I'm so glad we were given more of this beautiful story TT my respect and love for kazuhi has gone up even more, more than i thought it could, he had such hard choices to make and he's been through a lot :( also seeing a small epilogue 2 years after the main events were so wholesome, ill treasure them forever!
I love how the place is prospering and everybody had found piece including kinrei and the prince, and all the numbered soldiers and the young generations. It is as if Rakkan and Chigusa kinda became godlike (or at least it will be so years later) So cute!
It was really sweet to see the story about Kazuhi, Miya and Goushi! Plus that dark side about Kazuhi showed a very realistic portrayal of someone raised in such hard circumstances. I do wish that he and Miya would've been a couple because there were slight teases. In the end, I'm still pissed that Chigusa and Rakan never kissed though the second chapter was so cute~
It's disappointing to see that such a wonderful mangaka, given the opportunity to release a gaiden, didn't take the opportunity to show Rakan and Chigusa's relationship in a more blatant manner. Instead, we barely see Rakan and Chigusa. The ending of the original manga disappointed me as it pulled a CLAMP move of affirming feelings in a vague enough way to keep the homophobes happy. This always cheapens the relationships of the clearly canon pairings. While we know that they ended up together romantically, purely because of how Chigusa treated Rakan in private and how Rakan responded, seeing it affirmed is crucial. A fairytale romance should at least have a kiss.
I would think the mangaka just doesn't know how to draw kisses (or sex scenes), but that is clearly not the case. The art of Silver Diamond is second to none. Sugiura-sensei, please at least make a doujinshi for the pairing! If I had that to add to the original, then it would at least cap off the story for me. Silver Diamond was my #1 favourite shounen-ai before the ending turned out to be so wishy-washy.