Silver Diamond

This manga is a GREAT read. The story is a pleasant yet unusually complex exploration of friendship, the value of living, and how these views change through betrayal and newfound trust. I thought it was a hilariously, uplifting and sweet shonen-ai. Yet there were darker themes, such as family abandonment and loneliness, giving it added depth.

The Mangaka sucks you in with the art, it's creative and yet mind warping ideas that reinforce it's portrayal of a fantasy-inspired parallel Japan universe (Flower webs, Living pretty tree guns, seed clocks that grow on trees, Crystal water snakes etc, etc).

It could also be considered a harem, only instead of cute females protecting/serving the main male character, it's hunk-o-dory male eye candies doing the work (Not sure what you would call that. Reverse-reverse-harem??^__^

The only down side is that it's not completely translated. I wish the scantalators hadn't stopped at volume 8, and according to Baka-updates, it's been a year since anyone's updated it. T^T *grrrr*

What I love most about this series is that every chapter is sixty pages long with tons of dialog. So when a new chapter comes out, I can enjoy it for up to twenty minutes before I get to the end and have to suffer waiting for the next one.

...let's try that again. The amazing thing about this manga is that Sugiura doesn’t forget *anything*. I hear she only plans two or three chapters in advance? But considering the size of the chapters this is like planning an entire volume in advance. Her attention to detail is, frankly, obsessive, but it's that obsession that makes Silver Diamond so very, very, very solid.

A bit of history: Sugiura Shiho's previous work, Koori no mamono no monogatari (Ice Cold Demon's Tale), ran to 24 volumes -- an insane, unheard-of length for a BL (Boys Love) manga. However she has said that Silver Diamond will (probably) be shorter.

Ever since a young age, watching anime and doing related activities was already the norm for me. I have watched, read and experienced many different types of genres from mainstreams such as One Piece and Attack on Titan, Shoujo anime including idol and magical girl concepts, darker themes such as Death Note and many lesser known titles and classics such as Taishou Yakyuu Musume, and even both Yaoi and Yuri, including the good and terrible titles. Even so, I can confidently say that Silver Diamond is the most thought-provoking, tear-jerking, exhilarating roller-coaster ride and beautiful manga that I have ever read.

Story 10/10
Honestly, I went ahead and read Silver Diamond expecting a trashy, but lengthy BL because I ran out of stuff to read, but my expectations were blown out of the water by how amazing the story surpassed many adventure anime/manga I have read thus far.

Although the complexity of the story relies on heavy dialogue which was somewhat intimidating, it was necessary for the story that the author often had to recap the events that happened in the manga.

Art 9/10
No, I'm not being biased or lenient just because Silver Diamond was written around 14 years ago, even compared to today's standards it still deserves a high score for art. It's only natural it'd progressively get better as well since the manga ran for a long time. As an adventure story that focuses on a mystique and alluring fantasy-world, the backgrounds were so stunning and detailed that I often take a moment to pause and simply admire the art.

Character 10/10
There was a large cast of characters, even so, my favourite is still the main protagonist - Rakan Sawa. As a normal person born in a normal world such as ours, his views and morality often clash with those in the other world, especially when it comes to death and/or murder. It was nice to see the others change due to his influence, and his persistence for goodness and justice is something I will value for a long time.

Not to mention that each character was necessary and taking even one out would change the outcome of the story drastically. Also, Rakan's relationship with Chigusa whom he brings back to his world was written amazingly well. Although Silver Diamond is classified as Shounen Ai, it's actually somewhat misleading, especially how off-putting it is to most people when they see it. More often than not, most would believe the item they are viewing contains fan-service or the device is used as click-bait. The fact is that the relationship that occurs between Rakan and Chigusa which could be interpreted as romantic, but their bond extends much further that; it's actually somewhat difficult to explain with words.

Enjoyment 10/10
Honestly, I feel like I can connect to this author so much that I'm not even surprised we share the same birthday and was so happy with the way everything turned out, especially the author's philosophical view that is indicated in her work. The overflowing amount of love put into this manga, to bring this story to life, was almost palpable.

Overall 10/10
Thank you, Shiho Sugiura, for this beautifully written masterpiece.

Okay, I think Silver Diamond is AWESOME. It's lengthy but its for the development so I think it's ok and when I got to the end I was really sad because such an awesome story ended...Oh well moving on.

Story 10/10
It's very well thought out. I get the feeling as if the whole story was planned right from the start and it won't leave anything hanging (or at least that was it for me. Maybe i forgot about something...) There are some really good plot twists which you probably won't see coming, not with the fantasy theme of the story. It's really fun reading it IMO.

Art 10/10
I must say, the characters are all really handsome, or rather pretty since they are bishounens (hehe) and the background and the other stuff was really pretty too, really fantasy-like.

