borders and clashing surfaces that no longer feel three-dimensional. Thankfully, that happens only a few times and the rest of the show is drawn very beautifully.

Sound

The voices are cute and background audio is good on the whole, but there're a few points where the silence lasts longer than it probably should, and in the last episode the tinkling of diamond dust that's supposed to be so very special didn't sound much better than nails on a chalkboard to me, but it's probably just my own prejudices. The opening song is simple and lively but feels a bit out of place, since the rest of the show is somewhat mellow and nostalgic. The ending, with its slow, flowing vocals and gentle music, on the other hand, complements the atmosphere perfectly.

Characters

Most of the main characters are very likeable and the few that aren't at least have very distinct and memorable personalities - there're almost none of the usual cardboard filler extras anywhere in this anime. Despite the brevity of each story, the writers managed to fit quite a bit of character growth into them, which probably has a lot to do with the fact that they were using tried and true plots rather than inventing their own problems and solutions to fit the characters.

Enjoyment

The show is as enjoyable as they come. Its gentle, nostalgic atmosphere puts the viewer at ease, while the excellent pacing keeps it from getting boring. Being divided into short stories also makes casual watching much easier since you don't have to keep track of a hundred intertwining plots.

On the whole, Kita e is a very solid show that puts together the best parts of romance anime and polishes them to perfection. Highly recommended.

This review contains no spoliers.

Kita e.: Diamond Dust Drops is broken up into various 2-3 episode vignettes that follow various female characters and their lives in Hokkaido. They all center around romance.

First things first, because this anime is broken up into these vignettes it is EXTREMELY hit or miss. At times I wanted to give certain story arcs an 8/10 overall but others a 3/10. The setting of the show is probably the best part. Not enough anime are set in winter/Hokkaido. To be honest, I would skip the story arcs that you don't enjoy and watch the ones you care about ... as a mini-series.

Ultimately, I'd recommend it as a light, romance show with great art and music. It's mediocre at best as a whole but some story Arcs (Akari, Suomi and Shoko) are worth it.

A very simple minded and poorly done anime.

Story: The anime is broken into separate story lines following several different characters. All of the stories are obnoxiously cliché and simplistic. If you are looking for food for thought your brain will starve to death with this anime.

Art: Basic and not terrible but nothing that would count as high quality. The female characters all look very similar with kind of masculine odd-shaped jaws.

Sound: Bad synthesized background with a few acoustic overdubs. A kid could come up with this on his $80 Casio keyboard form Wal-Mart. Wasn't even good when ... this anime was new.

Character: This is really the killer for this anime. If you are going to do 2-3 episode story arcs you have to have noteworthy character development in that short period to grab interest. Every character is as vanilla and mundanely boring as it gets. Watching this is like driving in neutral.

The overall experience of this anime is just mind numbing boredom. Soon you will just want episodes to be over so you don't have to listen to more mundane dialogue with crappy midi music in the background. I wouldn't wish this crap on my worst enemy.