Review of Land of the Lustrous

Watched this mostly because of the hype surrounding it when it was nominated for the Crunchyroll Awards 2017, but also because of a GIF I saw of one of its battle sequences. Story - 4 Sadly, this was the weakest thing it had going for it. Per se, there is no story that runs throughout the entire season, but there are various story threads that are introduced, but most of them are left incomplete or underdeveloped (with the exception of the winter arc). We are left with more questions than answers, in the worst way possible; they start a thread, go with it, then they leave ithanging at the opportune time to answer it. Sometime they even act as if it was never there, and while they (sort of) came back to one of the earliest threads in the last episode, all that left me with no sense of satisfaction when the final credits rolled.

Art - 9

Right from the get-go, I was totally on board with the 3D animation because not only was it so fluid and it worked so well with the kind of action in the battles, but that combined with the gorgeous 2D matte painting backdrops was stunning at times. I don't think I've said "Wow, that looks really good" that many times in one season of anime so far.

Sound - 8

The OP was good, but not good enough for me to want to watch it every episode, though I watched it at least twice throughout the season. I never ended up watching the Ending Theme, not that it was bad, though. The music that plays during the episodes was very good, however, and it sort of reminded me of the music in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Character - 7

There were a lot of characters that we were introduced to (thankfully not every Gem was introduced), but you could definitely see the ditinct personalities in each one. A lot of them were played for comedy, but some got more development than others, which was fair enough, given the importance placed on them.

Enjoyment - 6

The story problems detracted a fair amount of enjoyment from this (for me and my friend, who I watched this season with), but we revelled in the sheer absurdity of some moments that were given no explanation.

Overall - 6

While very weak in terms of story, this anime is a breath of fresh air in terms of using great 3D animation, delightful characters, and sweeping music.