Review of Land of the Lustrous

- - - [Land of the Lustrous : Review] - - - - [Intro] - Every so often there comes an anime that reminds me why I love this medium so much. The creative potential of animation is absolutely astounding. The types of stories you can tell are practically limitless, and I love seeing works that take full advantage of the medium that they're in to create something that couldn't work as well anywhere else. In a period when I was starting to feel fatigued by the same old formulaic series, Land of the Lustrous came along to wake me up. - [Story] - First of all, the storytellingin this show is really something else. It admittedly starts out a bit slowly, but that's to be expected from a Fantasy series, seeing as they need to take their time to lull you into this unfamiliar world and how it works. Being only 12 episodes it does a fantastic job at giving you a feel for the circumstances of this universe and the characters that inhabit it, and provides just enough information for you to understand whats going on yet still be yearning to know more. The pacing is quite excellent, as plot points appear very often, and by the time they are resolved a new one has already arisen to keep you engaged. Of course, this is not a complete story, so the Season ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, but there is a certain level of closure, per say. From the beginning, there's a clear underlying emphasis on the relationship between Phos and Cinnabar, and the promise that Phos makes very early on. (I cite the visuals of the ED as evidence) This comes full circle by the final episode, giving us at least some sense of "completion" while still leaving the big mysteries for a future season.

- [Art / Animation] -

Yes, this is a CGI animated show. Yes, many people have claimed that the CG is really good. Sorry for not being a contrarian, but I have to concur. If you have any hangups about CGI in anime, please put them aside, because the usage of it here is absolutely spectacular. It may be very jarring at first, and it definitely was for me, but when you get accustomed to it I think the style works really well, and they manage to accomplish feats that are simply not possible in traditional cel animation. To put it into perspective, what 2D animation generally aims to achieve is fluidity. The quality of animation is generally gauged by how smooth and detailed it is, with the artstyle obviously having an impact as well. In the case of 3D animation, however, making everything move smoothly is quite easy, considering that they are working with pre-built models that do not need to be drawn in every single frame. What it rather attempts to excel at is making it look "natural." The biggest reason most CG anime look so bad is because many of the movements don't look natural, and you feel like you're watching a bunch of robots waltz around on the screen as opposed to actual people. In this case, the characters aren't actual people, yet ironically they move and act as if they were. The blend of 2D and 3D animation is really something else. I have yet to even touch on the action scenes. They take advantage of the CG environments to pull of some seriously breathtaking fight scenes. The way the characters bound across the screen with the camera moving in an impossibly dynamic fashion sounds like it would be confusing and hard to follow, however it is executed in this case with extreme elegance. The action is always clear-cut and beautiful, just like the rest of this show.

- [Sound] -

The soundtrack is really something else. The tracks give off such a sense of surrealism and otherworldlyness. The originality and beauty of some of these tracks really enhance the more climatic and emotional moments. That's not even mentioning the fantastic OP and ED which are phenomenal both visually and musically. The voice acting is also just as excellent, with Phos being a particular standout. The way her VA is able to perfectly convey every single intricacy of her character's emotion with nothing more than her tone of voice is actually pretty amazing. The amount of personality in even just the small little noises she makes has resulted in compilations of "Phos Noises" videos. Overall, the sound in this series is, in every department, amazing.

- [Character] -

Regarding the characters, there's quite a large cast, though Phos easily takes the biggest focus as the main character. The level of growth and progression she recieves in just a 12 episode runtime, not to mention while simultaneously balancing the involvement of story elements and other characters appearing is pretty insane. You truly feel that she has come a long way from the wide-eyed, playful character she was at the start. This is true to such a degree that her character is almost unrecognizable, and it doesn't feel forced at all. I've seen 26 episode series miserably fail to achieve this with their main characters, so it's impressive to see it done so well here. Regarding the rest of the cast, they're all pretty great in their own right. Only a few other characters get much in the way of depth, but the little that is spread around is delivered pretty well, and the entire supporting cast is always a delight to watch, as every character is very distinct and entertaining in their own way.

- [Conclusion] -

Overall, I absolutely loved this series. It's such a breath of fresh air compared to much of what has been coming out recently. It's just so refreshing to see something with this much originality and care put into it. Everything from the interesting worldbuilding, the lovable characters, the exciting story, the beautiful music, and the dynamic animation add up to make Land of the Lustrous one of my favorite series in recent memory.