Land of the Lustrous 1

This is my favorite manga, no, book by far. First off, the quality of the actual paper it's on is great. It's just like a soft cover paperback book. The cover art is fantastic and speaks for itself. The art of the manga is masterful as well. Haruko Ichikawa draws her characters to be androgynous, which allows her to always adjust her characters' designs while keeping them consistent. In any given page a gem might go from being shown in full with feminine proportions to the next page being shown from the shoulders and above, angling their face, widening their shoulders, and making them look masculine. It's really cool! She also uses shading unlike any other artist I've seen. She doesn't use gradient shading, but mainly uses three shades. She'll use bright white, pitch black, and a shade of grey. Everything is extremely high contrast and you could genuinely use any of her dramatic pages as a background. Lunarians come from the moon in unending numbers, hunting the gems for vanity. The main character is Phosphophyllite, an immortal 200-something year old gem who is extremely brittle with a hardness of 3.5. She's generally apathetic, but due to her weak constitution she doesn't have a job and feels jealous of the others' abilities. Phos eventually finds a purpose in helping another, but isn't capable of doing anything. Here's where the genius of the narrative shines. I'll avoid spoilers because I want people to read for themselves, but here's a vague rundown. Phos tries something extremely risky to help this other gem and ends up losing a large part of her body. The gems' bodies contain their memories and so she loses an extremely important memory regarding this other gem, however she still has the drive to improve, but has lost that impetus. As she keeps losing parts of herself she, well, keeps losing parts of herself. I won't explain any further, but you have to believe me that the narrative is genius. Absolute 10/10, I own all available english volumes and would totally buy them again.

Houseki no Kuni has a good story with a very interesting setting and amazing art by Ichikawa. Sparce moments of stale humor (where translation is difficult)or rambly monologue are easily overshadowed by the thought provoking themes of impermanence, self identify, forgiveness, and deceit. There's a good balance of seriousness and playfulness and some very funny moments too, not to mention the highly effective illustrations. I normally read episodically but tore through this series in an afternoon. Definitely one I will continue to follow and support. Also the anime is must watch if you enjoy this manga.

Land of the Lustrous is one of the most unique works available right now, and great for all ages. It's difficult to encapsulate why I recommend this series so much but it more than deserves my effort so I'll give it a shot. The series is about a rock named Phos (genderless because she's literally a rock). She's made from the gem Phosphophyllite which is brittle. Far too brittle to assist the other gems in combating the race of moon people attempting to abduct the gems and take them away forever. At the start of the adventure the useless Phosphophyllite is finally given a job. Phosphophyllite is a protagonist who grows and is allowed to grow, which is something that is becoming increasingly more difficult to find. Her flaws are treated as actual flaws rather than played off as cute quirks. She's allowed to fail and grow past that failure. Not everything works out for her but when it does it's a joy to see. Land of the Lustrous isn't afraid to challenge the protagonist. She struggles, and some of these struggles will bring tears to your eyes. Despite this the series is also one of the funniest I've ever read. It manages to weave in moments of incredible levity even during some of the main character's lowest valleys without losing tone or thematic momentum. There is no tonal whiplash and it takes incredible talent to maintain that balance without jarring the reader. If you want a story where you can laugh and cry, if you want to watch a hilarious yet real protagonist grow after undergoing trial and tribulation, a story more than just black and white, from an author that knows how to hit all the right beats in terms of plot, character, and tone/atmosphere, then Land of the Lustrous should be your next stop.

Arrived extremely bent, that may be a shipment issue, but still a concern. The book is fine and translated well.

My daughter is so excited to read these.

Genuinely one of the most well written and beautifully drawn manga I’ve read. Feel in love with the characters and story from the get go and I consider this my favorite for a good reason.

This was one of the truest adaptations of a manga I've ever seen. Great show and just as good in comic form. If you like the show you will have to wait to find out more until additional volumes are released as the 4 volumes available currently on Amazon kindle cover the same material as the show. Bright and sparkly characters (both literally and metaphorically) who are brought to life by a caliber of television 3d that I've only seen marched by shows like Miraculous and RWBY. The animators clearly didn't try to fight the limits of 3d and instead used the stiff nature of the models to accentuate the delicacy of a race of humanoid crystals. Their movement is fluid but controlled which is in keeping with their propensity to break.

I started Land of the Lustrous when it TV series counter part aired 2017-10-07 of last year then thirsting for more from the series I began the journey onto the manga It story captivated me showed me a world filled with mystery and questions for this unique gem trying to find out the reason for all the things she been dealing with but ending up more lost and seeking more questions as she loses herself/his who she/he was, Phos truly captivates the viewers like a beautiful Gem in this fantasy base world this thought provoking story will take you on a ride to the truth. I also have read to Vol.8! so I hope that counts for something.

À primeira vista pode enganar o leitor por aparentar ser uma obra bobinha e despretensiosa por conta do design ser "levinho", mas é uma obra complexa, densa, temática e reflexiva. A Phos tem uma bela construção de personagem e um dos melhores desenvolvimentos já feitos, a autora aplicou "Os 7 tesouros budistas" para o desenvolvimento da personagem , então é bom dar uma lida sobre. A única coisa que não se destaca é a arte, mas é funcional.

Arrived quickly and as described, sometimes the translation is a bit odd but that is the price to pay to read this nice story.

I loved the anime and the manga is just as amazing ❤️

I ordered Volume 1-12, Vol 7 had a big tear at the back cover, and Volume 1 and 3 were badly water damaged. Hugely disappointed.

Watched the Anime with my 16 yo daughter. Great Artwork and storyline. Looking forward to see if they bring a season 2.