Houseki no Kuni/Land of the Lustrous

CG gem androgyns fighting Buddhist lotus people. And weird shit. Lots of weird shit

Trope page is here, but I don't suggest reading it if you're not already familiar with the manga. There are things here that're best unspoiled

Honestly this series should be the baseline for CG quality in future anime works. Those gems have more range of expressions than half the current season's airing anime.

Diamond can't handle impacts, but I feel Bort is waaay too overprotective of her/him/gem/fuck it she's feminine. Also poor Phos can't catch a break. She's broken like, what, thrice so far? And then melted in a snail.

As a manga reader, I'll tell you this isn't the last time Phos is going to be broken. Physically or mentally.

Bort's and Dia's relationship isn't exactly healthy IMO. Dia suffers from a bad case of inferiority complex, and Bort's not tactful enough to handle it, and his bluntness only makes it worse.

Phos IS the weakest of the gem-girls, so I guess it only fits she's the butt-monkey.

Can I just say that I love how much research went into the gems

This is a very pretty show. And whoof I was not expecting that stuff at the end of episode 2, I thought the body horror would be constrained to lots o shattering. Looks like Phos is regrowing in the next episode preview though, thank goodness. I was really worried there.

From what I've seen, the english manga release and the official subtitles use they/them pronouns for the gems, since they're all genderless.

Episode 3: Dia is best gem. And now Phos can talk to slugs.

Had a good laugh at Bort's quip about how animals are inferior beings. Sorry for rotting away when we break, ya rockhead.

I usually don't put much attention to it, but damn, that scene with Dia running through the woods was amazing.

The advantage of CG animation is it's easier to animate movement like that. So yeah, looked pretty good.

I have to say I'm quite impressed with how well Ventricosus was animated. She's pretty much the exact opposite of 3DCG's strength, but still looked great

Episode 4: Oh boy, some lore! And it's good lore.

Dia is such a saint.

I prefer her in snail form. Especially when she was crushing on Kongo hahaha

Somebody please make an AMV with this song:

Wow, this thread is dead. So, episode 7, I feel the anime didn't adapt the chapters that well. The part where Zircon takes the blow for Yellow, and when Phos said he loves Sensei, didn't feel as impactful as they were in the manga. Comparison for the latter◊

Also the part where Amethyst got caught in the trap was more sudden in the manga, instead of the slowly creeping up trap in the anime, which makes Amethysts look a bit more amateurs.

edited 16th Nov '17 9:50:35 AM by TrueShadow1

I'm still watching the show and enjoying it, I just don't have a lot to say.

Here's a cool interview with the director of the anime I found.

And we've hit the weird part. I seem to recall it being a bit more eerie in the manga, but I can't say I'm not enjoying the anime's take on this arc

Yeah, the BGM this episode is really good. This is the slow part of the Winter arc, so the BGM really helps to keep the audience attention. And they did a great job of making the ice floes spooky.

Thing aren't going great this episode, huh? That gold is very unsettling. It freaks me out. Also, poor Antarcticite...

Hm, still can't handle fur well on a TV anime budget

Those moon puppies were extremely cute.

And thus the anime just sorta stops. Can't really blame them, with how the manga is structured, though

Overall a very good series and definitely something I'd consider an improvement on the source material. Highly recommend

All right, just watched the last announcement.

Season two announcement now please!

I think there's about 5 more episodes worth of material in the manga at the moment. If S2 is announced any time soon it'll be because the manga ended and they decided to finish the anime as a mini-series

On the plus side, it's popular enough that a second season is plausible

I think it worked well enough, with Phos meeting Cinnabar for a "coming full circle" feeling.

They made the most they could out of it, I think. There's some nice little details like Phos making a little Cinnabar "doll" with his alloy to stare at like Cin did of Phos with his mercury way back in like the second episode... also, that flashback to bab Phos, which I'm pretty sure was anime original. That did me a feels. So much he's lost since then- his smile and optimism, gone.

Also the scene with Phos and Zircon talking was hilarious. The anime really did capture the characters well.

Don't forget that since the gems are genderless they should be referred to with they/them pronouns, instead of he/him.

In the original manga they refer to each other with male pronouns (kare) for simplicity's sake, despite being genderless, so there's no reason not to use he/him since it's corresponding. And most of them look like girls, so she/her should also be fine.

In short, call them by whatever you like. they're gems.

edited 12th Apr '18 9:34:11 AM by Pompmaker1