What are we watching: Land of the Lustrous

What’s it about: In the mysterious future, crystalline organisms called Gems inhabit a world that has been destroyed by six meteors. Each Gem is assigned a role in order to fight against the Lunarians, a species who attacks them in order to shatter their bodies and use them as decorations.

Phosphophyllite, also known as Phos, is a young and fragile Gem who dreams of helping their friends in the war effort. Instead, they are told to compile an encyclopedia because of their delicate condition. After begrudgingly embarking on this task, Phos meets Cinnabar, an intelligent gem who has been relegated to patrolling the isolated island at night because of the corrosive poison their body creates. After seeing how unhappy Cinnabar is, Phos decides to find a role that both of the rejected Gems can enjoy. Houseki no Kuni follows Phos’ efforts to be useful and protect their fellow Gems.

Studio: Orange

Director: Kyougoku, Takahiko

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIYgPnSvnCE

Where can I watch it: https://twist.moe/a/houseki-no-kuni-tv/1 , https://nyaa.si/view/991627 , https://cytu.be/r/chapochat (At select times)

Spoilers beyond the current episode are :haram: . Please use the spoiler tag if you would like to discuss past the current episode. Everything in this episode and before are fair game.

  • notthenameiwant [he/him]M4•3 years ago

    To start, I think this series was a pretty fun watch, but it missed the mark on a lot of things that I think really gives a show substance. The obvious is that this is one of those shows that is clearly a glorified ad for the source material. There's so many plot threads that are just left hanging that I almost feel cheated in a way. The snail arc was set up as a huge betrayal, and it was only mentioned once after the arc finished like it didn't even matter. The only lasting impact from that segment was also figuratively and literally brushed away with the addition of the alloy arms.

    The main character also becomes sad out of nowhere, with the explanation being "it's months later". Like I get it, Phos went through something traumatic. You can't just frame whiplash like that to the main character and have the audience feel like the appropriate growth was done. Phos is sad and brooding now, that's the development. The Ice Floes segment was also left unfinished.

    I noticed towards the end of the show they just shifted Phos's original character traits onto the other Gems.

    I wouldn't say I disliked this, but it feels like the studio put more time into the animation than into making this anything resembling a complete project. 7/10.

    • Grownbravy [they/them]2•3 years ago

      The obvious is that this is one of those shows that is clearly a glorified ad for the source material.

      That's anime writ large.

      • notthenameiwant [he/him]M2•3 years ago

        I've managed to avoid that for the most part. The only other series that got me on that bullshit was Spice and Wolf.

    • Awoo [she/her]M1•3 years ago

      As far as I'm aware this is an extremely faithful recreation of the source material. There's also heavy rumours on the japanese areas of the internet that there is definitely to be a continuation of this in anime.

      So, where things seem unfinished, that just happens to be what the source material has covered at this point it seems.

      • Awoo [she/her]M3•3 years ago

        I think she needed the legs just to be able to hold up and have the strength to even move with that extra gold weight? That's how I took it anyway.