How Land of the Lustrous Mastered Subversion 

One part I love about houseki no kuni is that it never makes it clear when a moment is important; a great example is dia telling phos to change. It seems like your average small character line, yet the whole series slowly shapes itself around it. Another instance would be when phos and cairngorm try to use a shortcut to get across the ice, but end up falling in. Phos then exclaims that shortcuts aren’t always good. Just a little while later, cairngorm tries to use a shortcut by giving phos lapis’ head, which ends up being being the exact opposite of a shortcut. This series is an absolute masterpiece.

Land of the Lustrous is one of the few anime that have a good rewatch value. Reading/watching the older chapter really changes your perspective after you read the latest chapter.

I rationalise phos's growth as having both a positive and negative character arc at the same time. In becoming his ideal strong, intelligent, and independent self. He's objectively a better person able to instill change and keep his promises. However it was at the cost of his state of mind and his self. He's lost his memories and his face; he's haunted by the sleepless nights and paranoia; and he's lost the entire reason he started his journey in the first place. He's only continuing because forward is the only path he knows. And even after these 10000 years you could probably consider him a better person. He'll have reached a sort of enlightenment and will have changed the world for the better. All the gems are restored, there is no more conflict and the admrabillis can live peacefully too. This is "the ideal outcome" if you'd have asked Phos from long ago.

Change in beings that aren’t designed for change is what makes Houseki no Kuni so fascinating. Good video!

I think there's something you're missing that plays a key element in Phos' change. As Phos found new materials to bind with, pieces of their original body were lost in the process. These pieces contain memories and parts of who Phos is. The more Phos added to their body, the more personality they lost.

It's strange thinking of Phos as a villain, but she really does fit the anti-villain trope. They had a completely noble and honorable end goal, and while it worked, the "execution" of said goal combined with the mutual betrayal between them and their allies marred everything. It's easily my favorite manga and I would not be upset in the slightest if the story stopped with chapter 95.

I also love one thing in land of the lustruous, and that is that the present always have two faces, one bright and one dark, like by exemple at the end Phos (more than probably accidentally) saved everyone, the war is finished, everyone is revived and the crazy murderous gem is trapped on Earth so from an external point of view it's a happy ending, except that the society of lunarians is extremely toxic and is all about the individual before the group, and Phos who wanted to save everyone is doomed to 10000 years of solitude, and another exemple is at the beginning, the status quo is that life is bright and happy for the gems who lives peacefully, but on the other hand we are on a never-ending war that already took more than one life. No status quo in this series is totally good or bad, always a mix of the two

somethin that really hit me hard the first time i watched it almost made me cry and shit was the realization that phos used to be disregarded, mistreated, and ridiculed, but after the gold alloy arc and winter passed, it seemed like everyone suddenly gained positive interest in phos. he used to be avoided due to how weak he was and was even made fun of often. but it literally hasnt be that long and just because now that he's "interesting" and "new" the gems flock to him like ants to sugar it's really depressing you know that they didn't care for him as he was and only how new and different he had become. for example such as when everyone starts playing with phos' alloy and asks him to shape it into things and praising him repeatedly for his memory and intelligence all the while putting emphasis on how he's almost unrecognizable. Phos himself seemed really off-put from all of this new attention, and it's clear he's uncomfortable and has tried avoiding it numerous times. honestly i feel like it would've felt awful being in his situation where you've been ignored and patronized and mistreated for hundreds of years for basically ever since you were born for something that you couldn't change and once you go through and manage to change under unnatural and horrible means and lose that spark for life or whatever people finally start appreciating you for what you weren't before it really must feel shitty sorry for the whole rant and everythin i think i might be partially self projecting but seriously this part really bothered me the most its been months since i first started houseki no kuni and this is still the most long lasting impression ive had of it if i get this deep into houseki me getting into evangelion was a mistake :skull: shinnie incoming

