Review of Land of the Lustrous

[First Thoughts] — Land of the Lustrous (LoL) reminds me of this show called Steven Universe. It tempted me to pick up where I left off. — Some of my favorite stories are ones with a categorical group of characters. There are many gemstones (the main protagonists) for people to pick and choose from. — I was surprised by how engrossed I became with the art style. [Story]— The plot's pacing is relatively good.

Some may be turned off by the first two episodes, but any exposition takes a while to get through. Plus, it was fun learning about the different gemstones, principles, and scenery.

— A revolving theme of LoL is that people may feel obligated to lose a part of themselves to become something different, stronger, or better.

In the process of losing one's self, one must relinquish valuables like memories, friendship, and happiness.

— LIGHT SPOILER: LoL has an interesting theoretical concept of how the gemstones, Lunarians (the main antagonists), and Admirabilis (other creatures) came to be.

Humans ruled the world for a long time until they decided to divide themselves into three parts.

The flesh became the vulnerable Admirabilis, the bones became the immortal gemstones, and the soul became the tragic Lunarians. The Lunarians constantly seek to recover the human's former state. If I wanted to find my true self again and all my parts were resisting, I would be pissed and desperate.

[Art Style]

— LoL's art style is insanely intriguing.

I usually do not watch anime with tons of CGI because TV shows do not have big movie budgets to make it look spectacular. However, the characters and environments look so sick. The animators and designers created a cool mix of 3D models, segmented 2D parts (Flash), and traditional animation.

— Thank God an anime has finally done color schemes correctly. You see it all the time in anime where there are characters whose favorite colors happen to be their natural hair color, clothing color, eye color, etc.

Each gemstone looks gorgeous (as it should). They all have adorable colored nails and different colored insides. Just like a typical mineral, you have to break each of the characters apart to discover their beautiful inner workings.

[Animation]

— From time to time, the animation appears laggy.

Either some aspects are rendered at different frames per second, or they could have been some shortcuts to finish an episode. If it is the first scenario, the animators made a stylistic choice similar to the first Spiderverse movie.

— There are a lot of fluid scenes and motions in LoL, but most of them occur in earlier episodes.

The benefit of 3D animation is that it is much easier to reuse past animation cycles. The downside of 3D animation is that it can appear stiff and dull; however, the animators go out of their way to use the squash and stretch tactics of traditional animation.

[Sound]

— I am so glad that I chose to watch this in subbed English.

Each voice feels suitable and when a few characters change (Phos and Alex), their voices transform appropriately.

— Words can not describe how much I love the music in the opening and ending. It's been a while since I added anime songs to my Spotify playlist. Additionally, the visuals in the intro are phenomenal.

— Guess what! They got mothafukking Killua to voice one very cool gemstone (Antarcticite). Get this! It solidifies in chilling temperatures and remains liquid in warmer climates. How kewl is dat! Omegalul Poggers dood!!!!

[Characters]

— Alright. The characters are pretty nifty.

I was not turned off by any of them except Phos before the personality shift. Phos was kind of annoying and a burden to several. As a result of negativity and such, Phos changed to appease others and build a false sense of confidence. This is some exceptional character development right here.

— I do not have any particular favorite characters, yet all of the gemstones are enchanting.

I admire Cinnabar-chan, Alexandrite-kun, Morganite-chan, Neptunite-chan, and Yellow Diamond-kun the most. 😍