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)
I think people with depression will empathise with any trans person when their issue is represented just as the visible symptoms to onlookers because the visible symptoms of dysphoria to an audience are... Depression, anxiety, self harm, etc.
The feeling of "I wish I was born in a different body" and "Something about my body is wrong" and "I do not fit correctly into the role that society is giving me" are all things that can only ever be expressed through speech, they are not expressed through behaviour or visible symptoms.
Ultimately what trans people experience is all the things that depressed people experience because their being transgender and being forced to conform to an incorrect societal role (wrong gender) causes them to have depression and multiple other comorbidities.
It is only when you deeply listen to the person in question and they tell you what is wrong with them that you can diagnose that they are trans, just like with Phos, you have to pay close attention to what she is saying about her experience to realise that what she is describing is so close to being trans. The gem society is unique in that it intentionally has no genders in order to represent the issue Phos has through a different lens -- that the issue of being transgender is about societally imposed roles for people and that even in a society without gender you can get something that looks almost identical but it would occur through a different set of societally imposed roles.
Honestly now you've said it, it's borderline explicit how clear Phos can be as a trans allegory, there are definitely some points later in the show I wont discuss here that I can see in a new light. I think part of the reason I missed it (rather than just my own self projection) is the genderless society, which does both obscures and highlight the idea of gender dysphoria, by making it not technically about gender anymore but showing the pure emotions of it, removed from our societal constructs.
Though it is a weird feeling to have a character I so deeply related to, suddenly gain potential depth I wasn't aware of/and can't fully relate to. Again I'm cis and this is outside of my experience, so please trust I mean no offense by anything.
I think that's another very important and interesting thing to think about in the entire topic. Huge numbers of people are capable of relating to and empathising with a character that is based on the trans experience... And yet the moment you try to explain that to a large amount of the audience their reaction would be pure hostility or denial of her status as a character intended to represent trans problems.
People can't relate to the causes of trans pain, but they can relate to the symptoms because the mental-health outcomes ultimately manifest in many things most people related to.
Many of those people would be part of the societal group that would say "No, you can't change yourself, you are not a fighting-type and therefore are not allowed to change yourself, this is unnatural!"
It is in recognising the similarities that we can say "You know what, I'd rather you weren't cripplingly depressed and in pain so you definitely should do whatever it is that stops you experiencing that." Anyone that experiences depression should feel this way about anyone else that also experiencing depression regardless of what causes their depression.