Weeeellllpppp I’m pretty late in watching this but if I might say, Land of the Lustrous is easily the best anime I’ve seen in a while.
In the distant future, Gems inhabit the earth. Looming over them are the Lunarians, creepy skinny Asian angels that fly in on a UFO, whose goal seem to be turning the Gems into trinkets. Phosphophyllite, the youngest gem, struggles to find a place where they belongs in the community of immortals.
Official site: http://land-of-the-lustrous.com/
Land of the Lustrous’s strength lies in its animation. Despite most anime’s use of 3D to cut cost, this anime uses 3D because it looks the best. Honestly, if they had stuck to the 2D style used in the 2013 ONA, the hair and shards would never look this good. The reason why I love this anime so much is because of their hair and fight animation.
Its weakness, in my opinion, is the summary. Oh, there’s a bunch of gems and a bunch of people trying to catch them, and there’s a gem who wants to fight but can’t. It just doesn’t seem that interesting or new. This might be the reason Land of the Lustrous went under the radar for so many people, including me.
The first three episodes is the ‘getting to know the world’ stage. We have Phos, a brittle gem who wants to get the Lunarian, Cinnabar who pukes Mercury, Diamond who cares a lot for their brother Bort, and Kongou-sensei who’s the center of everything. It leaves me wondering what the heck are these Lunarians, what the heck Sensei is, and where the Gems came from. Also, since Lunarians seem to pop up at the worst of times, I’m usually on edge guessing when they’re going to come.
The setting of Land of the Lustrous gets more interesting as the anime progresses. Their world seem to be made of grassland, beaches, and the ocean, and there are rarely any other living things aside from a butterfly here and there. (Oh, and the snail.) The Gems seem to be fine losing limbs because they can always attach it back on later with glue and powder. They seem to survive even when digested.
The highlight of these 3 episodes seem to be Cinnabar and Phos’ meeting. Phos wants to find a job for Cinnabar while the other denies it, but a bond is starting to develop between them nevertheless. Cinnabar also seems to be the only one aside from Diamond that cares when Phos was eaten by the snail. I’m looking forward to seeing how these two’s relationship will turn out, and if Phos can actually find a better job for Cinnabar than night solo patrolling.
The music? I HATE the track that plays every time the Lunarians appear (Sunspot) because…well, I just hate it. Other than that, I love Cinnabar’s theme, Battle theme, and pretty much every other song. The opening, Kyoumen no Nami, is stunning, and the piano sounds like twinkling of gems.
The voice acting is superb. Phos’s voice is cute and it’s a pleasure to listen to. Others are also done very well, with more masculine gems having masculine voices while the more feminine one are feminine.
Land of the Lustrous seems to play on existential crisis a bit, but there isn’t much on that yet. I think there will be more on the concept of existence in further episodes.
Have a Cinnabar, and see you on the next review!
bonutzuu 