Diamond Daydreams

"Do you know the legend of the diamond dust? They say if you see it with the one you love, the two of you are guaranteed to be happy together."

Atsuko, Karin, Kyoko, Suomi, Shoko and Akari live in different cities on Hokkaido, Japan's northern-most island. The girls have very diverging life styles, but they all share the belief in the mythical properties of "diamond dust", which occurs when pretty floating ice crystals form in freezing air.

The anime, also known as Kita e ~Diamond Daydreams~ or Kita e ~Diamond Dust Drops~, was released in 2004 and is loosely based on the Kita e series of visual novels by Red Entertainment. The stories, with little to no overlap between them, depict the girls' moments of happiness and hardship, mostly regarding feelings of love. In most cases the girls' feelings involve a man, although two stories deal with friendship and family relations.

All of the girls become stronger and more independent through their experiences, which gives the series a very positive feel. If you ever wanted to be clubbed over the head with one Crowning Moment of Heartwarming after another, this is it. In any case, this show definitely Needs More Love.


 * Anime Accent Absence: Suomi's Japanese is impeccable
 * Arranged Marriage: There is one set up for Atsuko, but she won't have any of it.
 * Back for the Finale: Some of the girls meet each other in the last episode.
 * Bait and Switch Credits: The girls are depicted as a group of friends, which would have been interesting.
 * Baker's Dozen
 * Bleached Underpants: Semi-example: the illustrator, Oyari Ashito aka NOCCHI, is also known for illustrating eroges like Girlish Grimoire: Littlewitch Romanesque.
 * A voice actress example: Atsuko's voice actress Eriko Ishihara was also a porn actress when she voiced Atsuko. Unfortunately, it seems that she's doing both voice acting and porn roles at the same time. Both her seiyuu company and her porn company found it out and as of 2004, she's out of the seiyuu business permanently. As it wasn't enough, her AV company also fired her. poor Eriko.
 * Brand X: Karin's "Aivo" laptop.
 * Catch Phrase: "To the North!"
 * Celebrity Is Overrated
 * The Chew Toy : Jurota.
 * Cipher Scything: The Slice of Life Nature of the Series is the result of the male main character of the Visual Novels upon which it was based being removed and, with him, his storyline which served to tie the stories of the girls together.
 * Coming of Age Story
 * Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: Good grief, where to start...
 * Dojikko: Atsuko.
 * Dream Sequence: Karin has a few, which are at times pretty scary.
 * Dysfunction Junction: Subverted, since all girls straighten themselves up after a while.
 * Every Episode Ending: The ending theme starts a few seconds before the real ending.
 * Eyecatch: In which the current girl shouts "Kita e" ("To the north") while pictures of prominent places in Hokkaido are shown.
 * First-Name Basis: Karin won't have her new doctor call her by her first name. Also, Kyouko feels insulted when someone of her camera crew tries this.
 * Flash Back: numerous
 * Furo Scene: There is one for Shoko, which actually has a very symbolic meaning.
 * Ill Girl: Karin.
 * Indirect Kiss: Haruto gets one through Suomi's chopsticks.
 * Meaningful Name: Suomi means "Finland" in Finnish--which is perhaps a bit of an odd name for someone coming from that country.
 * Meganekko: Kyouko.
 * Motif: The diamond dust, of course.
 * Otaku: Akari's father loves panning for gold.
 * Phenotype Stereotype: Suomi. This is somewhat justified, since a Finnish person has a higher likelyhood of being blond and blue-eyed.
 * Plucky Girl: All of the girls, really.
 * The Promise: Several, but most notably the one between Suomi and Hanna.
 * Romantic Two-Girl Friendship: Hanna and Suomi's relationship has definite elements of this.
 * Running Gag: Jurota being humiliated. How he ends up in all the girls' stories is anyone's guess.
 * Scenery Porn: Sometimes the series feels like an advertisement for Hokkaido.
 * Slice of Life: In purity perhaps only surpassed by Piano.
 * Snow Means Love: The whole premise of the show, since diamond dust fulfils the role of snow just fine.
 * Soap Opera Disease: The illness of Akari's father. Somewhat.
 * Sparkling Stream of Tears: Hanna after her emotional talk with Suomi.
 * Stalker with a Crush: Shoko has one, but doesn't mind after a while..
 * Sweet Tooth: Suomi loves cream puffs.
 * Team Shot
 * Tear Jerker: Akari's story.
 * There Are No Therapists: For some reason Karin gets absolutely no professional counseling for her fear of surgery.