(L) Houseki no Kuni (Land of the Lustrous)

[Alhazred]

Originally Posted by drawr

It has nothing for people who want a harem of any sort. It's not a fanservice series at all. The manga has existed for a long time and garnered it's own following, it was never a mainstream series with wide appeal. The characters aren't "biologically" male or female, they are gemstones carved into the likeness of people. They just happen to usually refer to each other as brother or use male pronouns. If such a concept it hard for an anime watcher to process or if they need to pigeon hole it into "crossdressing harem" just for that it wasn't meant for them anyway.

Plus this is only taking the western fanbase into consideration, the anime is getting promoted in magazines like Pash which mostly has spreads of male character only series so I don't think they mind "limiting" the audience since the manga already has it's fans.

I know; i've read the manga. Plus it runs in Afternoon, which (as the old Genshiken joke goes) is basically like asking to be pigeonholed as a niche audience piece. It just kind of irks me that this show seems to get passed up for much more generic offerings on peoples' "to watch" lists. I kind of wish more had happened in the first episode just so there would be more to talk about that wouldn't run afoul of spoiler warnings.

[Guardian Enzo]

It seemed to me that the anime drew the characters in a much more overtly female way than the manga did. They struck me as more androgynous in the original.

[Alhazred]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

It seemed to me that the anime drew the characters in a much more overtly female way than the manga did. They struck me as more androgynous in the original.

Hmm... comparing the first two chapters of the manga to the first episode i don't see a marked difference in the silhouettes, though the manga has a relatively "flat" art style. When the same proportions are translated into 3D models it might come off differently. The manga also makes significant use of facial profile shots, mostly when characters are shouting at each other, thus emphasizing the line of the nose and chin. These sorts of shots generally don't work so well in CG so they are absent in the show.

[LKK]

I'm not familiar with the manga at all. The only knowledge I have about the characters is from what I've read here. If I didn't have that knowledge, I would thought that the characters (except for the leader) were teenage girls. I didn't get any sense of androgyny in what I saw.

I found the world presented really intriguing. The characters, I'm still neutral on. But the world setting will definitely bring me back to the second episode.

[ellifeedn]

I wonder how long it'll be until someone calls this "Japanese Steven Universe".

[IceHism]

i thought the cgi was pretty fine. It's also done by orange the best cgi studio who also did the greatness that was majestic prince.

Cool world and cute characters.

[bakato]

I never read the source material, but I didn't find anything androgynous about these gems. The CGi is beautiful, the characters are charming, and I'm hungry for more.

[ArrowSmith]

Fascinating. An anime about gemstones and Rorschach monsters that want to take them away! How can this possibly end well!

Only the shadow knows!

[ArrowSmith]

Originally Posted by drawr

It has nothing for people who want a harem of any sort. It's not a fanservice series at all. The manga has existed for a long time and garnered it's own following, it was never a mainstream series with wide appeal. The characters aren't "biologically" male or female, they are gemstones carved into the likeness of people. They just happen to usually refer to each other as brother or use male pronouns. If such a concept it hard for an anime watcher to process or if they need to pigeon hole it into "crossdressing harem" just for that it wasn't meant for them anyway.

Plus this is only taking the western fanbase into consideration, the anime is getting promoted in magazines like Pash which mostly has spreads of male character only series so I don't think they mind "limiting" the audience since the manga already has it's fans.

The problem with your take is that looking at many of the character designs is they have face, butts & legs that look very feminine. They just don't have boobs. None of them have square jaws or broad shoulders. The creators obviously prefer the feminine look as that's what more appealing to anime audiences.

[frubam]

Originally Posted by ellifeedn

I wonder how long it'll be until someone calls this "Japanese Steven Universe".

You're way late fam; people have dubbed it that since the first preview(and were quickly called out on that LotL was created first).

[Cosmic Eagle]

Is this 100% Orange animation? The visuals are great

[IceHism]

Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle

Is this 100% Orange animation? The visuals are great

orange is listed as the only studio on most sites so i'll say yes.

[kuromitsu]

Reading some reviews and opinions, a lot of people call the gems female, as in "she" this, "her" that. So I guess whatever the translator was trying to get at didn't work. (I still say that just following the original would have been the best, at least more viewers would have taken notice.)

[Cosmic Eagle]

Originally Posted by kuromitsu

Reading some reviews and opinions, a lot of people call the gems female, as in "she" this, "her" that. So I guess whatever the translator was trying to get at didn't work. (I still say that just following the original would have been the best, at least more viewers would have taken notice.)

Even manga-wise, while male pronouns dominate, some of them are more female than others design-wise anyway. Best to refer to them by their names rather than pronouns IMO

[serenade_beta]

*watches episode 2*

Oh yeah, this is good. This is real good... I don't know much more about gems than the average anime-watching Joe, but its good.

*gasp*
You could say this anime is a real gem! (*gets shot*)

[Alhazred]

The way they reordered the scenes this episode was a little bit awkward, with Jade not wanting to disturb Kongou, complaining about how hard it is to wake him up when he's meditating, then Kongou shows up and then he goes off to meditate. I suppose it was intended to front-load the comedy before the episode gets serious (and the expanded wake-up snippet is definitely funnier here, as is the "durability testing.") Other than that, however, another good episode.

Edit: Thinking about it a bit more, if i were to suggest deviations from the manga, Rutile's line in episode one about the immortal gems being "unable to let things go" is one that could have been moved later in the story, at least until after we get the examples of Cinnabar and Diamond, who are both stuck in their own unproductive ruts. It would have made the first episode slightly less info-dumpy too.

[Haak]

Man, it seems like there's a lot of anime I'd like to watch that are going to cg studios and that's really annoying because I'm trying to avoid them like the plague and it's just not working. And when there's a (most likely minor) role for Kanae Itou then I really do have my hands tied. For what it's worth, the cg in this show does look gorgeous in many places and it does give the animation a consistent fluidity that you only rarely get otherwise. But boy is it still gonna take a while getting used to...

CG complaints aside, this world setting really is quite intriguing and I do like the characters, particularly how much they care for one another. As for their androgyny...I suppose it's a good thing I was told they were androgynous beforehand because otherwise I think I would've just assumed they were all girls.

[SMT]

I have the feeling this is one of the underrated shows of the season.
I'm quite enjoying this one, the CG is the best I've seen for some time now. Everything is really clean and feels dynamic, very enjoyable world building as well.
The snail looked a bit weird in some scenes but it's not too bad.

Really curious how this continues.

[ArrowSmith]

I dunno. Given these are gems, should I feel all upset that the moon creatures want to melt them down to make jewelry out of them? Or am I supposed to believe that the gems are life forms?

[Cosmic Eagle]

They managed to give the process of being eaten by a snail such a mystical air....really good work