Silver Diamond 2
Posted: June 10, 2009 Filed under: Silver Diamond 3 Comments »I liked the first volume so much I immediately picked up the second as soon as I finished writing the review.
You know, this series strikes a fine balance between plot and shounen ai. Every time I think the shounen ai is too much and/or not really all that good a fit for the situation, more of the plot is revealed and I am distracted by how good it is. The pace helps a lot. Most of what is going on is kept a mystery, including who Narushige is, why everyone calls Chigusa a monster, and what exactly the deal is with the other world. We get a lot of background in this volume, and some of those questions are answered, but the bigger questions, like what Rakan’s link to the other world is, and what the prince of that world is plotting, are left for later. It’s great, and written in a way that makes you want to keep reading.
The character development is coming along slowly, though. I like Rakan because of his initial cheery introduction, but he becomes rather moody in this volume and actually loses some of what made his personality unique last time. Chigusa is just a cool character in general, but he lacks emotion and personality because of it. Narushige is stoic and seems to like his distance, so he;s something of a blank slate at the moment, too. On one hand, Narushige and Chigusa’s personalities don’t really bother me, but on the other hand, I feel like more exciting characters would make things better.
It’s still a pretty addictive series, but I hope there’s more character development in the next volume. I don’t have volume 3 yet, but the fact I ordered it immediately after I finished this probably means that this is somewhat better than a lot of other stuff I’m reading now, even with its slight flaws.
[...] Life) Melinda Beasi on vols. 1-4 of Silver Diamond (There it is, Plain as Daylight) Connie on vol. 2 of Silver Diamond (Slightly Biased Manga) Lorena on vol. 4 of Skip Beat! (i ♥ manga) Sophie Stevens on vol. 8 of [...]
I was reading this in scans (and am therefore now conscientiously buying it in licensed volumes to indicate my support for the creators! plus I really want to find out what happens in the rest of volume 8). I really like the world-building, and I like the characters; and, as you say, there’s enough other stuff going on that the gratuitous hugging sequences are at least tolerable, and sometimes just endearing. I was particularly fond of Rakan explaining to Chigusa how to have a bath…
(and volume 4 of Flower of Life is out? Ooh.)
Yes, I adored that bath sequence. I was afraid it would take the extra steps and go places I wasn’t ready for, but the rather graphic description of how to bathe done in the most innocent way possible was absolutely perfect. I was a little disappointed that those parts weren’t extended for just a bit longer.
And I can understand about the scans. There’s one or two series I have to read as they come out, with a solemn vow that I will buy every volume the day it hits to justify it to myself. :p Actually, Tokyopop themselves say that the sales of their graphic novels increase when they offer them online for free for a limited time, and while I know the absolute vast majority of people reading scans will probably never pay for the series, but I think there’s a lot of people that do make buying decisions like that.
And Flower of Life 4 was totally worth the long wait.