Land of the Lustrous (TV series)

Land of the Lustrous is set in the far future, in a land inhabited by an immortal life form called the Lustrous, who is the embodiment of gemstones. The twenty-eight Lustrous led by their teacher, Kongo, are fighting to defend themselves against a celestial humanoid race called the Lunarians, who inhabit the Moon and invade Earth every few days while seeking to harvest the Lustrous' bodies for decorations. Phosphophyllite, nicknamed Phos, currently 300 years old, is the youngest of the Lustrous, and because of their brittleness is unable to fight. They feel useless, but are given the task of assembling a natural history by Kongo. While looking for information to include in the book, Phos meets the nightwatch, Cinnabar, who is poisonous and thus dangerous even to other Lustrous, and therefore lives in isolation. Finding this sad, Phos decides to find Cinnabar a better job. == Voice cast ==

Land of the Lustrous was produced at the computer graphics (CG) animation studio Orange, and adapts Haruko Ichikawa's 2012 manga of the same name, covering little over its first four volumes. and was directed by Takahiko Kyōgoku, with Toshiya Ono in charge of the series scripts, Eiji Inomoto serving as chief CG director, Kenji Fujita being director of photography, and with Daisuku Imai in charge of editing. Asako Nishida designed the characters, while Yōichi Nishikawa created the concept art, and Osamu Mikasa painted the color key art. The sound team included composer Yoshiaki Fujisawa and sound director Yukio Nagasaki. and the ending theme, "Kirameku Hamabe", by Yuiko Ōhara. The project started in 2015, while Kyōgoku was working on the anime series Gate, and was approached by Katsuhiro Takei from Toho to work on an adaptation of the Land of the Lustrous manga. Kyōgoku had always wanted to create a work based on CG animation with complementing 2D animation, rather than the more common use of a 2D base with complementing 3D, and both Kyōgoku and Takei thought that that style would fit Land of the Lustrous. Takei wanted Orange to work on the project from the start; despite trusting their abilities due to the staff's previous experience with action in the Rebuild of Evangelion films, Kyōgoku was initially worried about them handling the full production due to the low number of staff members, but the studio expanded from 50 to 100 staff members during the production. Initially, Kyōgoku had some issues with how to portray Phos, as he was used to working with teenaged characters with obvious desires and motives, whereas Phos lacks resolve and is resigned to their frustration due to having spent 300 years doing nothing, not being too serious about their emotions even when angry. His image of Phos solidified after hearing Kurosawa's performance, saying that her acting had the right level of ambiguity for the character. His concepts greatly influenced Kyōgoku's vision for what he wanted to accomplish with the series, with Kyōgoku specifically citing a piece showing a cel-shaded Phos with photo-realistic hair, behind CG grass, as influential. As Kyōgoku had worked with Nishida in the past, and she was a fan of the Land of the Lustrous manga, it was an easy decision to appoint her as the character designer. She designed a lot of reference artwork for the character proportions and facial expressions, creating a wide range of expressions despite Kyōgoku being unspecific in the instructions; this helped the production a lot, as the comedic sequences demanded a lot of different expressions and exaggerated faces. Translating the 2D character designs into 3D models was a very simple process due to how the characters all have about the same bodily proportions, allowing the artists to mostly focus on the characters' faces and hair. Due to Orange's technical experience there were not a lot of technical problems with the production, although there were sometimes difficulties in reproducing the intended colors from the concept art in the 3D renderings. Cinnabar was also a difficult character to animate due to their subtle character acting and their finely detailed hair, and how they are surrounded by mercury. Orange had a lot of freedom in creating the action sequences, as Kyōgoku gave mostly vague directions for them, such as what general camera movement to use. To guide the 3D animation, 2D "guide animation" was produced; one animator working on these was Norio Matsumoto, known for his work on action sequences in the Naruto anime series. == Release ==

