Land of the Lustrous, Vol. 1

宝石の国 [Hōseki no Kuni] #1

by Haruko Ichikawa

An elegant new action manga for fans of Sailor Moon and the litany of comics and animation that it inspired, Land of the Lustrous is set in a far future Earth, where humanity's distant descendants live on in a small group of sexless crystalline beings who must fight off an invasion from the Moon.
The young gem Phosphorite can't seem to do anything right. "Phos" has nothing but a big mouth and guts. Cinnabar, a classmate, is a loner, shunned by the other gems because of the toxins emitted from their body. But when they get together, they will learn that they both have an essential role to play in the fight against the Moonfolk, who are intent on coming to Earth to abduct the gem folk and destroy their world. A beautifully-drawn new action manga from Haruko Ichikawa, winner of the Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize.

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Comics, Graphic Novels, Seinen, Science Fiction, Fiction

200 pages, Paperback

First published July 23, 2013

About the author

Haruko Ichikawa (市川春子 in Japanese), born in 1980, is the author and artist of Land of the Lustrous (宝石の国, lit. "Country of Jewels"). She started her career in 2006 with the one-shot Mushi to Uta (虫と歌, lit. Insects and Songs). Between 2007 and 2011, she published seven one-shots in the manga magazine Afternoon, which were later compiled into two individual books named Ichikawa Haruko Sakuhinshuu (市川春子作品集, lit. Haruko Ichikawa Works Collection). She started writing Land of the Lustrous on October 25th, 2012, which currently has 10 volumes.

In 2010 she won the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize for works on Mushi to Uta. She has also contributed characters designs to the games Pokemon Sun & Moon and Pokemon Sword & Shield.

Reviews

[Tina Olah]

Love this series!! Just finished watching the anime before starting the manga....so far the anime has been a very close adaptation. The setting and ideas are unlike any other manga/anime I've seen before...an instant favorite!

[Zala]

Placeholder for volumes 1-12
Love how things came full circle towards the end, but then things end up being a bit too convoluted and dragged out. 3.5 stars

[Laura]

Didn't get what was happening

[DianaRose]

dnf’d — the bland art style and confusing story are not enough to keep me interested; sad because this was highly recommended on socials.

[Igel :)]

I might rate this volume higher or lower depending on how much the series is going to develop. The art style was very unique and a little abstract but I really loved it 😍. The worldbuiding is definitly something different than I've ever seen before.

To be honest , I took me a lot of time to get into this manga , in the beginning I had no idea what it was about, but I had a really good time with the last chapters.
I'm very courious for the next volumes and I want to continue the series. 😊

[Rebecca]

You know those books where you just don't get it? Yeah, this would be one of those.

[Lori]

I think this manga might be hard to understand without watching the anime first. After discovering the anime on Amazon, I just had to read the manga. But one of the challenges that both have is a lack of information dump or exposition. You learn more about what is going on as you read/watch but there is somewhat of a “wtf?” going on for a while. For both the solution is to just sit back and enjoy the ride.

This is just such a delightful little manga. Phos grew on me but I’m still more of a Cinnabar and Dia fan. Actually I know the moment I finally thought Phos was okay: when they decided to find a job for Cinnabar In order to give Cinnabar a reason to live. Oh this story just makes me ache and laugh in a way that manga does so well.

I do wish more of it was in color because with the anime I think the beauty of the characters is allowed to really shine (I love the first few color pages in this volume!). And I keep hearing the anime’s soundtrack in my head as I’m reading. :-)

Overall I think the story is intriguing (more so in the later volumes as the secrets are teased and revealed) and this volume really only starts the setup of some really great plot lines. Holy moly the snail eating Phos! The knowledge that losing pieces of themselves means losing memories! Oh all of these will have payoffs that will surprise and delight you. Give the anime a shot if you can; I’m now desperate to know what happens next so I’m going to catch up with the manga until the next season of the anime is released.

[iayal]

first read: 2020; up till volume 10/13; rating: 4.5/5
reread and catching up: 2025; volume 13/13, rating: 5/5

review for the entire manga:
one of the most beautiful and unique manga ever created. i am actually in awe of this - there has never ever been a story written like this one and it’s definitely going in my all-time favourites. the art is stunning and the character designs are unique. the plot is mind-blowing and full of twists as well as just being something so new. all the characters are so complex and tragic. the main protagonist, phosphophyllite, is one of the most interesting characters ever written and their arc is so… they made me happy, sad, angry, and gave me every conceivable emotion. i loved the relationship they had with their peers (notably cinnabar and antarcicite) and their sensei. the story ended in such a bittersweet yet fulfilling way. all the themes of this manga were so phenomenal and executed well. i feel so sad and empty right now thinking about this manga and my heart is going to hurt for ages.

