Comes to Italy thanks to J-POP Land of the Lustrous, the manga that inspired the CGI animated adaptation available on VVVVID. Here is our review of the first volume!
If you have followed the world of Italian manga publishing for more than a few years, it is likely that you remember the loss of the rights to the works of Kodansha by J-POP Manga in 2016, following which the publication of numerous series was interrupted and, in the best of cases, it resumed and continued thanks to other houses. However, the collaboration between the Italian publisher and the Japanese giant resumed in September 2019, when the highly successful shonen manga The Quintessential Quintuplets was announced in our country. Two months later, during the typical conference of the Lucca Comics & Games 2019, J-POP revealed the acquisition of a couple of new licenses from the Kodansha title park, among which that of a manga up to that moment immediately stood out. ignored by other Italian publishers: Land of the Lustrous. Arrived on the shelves of Italian bookstores and comic shops on May 27, 2020, here is our review of the first volume.
Land of the Lustrous, translation of the original title Houseki no Kuni (宝石 の 国), is a seinen manga written and illustrated by the author Haruko Ichikawa on the pages of Kodansha's Monthly Afternoon magazine, home to numerous masterpieces and successful works of Japanese comics (such as The Immortal or Vinland Saga). Serialized starting from October 2012 and still in progress, collected in 10 volumes, Land of the Lustrous saw its popularity increase in the autumn of 2017 thanks to the animated adaptation produced by the Orange studio, one of the pioneers of the use of CGI in animated productions for the television medium, to which we also owe the excellent BEASTARS. Made precisely in three-dimensional graphics, still considered among the best examples of application of this technique in the sector, the Land of the Lustrous anime aired from October to December 2017 for a total of 12 episodes and has had a great success in the community of fans. In our country it was licensed in simulcast by Dynit and is available in legal and free streaming on the VVVVID platform.
Land of the Lustrous is a manga for which I would not hesitate to use the overused term "original" if I had to sum it up in one word. Even its genre is difficult to classify, as it is a successful mix of fantasy and science fiction with a splash of combat worthy of a battle shonen. The story is set in a mysterious land surrounded by the sea where asexual anthropomorphic gems live under the guidance of a Sensei. He, the only human-appearing being, teaches them how to lead a righteous and productive existence by assigning each one a specific task, based on its characteristics and innate abilities, so that it contributes to the well-being of the community. Such gems live under constant threat from the Moon Hunters, disturbing creatures who aim to take them for their own purposes. The protagonist Phosphophyllite, for friends Phos, is a gem with aqua green hair who, due to his awkwardness and his extreme fragility, is the victim of the constant teasing of his companions. One day, Phos receives a special assignment from the Master that will bring about a turning point in his life.
The first thing that catches the eye, since the undersigned has also adhered to this convention in the lines you are reading, is the use of the masculine by the Italian translator to refer to the various gems presented throughout the volume. This decision can be unsettling and at times strange, given the undoubtedly female features of the characters (except for the Master), a feeling even more accentuated in the anime where each of them is voiced by a woman, but is in line with the the author's desire to emphasize the absence of the sexual component in the appearance and characterization of the gems. Once this particular artistic choice has been metabolized, the debut volume of Land of the Lustrous presents us with the first handful of characters that will accompany the misadventures of the unfortunate and misunderstood protagonist.