Land of the Lustrous was announced in the magazine Monthly Afternoon in May 2017, and aired for twelve episodes on Japanese television on AT-X, Tokyo MX, BS11 and MBS from October 7 to December 23, 2017. Sentai Filmworks licensed the series and simulcast it through Amazon's Anime Strike platform in the United States; following the cancellation of Anime Strike in January 2018, it was transferred to the Amazon Prime Video service. The series was also simulcast through Hidive in the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Oceania, and Central and South America. The series was released across six DVD and Blu-ray sets by Toho in Japan starting on December 22, 2017; MVM Films acquired the series for distribution in the United Kingdom, with a release on Blu-ray on April 29, 2019. Sentai Filmworks produced English and Latin American Spanish dubs. For the English release of the anime, series translator Deven Neel was instructed by the manga's creator, Haruko Ichikawa, to use gender-neutral pronouns for the characters, as Ichikawa wanted to portray them as genderless: the Japanese script uses a pronoun similar to "he", although noted by Neel as being more ambiguous, while the English translation uses singular "they". The series' opening and ending themes were released separately on December 6, 2017, on CD, and the album Land of the Lustrous Sound Track Complete was released on January 17, 2018. An art exhibit featuring the production art from the series was held in Yūrakuchō, Tokyo from January 19 to February 25, 2018; it was originally intended to run until February 18, but was extended due to the popularity of it. Other merchandise based on the show has also been released, including plush toys, pins, bags and mugs. Episodes == Reception ==

Critical reception Land of the Lustrous was positively received by critics, and called among the best anime of the season and of the decade, and one of the most inventive and fresh anime in years. and succeeding both at internal and external struggles. Michelle Villanueva of Syfy stated that the gems are portrayed as non-binary, noting the relationship between Phosphophyllite "Phos" and Cinnabar, with Rutile having deep feelings for Padparadscha, saying that both have feelings for each other. She added that while the series isn't perfect in terms of "queer representation" as the gems are thin-limbed and shiny, with all the gems voiced by "cis female actors, hopefully that it is a "daring stepping stone on the road to queer representation," which will lead to more "queer-themed mainstream anime and manga." Villanueva noted this because when the anime was released in English, series translator Deven Neel was instructed by the manga's creator, Haruko Ichikawa, to use gender-neutral pronouns for the characters, as Ichikawa wanted to portray them as genderless: the Japanese script uses a pronoun similar to "he", although noted by Neel as being more ambiguous, while the English translation uses singular "they". and was nominated for the 2017 CG World Awards in the "Best Work in CG Animation" category; CG World also nominated Orange for the "Grand Prix" category, for their work on action sequences, facial expressions and character presentation within Land of the Lustrous. The series won the 2nd Crunchyroll Anime Awards in the "Best CGI" category in 2017, and was nominated for "Anime of the Year", "Best Action", and "Best Animation"; the series' composer Yoshiaki Fujisawa and its ending theme "Kirameku Hamabe" by Yuiko Ōhara were also nominated for "Best Score" and "Best Ending" categories, respectively. The series won the 4th Anime Trending Awards in the "Best in Sceneries and Visuals" category, and was nominated for their "Best in Adaptation", "Best in Soundtrack", "Best in Character Design", "Best in Animation Effects and Sequence", "Action or Adventure Anime of the Year" and "Fantasy or Magical Anime of the Year" categories. Polygon named the series as one of the best anime of the 2010s, IGN also listed the series among the best anime series of the 2010s. Lauren Orsini of Forbes included Land of the Lustrous on her list of the best anime of the decade. The series was also included in multiple Anime News Network writers' individual lists of the best anime of the season, and in the publication's 2018 feature about "visually striking anime productions". Sales The first two Japanese DVD volumes sold around 900 copies each, ranking sixteenth and fifth on the weekly Japanese DVD charts, the third sold around 800 copies, ranking eighth, and the fourth and fifth sold around 700, ranking sixth and ninth. The first five Japanese Blu-ray volumes all sold around 5,000 copies each, ranking sixth, first, first, second and second on the Blu-ray charts. == Notes ==