[Lauren]

Hmmmmm...I really wanted to love this but the characters all looked the same and you could only really differentiate between them by the hairstyles and even then it wasn’t that obvious who was who *clutches head* I really think this would have worked SO much better in colour. The artwork was also a bit messy at times so I wasn’t 100% sure what was going on but I did really like Phos and Dia and I am intrigued to find out what happens next...so what should I do? Continue with the manga or watch the anime?

Decisions decisions.

[Nocturnalux]

Land of the Lustrous is the manga you should be reading but (odds are) have never even heard of.

At this point in history, the manga industry is heavily saturated. This is not necessarily a bad thing, it allows for a lot of specialization so that is something for virtually everyone, but it does tend to lead to a lot of sameness. Nor is this is a new phenomenon, despite what some nostalgic fans may say, pick any period and the vast majority of published manga will be remarkably alike; if anything, with greater variety in terms of genre, we are now living at an unprecedented time in terms of variety: it is simply that with more titles, it becomes increasingly harder to stand out.

Land of the Lustrous is one such title, that does stand out. It is epic battle manga dealing with issues of identity, all wrapped up in plenty of mystery, in a unique world peopled by genderless humanoid gemlike beings fighting Buddhist Eldrish abominations from the moon, who hunt them for their material. Just this barebones description is enough to give some idea of how unique Land truly is.

Starting with the cast, the Gems present, for the most part, as femme but they have no concept of gender. This first volume does not quite address this, but it is a defining trait, already somewhat hinted at in the gender neutral uniform they all wear. Consisting of black shorts, matching black short sleeved blouse, white shirt underneath and black tie (optative gloves that may black or white), it is a mixture of quasi-high school uniform and battle butler, that is somewhat plain but surprisingly effective, perhaps for that very reason. It allows for the hair, where the gems display their characteristic color the more visibly, to truly shine. Literally so. This has been a hallmark of manga since its inception, hairstyle and color serve many purposes, few times has it matched the content better. It is unfortunate characters are somewhat hard to tell apart, especially in manga format, as everyone is dressed so alike. The anime adaptation has an advantage in this regard, given that it allows for color to immediately identify who is who.

There has been something of a move toward this more gender neutral kind of outfit. The most recent Gundam entry, The Witch From Mercury, has its students wearing shorts as part of their school uniform. It is also canonically queer and the two are very likely connected.

This genderless aspect to Land makes me curious to check out the Japanese version, to see how it is handled on a linguistic level. This particular edition has a beautiful, larger format that also comes with very important notes about the Buddhist imagery that informs this wildly imaginative world so I am very glad I picked it in English. The anime offers some insight, in terms of linguist expression and voice actors. These are all women but we get Park Romi in a minor role- who, incidentally, has voiced a genderless character before in Regene Regetta from Gundam 00- but they cover several first person pronouns.

This is a bit inside baseball, if considerations about the Japanese language are not your thing, then skip this paragraph entirely. Unlike most languages, Japanese has several forms for "I". Speakers will employ one- or even several- depending on age, gender, and hierarchical position. This can lead to confusion, especially if one is trying to navigate one's way through, or into, the language.
Phos, the main character, uses "boku" as do many others (it may be the more common one in the manga), which is mostly used by younger male speakers; Cinnabar, however, uses "ore", that is almost exclusively used for older, or rougher male speakers; Rutile, the doctor, uses "watashi", a polite and gender free form that is what foreigners are taught to use when learning Japanese. The English translation refers to all Gems as "they", as per the mangaka's instruction, but Japanese has no genderless form for a third person (it does, however, have such a form in the first person), so Cinnabar is referred to as "he". Diamond refers to Bort as "big brother", probably because "sibling" is not a form of address in Japanese but "big brother" very much is.

I have focused so much on gender because it is one of the things that make the Gems unique and highly relevant- one of those points of contact between highly fantastic fiction and reality- but there is much more to their being crystalline beings. Like actual gems, each one has a level of hardness, and instead of being wounded, they break into parts that can be reassembled. This is both crucial to the plot and the plight of its main character, Phosphophyllite, whose low hardness makes them utterly unsuited for battle, and to the way the manga invests in blending inanimate objects with highly animated characters, full of quirks, personality and distinct points of view.

