Review of Land of the Lustrous

I found this to be a relatively unique anime and it was executed well enough, but there were also some major problems and I found myself confused about many elements of the characterization. The premise is easily one of the best parts about the anime: very creative yet quite simple. The presentation of the world is also done very well with stunning views and beautiful saturated colors. I love how the girls are made of crystals and gemstones, although there are some logical fallacies that come with that premise but it's not a problem, I can easily suspend my disbelief for that. However the characterizationconfused me. Many of the characters would all of a sudden do something or say something that seemed very odd, random, and not consistent with their established character. There are also a lot of characters and it seems that the creators were trying to give each character some screen time and characterization but there just was not enough time to do this so some of the characters ended up confusing.

Even some of the more important characters who have a lot of screen time were inconsistent or not well established. Phos was annoying sometimes and when her character changes, it's unclear whether it is due to memory loss or her trauma. Sensei had some character elements hinted about him, but it wasn't executed very well so when there is a reveal about him, it seems strange and out of left field. Not sure what Alex's other personality was all about and what the point of that is at all. Cinnabar seems to be an important character but she is given very little character development for the large amount of screen time she's given. Every time we see her she's doing the exact same thing and saying the exact same thing, and whenever she comes in contact with Phos she does the same exact thing every time. Bort also gets a lot of screen time but her character seems incomplete and oddly one-dimensional. There are just many specific issues with the characters and it slightly takes away from the viewing experience.

There were a couple things I had issues with concerning the visuals. Firstly I'm not the biggest fan of CGI anime, but that's not really that big of a deal, the characters just have very unnatural movements. But the other issue is that it seemed like they were trying to be creative with the composition of each scene but it was unsuccessful at times. For example the view would switch to a wide shot and the characters in the frame would be placed at the very edge of the screen or the corner for no seemingly good reason. And this happened so often that I started to take notice and get annoyed by it. There were no stunning backgrounds or moments of isolation that needed to be conveyed in these shots, they were just jarring and strange. But on the positive end, the character designs were great and the world was stunning especially with the use of saturated colors.

Just as a side note, some of the edits were strange where they would linger too long on a moment. The opening and ending were both painfully mediocre, although some of the soundtracks were great and invoked the necessary moods. And I can't believe they ended the season on such a sudden and jarring cliffhanger. I will be very upset if there isn't another season coming.

Overall I highly enjoyed it and would give it a 7. I could easily see myself giving the second season (if there is one) a higher score if they do a good job with it.