Manga Review – Land of the Lustrous Vol 1 by Haruko Ichikawa (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Teen
Genre: Manga/Fantasy
Length: 192 pages
Publisher: Kodansha Comics
Release Date: June 27, 2017
ISBN-13: 978-1632364975
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Land of the Lustrous series
Source: Review Copy from Amazon Vine
Rating: 3/5 stars

“SEARCHING FOR PURPOSE In a world inhabited by crystalline lifeforms called The Lustrous, every unique gem must fight for their way of life against the threat of lunarians who would turn them into decorations. Phosphophyllite, the most fragile and brittle of gems, longs to join the battle. When Phos is instead assigned to complete a natural history of their world, it sounds like a dull and pointless task. But this new job brings Phos into contact with Cinnabar, a gem forced to live in isolation. Can Phos’s seemingly mundane assignment lead both Phos and Cinnabar to the fulfillment they desire?”

I got this manga through the Amazon Vine program to review. It sounded like a really unique story from the description but the story actually ended up being a bit bland and confusing. The artwork is very beautiful but again a bit hard to follow at times.

The story focuses on a race of gem-like humanoid lifeforms that have apparently taken over earth after a catastrophe destroyed the organic lifeforms there. The Lustrous fight a never ending war against darkness (which seems to come from an alien source) and are valued by their hardness value. This book follows the softest and most delicate Lustrous named Phos.

I liked the geological and gem references; these gave the story a bit of a scientific spin at times which I enjoyed. In general the story was pretty boring though and took quite awhile to get moving; it was also hard to follow at times. A lot of the Lustrous look similar and some of the panels are hard to figure out.

The artwork is beautiful and definitely higher quality than a lot of manga out there. Additionally there are some full color pages included in this volume.

Overall this was okay but not great. I probably won’t continue on with the series because I found it kind of confusing and just wasn’t all that engaged in the story.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– New Release Reading Challenge
– Graphic Novel Reading Challenge
– Flights of Fantasy Reading Challenge
– YA Reading Challenge