Land of the Lustrous is a 12 episode anime that’s based on the manga series. It is set in the far future where Earth has completely changed. Humans are gone and the land feels emptier as a result. It takes place on an island with beings known as Lustrous. They are immortal and are composed of gemstones. They’re led by their master Kongo, and their task is to defend against the Lunarians (i.e. from the moon), who appear every few days as they want to capture the Lustrous for their own enjoyable due to how pretty they are.
The anime follows the youngest of the Lustrous, Phos, who is comprised of phosphophyllite. As a result, she’s extremely brittle, being the weakest of the bunch and cannot participate in combat. The others find her annoying due to her immaturity. Her master Kongo gives her an alternate task, to fill up an encyclopedia. At a loss, PHos wanders about discovering Cinnabar, a Lustrous who had herself exiled as she was so dangerous, and Phos decides to do something to convince Cinnabar that she has a purpose.
There is little explicit explanation on what’s happening at first. It takes a while to understand the setting, such as who are the Lunarians and what the current cycle is. Thus there are a few scenes where it shocks you when you thought the plot had just killed off Phos, or any of the other Lustrous, before we learn that they are immortal and can be pieced back together if they break.
The tone and style of the anime leans more towards the quirky and surreal, alternating between the two but leaning more towards the latter. In particular, the Lunarians, who incorporate elements of religious entities into their designs, appear with eerie music that gives them a completely otherworldly effect. This extends to the Lustrous and their world, since it’s so empty, so far and wide, and so completely unlike the real world.
While the anime doesn’t completely lack a direction, it can feel it doesn’t have as much focus on its goals at times. Maybe it’s due to the surreal tone but isn’t quite grounded. Each episode seems to have Phos pairing with another lustrous and it’s interesting to see the different gemstones that they are composed off, and their different personalities and abilities. This concept isn’t different to a human in terms of varying personalities but there’s just something much more intriguing about this world.
Given that Phos is the weakest of the bunch, she doesn’t have much to do in terms of protecting the island. Despite that, trouble still manages to constantly find her. Due to the demise of humanity so long ago, there are concepts that they don’t understand. Phos will significantly change as the season progresses, and while it not be in surprising ways, she is completely unique when compared to the other Lustrous.
Their master Kongo is also an enigma since we barely learn much about his or what his purpose is other than to fight of Lunarians. As the leader of all the Lustrous, he is absurdly strong. There is a lot more to the character and you can’t help but have a sneaking suspicion that this might not be a good thing either.
The last few episodes got the ball rolling. There is an epic chase scene with such fluidity in its camera movements that makes it very impressive and a lot of fun to watch. Then it steps up with its story now that Phos has more experience and is starting to question the way of things. She’s asking the same type of questions that the viewers were probably asking all along. Unfortunately, that means that the season ending is one of those where it awkwardly cuts off. Just as things were starting to get good, it had run out of time and had to end it there. This is the anime’s biggest flaw in that it couldn’t really find a good cut-off point.
And finally, you can’t not watch this anime and not make mention of the CG animation. This is one of the best implements of CG anime. Yes, movements can still be stiff at times, but it looks a lot more fluid and natural than previous attempts. Character models don’t clash drastically against the backgrounds, sticking out like a sore thumb. The characters have proper experiences, and their movements are jerky like robots.
Overall, Land of the Lustrous is decent. It starts off confusing and weird but it slowly grows on you. it has a lot of characters with barely any introductions but you’ll warm up to all of them. It’s surprisingly good at creating an attachment between you and all the characters, so you will care about their fate. Then there’s the whole mystique about the Lunarians and this world, but just a shame that it did not have enough time to even touch upon that aspect at all.
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