Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Supersonic_Pain
When I first started this, I was ready to give it, like, a 5 because there was genuinely nothing I had to say about it. It was just Very Boring.
That's still true but I do have a bit more to say.
First, positives.
I feel bad for shitting on this show not for the mangaka but for Orange. This show looks pretty good and considering I also hated Beastars, it just looks like I'm an Orange denier and yeah, not true, it's not like it being boring is Orange's fault. It looks very fluid and there is a good amount of stuff I don't think would work as well in 2D like the alloys or the gems breaking apart.
The soundtrack is pretty good.
All these characters are kind of caked up? They've got a hell of a curve in the back. Good for you, Studio Orange.
...if one of my three positives is that the ch…
Read at the sourceDigiCat
Visually, this is some of the best CGI i've ever seen in anime, the characters are expressive, with their movements feeling very natural and character designs that compliment the animation style
Worldbuilding is simple but effective, allowing a lot of freedom to play around with the psychedelic vibe the show has
However, this is a very clear case of style over substence
The gems personalities are quite stereotypical with little developement to them, this along with the weak storyline make the moments of darkness and psychological torment feel more like shock factor and melodrama
I feel like there was some wasted potential, the stunning visuals that could've been used to accentuate a story come off more as an art gallery showcasing new animation techniques
Overall something to watch if y…
Read at the sourceRebelPanda
"Constantly, I think to myself that I would like to be reborn…"
-Phosphophyllite
Do you ever wish you could change and transcend the limitations of your body? Phos' journey in Land of the Lustrous (Houseki no Kuni) is a compelling exploration of a person who desires to physically and mentally change themselves. Studio Orange's adaptation of Haruko Ichikawa's manga is unlike any anime you've ever seen. Stunning CGI, visceral yet graceful nature to which it portrays bodies, and a dense analysis of the human condition makes it unforgettable.
In the distant future, Earth has been ravaged by six meteors. The meteors broke off parts of the planet and formed six moons. Earth has been reduced to one single shore, and the rest of the planet is the ocean. This single shore is, while beautiful, has…
Read at the sourceM1c3f
*Minor spoiler ahead*
A geologist was in search of his perfect stony SO in the sheer endless waifu universe but couldn't find the perfect match so in his rocky might he created himself a gemstone universe. In this or a similar way Houseki no Kuni was created.
Houseki no Kuni has something of a curse to it. It is incredibly remarkable on various levels which I've never experienced in an anime or even any TV show before, at least not to the extent Houseki no Kuni does. The turnoff that surfaces with being this extraordinary is that flaws even if they are just minor are more outstanding and bothering than they should usually be.
The story mainly consists of building the unknown and mysterious world and environment while slowly revealing small pieces of background knowledge. In many cases t…
Read at the sourcetheRealGuyFieri
The Land Of The Lustrous? More like 'Saitama and the crystal gems: the inexistances of a storyline'
To start of this review, I want to just say that I was looking forward to watching this. After seeing Beastars and how beautiful a show it was and that this show had 'fantastic' reviews of 8/10, I was really hoping to be amazed by the studio and the show. Well, after watching, I can say that, my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.
Let's start off at the first episode, I was amazed, I was hooked and was looking forward to where the show will go. At the second episode there was a little head-scratcher, I let that pass and still continued to watch. By episode 3 the whole show went downhill from there. But I will not be ignorant and ignore the ups about the show.
-SCORES-
Char…
Read at the sourceliteraturenerd
Overview:
Houseki no Kuni was one of the most beloved anime of 2017, so I immediately put it on my watch list...where it sat until last month. I went in really expecting to love this series, but I didn't know anything about it besides apparently there are gemstone girls. Maybe they'll sing about making a giant woman? Point is, I'm going in fucking BLIND. The show has areas where it sparkles, but I found myself more bothered by the flaws.
Visual aesthetics and animation:
The big thing about Houseki that makes it unique is that it's among the first "good looking" entirely CGI anime. I put good looking in quotation marks because I utterly despised this show from a visual perspective. It's true that Studio Orange knew what they were doing. The CG animation isn't simply incompetent and laug…
Read at the sourcedetroitmetalcity
There’s a reason that when people talk about this show, it’s almost entirely about how beautiful the show it. I’ve seen this show compared to (the philosophically empty) Haibane Renmei, and they are very similar - Land of the Lustrous leans more into a Buddhist aesthetic than Haibane Renmei’s Christianity aesthetic. I don’t generally talk about the content of shows so that people can experience them for themselves, but the actual show demonstrated what I thought better than I can articulate it. The main character, Phosphophyllite (Phos for short) is incredibly soft gem who cracks and shatters at the drop of a hat. Every other gem in the same… academy (?) as them literally hates them. They think Phos is annoying or useless, and Phos does very little to make the audience think any differentl…
Read at the sourceTomtheGamer2
My only problem with this show is that mainly all of the character development goes into Phos and no one else, which kind of ruined her character for me. As she change too much, too fast and she ended up as a completely different character by the end which I didn’t like. All the other characters in the show either get no development or very little development.
