Silver Diamond by Sugiura Shiho
Okay, I am going back to work tomorrow and I find that I just can't fall asleep. ;_; I'm not sure if it's because I slept for 13 hours last night and took naps throughout the day, or jet-lag, or I'm just excited after fangirling right before bed. In any case, since I can't sleep I'll just fangirl about the manga series I am totally in love with right now...
I had owned volume 1 for a while, and picked up volumes 2-5 in Japan (this publisher is not stocked by Amazon Japan, unfortunately). I had picked the first volume up way back when it first came out because it was the same artist as the wonderful Koori no mamono no monogatari, and had liked it pretty well. It didn't really make me go nuts over it, but I guess this is a series like xxxHOLIC that took at least the second volume to thoroughly addict me.
Silver Diamond is about a boy named Sawa Rakan. He's a normal high school student who happens to live by himself (having lost his mother and the nice old rich man who had taken them in when they had mysteriously appeared in his garden 15 years ago), loves to cook and clean, loves plants and flowers (and is always giving flowers away in an effort to control the jungle that his yard is), and is very pretty. One day he finds a strange man lying in a field of flowers in his yard. The strange man is Senrou Chigusa, the last of a hated and cursed race of people who can't die. He had been thrown to Rakan's world in his attempt to kill the Prince who is the leader and supposedly the savior of his world...who also happens to look exactly like Rakan (or Rakan looks exactly like the Prince). But the difference is that Rakan is a "Sanome." A Sanome is one who can freely make plants grow...and when Rakan touches any seed from Chigusa's world, it immediately germinates and grows. When he finds this out Chigusa realizes that Rakan is exactly what he needs. He isn't fazed at finding himself in another world.
Rakan is confused and bewildered, but his very practical self asserts itself and he finds himself going through the normal motions of hospitality to a guest, serving tea and food and all that. (The gap between his reactions to the fantastic things happening around him and what normal people would react is hilarious, especially since the people around him--except Chigusa who is certifiably strange--can't believe at how blase he is about the things that most people would boggle about while getting excited about some odd trivial thing...) He gets to have his moments of being totally cool, too. I like it that he's able to be assertive when needs be. XD
Two other people get dropped into Rakan's world, and this and that happens and they all end up going back to the other world, including Rakan. Each individual character is vividly drawn and their interactions are at times extremely amusing and at other times extremely touching. The way Chigusa, who initially lived a very emotionless existence fulfiling his mission, slowly remembers his emotions is wonderful. As he explains to one of the characters, he sees everything other than himself as either harmless, harmful, or beneficial. In a moment of crisis Chigusa falls back on instinct and classifies all he sees into those categories, except when he gets to Rakan he classifies him as "Rakan." *^_^* it's a powerful and fabulous moment in the manga. Yes, Chigusa, Rakan is special to you on a very basic level!!
The supposed bad guys in the series are the Prince and his guardian. The Prince is supposedly the child of god who will save their dying world (it is turning into a desert and the Sanomes that can grow plants have stopped being born), but according to Chigusa he is an Ayame that is feeding off the world. He enjoys causing things to wither, as he admits to Rakan. He and Rakan have the same face, and the Prince calls Rakan his younger brother. I have to admit, one of my favorite moments is when the Prince tells his guardian not to kill Rakan, because he wants Rakan to grow up beautifully, so that he himself can kill him and love him. He says this with this absolutely angelic face...O_o
Er, I could go on and on fangirling this series. I desperately want volume 6 which comes out at the end of July...In any case, it's a wonderful fantasy series with great art and very vividly drawn characters. I am so looking forward to seeing where this story goes! Did I mention that the art is gorgeous and it's full of bishonen being drop dead stunning? (Chigusa is HOT. And I mean HOT. He is so sexy with his glasses...*glasses fetish in top gear*)
It's apparently being scanlated by Sweet Lunacy and/or Nakama, but I'm not too sure. The first forty pages are available for perusal at the publisher's webpage here. Koori no mamono no monogatari, which ended ever so satisfactorily, is being scanlated by Essence of Purity.
