Kei's Anime Reviews

Kita He: Diamond Dust Drops Episode 3

"Kitami - Shiraishi Karin - Part I"

This show is just more evidence that anime creators have no idea what "style" really is. You have this really serious, dramatic romantic series, and you give it the most ridiculous candy pop intro song with the characters bouncing around and generally being happier than you'll ever see them in the show.

Some other things of note. I commented earlier about how I thought the music for this show was really good, but this must (sadly) be qualified. There only seems to be two or three actual tracks of music (and two of them sound very similar).

Also, I'm not sure if the Hokkaido tourism board somehow invested in this particular series, but there's definitely a "check out how cool Hokkaido is" vibe to the whole show. Not a bad thing, especially if you're interested in what Hokkaido is like, taking a vacation there, or something.

On to the new story! We're introduced to a new girl in Hokkaido, and this one's stuck in a hospital living out the dream of being Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail (what, you didn't have dreams like that?). Unfortunately, her voice actress isn't the greatest, and is really unconvincing in some scenes, which takes away from pretty much everything dramatic about the episode.

Do we really need to hear the diamond dust explanation again?

Oh, don't read this next paragraph if you don't want to see a spoiler of some sort (that you really, really should have figured out yourself).

Okay, well, someone is mysteriously sending Karin fan mail that seems bizarrely topical. Gee, could it be the new intern who has a barely-disguised romantic interest in her? We don't know for sure, but let's just say it's a stone cold, lead pipe lock. And, it's not subtle at all. You suspect from pretty much the first letter she gets.

This show seems to have two intents. First, to educate you about Hokkaido. The other, to glorify the courtship between young girls and older men. (I wonder what's on the creators' minds?) I feel bad, because it's obvious this show is trying really hard! The only problem is that the sum total of all its parts is not very good at all.

Maybe story arc three (two episodes away) will be better.

Rating: C

Posted by Kei at February 11, 2004 01:45 AM