Review of Land of the Lustrous

ART They're like porcelain figures with hair made of jelly, think of a Tide-Pod personified. I would purposely be skipping if I didn't mention the CGI/3D graphics. Yes, it uses CGI for the characters and sometimes it looks uncanny in a way, mainly due to the fps, but it was tolerable. The camerawork can look crazy good at times, that was one of the things I heard about it beforehand. I saw one of the key fights years ago online and thought the same thing about the camerawork but seeing it in actual context made it so much better. The things they fight are called Lunarians whichyou've guessed, come from the moon. They're sort of like the Angels from Evangelion, they create portals in the shape of Rorshach ink blots (which they call sun spots) and come through those to collect and harvest gems. The sheer amount of portrait like substance in this anime is great, instant 9 out of 10 for the art overall. The one thing I will ask is the future content be in different landscapes, this season looked fine as is but I imagine a green field will get tiresome after so many battles. Judging by what I've heard of the manga, that problem has already been thought of and fixed before it even became an issue though.

CHARACTER
I mainly started this because of its high ratings but also Steven Universe is over now and I miss it and this is pretty darn similar. I'm a huge Lapis Lazuli fan so when I heard that this universe had their own Lapis, I hopped on board, however this is Season 1 and Season 2 has yet to come out and where Season 1 ends...is apparently right before Lapis makes her appearance in the manga. But it is what it is.

So if Lapis isn't in it (yet) then who's my favorite? Probably Diamond though Antarticite is a strong contender. I guess you could say I have a water waifu with Lazuli and a snow waifu with Anta. There is a scene where Anta comes out of a bathtub though and it's quite cool.

Our main, is Phos (-phophyllite). I was indifferent with her because she has some good moments but she's not my favorite, she's seen as the weakling and the youngest which is fine but things really shift when it hits episode 9, I was shocked at just how much changed, just how much growth there was because that was one of my main gripes with her character. That came at a cost though and is it worth it? You tell me. For that alone, I'll give it an 8.

MUSIC
If I had to describe the music, the word I would use is "majestic". I gotta give it an 8 because it's very fitting

STORY
Each gem has their own strength, fragility, and hardness. If one is broken up into pieces, they can just be put back together but if one is poisoned then they must be chipped and that might cause memory loss. Does that lower the stakes? No, you'll find as soon as the second episode that they test that theory, plus if the Lunarians take the pieces, they get brought back to the moon and sometimes used for weapons, you'd have to do a lot of collecting to reform after that.

I'm not too sure how to summarize because it has goals but it's more "implied", like that's not the point of the series. They mainly just fight the Lunarians but it's not a monster of the week style. I suppose the earliest goal is for Cinnabar but I wouldn't say that's what makes up the series, it's more one anomaly after the other. That's actually similar to how Steven Universe worked before it started with the Diamonds, so give it some time.

So if I have all these high ratings, where does it lack? What makes it better than that initial interest because on paper a lot of stories may sound good but may not deliver on the hype? Well, it gets better as it goes on, the ending kind of left on a high note, a cliffhanger even, that season 2 will be quite interesting for more reasons than one. I'll pull back and give the story a 7 or 7.5 to get specific for now.

ENJOYMENT
I almost want to say that the art is too good to be true, that there isn't a cohesive enough story that could fulfill it but I know that's wrong. The story isn't bad, it's not unfitting but I've never felt this mixed because it's good in hindsight but given everything else, it falls behind, I feel like this could very easily be a Vocaloid style music video with orchestrated music in the background and anime girl action and cool visuals to accompany it. I want to like it more and give it a 9 overall, I really do, but I can't help but feel that a good chunk of it isn't going to leave a lasting impression. I guess we'll see how it stands a few years from now. 8 for enjoyment, 8 overall.