Also the show hints at lore for the world but then drops it immediately and never goes back to it.
Overall, I don’t like Phos, the story could be better but the visuals are great.
Read at the sourceFrozenRoy
I was recommended this anime by a friend of mine and entered it with a sort of cautious optimism: A quick look at the MyAnimeList page and a Google search showed that this was a rather well received anime with character design that appealed to me that had somehow totally slipped under my radar. I wished to avoid spoilers for the show, so I did not look further, and instead dove right in.
The show starts off rather quickly and right off the bat, introducing the viewer to the relevant characters and plot points in a swift yet efficient manner, a good pace to start off with. The setting of the show is interesting and provides for some beautiful scenery shots with the rather nice CGI effects. The CGI might be a turn off for some people, but, well...given my RWBY avatar it should not be surpri…
Read at the sourcemathemagican
[SPOILER WARNING]
Houseki no Kuni is a show where the most boring, flat cast of characters do absolutely nothing for 12 episodes amidst one of the most barren, uninteresting environments I've ever had the displeasure to see. Ill attempt to break down why this show assumes the audience is brain dead and is generally an offensive watch.
First: what this show does right!
Animation: HnK won best CGI in the crunchy roll anime awards, and id agree with that sentiment. Some of the shot composition is really well done, and the movement is very fluid. The CGI is well done and never comes off as jarring. I was really excited when i saw Phos laying in the grass as it was truly gorgeous to look at.
Sound: This anime got an amazing OST it frankly doesnt deserve under any circumstance. What an abso…
Read at the sourceIts-Maki-kun
Years and years, we live in the age of CG anime equals bad anime. Finally, we have something to brag to the world that not all CG anime is bad, in fact it could be nearly perfect. An anime adaptation of a manga created by Haruko Ichikawa, Houseki no Kuni, came to us with a handful of good things that CG anime could do.
Because this is a CG anime, we should really talk about the CG of this anime. Finally, someone utilizes the CG to the camerawork of this anime and gives us the thrill of running through the beautiful night with Diamond, fighting Lunarians with Bort, or frightening tense while Diamond being chased by Shiro. Those scene would not be captured perfectly if they did not utilize CG technology. In the end, the CG in this anime made a perfect cinematography and an example of what C…
Read at the sourceEchinodermata
So Houseki no Kuni. Wow.
I managed to miss this one last season and just caught up with it over this weekend; I had nothing better to do last night, so I thought I’d investigate the first episode of the weird CGI mineralgirl show.
…and then marathon-ed the whole thing from start to finish. Literally sat there without getting up for anything like it was a five hour movie. It’s brilliant; I had no idea there was something out there that could so easily topple Made in Abyss from my AOTY spot for 2017, but there it was (and I really liked Made in Abyss).
If you’re not already aware, the very basic premise is that a small society of immortal, androgynous mineral-people are fighting a thousands of year long war against creepy, shiny buddhist ghosts called ‘Lunarians’ who want to kidnap the m…
Read at the sourcepsuedonymph
I am writing this review because I believe I hold an uncommon opinion. Don’t worry, it’s spoiler free. Allow me the time to tell you a story.
Once upon a time, a little boy was shopping at a mall with his mother, when he passed by a brightly lit shop window sporting an inviting neon sign at the entrance, labelled simply “Candy.” The display case under the sign had a large, swirly lollipop in it, each swirl being a different color. Eager to satisfy his taste buds with the sweetness of a candy he has never ever seen before, the boy tugged on his mother’s coat collar, begging for her to buy him the seemingly delicious treat.
The mother, not even bothering to look at the price tag, took a single glance at the ridiculous lollipop and told her son, “It’s not worth it, I’ll buy you something el…
Read at the sourceCodeBlazeFate
Gems are regarded as precious things. There are a plethora of these beautiful, varied jewels, each with distinct colors to catch the eye. Out of this shimmering rouges-gallery, the most popular one may be the diamond.
