Land of the Lustrous: Manga Volume 8 Reaction!
Added 2025-02-22 18:00:04 +0000 UTC*BLINDED BY THE LIGHT HEADPHONE WARNINGS*
I....thought I was ready for the truth on the Moon. I could not have been further from being ready! Has Phos become a villain? Is this even Phos even more?! And can we trust these Lunarians? AM I FEELING SAD FOR KONGO?!
I will have to review this volume again before volume 9 because my jaw was on the floor for most of this reaction! Let's...uhm....talk about this!
Thank you for watching with me and for all the support!
Comments
This manga is TERRIFYING, isn’t it? I was not expecting the horror elements! I definitely agree that Lapis Lazuili has enabled Phos to be more “analytical” and it makes them more manipulative when combined - I’m glad that Euclase could notice it at least, but it’s very unsettling and feels less and less like the Phos we knew from the start. I agree that Aechmea being so open feels a bit…weird. And their lack of empathy or care for the gems feels very wrong, too. “Heartless” is a great way to put it. I agree, now the whole thing with Kongo and everything leading up to him makes ALL the sense! Especially with how he couldn’t tell Phos everything, too! I personally think that Hongo, in that moment, WORKED and managed to pray him to pass on! I definitely empathize with him! I agree; I thought Dia had made peace about Bort, but that doesn’t seem to be the case, either. I love that note about the landscape of the moon versus the school as well! I also agree, the moment we realize the truth about the gems and it breaking Phos - that moment was handled SO WELL. I ultimately feel that Phos going along with Aechmea isn’t a good idea, but it’s sort of similar to AOT - what CAN you do? But I don’t want Kongo to be dismantled and I honestly don’t fully trust everything Aechmea is saying - there still feels like parts and pieces are being left out and as soon as they get their hands on Kongo, then something VERY bad will happen. I agree that I’m glad that at least Phos was able to be honest with Cairngorm and Cinnabar. I agree that the dynamic between Phos and Cairngorm is really well done! I hate that Phos started out this story fighting on behalf of Kongo because they loved him…and now Phos is so numb and has completely let that go, to the point of being willing to sacrifice Kongo to the Lunarians…it’s so sad. This manga has definitely gotten me obsessed with the series, though! It’s SO GOOD! And it’s hard not to binge, so I’m with you on that! Thank you for the comment!
Romaniablack
2025-02-25 18:59:44 +0000 UTCThe change in Phos is staggering! I can see why Phos doesn’t trust Kongo, but I can’t really trust the Lunarians, who are out there representing some pretty bad traits of humanity. And I can’t really forgive the Lunarians yet, because I can’t trust them. How do we know that they are being truthful? There are NO gems to counter what they claim…so do we just have blind trust in them, when we see they are manipulative? Yeah, may have to respectfully disagree with anyone siding with them over Kongo for the moment. That said, Cicada is a fun bit of levity! I feel Phos definitely has taken a turn into the villain or is about to - thank you for the comment and the kind words!
Romaniablack
2025-02-25 17:26:56 +0000 UTCI would probably respectfully disagree at this point - he may be the reason they are targeted, but he gave them a home, loves them, and has protected them - also, the gems on the moon, without Kongo - would they have been left alone? What would have happened to them? I can’t say I trust the Lunarians, especially as they represent a lot of the negative side of humanity from what we’ve seen so far! Thank you for the comment! We’ll see where the series goes!
