Houseki no Kuni

In the mysterious future, crystalline organisms called Gems inhabit a world that has been destroyed by six meteors. Each Gem is assigned a role in order to fight against the Lunarians, a species who attacks them in order to shatter their bodies and use them as decorations.

Phosphophyllite, also known as Phos, is a young and fragile Gem who dreams of helping their friends in the war effort. Instead, they are told to compile an encyclopedia because of their delicate condition. After begrudgingly embarking on this task, Phos meets Cinnabar, an intelligent gem who has been relegated to patrolling the isolated island at night because of the corrosive poison their body creates. After seeing how unhappy Cinnabar is, Phos decides to find a role that both of the rejected Gems can enjoy. Houseki no Kuni follows Phos' efforts to be useful and protect their fellow Gems.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Phosphophyllite Main

Kurosawa, Tomoyo Japanese

Antarcticite ing

Ise, Mariya Japanese

Diamond ing

Kayano, Ai Japanese

Cinnabar ing

Komatsu, Mikako Japanese

Padparadscha ing

Park, Romi Japanese

Bort ing

Sakura, Ayane Japanese

Rutile ing

Uchiyama, Yumi Japanese

Yellow Diamond ing

Minagawa, Junko Japanese

Alexandrite ing

Kugimiya, Rie Japanese

Kongou-sensei ing

Nakata, Jouji Japanese

Kamei, Hiroshi Producer

Kaneko, Hirotaka Producer

Takei, Katsuhiro Producer

Shimizu, Mika Producer

Reviews

May 20, 2025

vpnburner

Recommended

This was an absolutely unique Anime. Honestly, I would have given it a much higher score, but the fact that the story looks to be unfinished outside of reading the Manga is a huge letdown.

I hope that one day, this show gets a 2nd or even 3rd season as I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I still don't know why Animation companies pick up masterpieces and then fail to follow through on completing the story.

Props again to Kurosawa Tomoyo - I love her VA work, she could read me an instruction manual on assembling an IKEA desk and I would be happy.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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May 16, 2025

buenokumenomi

Mixed Feelings

I usually turn my head and run when I see fully CGI shows, and this show was no different. I had put it off for about 7 years since initially seeing a preview for it back in 2017 or so. while the story was very much, not as coherent as I would've liked it to be, the characters and their designs made me feel giddy whenever they were talking to each other. There is some good wit in the dialogue between the gems and it makes up for the lack there of, of a story. I truly wish there was a second season of the ... anime itself, because for anime only people, it truly does not end well. I had to pick up the manga because I couldn't just end there. (which I suppose is a good thing). I know whyyyyy they chose CGI (the hair looks nice in CGI don't get me wrong) but when they had brought in 2d animation at some points for when Kongo was on screen it felt better in my eyes, but that's only because I'm biased obviously. It may seem like i'm bashing it in this 8 star review but I only do that because I've grown to love it. Anyways yes, 8/10, I really enjoyed the designs of everything, the enemies, and the area.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jun 7, 2025

Supersonic_Pain

Not Recommended

When I first started this, I was ready to give it, like, a 5 because there was genuinely nothing I had to say about it. It was just Very Boring.

That's still true but I do have a bit more to say.

First, positives.

I feel bad for shitting on this show not for the mangaka but for Orange. This show looks pretty good and considering I also hated Beastars, it just looks like I'm an Orange denier and yeah, not true, it's not like it being boring is Orange's fault. It looks very fluid and there is a good amount of stuff I don't think would work ... as well in 2D like the alloys or the gems breaking apart.

The soundtrack is pretty good although the OP is kinda trash.

All these characters are kind of caked up? They've got a hell of a curve in the back. Good for you, Studio Orange.

...if one of my three positives is that the characters have fat asses, you know this show can't be that good (unless it's an ecchi which it's not).

The story feels weird and, like, disted?

The second paragraph of the synopsis on MAL says:
"Phosphophyllite, also known as Phos, is a young and fragile Gem who dreams of helping their friends in the war effort. Instead, they are told to compile an encyclopedia because of their delicate condition. After begrudgingly embarking on this task, Phos meets Cinnabar, an intelligent gem who has been relegated to patrolling the isolated island at night because of the corrosive poison their body creates. After seeing how unhappy Cinnabar is, Phos decides to find a role that both of the rejected Gems can enjoy. Houseki no Kuni follows Phos' efforts to be useful and protect their fellow Gems."

You would think Cinnabar was an important character but they're just kinda like "oh hey Phos, lowkey gonna let the Lunarians kill me (author's note: these gems can't die, who gives a shit, they're probably just gonna go to the Moon and reclaim them anyway), is that cool with you?"

They're kind of a standoffish asshole and don't really matter, it's more about that final sentence where Phos tries to be useful and the way they do that is... questionable?

They introduce a new gem and they die in like 2 episodes and then Phos goes from their first half personality to a Badass(tm) and it's corny and lame. Instead of actually working around Phos being a relatively soft gem, they just give them superpowers (that already correspond to other gems in the force, mind you) and never really bring it up again.

Speaking of other gems, there are way too many gems in this series.

This is 12 episodes and there are like 24 gems and not very many of them get a character at all, let alone a good one.

Rutile is A Doctor who likes dissecting things and doesn't like being called a quack
Diamond is Sweet and apparently not very good at their job
Bort is ALSO a standoffish asshole but they are good at their job and only conveys what matters or whatever
The Amethyst twins are twins. And bang their heads together.
Alexandrite is a Lunarian freak who researches Lunarians but crashes out when they see one
Yellow Diamond is old and fast
Red Beryl likes fashion
Obsidian likes weapons

It is no exaggeration when I say by the time I finish my next series, I will barely who any of these guys are.

Speaking of the Lunarians, they are just kind of some sort of eldritch abomination. They are hinted at the very end to have some sort of sentience beyond what we normally see and they are hypothetically part of a trio with the gems and the fish people (oh yeah, there are fish people. They also don't matter after a couple episodes). And eldritch abominations can work for the main antagonistic force, that's kind of what Madoka Magica did with the witches, but then you need to tell an interesting story around the protagonists.

And it has no real thread to go on, just whispers of arcs.

Should we care about Cinnabar? Phos and Cinnabar don't interact once for, like, half the series after the first episode and the only solution to giving Cinnabar a fun job they'd enjoy we see proposed is a job that explicitly isn't fun.

Should we care about Diamond? They seem to disappear after Bort starts teaming up with Phos.

Should we care about Alexandrite? We barely know her. It's even worse for Padparadscha.

Even Phos is a completely different character from the gem we knew at the beginning of the series.

(it's also worth noting that this show does not end on a satisfying note and you'd need to read the manga after, fwiw)

I really wanted to like this series but it was just a boring slog with no characters I could get attached to. If nothing else, give it up to Orange for trying to make the best of a bad situation.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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