Associating characters with elements, animals, and even jewels, has been very common in anime for quite a while (just look at Sailor Moon that does, at some level, all of the above) but once again, the level of commitment and thought is quite rare. Being Gems, they are immortal, need no food but take their nourishment from the sun, which makes them all (minus Cinnabar) mostly useless at night, and while they can be reassembled when they break- which happens lot- losing bits of their body amounts to losing memories.

This makes them very alien, for all their cuteness. It is also part and parcel of their issues, inner conflicts and even interpersonal relations. Phos immediately comes to mind. Their inability to fight has led to a vague, hapless existence where they do not quite belong anywhere and much of the manga will be precisely about Phos finding a place to stand. Cinnabar's case is also irrevocably linked to their constitution as a gem, being toxic and bringing destruction all around, they are outcasts, through no fault of their own, patrolling the night as the only Gem who can utilize what little light there is. The futility of this endeavor is brought home when we are told that no attacks have ever taken place at night.

Phos and Cinnabar are very much two pariahs and while their relationships is a focal point to the story, as Phos promises to give Cinnabar something to do that is more fun- and meaningful- than night patrol, the other Gems we meet in this volume are every bit as defined by their material constitution.

Case in point, the Diamond pair. Dia is a sweet, adorable Gem of the highest hardness, standing at a 10. But as they explain, this only goes so far in actual battle for they are actually somewhat fragile under impact. It is the other one, the Black Diamond Bort, who is the strongest and has taken upon themselves to protect Dia by basically rendering them useless through sheer fighting prowess. As Dia explains, what makes Bort so special is that they are not a monocrystal but made of a synthesis of microcrystals, so even when hit they do not shatter as the shock does not fracture the rest of the body. This makes Bort the strongest fighter, the "true" Diamond, thus placing Dia in a very awkward position even though they loves Bort so very much. And the word used is "ai", a very lofty and strong attachment indeed. Dia pushes themselves to excel in combat because they, too, are in a position in which their very identity is in question, if only by themselves. In a very candid moment, Dia confesses that at times they hope they were the only Diamond around and then ask Phos to give a name to this feeling.

This blending of highly specific gem traits to personality and lived experience elevates the manga considerably and makes the characters the more relatable, precisely through what seems least like our lived experience. We will never know how it feels to be a level of hardness, and we can't sustain this amount of damage to our bodies- let alone recover by being pieced together- but frustration at playing second fiddle, conflicted emotions about being the second best, not matching up to expectation, all this is very much part of life. Plenty of manga plays in this arena, you could replace "Gem" with more typical powers, but Land truly excels.

It also gives a reasoning for what powers each Gem has. As their leader- more on him later- Kongou-sensei explains, Gems form pairs for fighting purposes based on their characteristics. Very often levels of power are borderline random, it can be fate, bloodline, just being strong, a combination of all of the above (plus the mandatory training), Land justifies its scale by framing it within the worldbuilding.

This world is presented via myth, which is very fitting. We are to understand that this is the Earth in a very distant future, after six major cataclysms have destroyed much of life, forcing it to take refuge in the ocean and led to the creation of as many moons. Some of these life-forms were consumed by microscopic organisms, reborn as inorganic substances, only for their components to form ordered structures, crystal: these were washed up on shore as the Gems, or Lustrous.

All this background information is presented across this first introductory volume without jarring with the narrative. It is just enough to give the reader a baseline while opening up many, many questions. Information dumps are avoided so that the story can flow freely.

The story is deeply linked with the medium, the highly particular artstyle. Very clean lines abound, with a highly clever usage of negative space. Be it the stark shadows cast by the columnated building where the Gems live, the night scenario on which Cinnabar is cast as an exile, Phos being dissolved inside the giant mollusk, slants of vertical panels to invoke the passage of time as Rutile pieces Phos together, much is done with blocks of blackness. The result is highly graphic and with great staying power.

In terms of narrative proper, Ichikawa-sensei often produces scenes that translate into animation very easily, but in manga format allow the reader to both appreciate minute movement and changes across panels organized in a parallel fashion. For example, the same characters will appear in the same positions across successive panels, only their expressions changing; or Cinnabar's body language will be rendered in the same manner, each panel being a variation of their expression and gestures, so that we can fully appreciate her inner strife, in real time, as it were.

