Review of Land of the Lustrous

Ghibli gave us a very bland hodgepodge with Ronja which, felt like the studio produced it out of angst in order to compete with the present-day output of CG. Land of the Lustrous does something well here with the aesthetic by demonstrating a keen understanding towards automaticity---weary that automaticity can detract from the animation of a 2D character's expression and movements, while also proving it's sheer power in rendering of sophisticated and gorgeous translucent materials---something that the hand-drawn aesthetic would otherwise lack a consistent grasp in. There is also a real sense of space that the animators gave thought towards when constructing the setting; the placesthat you feel these characters will soon visit and discover more about offers a lot of mystery about what lies ahead, how things will unfold and who each character will encounter in the series.

As oppose to having characters that bleed to death in battle like in so many other shonen anime, these characters break into pieces like glass, and the body parts they lose in combat become important plot devices later.

I recommend this show to anyone just interested in the artistry alone as this is strongest part of the series. It's definitely one of the few CG shows that we can say, "this couldn't have been as good if it was traditional" The plot and characters are very cool and certainly adds to the flare of the animation style. One of my favorite shows of this year.