Character 9/10
Characters are well developed. I don't really know what to say but they are really awesome.

Enjoyment 9/10
The plot was amazing and I really really loved this story.The only thing, if I were to pick on would be that in the later part of the story, there are certain places where there are a ton to read and not much pictures if i am not wrong. But it is necessary so i can't really say anything about that can I?

Overall 10/10
Like I said, I really love the story so I will give it a 10 :)

Btw , I don't think all the chapters are out in English yet so if you can read Chinese you can go and find the rest of the chinese-translated chapters. Or you could just read the whole thing in Chinese from the start.

Thanks for spending time and reading my review. :DD

I honestly felt the strongest need to write this review since I adore this manga so much. Often the Shounen Ai genre is overlooked and not taken very seriously which is why it's really great that there are mangas like Silver Diamond out there to show that great manga can come from anywhere. I can't imagine anyone ever really regretting reading this.

Story: 9

It's kind of hard to believe that Shiho Sugiura didn't plan every part of the manga before it was released. It had that feeling of being meticulously planned out to play out so well. Although the pacing sped up as the series went on, I think this worked more in it's favour instead of becoming rushed like it could have.

A few people thought the ending could have been better and usually I am pretty picky about how stories should end but in this case I think things were settled nicely with a sense of hope for the character's and an openness to their futures. It's definitely not a bad ending although maybe not as final as some people might want.

My one and only complaint about the story is of course that I wanted the relationship between Chigusa and Rakan to be... more defined? It's not like I was looking for anyrhing explicit and they certainly have very strong feelings but... I can't help wanting more. The dynamics were just so perfect that you can't help but want more out of it!

Art: 10

The art in this is so captivating... Ah the drawings are just so pretty to look at but don't take away from the story focus at all. There are some little extras that the mangaka put in volumes every so often and one has detailing on the screen tones used... Ah I couldn't help but being fascinated due to my nerd status.

The character designs are really well done too. It's hard to get confused between characters despite there being so many of them. I find that this can be something a lot of mangakas struggle with but I was really glad that wasn't the case here. Each character is easy to identify and unique. Not to mention so beautiful!

Characters: 10

Speaking of the characters... I don't really think they could have been made any better. The main four guys (Rakan, Chigusa, Narushige and Tohji) are all really interesting with diverse personalities. Even with their lighthearted behaviour they all have something to struggle with and these internal conflicts make them so easy to connect with.

Not to mention the supporting cast... somehow each and every one of them feels unique and it's hard to call them minor characters when they often feel just as important as the mains. They all come together really well to create vital scenes and without one another the characters wouldn't truly develop properly. Chigusa in particular becomes more complex as the series goes on and his character develops without you even noticing...

One thing I often find in this particular genre is some sadly unlikeable and unrealistic female characters but in Silver Diamond, although there is few, the girls really are perfectly made. Karaku, Sae, Rinrai and Shigeyuki are all unique and interesting characters with their own complex backgrounds. I wish I had seen a bit more of them all but they were perfectly placed in the story.

Enjoyment: 10

I think I've made my point. Silver Diamond is extremely enjoyable. It's up there with other 'mainstream' manga and easily one of my favourites. I've read it a few times actually and with the length of it, I'm not just doing it because it was 'okay.'

Overall: 10

Please just go read it. Or if you've come here because you've already read it than go sob about it being over for half an hour before trying to move on.

This is honestly a pretty lackluster series. It's another one of those guilty pleasure reads, terrible writing carried only by merit of h o m o s e x u a l m a i n c o u p l e. But then why am I writing a review for this? Well, if we sort all manga by "has decent non-angst-driven non-romance plot" and "ample h o m o s e x y," in the tiny little almost nonexistent sliver of overlap, Silver Diamond soars to the top.

Remember, kids, define your market and you will succeed, even when you shouldn't.

I love this mangaka, she did this and Ice Cold Demon’s Tale, both really great stories.

There is no sex, but lots of implied feelings. This focus more on the story than the romance, but I like light and fluffy too! Though of light… It doesn’t have much when it comes to its themes.

Our protagonist has the power to grow greenery in our world, so his house and garden are like a wild forest, but he’s used to it, even tho it’s not normal to have that kind of power. So when a stranger appears from a hole from nowhere, carrying tree guns and full of bandages, he’s very weirded out.

We quickly find out there’s another world, one which is a desert, where there’s almost no water or greenery, and is slowing dying. People have it tough there, and have been waiting for a person that is capable of bringing greenery to their world. Since our protagonist has those exact powers, he accepts going into the other world to help people.

This one has lots of fighting, cool moments, super pretty art, some dark themes once you got further into it, plus some twists and resolutions.

I cried when I finished it, it had so much impact and its message is so beautiful, it definitely shines light in the dark!