Diamond Daydreams

Anime Review

Diamond Daydreams Genre Romance

"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."

Story

The story is about six different girls from different lifestyles living on Hokkaidō in Japan. They each live in a different city on the island. Each girl believes in a myth of snow turning into diamond dust, and if one makes a wish on the diamond dust, their wish is 100% guaranteed to come true. Another myth about diamond dust is that if a boy and girl meet under the dust, they're guaranteed happiness and marriage later in life. Each of the six girls have some stubborn moments and awkward stages in their lives, but looking into themselves and others will help them get back on their feet. When these six girls meet, their lives will change dramatically for the better as the snow begins to fall.

Characters

Atsuko Akanegi

Atsuko is Hakodate-born and Hakodate-bred. She lives inside a food store with her mother. The store and the family are deep in debt, and to resolve their financial problems her mother tries to urge Atsuko into an arranged marriage with a wealthy yet friendly boy her own age named Minoru Jinguji. Atsuko is conflicted by her feelings for an older man, Kenji Kurata, who is a local musician.

When her mother tries to force her into the marriage, Atsuko runs away to Kurata. He helps Atsuko out, and talks to her about her situation without taking advantage of her. At the end she realizes that she may have feelings for Minoru - she just doesn't want to be forced into marriage.

Karin Shiraishi

Karin is stricken with pneumothorax and lives mostly in the hospital. Her big brother Mitsuru comes by occasionally from college to help cheer her up. She has her own laptop which she is only supposed to use for two hours a day, though she sneaks on at night. Karin has her own homepage were she occasionally updates and writes about her dreams.

A new young doctor named Amakasu says that Karin is a spoiled princess, causing Karin to lose her temper. In truth, Karin is scared to have an operation because her father died during surgery. She gets e-mails from someone named "Your Fan" who encourages her to stay strong. Karin speculates that Dr. Amakasu is sending her the e-mails and attached photos of Hokkaidō, and Karin finds herself falling in love with Dr. Amakasu.

She later finds out that Nurse Yuki and Dr. Amakasu have been seeing each other since high school, and Yuki was the one sending her the e-mails. Her intentions were trying to open up to Karin and convincing her to go through operation. A few days afterwards, Karin's brother is sent to the hospital when he falls unconscious at work. Her brother had been overworking himself trying to help their mother pay the massive hospitalization fees. Karin realizes that she is spoiled, and decides to go through with the operation if Dr. Amakasu will watch over her.

Kyoko Asahina

Kyoko is a young filmmaker who loves to capture life's moments on film. Her closest friends and fellow colleagues begin to worry about Kyoko's obsession with perfection, and it causes major conflicts. However, Kyoko's willing to sacrifice everything to achieve the perfect picture.

Kyoko tells a story about a girl named Charinka who forsaken Yoshitsune while living on an island, but when Yoshitsune leaves the island, Charinka regretted her cold-heartedness - too late. Kyoko says that Charinka got what she deserved.

After her pride causes her to isolate herself even from the person she loves, Kyoko learns the hard way that the people who care about you are more important than winning.

Suomi Kitano

Suomi loves ice skating and is a natural performer. When Suomi was young, she and her friend Hanna Janinen made a promise to each other. Now that she's grown up, she hopes to fulfill her promise. Suomi was chosen to be part of Finland's figure skating team, but Hanna accidentally bumped into her causing Suomi to injure her leg, causing rumors that Hanna did it on purpose and it earned her the moniker of "The Cold-Hearted Queen of the Ice". Because of that, Hanna blamed Suomi. Suomi almost gave up skating until she meets a young boy named Haruto who is also an ice skater and had a similar fallout with his best friend Kuda. Now, Suomi hopes to get back into ice skating and complete her promise with Hanna.

Shoko Saibara

Shoko hosts a radio talk show in Sapporo called "Cappuccino Break" where she discusses romantic issues with her audience. Every love story Shoko hears is fuel for her talk show. Secretly, Shoko is dating her closest friend Takeda whom she loves, but Takeda is already married with a wife and daughter and warns Shoko not to make unexpected scenes. Elsewhere, Shoko receives gifts from someone called "Radio Boy", which gets the production staff worried that Shoko might have a potential stalker after her. When a woman calls in to the show about her heartaches with a married man, Shoko breaks down and says on the air that she wants to give up. Her fans call and come in to support her, showing her that she's not as alone as she thinks.

Akari Harada

Akari has lived with her father ever since her mother died. Most of the time, her father drinks a lot of alcohol to ease the pain of losing his wife. He's also unsuccessful in trying to pan for gold dust. Akari is a hard worker at Ryuon Confectioneries to support them both, and does most of the work in her house because her father is too weak and depressed to help. Akari also has run-ins with Kurokawa, a former coworker who has trouble expressing his feelings for her.

Suddenly, her father becomes very ill with brain cancer. The doctor mentioned to Akari that her father was diagnosed with brain cancer six months ago and was recommended to go to a university hospital that had the proper equipment. As of now, it would be impossible for the surgeons to operate on his tumor. To help ease his pain she goes with her father to the river one last time to pan for gold dust, with Kurokawa's help. Kurokawa has trouble committing himself to the work he loves, but during the trip Akari's father helps him see that he should follow his passions.

Pics