This mastery of the medium is truly exceptional, especially in a first volume.

With that said, the battle scenes can be confusing. If one can follow characters' reactions with such precision, the action often seems to be missing panels. Part of the problem is the way the enemy functions. The Lunarians, as they are called, are both a thing of beauty and a nightmare to properly draw in action. They present as Buddhist statuary, complete with halos, the typical headpiece, elongated ears and a plethora or smaller figures armed with arrows. There will be variation as the manga progresses but the problem tends to remain, each Lunarian attack is legion, with so many moving parts and morphing bits that a clear, immediate reading is not always easy. Oddly enough, I did not struggle much with this, which does tend to happen- I suspect it may have something to do with my dyslexia, just like I cannot read 2D representations of 3D objects without an effort- but I have read enough frustrated opinions to know plenty do struggle with this.

The anime smooths this out considerably.

The Lunarians remain a horrifyingly beautiful source of horror. Appearing in the sky out of nowhere in Rorschach test-like Sunspots, they have that beatific smiley serenity one associates with Buddhist art. Wordless in their might, so little is unknown about them that it is not even clear whether each entity that materializes is one being- the central part controlling the smaller ones- or whether several ones, or perhaps nothing more than drones controlled from a distance. Their sheer size alone is already enough to give one pause as they are indeed massive and even a team of Gems can be overpowered by a constant barrage of arrows.

In fact, the disparity in size and weaponry- most Gems fight with swords alone- reminds one of Attack on Titan. In Land too, getting airborne is key to winning but the Gems have no 3D maneuver gear nor are there enough tall structures to use as leverage (this would be possible in the one building and around the nearby bell but that is about it) and they cannot fly. This leaves very high jumps, that not all can accomplish and those who can, like Bort, are still managing a fall. The rest use a means of propulsion that is truly something else: one Gem will swing their sword and use it to propel the other. This leads to stunning panels as Gems leap into the air, in feats of dizzying agility that would make Levi grudgingly admire them. As an aside, Levi would probably love to be a Gem himself as Gems do not get dirty and do not bleed. If we ever get more seasons to the anime- and I'd be willing to do much to make this happen- Kamiya Hiroshi should most definitely voice a character, bonus points as it would also be his second time (at least) voicing a genderqueer character, Tieria Erde from Gundam 00 being the first one.

If the Gems are well trained fighting units, they are led by Kongou-sensei. Kongou presents as human and a Buddhist monk at that. He is the Gems' leader and has enough power to wipe out a Lunarian attack just by snapping his fingers. It is he who entrusts Phos with the task of writing a natural history, given they are also useless at everything they have tried. Kongou is a mystery. Already one can see he knows more than he lets on. He gives Mother Isabella vibes, even if he is something of the butt of the joke on occasion.

Comedy is actually a recurring thread in this volume. Phos has a penchant for the absurdist, Rutile provides deadpan snark, and the others also take their turn throwing jabs. It will come as no surprise that this will not last, it is not exactly a spoiler that Land will evolve into something much darker as the implications of this post-sci-fi Earth are drawn and characters meet with increasingly more arduous and grueling ordeals.

If you are in something of a slump, and find popular manga to be a bit too samey, then Land of the Lustrous may very well be right up your alley. Here is something new, fresh, that pays homage to genre while doing its own thing and from what I have read thus far- I am at volume 6, this is my second reading- it keeps outdoing itself. Just be prepared for a lot of tragedy done so right that your heart may break and unlike Phos and their kin, it cannot be glued together.

[Sara]

انیمه ش رو به پیشنهاد دوستی دیدم و بعدش خب از اول باید میرفتم سراغ مانگا.
مانگاش کلن تاریک تر و مرتب تر از انیمه شه، اینکه خیلی نورانی بود.
داستانی انیمه خیلی متعهد به مانگاست

کلی باعث شد راجع به جواهرات و کانی ها بخونم

[alexis]

[volumes 1-13, chapters 1-128] I loved Loved LOVED how the passage of time felt across this. My absolute favorite type of existential sci-fi. The digital screentones/inking start to feel pretty rushed in the back half of the series, but everything comes together SOOOoo beautifully in the final volumes. If you liked Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun or Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke, I think you’d like this.

