Land of the Lustrous

Episode 4

Last week's episode may have appeared to neatly wrap up Phos' story, but it's now apparent we're not done with them yet. For episode four, “Soul - Flesh - Bone,” Land of the Lustrous widens its scope. With Phos as our familiar epicenter, we touch on the many denizens that occupy this world alongside the gems. Who are the gems? Why are they here? What is this place? This world-building episode begins to answer the ever-present questions of this mysterious story, all framed against a world with beauty that spans from the moon in the sky, all the way to the bottom of the sea.

Who is Master Kongo? If I Google his name, I get an African kingdom that came to a violent end in 1914. In the context of the story, he is its only explicitly male character so far, a monklike entity who spends his time meditating and overseeing the gems. He also much taller than any of the gems, which was made obvious this episode as Kongo patted Jade and the others' heads in praise—he occupies a parental role toward the gems. Thanks to one enlightening meditative dream, we know that he also seems to have a connection with the Lunarians that the gems don't share. So what is the connection between the Lunarians and the gems?

For the first time, it's apparent this isn't just a two-way relationship. There's a third part of the equation that we never considered until now, tied to Phos' mouthy new companion. With Phos as our guide, we hear the slug's voice for the first time and learn her myriad opinions. (For starters, the slug adores Dia and thinks Kongo is a hunk.) But more than anything, the slug would like to return to the sea, her homeland, which just so happens to be forbidden to Phos. At first it's hard to fathom why, as the sea is even more breathtakingly gorgeous than the land. This show's CGI animation does a beautiful job showing the way sunlight filters through the waves, compounding Phos' crystalline refraction even more.

Let's focus on Ventricosus, as the slug is now called. (It's the Latin name of several species of marine life.) Underwater, we see Ventricosus' true form at last, a feminine beauty that is not unlike a jellyfish. Phos quite pointedly refers to Ventricosus' breasts as “water jugs,” to which Ventricosus replies that they are her most precious body part and “praise be to them.” She also explains her people's theory to Phos and it starts to make sense—long ago there were humans. Today there are three species that came from their flesh, bone, and soul. The flesh (the underwater slug people) eat and reproduce and die. The bones (the gems, we're led to believe) don't do any of these things, which is why Phos guesses that death is perhaps like being “too lazy to move.” The Lunarians, the soul, complete the trifecta—only they may be hoping to become human again by enslaving both members of flesh and bone? And at this point, Phos learns a hard lesson in who they should and shouldn't trust. We'll need to wait until next week to learn if this lesson is fatal. (I doubt it, Phos is surprisingly resilient for somebody with a hardness of 3.5 on the Mohs scale.)

There's no way Ventricosus' story doesn't have elements of truth to it, but I did think it was interesting when Euclase took off their clothing and then, when another gem came rushing in, attempted to cover themselves. The gems are sexless and genderless, but they appear to have modesty? They also develop crushes and romantic bonds (and the show keeps teasing Phos and Cinnabar in this regard). Both are indicators of how little we still know about them at this point. As beautiful and timeless as they are, there are a lot of mysteries to unravel, which is the primary reason I tune in each week. Whether those mysteries pay off in the end will factor into my ultimate feelings on this show immensely.

Rating: B+

Land of the Lustrous is currently streaming on Amazon's Anime Strike.

Lauren writes about geek careers at Otaku Journalist.