Diamonds are overvalued. They may shine bright but aren't as uncommon as some like to feel they are. However, they are special for some reason or another, above most other gems. Houseki no Kuni, or Land of the Lustrous, really is a diamond in such a sense, fittingly enough. Not the hardest gem or material ever conceived, and more like the character of Diamond in the show, where despite its hardness, some cracks can certainly show. However, there is a certain charm, a certain beauty to this series, and in fact, a certain catharsis that comes to myriad individuals who have of…
Read at the sourceEstheliel
THIS REVIEW WILL BE SPOILER FREE
Outstanding anime, this is my absolute favorite of this year along with Made in Abyss.
Story :
The premise of the story makes it sound like something you wouldn't expect at all after you're done watching this. It's really misleading, making people think this would be another "cute" anime centered around girly characters. Oh it's everything I just described and so much more.
It starts slowly, developing the main character takes a good chunk of episodes and initially I felt unsure as to why were we supposed to get attached to her. You understand why very soon. Throughout the story it did a job of explaining the nature of this setting and how it comes to be, though be wary of cliffhangers, they're an absolute killer. It does a good job of making the wor…
Read at the sourceInjenss
BEAUTIFUL. STUNNING. GORGEOUS. LUSTROUS! This anime, by far, is the most beautifully animated series I have ever seen. It is a shining example of how 3D Animation is the future of anime. I have seen a lot of beautifully animated series in my life, but this one, in my humble opinion, out shined them all. It was easily the biggest draw of the anime. I can't ever remember a time where I would rewind just to watch a character run. But, the animation combined with the motion and camera angles made even running, a spectacular sight.
Naturally, because of the high level of animation, the battles were superb to watch. Especially in later episodes, as the protagonist, Phos, develops. Additionally, the character design was fantastic as well. The gems (who to me seem like girls, but are gender neut…
Read at the sourceLIQfilms
Over the last few years or so the discussion regarding the use of CGI in anime has grown all the more prominent which in turn has led to disdain from fans, devaluing any show that would dare to use it. This normally wouldn't be a problem, but the overreliance on this technology and the way in which it incorporated with traditional animation, unfortunately, leaves much to be desired. The end product is usually a show that looks bizarre as the two modes of animation don't make clear, visual, coherence sense. CGI is a wonderful tool and I believe it should be used in anime, but that usually comes with an asterisk. Ideally, CGI should be used to enhance shots or backgrounds, adding in small details that should hopefully blend them seemingly into the world. Anime doesn't really do CGI well. I s…
Read at the sourceAndy_Yang
Note: I have not read the source material (manga), so this review will be based on the anime alone.
The only word I could use to describe the world of Houseki no Kuni (Land of the Lustrous) is “bizarre”. It certainly takes an amazing amount of imagination and a dose of craziness to come up with an unique world like this, but I can’t help but feel that this is also exposed as the anime’s weakest point. It took a lot of time and effort to explain even the basics of how the world works, and even then the world feels difficult to understand. This is not helped by the fact that unlike sci-fi or fantasy worlds based somewhat on reality, the viewer can’t populate the background of Houseki no Kuni with activity. It's just a barren world that is hard to believe in.
This overly simplified world is…
Read at the sourceMetaThPr4h
Absolutely beautiful, Houseki no Kuni sadly flew under the radar of a lot of people due to the lack of initial hype, but I hope this changes over time because this anime really deserves a lot of love.
The setting is so interesting and full of mysteries and unknowns to discover, what happened to the world to become like this? Who are the gems, or the moon people that seem to be after them? Houseki knows how to make the events ocurring hooking to watch and it's such an enjoyable experience from start to end.
Along with the intriguing story we also have a fantastic cast that brings it life, the characters are inmortal humanoid gems with the qualities that represent them (like Diamond being the hardest mineral, but relatively easy to break in comparison), their interactions are interesting,…
Read at the sourceEanki
The GRRM Reaper once posited the Furniture Rule: that at its core, literature is an exploration of the human condition; the rest is fluff, furniture.
Houseki no Kuni begins as a simple story of immortal, genderless life forms, the Gems, with each individual based around a gemstone from which they take their physical characteristics. They are being hunted down by Lunarians for what seems to be collector’s fancy. Slowly, the story moves on, teasing the layers of mystery of its world and a more intriguing aspect of the entire dynamic unravels, one more conducive to philosophical discourse. The introduction of a third faction, the Admirabilis, elevates the nature of their conflict and is poised to bring the series higher should its story continue.
The CGI nature of the show doesn't really ta…
Read at the source