Overarching mystery aside, the core premise of an immortal being who loses memories as their body parts get replaced, and what that says about identity, aging, trauma, etc., stays interesting through the very end - Phos is truly one of The characters of all time. This must be what Homura Akemi fans are head-canoning in their minds. I can’t even imagine what it felt like to have favorite characters/ships as this was coming out lmao. Sorry about ur non-binary rocks

I AM glad I watched the (2017, 12 episode) CGI anime first - super visually interesting, helped me keep track of the characters’ appearances, and from memory it ended on a cliffhanger that the manga resolves pretty quickly

[Willow Heath]

In a world that has been ravaged by several asteroid impacts, leading to the emergence of six moons and a single planetary shoreline, Land of the Lustrous follows the lives of twenty-eight crystal-like humanoid creatures.

The moons are home to the enigmatic and threatening lunarians, a threatening army which frequently attacks the planet, and the titular lustrous are the only line of defence against them.

My full thoughts: https://booksandbao.com/best-seinen-m...

[Paola Sánchez]

Non-gender gems with androgynous bodies that fight to save themselves and the Earth they live in from weird moon-people who look like Indian deities -for some reason. These female lunar-folks are trying to capture them just because gems are pretty. MC is Phosphophyllite, a young, fragile gem that is assigned the role of a scholar when all she wants to do is fight the Lunarians. That's it, that's the premise of this first volume: a coming of age in a dystopic future where the main live forms of Earth are sentient gems.

It is a little difficult to distinguish between secondary characters because of their body-building and the lack of colours, but -even with all its weirdness, or maybe because of it- it's a quite enjoyable reading.

(Note: the anime adaptation of this series is amazing; the animation -which combines CGI with traditional animation- is just mindblowing. Pretty colours everywhere.)

[Beth]

I confess it took a couple read-throughs of the first chapter before I could parse what was going on in this story. Well, not entirely.

This is an odd, alien version of what I can only assume is a post-apocalyptic Earth, where androgynous humanoid characters literally composed of gemstones fight off monsters from the (newly formed) multiple moons orbiting the planet. Many of these monsters are in arrays of identical forms that look like Buddhist statues, and shoot arrows at their foes in perfect unison.

Our central character is a gem being named Phosphophyllite. Their body is weak and brittle compared to most of the others', and thus useless at fighting, and they haven't managed to find some other job or craft that they're halfway good at. They're constantly tagging after the other gems and getting into trouble, or otherwise being a nuisance. Phos's sensei gets frustrated and finally gives them something to do: cataloging the natural life on the planet. On one occasion, that leads to Phos getting absorbed into a snail, and ending up as a pattern on its shell. That was mighty weird.

The gems are all but immortal, and can be put back together no matter how much damage they've sustained, as long as their pieces can be found. This is why Phos was able to survive what happened in the spoiler above. In an early scene, the monsters are using pieces of one of the gems on their arrows, indicating that at least some of their purpose in attacking the gems is harvesting them for their pieces.

This is an unsettling story at times. Though there's no blood, as such, there's a fair amount of what I interpret as mild body horror, as the gems throw themselves at the enemy with little need to worry about their safety, and their limbs get broken off, and they have to be reassembled again and again.

The surreal landscapes and enemies remind me vaguely of NGE and Utena. I can see hints of real-life issues like body dysphoria, disability, and accompanying feelings of inadequacy, but none of that is in the reader's face. It's much more interested in trying to explain its world's workings to the reader. Helpful, but I'd almost prefer that to be kept hidden between the lines, too. That might make it completely indecipherable, though.

An intriguing start! It took a little more brain power than my usual brainless fluff, and there's nothing wrong with that.

September 2026 Manga Alphabet Challenge: L.

[Stephanie]

I binged this series in a week and I don't know what to do with myself. I have no idea where the plot is going to go or what. I am baffled and... angry. There so much I wish I could say without spoiling anything but nope. Please read this so I have someone to cope with

[Chay]

.....I have absolutely no idea what's going on. Because this was highly recommended to me, I'll at least check out the second book. .___.;

[Carlex]

Por un lado me cautiva el estilo y el dibujo de la autora y por otro en algunos momentos es difícil seguir la historia.

Desconozco el tamaño del manga original pero la publicación en papel me parece demasiado pequeña y a momentos cuesta apreciar los detalles del dibujo y algún diálogo es ilegible. Así que si sigo con la serie será en digital.

