It was fitting that I rewatched Kita e - Diamond Dust Drops this week, living in a frozen wasteland and all. When I woke up this morning, my outdoor thermometer was registering -8 degrees F. For those of you living in the civilized world, that’s -22 degrees C. I saw something when I stepped outside, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t diamond dust. I think it was my eyeballs freezing.
Anyway, while watching the final episode last night, I was reminded of how valuable epilogues are in tying together even the most disjointed of shows. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Diamond Dust Drops, the series tells the stories of six different women, unrelated except for the fact they all live in Hokkaido. The only common element tying their stories together, really, is the subject of diamond dust. Well, that and Squid Boy.
In the final episode, however, each heroine descends on the city of Sapporo on the same snowy winter day, only to see a rare display of diamond dust together in the show’s final minutes. All things considered, it’s kind of a corny ending. But it’s a good ending, and it gives the show a sense of purpose that would have otherwise been missing had there been no epilogue at all.
Which brings to mind a conversation I had the same evening with Wonderduck on the subject of Uta Kata. He couldn’t make it through the first episode of the show, and asked, “What am I missing?” I didn’t have a good answer, to be honest. And I pointed to my final comments on the series as evidence that I didn’t have a good answer back when it first aired, either.
But that was before the show’s final OAV episode was released. Even though the television broadcast did an acceptable job wrapping up the show’s story, it wasn’t until I watched the “where are they now” OAV that I felt like I truly understood what that story was all about. It wasn’t a matter of the OAV resolving hanging plot points, however. It was a matter of closure. And with that closure, the skies cleared, the sun shone through, and I was able to see the show for what it was, laid bare and out in the open. All it took was one extra episode.
Unfortunately, many shows never make room for “one extra episode”. Or they relegate the contents of one extra episode to two minutes in the background as the final credits roll. I understand the economics of anime on television, of course; there are only so many episodes to work with. But I wish more production committees would put as much time and effort into closing out a show as they do launching it. Give epilogues their due.
Of course, there’s something to be said for prologues, too. I know I labeled Sola as absolutely forgettable and all, but the special prologue episode on the show’s final DVD volume made me reconsider. Perhaps I should just wish for more DVD only episodes after the fact.
And a week in Tahiti.
