To think when I first read this in 2018 I ignorantly dismissed it as a 'Steven Universe' rip-off (it came out before that, in 2012), and criticised its artwork and how the characters were almost impossible to tell apart. Basically, I thought 'Land of the Lustrous' was bland, befuddling, and unoriginal.
I would like to apologise to everyone, including Haruko Ichikawa, for my past opinion, of which I freely admit to be wrong.
I still think that 'Land of the Lustrous, Vol. 1' is far from perfect. Despite some scepticisms and confusion I have towards its aspects, I just can't stop thinking about it. It is a pretty earworm, and eyeworm, and pretty much a fascinating, translucent worm of a manga.
I would describe the experience of reading it as "darkly colourful", in spite of it being in black and white. "Lustrous" is a good word for it, and it clearly hides a darker underbelly.
There is a creative, crystalised uniqueness to this piece of art, very rarely discovered, once in a blue moon.
It it strange and weird how much I, for lack of a better word, adore the world and characters in 'Land of the Lustrous'. Because nearly every character, well, sucks, in one personality trait or another, or in all the ways a character can suck. Uselessness, selfishness, laziness, meanness, arseholishness, vindictiveness, haughtiness, unfair and unfounded judgement of others, casual cruelty, you name it - almost every character has one or more of these flaws.
In the case of Phos, the protagonist, it's practically all of the above (plus whining and self-pity).
There is a meanspirited aura and edge to the manga, that constitute its overall humour. Oddly enough, I don't mind, and I generally despise meanspirited media. I think this is mainly due to me understanding the kind of postapocalyptic world the characters live and survive in. They are all humanoid gems, or minerals given sentience and practical structures, with varying degrees of hardness and toughness.
The manga makes a point of demonstrating that there is a difference between being hard and being tough, which ties to its prevailing theme:
Searching for purpose (it's spelled out on the back of the volume).
Finding one's purpose, and usefulness.
What is the meaning of life?
Why do we exist? To what purpose were we created?
It is merely to do with evolution and chance? Or something more?
Something to be searched for.
In the friends and frenemies we make along the way.
This is Phos's coming-of-age journey in an ovum--um, a nutshell.
Phosphophyllite is too fragile and brittle to fight the invading moon folk, the Lunarians, like the other Lustrous, so the gem is given the purpose of writing down the natural history of the planet, its environments, and lifeforms. Any obstacles are mostly of Phos's own doing, due to their laziness, selfishness, and whining.
Maybe, despite how Phos is largely seen as useless by their peers, they can still make friends with a few of the fellow humanoid crystalised lifeforms, including one or two who are "strong" yet alone, lost, distressed and unhappy, who may need Phos after all.
In terms of the artwork, 'Land of the Lustrous' is indeed very good. The action scenes are swift, sleek, and brilliantly done, and I like the designs of each of the Lustrous. Although, again, because of the black and white manga format, it is difficult to tell everyone apart at times. They all nearly have the exact same body type and uniform. At least the first few pages are in colour, and help the reader to differentiate the Lustrous by their hair colour and style.
At this point I have to give a standing ovation to a triumphant subversion in 'Land of the Lustrous': its complete dismissal of gender.
While the Lustrous may appear to be female, with the exception of the top gem and headmaster, Sensei, everybody is referred to by name only, with a few instances of they/them as pronouns. The Lustrous, presumably the last living, sentient creatures left on earth, are sexless and genderless. They are organisms (meteor-based, maybe?) from the ocean floor that evolved into crystal people. They are formed (and made and rebuilt if shattered into pieces), not necessarily born.
This is not the only thing categorising the manga as LBGTQA+, either. You bet it belongs on that list.
It is yet another feature that marks 'Land of the Lustrous' as a truly special work of fiction. It is science fiction that boldly goes far and wide in the unceasing cosmos of imagination and breaking conventions.
It can't easily be categorised into any popular genre of manga. I love it for that.
It could be classified as 'sci-fi', 'shōnen', and 'magical girls' without the girls.
'Land of the Lustrous, Vol. 1' is certainly an interesting, one of a kind manga, that I have so many thoughts and feelings about, and will be thinking about for a long time. Its flaws are secondary to its creativity.
One other flaw in this diamond in the rough is at the beginning, with Phos's verbal exposition of how the earth and the Lustrous came to be as they are, because of Sensei ordering them to "recite the introduction" of "the origins of our land" during a crisis moment. It's clunky and contrived.
However, it runs parallel to another quality it has: there are no narration boxes anywhere, and we never read any of the characters' inner thoughts, only their dialogue. Dialogue and action speak for us. Keep piling up like crystals those unusual feat(ure)s for a manga, that work in its favour.
'Land of the Lustrous' is phantasmic, philosophical, astronomical, dazzling, daring, wondrous, and just a bit nebulous and cynical. It could be a spectacular multiplayer video game, where I would love to play each of the lovely, charismatic, badass, and oddly, charmingly morbid and jerkish Lustrous. My favourite would not be Phos, but Morga, the fair-weather "friend", because I am a fangirl for pink hair.
My guilty pleasure manga of 2025. I should have read it properly and been more fair and appreciative of it way back in 2018. Ah well, better late than never.
Final Score: 3/5
No comments:
Post a Comment