[Sera Nova]

What an intriguing manga. Not sure how I feel just yet. Reminds me of Claymore mixed with that cartoon with all the gem stones.

[Fraser Simons]

Interesting enough that I’ll continue, probably - but also feels extremely sophomoric in terms of exposition and information design. You just aren’t supposed to know how some of what’s communicated is important yet, which is a certain type of style in this format. It’s frustrating at times and you really have to decide if you think you’ll get value out of it or not.

For me, I like the themes; especially the androgyny agender type of reflection that’s possible with these weird beings and their makeup as different types of gems, and what that all means for their community structure.

It feels kind of like Evangelion. Lots of wild, weird stuff. Huge threats, all of which also appear as iconic, symbolic, god-like things. The artwork can be really hit and miss. I don’t know, it’s intriguing, what can I say. I can completely see why some people were immediately turned off by it, but I think it’s presented enough complexity that there is a reward in the future, if I continue.

[marcia]

I love scratchy art. Kyoko Okazaki and Natsume Ono are literally two of my favorite mangakas. That said, scratchy doesn't necessarily mean sloppy: the art still needs to be clear and easy to read. Haruko Ichikawa's art in this volume is some of the worst I've ever seen, not just in manga but comics in general. I had a hard time figuring out what's going on in each panel. On top of that, I can't tell any of the characters apart. Don't even get me started on those action scenes. The writing isn't much better. There's so much infodumping! Originally, I was going to read Vol. 2 as I already have it checked out from the library. In the end, I just don't have the patience to sit through more of this.

[Eressea]

20250707 2nd read
台版完結，可以重看了
--
20190824 1st read
放了一年才看，跟動畫有顏色比起來
漫畫黑白的臉都一樣好難認角色

依我劍走偏鋒的佛教知識來看
這一集的佛味還只限於表面上
那些像敦煌飛天的月人和老師的袈裟
(有一格一堆月人巴著格子窗看寶石的表情超GY的~)

等到後面劇情胃痛的時候再來看有多"佛"

[Prismo]

oh my god this is peak

[Fabiola Alejandra]

Power always comes with a measure of loneliness.

I first started watching the anime and I was captivated by the intriguing sceneries and beautiful gems. The story snatched at my heart and with just a few minutes in I had already started falling in love with the characters and with the lore of how they came to be.

The anime/manga follows the story of Phos who is a sweet, stubborn, and comical mineral who only wants to be put out in the battle grounds to fight off the Lunarians. Just like the other minerals -Cinnabar, Jade, Bort, Antarcticite-, everyone has been taught the history of their world and trained since they were "born" to fight off their enemies by their father figure and caretaker, Sensei. The only sole purpose for their fighting is to prevent from the moon's soldiers to stop stealing bits and pieces of their precious, glimmering gemstone bodies. But for what are their bodies stolen and never recovered? No one has the answer to that.

Phos soon realizes how the fantasized life they had imagine for themselves with fighting comes crashing down when they realize how harsh life truly can be. They slowly start questioning if there is more than meets the eye, and how they can uncover the truth to make the world a better place.

The distance helps me see how much you mean to me.

Phosphophyllite


Lunarians


Sensei


Here are my favorite characters:

Cinnabar


Antarcticite


Diamond


Bort

[Radwa]

- set in a future where humanity is destroyed and instead, earth is inhabited by gem-like humanoid creatures, who are defending themsleves against attacks from the moon people who want to take them back to the moon
- right off the bat, it's defintely a good idea that I read the synopsis for this series first before going in blind, because it really doesn't give you any info at the begiining.
- the art style isn't my favorite, despite there being some pretty panels, and also it's really diffcult to differntiate all of the characters (except for the sensei)
- i think if i knew more about minerals (seeing that each character is based on a mineral or a gem), I'd have understood the signficance of each character's characterstics.
- the treatment phos - our mc - gets is so uncalled for
- this manga really needs color!!

[Rylan]

land of the lustrous is one of my all time favorite anime and the manga is no different with beautiful storytelling and breathtaking art. the only issue is that without the color it can be hard to tell some characters apart.

[Vi]

elegant. yes. but does it make sense? NOPE.

[Vendea]

This manga series will break my heart. Simply stunning.

5/5*

[SwedishGeekGirl]

So original, sutch a gem!
Land of the Lustrous volume 1 by Haruko Icikawa get a 9.8/10 stars.

