Review of Land of the Lustrous

💎Bling Dream °8.1° °excellent ° 💯%🔍 LotL feels more like one is dreaming than watching the 📺. It's so mesmerizing that it's nearly soporific. It doesn't seem to be anything else quite like it, so its sheer originality is refreshing as well. It's written, drawn, and acted with striking beauty. It is well worth the time. This land is populated by people who are made of jewels. "Country of Jewels" is, apparently, a more direct translation of the title. They are the Lustrous, the embodiments of gemstones. As long as they're not destroyed or smashed to bits, they are immortal. Theycarry the qualities of the gemstones that they are named after. From that perspective, this story is educational as well as beautiful. There's even a nifty science-like explanation for life on their planet.

The Lustrous have an enemy. Lunarians look Greek in appearance, with Egyptian influenced headdresses. They're drawn to possess the Jewels‘ beauty, and systematically descend to capture them. The Lustrous Land’s society, therefore, is built around defense. Strength, or resistance to chipping and breaking, is measured from 1 - 10, and split strength into durability and hardness. It can be developed and improved upon. Only the most durable are fighters. Recovery is also a priority: When attacked they may break apart into shards, but if all the pieces can be collected, fallen comrades can be put back together. That's Rutile's job. Everything is workable if they shatter, but what if one of them melts? They haven't worked it all out, yet. A slug will tell Phos that beings were split into bone, flesh, and soul. There's certainly something going on that remains hidden from common knowledge.

Based on author Haruko Ichikawa's manga's 108 chapters, about 1/3 has been committed to the screen. The artwork is lithe and fresh between moments of striking beauty.

The story takes place at a school of sorts (should we call it a polishing school?😉). 28 Lustrous are enrolled there and the ever more mysterious Kongo is their teacher. At a mere 300 years in age, Phosphophyllite is the youngest. Her work assignment is natural history as, to her great disappointment, she's no fighter. She's too fragile and prone to cracking.

Diamond - she's the hardest, but she's kind. Bort - the most fearsome warrior in Diamond class. Red Beryl - wardrobe. Jade is Kongo's assistant. Antarcticite only comes out in winter. Watermelon Tourmaline is full of energy. Benitoite can't say “no” - she's too benevolent. Obsidian makes the tools. There's even a Zircon, and many more. Each character is named after a gem or mineral. There's many I've never heard of, such as Rutile and Phosphophyllite (Phos). (Per Wiki, phosphophyllite "is highly prized by collectors for its rarity and for its delicate bluish green colour. Phosphophyllite is rarely cut because it is fragile and brittle, and large crystals are too valuable to be broken up…” It has primarily been mined, strangely, from Potosí, Bolivia, New Hampshire, and Hagendorf, Bavaria - isn't that bizarre?!). There's even Cinnabar, a form of oxidized mercury. Her power is positively poisonous.

Phos is our lead. She's young and breakable but she wants to fight. In the early episodes she meets Cinnabar. Phos thought she had it bad! Cinn is toxic to the others so she's pretty much secluded. She does the night watch. Alone. Phos wants to find a better situation for her.

In the meantime, Phos takes questionable advice and starts trying to gain strength through dubious means. She ends up changing her physical makeup. One of her changes is Kintsugi, or Kintsukuroi, which is a Japanese method for repairing broken pottery by putting it back together with molten or softened gold in between the pieces instead of glue. The effect is not unlike stained glass. It celebrates the breakage rather than hiding it. “I was so spoiled. I'm jealous of my old innocent self. My spoiled former self.” Those are words we hear more than once. More than anything, this is a story about maturation.

We should never stop learning, growing, or maturing, and the show's end is actually a beginning. I suppose the extremely popular manga will have to go on my reading list now.

QUOTES📢

Courage. It's always courage. Just how much is it going to take?

A pure, unbridled truth might leave its own wounds, or worse yet, it might change things in ways you've never imagined.

〰🖍 IMHO

🎬8.3 📝8.5 🎭 8 🌞6 🎨8.5 ⚡7.5 🎵/🔊8 😅2 😭2 😱2 😯3 😖2 🤔7 💤3 🔚 ?

My Age rec: 11+ There's some non-sexual bare buttons and jiggling boobs, but LOTL is always classy.

Re-📺? Yup