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Land of the Lustrous
Episode 11

by Lauren Orsini,

How would you rate episode 11 of
Land of the Lustrous ?
Community score: 4.6

Phos may be 300 years old, but each passing episode shows more and more that Land of the Lustrous is their coming of age story. In “Secrets,” Phos learns what the audience has already suspected for weeks—Kongo Sensei knows more than he's letting on, and he's blatantly concealing that knowledge from the gems. One of the most important and painful parts of growing up is learning that your parents are not perfect; they don't have all the answers, they make mistakes, and they don't always do the right thing. In an episode that acted as the glue that wrapped up one arc and started another, Phos's revelation about Sensei brought heart to the story and kept it from feeling overly procedural.

Last episode, Shiro was intimidating enough to compel Dia to attack it with their own leg as a bludgeoning weapon. This episode, Shiro is decidedly more cuddly, even cutely serving as a bed for the gems! Once Phos, Bort, and a surprisingly tenacious Alex slice one hand of the colossal Lunarian to ribbons, it explodes into hundreds of poofy puppies that are anything but scary. (Fun side note: if you go to the Land of the Lustrous website right now, it's covered with tiny Shiros that wiggle when you touch them.) Even the house-sized version isn't so bad after Sensei appears and tames it with a few simple commands, holding its chin in his hand. “Poor Shiro, what happened to your hand?” Sensei murmurs—but then immediately denies any familiarity with this Lunarian upon Phos's querying.

But Phos knows what they heard, and Sensei's calm reply does nothing to quell their anxiety. Until now, Phos has always been content that Sensei has their best interests in mind at all times, but for the first time, they're suspicious of him. Additionally, it's the tenderness between Sensei and Shiro that bothers Phos. “It sounded like the two of them were so much closer than any of us,” they reflect. To the gems that worship Sensei as both teacher and father figure, the idea that Sensei might be closer to somebody else, an enemy even, would be devastating.

So it's especially interesting that when Phos brings up this concern to Cinnabar, Cinnabar points out that “everyone” has the same suspicion but has chosen to trust in Sensei regardless. Perhaps this is Phos's burden of being the youngest; they're undergoing this crisis of doubt long after the other gems (and for that matter, the audience. I've suspected Kongo knows more about the Lunarians since the way he reacted to Phos saying “human” in episode five). The gems' resolute decision to trust in Sensei no matter what is solidified when Phos approaches Sensei for a confrontation—only to be stopped by a vision of Antarcticite putting a finger to their lips. Antarcticite had this suspicion, and yet they still gladly died for Sensei. Gems both alive and gone are conspiring to keep Phos from unraveling Sensei's secrets just yet. Phos can't even ask the Lunarians themselves when after 10 days of waiting, they don't appear.

Instead, the episode slides abruptly into a new story arc, as Rutile gathers shards of ruby to put into the honeycombed torso of a new character, Padparadscha. It made this episode feel more like a link between two stories than a whole story on its own. I'm excited to learn about Rutile's former partner and their odd ailment, but I found the transition from Phos's crisis of the heart to Rutile's mysterious handicraft sudden. I hope the next episode gives us a proper backstory for Padparadscha, because this episode neither put to rest Phos's concerns nor fully introduced Rutile's. Of course, it's almost more praise to say that my chief dissatisfaction with Land of the Lustrous this week was that there wasn't enough of it.

Rating: B+

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

Lauren writes about geek careers at Otaku Journalist.


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