Ruri Rocks

Episodes 1-3

Ruri Rocks is an attractive series. That's a fair thing for it to be, since it's all about showcasing the discoverable beauty of the natural world—the shimmering surprises of minerals just waiting to be unearthed on the undersides of unassuming stones. And it is very good at that so far. The first three episodes don't just show off the spectacular sparkles of the gems themselves (check out the way the light refracts through the garnet and projects onto Ruri's hand), but have a respect for the processes and natural history that lead to them. The handling of the settings put me in the mind of Made in Abyss, with the lush renderings of the backdrops, the emphasis on them as a sense of place, and how the characters can be dwarfed occupying them, and even its gorgeous OP that thoughtfully reflects on the splendor of it all.

And also like Made in Abyss, Ruri Rocks feels like it's propelled by some powerful horniness for parts besides attractive landscapes and discoverable treasures.

Yes, coming to us courtesy Onimai's Studio Bind and director Shingo Fujii, the appraisals of its characters are one of the more noticeable updates of the anime adaptation of Keiichirō Shibuya's manga. Nagi, the grad student who serves as Ruri's Introduction to Mineralogy, is the largest focus of this element, with the regular indulgence of crotch-cam and butt-framed shots. But Ruri herself isn't immune, getting lingering shots like the one in the third episode on her bent-over backside. Not necessarily ideal, given that Ruri is significantly younger-looking than Nagi, but I did get all the way through Onimai, and I honestly thought that show was pretty great. Mostly the inescapability of the fanservice prompts the question of why an edutainment hobbyist series like Ruri Rocks even needs fanservice.

That gorgeous craft of the backgrounds and loving rendering of the gemstones and the characters handling them all goes hand-in-sweaty-hand with the animators' gleeful rendering of the hornier human side of things. I get a firm sense that the anime art's tightening of Nagi's clothes and busting-up of her proportions is borne out of the animation staff's love (she's a secret slob geologist who drives a Mini Cooper; she is pretty awesome.) It's the old canard about how you have to be some kind of weird pervert to create strong art, and given the clamping down happening on so many sectors of art by and for weird perverts these days, I'm inclined to welcome the animators getting their rocks off in service of something as overall lovingly crafted as Ruri Rocks.

Because you really can sense that same level of effortful love from all other parts of the production. The third episode takes viewers into Nagi's college for a whole other kind of scenery porn, the clutter of the hallways and her room communicating obscene levels of detail. The trip to the mine in the second half of that episode underscores its sense of hidden gems, with verdant backgrounds that are simply nice by the same standards of previous episodes, only to surprise viewers with the ultraviolet splendor of an entire underground galaxy of fluorite. It's genuinely breathtaking, speaking to the show's central thesis of the value of exploration and discovery itself.

Studio Bind's animation of the tour guides us on this expedition, and their presentation of those messages, makes Ruri Rocks just a bit more than an attractive travelogue. Nagi comes off genuinely cool, and that gives her the air of the fun teacher dispensing Cool Rock Facts about things like bismuth shapes or how frickin' magnets work. Ruri's energy is the compass point that guides everything, though. Her short-sighted antics can be endearingly bratty a lot of the time, but she's still effectively tempered by the likes of Nagi, who helpfully informs her and the audience why just charging into an abandoned mine isn't necessarily the best idea. Ruri is fun, but she's also willing to learn, both about rocks and why discovering them and even gifting them to others can be valuable in their own way beyond potential monetary value.

The third episode adds another girl to the mix in Imari Yoko. I appreciate what she brings to the table in articulating the value of the sort of research Nagi, with Ruri's help, is working on. To say nothing of her love for books underscoring the importance of physical media in an increasingly ephemeral data-based world. History holds treasures, and not just the obvious shiny kind. But Imari also learns the value of first-hand discovery in that episode, and gets to experience adding to that wealth of knowledge herself. Learning about learning is, in fact, its own kind of learning, and that's one more thing that's beautiful to uncover, as far as Ruri Rocks is concerned.

More than anything, the dirty, dirty shipper in my heart can't resist the potential of a cool senior/cute junior pairing in Nagi and Imari's dynamic. They explore the countryside looking for rocks, but do you think they ever explored each other's bodies?

Three episodes in and Ruri Rocks is working well with its initial premise, while expanding interestingly with different settings and characters. I will say, as a hobby show, I have my questions about the replicability of some of the adventures these characters are embarking on. That is, the fantasy of where they can go and how much they can find is already ramping up in the name of showing off as many cool rocks as possible, to say nothing of the tacit recommendations that kids just go play around at abandoned mines. But past that suspension of disbelief, it's worth it for Ruri Rocks showing the potential beauty that can be found in our world, and the history that brought it there. If it can hook a few extra viewers into appreciating that resplendence using the T&A of a warhammer-wielding geologist, I'd say that's worth it.

Rating:

Ruri Rocks is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Chris doesn't know much about cool rocks, but he could talk your ear off about cool anime and cool Transformers. Catch him doing so over on his BlueSky, or see previous posts over on his blog.

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Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.

Episodes 1-3