I'm still 'rooting' for Phos. Destroying yourself for seemingly senseless reasons is one of the most human things you can do (other creatures, we'd expect, would generally have the 'good sense' not to approach those degrees of nihilism). The tragedy with Phos is that undergoing change this way, or really the basic image of a being made of crystal lattice or whatever undergoing 'organic change' or embodying the traits of humanity in this way seem so brutal and 'unnatural', exaggerated and extreme. Phos doesn't just get a blue chapter of their life or the kind of life negating depressive hell that a lot of people experience, she gets 10000 years. It's like she's following a natural 'human arc', but the circumstances and particular imagery and the fact that no one has ever done this before/she's basically an 'experiment', makes it that much more arresting and horrifying in a way, but conversely the hope at the end of it might be that much greater, too, in that all of what I've just said also entails the creation of something totally new or a new type of being. One thing that strikes me so much is how Phos is pretty much denied any sort of recognition from their peers. Even when she undergoes shocking changes via essentially violence to her body, they don't really have a way to understand what is happening to her. Or she presses Adamant for answers, and only reveals them to the Earth gems after she's utterly alienated them. Knowing that Phos was manipulated through all of these changes, makes me look twice at all the ways that she was failed. Like no one can stay sane as a singular individual, in the sense that if we could just introspect on our thought processes etc and see the crazy, we'd obviously never actually 'go crazy'. At some point that switch has to take place and you're not going to see it, so you need other people to be accountable to in that sense who can potentially see it. But no one has ever known what to do with Phos, and all of this pain she's ostensibly taken on herself is in large part a product of her falling through the gaps, and all those questions they for whatever reason could never really bring themselves to ask. Phos is in a (admittedly twisted, obviously tragic) way doing what she 'needs' to do, and generally she's the only one that seems to be consistently punished, so I haven't really encountered a moral conflict with where my sympathies or identification is directed or what have you. I just want Phos to be happy lol.

With the latest chapter I think phos will become the new sensei and raise gems himself. Then 10,000 years pass and he will get senseis power but instead of praying for them and vanishing everyone hes gonna make them regret turning into lunarians and not pray for them when they get tired of living as a lunarian. Then the whole cycle begins again, with them trying to take the gems away to make phos pray for them

I love the way you explain things and make jokes, it makes me wish this video was longer

I root for Phos no matter what. Also, Phos is the victim, the real villain is Aechmea, the mastermind behind Pho's corruption. Even at the very end, Phos wanted to assamble shattered gems after all the busyness with Kongo is done (too bad they didn't know that Kongo's prayer would kill not only lunarians, but all other sentient life on Earth too - it's also Aechmea's fault for not telling them). And I think, after what other gems did to Phos (shattered and forgot about them for 200 years), Phos was more than justified to act more radical.

I compare this series with other well known seinen like berserk and Monster And to me this series handled all the things in NGE but a lot better in basically every aspect Phosphophyllite is my favorite Protagonist of all time and my second favorite character.

phos isn't really and didn't really turn INTO the villain, phos was manipulated and put up to a game by someone they didnt even know existed, made them suffer till phos turned how they wanted. Theres a lot this video didnt explain

Dia: how about try changing from within? Phos: *takes it literally*

I like the quality of this essay and lower the music a bit so your voice can be heard better.

I really enjoy the time watching this video- im not sure if anyone is going to read this, but here are my thougts of phos: Phos, at first as you mention, is a "newbie". He does not know "what his role is", due to his little intellect and physical strength. Phos constantly wants to fit in, like a human/changing parts of himself, to be valued, therefore; loved. feel part of something. I'm not going to ramble so much, I'll get to the main point: in chapter 99 Phos talks to a rock, to which Phos offers to give him mobility, vision, etc. to which the rock refuses. The rock says that it is fine being what it is, it is not obliged to change itself as an object to look better in the eyes of others. The opposite of newbie phos, phos realizes this and says one of my favorite quotes: I always wanted to be loved. Improving does not imply seeking perfection. I don't know, the whole journey of phos to become what it is today honestly fascinates me. I want to continue investigating this character, because through analysis of him. I understand myself and the world around me (i dont speak english, so, im sorry if i wrote something wrong)

Great video! Please keep making videos like this

i absolutely loved the video man, greetings from brazil!!

youtube studios recommended me this video... very glad it did great video!

Great vid keep on the amazing work.

Nice vid. Really enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing your thoughs :)

And here I thought this show was just about CG crystal girls. What a weird turn of events

Damn made in abyss music here hits so hard

Phos is not a villain, she is a anti-hero. Villains were always a Lunarians. They've shaken a balance for they own good.

Good video 👍

This is fantastic!!

I watched this whole video, thought it was amazing, and wanted to leave a comment saying so-only to find I already did that! Still though, great analysis

What a nice video

“Watching the corruption of the villain” I like that, I like the way you put that

The gems went the long way around while phos offered them a shortcut

This is pretty good.

pain, the anime and where it ended off when knowing what happens in the manga is pain

What’s that lovely track you used in the introduction?

Keko.

:D

But isn't Aechmea the main villain?

You've told almost nothing about the show, less water more substance, man

the Pho↓s way of pronouncing makes me kinda hate this video ngl