[LG (A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions)]

Land of the Lustrous is set on a world that has been battered by meteors several times over the course of its history, to the point that all life was driven into the ocean. Some of the surviving beings eventually sank to the bottom and were consumed by microorganisms, transforming them into inorganic substances that eventually formed into crystals (I know, it’s bizarre, but just try to accept it). Those crystals eventually became 28 (ish?) genderless gemstone-based beings that washed up onto the shore. Those gem beings are the series’ good guys. Beings from the moon, called Lunarians, periodically attack the gem beings so that they can capture them and break their bodies down into weapons and decorations.

The series’ main character is a gem being named Phosphophyllite (Phos). Phos desperately wants to become a member of one of the watcher and fighter pairs that protect everyone against the Lunarians, but unfortunately Phos is so brittle that that’s out of the question. So far, Phos has been unsuited to every task they’ve been assigned to, which is why I suspect the latest task Kongo, the group’s leader, has come up with is probably just busy work. Kongo asks Phos to compile a natural history.

Phos starts off by talking to the tragic and dangerous Cinnabar, because that’s who everyone keeps saying they should start with. After that, Phos spends some time with the Diamond fighting pair, Bort and Dia. And then there’s an incident with a giant snail.

This volume was weird. I requested it after reading Katherine Dacey’s review, so I knew going in that it would be beautiful and strange, but reading a review about it wasn’t quite the same as actually experiencing it. I loved it, at first, but then I became unsure, and the whole thing with the snail was just odd, like it was aimed at a different audience than the rest of the volume.

After I finished I let it percolate for a while, which turned out to be a wee bit too long. Suddenly my library due date had arrived and I couldn’t remember enough details about what had happened to write a proper summary. I didn’t quite reread it, but I did flip through the whole thing in order to refresh my memory, and to my surprise I liked it more the second time around. The world info was even weirder after giving myself some time to think it over, and, although the artwork was still gorgeous, the gem characters were still a bit hard to tell apart, but...there was something appealing about it all.

The artwork was a large part of what drew me to this series in the first place. Dacey’s review has one of my favorite sequences, the horrifying and beautiful moment when one of the Lunarians is sliced open to reveal arrows made of a captured gem being. Although the history of the gem beings was just plain bizarre, it was the Lunarians who were truly alien. They were perfect, beautiful, and incredibly creepy. I’m curious about them, but part of me hopes that Ichikawa will opt to keep them a mystery.

Unfortunately, there were times when the artwork definitely aimed more for style rather than clarity. The battles were gorgeous but occasionally difficult to follow. Also, like I mentioned earlier, the characters were sometimes hard to tell apart. Those things are part of the reason why I’d like to see the new Land of the Lustrous anime - muddled manga action scenes sometimes turn out better when adapted for anime. That said, it seems awfully early in the series' run to be turning it into an anime.

The world and characters grew on me, although this volume didn’t exactly give readers much. Phos was one of those borderline annoying characters that everyone just sort of puts up with. I’m crossing my fingers that Phos at least manages to come through for Cinnabar, as unlikely as that seems. Dia and Bort’s relationship intrigued me, and I’m hoping there’ll be more on them in the future. The whole thing about Dia’s arm confused me, though.

Of all the characters, the one that intrigued me the most was Cinnabar. Most of the gem beings are only active during the day because the organisms that hold them together feed off of sunlight. Cinnabar is the only exception, having been essentially banished to night patrol for everyone else’s safety. Lunarians have never attacked at night before, but it’s the only time Cinnabar can patrol without risking hurting anyone - Cinnabar unintentionally oozes (and sometimes vomits) a poison that destroys everything it touches. The poison can even cause irreversible damage to the otherwise immortal gem beings.

The properties of all the gem beings are based on the properties of the real minerals on which they're based, so each gem being’s hardness is based on the Mohs scale (the numbers are even used in the text). Since I knew nothing about cinnabar, I looked that up and was delighted to learn that Cinnabar’s poison was probably mercury. So those tidbits were kind of cool, and I’m wondering what other gem-related info Ichikawa might work into the series.

I don’t know at this point whether this series is one I’d recommend, but I’m intrigued enough to want to continue on.

Rating Note:

This one was a toss-up between 3 stars and 3.5. I settled (uneasily) on 3.5 (rounded down to 3 stars for GR). I'm letting beauty and intriguing strangeness trump clarity and focus, at least for now. I may change my tune after reading volume 2.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)