I had owned volume 1 for a while, and picked up volumes 2-5 in Japan (this publisher is not stocked by Amazon Japan, unfortunately). I had picked the first volume up way back when it first came out because it was the same artist as the wonderful Koori no mamono no monogatari, and had liked it pretty well. It didn't really make me go nuts over it, but I guess this is a series like xxxHOLIC that took at least the second volume to thoroughly addict me.
Silver Diamond is about a boy named Sawa Rakan. He's a normal high school student who happens to live by himself (having lost his mother and the nice old rich man who had taken them in when they had mysteriously appeared in his garden 15 years ago), loves to cook and clean, loves plants and flowers (and is always giving flowers away in an effort to control the jungle that his yard is), and is very pretty. One day he finds a strange man lying in a field of flowers in his yard. The strange man is Senrou Chigusa, the last of a hated and cursed race of people who can't die. He had been thrown to Rakan's world in his attempt to kill the Prince who is the leader and supposedly the savior of his world...who also happens to look exactly like Rakan (or Rakan looks exactly like the Prince). But the difference is that Rakan is a "Sanome." A Sanome is one who can freely make plants grow...and when Rakan touches any seed from Chigusa's world, it immediately germinates and grows. When he finds this out Chigusa realizes that Rakan is exactly what he needs. He isn't fazed at finding himself in another world.
Rakan is confused and bewildered, but his very practical self asserts itself and he finds himself going through the normal motions of hospitality to a guest, serving tea and food and all that. (The gap between his reactions to the fantastic things happening around him and what normal people would react is hilarious, especially since the people around him--except Chigusa who is certifiably strange--can't believe at how blase he is about the things that most people would boggle about while getting excited about some odd trivial thing...) He gets to have his moments of being totally cool, too. I like it that he's able to be assertive when needs be. XD
Two other people get dropped into Rakan's world, and this and that happens and they all end up going back to the other world, including Rakan. Each individual character is vividly drawn and their interactions are at times extremely amusing and at other times extremely touching. The way Chigusa, who initially lived a very emotionless existence fulfiling his mission, slowly remembers his emotions is wonderful. As he explains to one of the characters, he sees everything other than himself as either harmless, harmful, or beneficial. In a moment of crisis Chigusa falls back on instinct and classifies all he sees into those categories, except when he gets to Rakan he classifies him as "Rakan." *^_^* it's a powerful and fabulous moment in the manga. Yes, Chigusa, Rakan is special to you on a very basic level!!
The supposed bad guys in the series are the Prince and his guardian. The Prince is supposedly the child of god who will save their dying world (it is turning into a desert and the Sanomes that can grow plants have stopped being born), but according to Chigusa he is an Ayame that is feeding off the world. He enjoys causing things to wither, as he admits to Rakan. He and Rakan have the same face, and the Prince calls Rakan his younger brother. I have to admit, one of my favorite moments is when the Prince tells his guardian not to kill Rakan, because he wants Rakan to grow up beautifully, so that he himself can kill him and love him. He says this with this absolutely angelic face...O_o
Er, I could go on and on fangirling this series. I desperately want volume 6 which comes out at the end of July...In any case, it's a wonderful fantasy series with great art and very vividly drawn characters. I am so looking forward to seeing where this story goes! Did I mention that the art is gorgeous and it's full of bishonen being drop dead stunning? (Chigusa is HOT. And I mean HOT. He is so sexy with his glasses...*glasses fetish in top gear*)
It's apparently being scanlated by Sweet Lunacy and/or Nakama, but I'm not too sure. The first forty pages are available for perusal at the publisher's webpage here. Koori no mamono no monogatari, which ended ever so satisfactorily, is being scanlated by Essence of Purity.