Romaniablack
2025-02-25 17:24:52 +0000 UTCGosh, the way this manga keeps making me feel horrified and a mounting sense of horror is uncanny. Phos definitely feels like a treat now. Their behavior of just telling this half-told stories that leave everything to the imagination of the listener felt very creepy, and manipulative to a degree that I wouldn't have expected Phos to be able to achieve before; I suppose that's what happens when you mix Lapis Lazuli's sharply analytical mind, as we've seen before, and Phos natural charims (which I believe they possess base on the way they are able to gain the trust of new entities fast in most occassons as proven with a reluctant Antarct and Cinnabar, and Ventri as well) and you just have a highly effective manipulator. Euclase clocking Phos' attitude and understanding, more or less, their intentions was a bit of a relief, but it also just brought a starker contrast to their behavior and made it all the more creepy and unsettling. Then, of course, we have Aechmea telling... *everything* to Phos and explaining everything, which feels TREMENDOUSLY wrong because, after everything that has transpired between the lunarians and the gems, Aechmea just being open feels like a trick. If I disliked the lunarians before, now I feel a VERY strong dislike, slight hate, towards them, after seeing how they treated the gems and that they have just being toying with them, and can say it so nonchallantly. Sure, I get their plight, but my gosh, it's still a greatly horrific and heartless thing to do, and it feels like torture to me, because if they saw the poor reaction the first gems had to the truth, and how it broke them, doing it to more than the first batch, as it's implied that it went on for a little while, just feels tremendously nefarious. Adamant being a *machine for prayer that broke down after, apparently, some centuries of use* was NOT IN MY BINGO CARD and narly broke my mind. It all makes so much sense now! How he always needs to *meditate* and feels *sleepy* and can't control it; because even if he is broken and unable to perform his duty, he is still built for it and has the instinct to accomplish it. Why he COULDN'T tell Phos anything, to the point that after the doctor incident he tells Phos *"I can't tell you anything"* and he never used *won't* in his phrasing... he had being telling us the truth all along. Makes me wonder, though, what happened to Shiro, becasue he said that he had disappeared becasue "he had found rest", was that becasue Adamant did manage to pray for him? Or what happened there with him? And the weird, murderous game pieces, and how Adamant said "we never thought about what would happen to our creations after we created/were done with them" and how he probably said it because that's something he himself must feel, broken down with no one to fix him, but created to last an eternity and be indestructible, and how his creator didn't think of what would happen to him after they were gone, and my mind just gets blown away when putting the dots together. Dia wanting so desperately to leave Bort behind was so sad. I thought, and seems I was terribly wrong, that Dia was making peace with the idea that Bort and them are different and Bort had someone else as their partner, but seems like that isn't the case. There's something to the buildings, and pretty much anything I guess, that the lunarians build melting at night becasue of the materials it's built from, constantly changing and reshaping themselves, and the way that the gems' school hasn't changed one bit since we were first introduced to it, as permanent and inflexible as the gems themselves, that strikes my fancy particularly hard. Becasue even though their environment is more flexible, the lunarians seem as stuck and unchanging as the gems, or something. The desolation I felt with that one panel of Phos, kneeling defeteadly, just holding and handful of the grounded down gems, as we see a wide shot of the lunarian stronghold was very real. As always, this manga can still my breath in the most silent of panels, and strike me with EXACTLY the emotion Phos is feeling at the moment. As much as Phos' actions are disturbing, I can't shake the moment they are shaken, on their way back to Earth, by the idea that if they fail the deal they made with Aechmea, after not really having many other options, might I add, they will be grounded to dust just the same as all the old, captured gems. They know that they are in an impossible situation that they put themselves into, and have no other options but to plow ahead. Plus, they do want to help the gems by getting the lunarians to leave them alone, something they will ONLY do after they have gotten what they want because they don't care about anything, or anyone else. So, in the end, it's a deliciously complex mix of motivations and feelings. Phos only telling the full truth to two gems, Cinnabar and Cairngorm, had my heart. And, I mean, it's sad, of course it is, but at least Phos *has* those two people they feel they can trust and, as crazy as the story might sound won't judge them and will believe them. Have I mentioned that I adored the dynamic between Cairngorm and Phos? Because I do. The way Phos sort of bullies Cairngorm, and Cairngorm goes along with it is so funny, and reminds me so much of the sort of relationship that siblings would have; but it mostly jsut makes me laugh, chaotic, annoying Phos is a lot of fun and a nice change of pace to angsty Phos. Oh! Also, the idea that Phos didn't completely break after learning what the lunarians had to say being because they have growm distrustful and weary of Adamant already is just... so sad. Because Phos does break a little, you can see how the knowledge of what has being done to them for so long, and the reason being Adamant whom they all love so much, breaks them and hollows them out, but they don't go off the deep end because they already had some suspiscions of the truth, I believe, even if not to the full extent of them and this was only confirmation. But just seeing Phos' pain was terribly difficult. If it wasn't clear with this comment, the more I read of this story the more obssess I become. While at the beginning I felt like everything was just an incomprenhensible mess, now that things are starting to make sense it feels like the story is grabbing me by the troath and choking me. It's amazing and I love it.
Alexandra Q
2025-02-24 05:23:53 +0000 UTCI loved watching you freak out by this change in Phos. I think her decision to go against Kongo is the right one for the situation. I sympathize with everyone involved in this conflict. Was grinding up the gems wrong? Yes. I do forgive them though. They did try to reason with previous gems with little to no success. So moon dust they became. RIP. I also love Cicada. He seems to like Phos despite being her minder. Well, let’s see how this shakes out, is Phos a traitor or is she trying to walk a narrow path to protect her fellow gems. Till next week, thanks for reading to us!
Moominkomet
2025-02-22 23:35:13 +0000 UTCI think it's a super interesting dynamic between Kongo and the gems. Kongo cares, protects and loves the gems but is also the biggest threat to them because of his identity as a prayer machine *and* his affection being the only thing the lunarians can target. I kinda understand phosphophyllites shift in attitude towards Kongo, since he *is* kind of the reason the gems are being targeted in the first place.
bloink
2025-02-22 19:53:55 +0000 UTC
