Land of the Lustrous, the Queer Body Horror | Video Essay

SPOILERS AHEAD!
Body horror has existed for many years now. The portrayal of queer-like characters has for a long time had problematic depictions in horror media. Although it may be a stretch to fully claim the Lustrous as queer, through the politics of subtitles, depictions of body-dysphoria, and the hinting of Lustrous love, it is without a doubt to me the Lustrous are queer-like. Does this depiction of queer-like characters finally build change to the genre as a whole? Or is it more or less the same problems with a different skin? Let me know below!
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Bibliography
Darwin, Charles, et al. “Mutations and Metamorphoses: Body Horror Is Biological Horror.” Taylor & Francis, www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01956051.2012.654521.
Kaiser, Vrai, and Vrai. “Land of the Lustrous, Singular ‘They," and the Politics of Subtitles.” ANIME FEMINIST, 25 Jan. 2020, www.animefeminist.com/feature-land-lustrous-singular-politics-subtitles/.
Trans Women in Horror. “Blood, Bodies and Binaries: Trans Women in Horror.” 14 East, 18 Jan. 1970, fourteeneastmag.com/index.php/2019/01/18/blood-bodies-and-binaries-trans-women-in-horror/.
Wells, Paul. The Horror Genre: from Beelzebub to Blair Witch. Wallflower, 2007. "
Interested in the source material? Purchase Volume 1 of the manga on Amazon here: amzn.to/2XtZgZ1 (This is an affiliate link: purchasing from this link helps support the channel)

[@mothtastic7641]

if you liked the body horror you are gonna love the manga

[@cf8415]

Chapter 94 bro I C R I E D

[@stratojet8226]

I think Im all caught up and, bro, you couldn't stray further from gods light if you tried :v

[@quentinnabor7026]

Litteraly ch 90-95 I DIED

[@micanikko]

Bruh i was just gonna comment about those chapters.

[@mothtastic7641]

@Lochlan Jeremiah gonna be ex girlfriend lol

[@tehterminator3605]

As a trans person, I don't see how this series is damaging to the LGBTQ+ community. The characters aren't non-human because they're agender, they're agender because they're non-human. The gem aspect clearly came first, and the genderless aspect second In no way is this dehumanizing trans people. The gems are presented as virtually human outside of their body structure (I understand why you brought it up in the video, though)

[@am-xy6sz]

yes but surely you can see the issue with the implication that agender people aren't human, right?

[@naomi9413]

@@am-xy6sz did you even read what they said

[@am-xy6sz]

@@naomi9413 yes, I did. and regardless of the reasoning for the gems being agender, and the way it's done, the whole "non human character is agender" rethoric is still harmful to us as it feeds into that stereotype

[@mieowkid0931]

@@am-xy6sz so... bascially... what your saying is.. every animal that is agender that is not a human is hurting people who identify as Agender? and also technically- the gems are part human im pretty sure. i haven't read the manga in a bit tho so i may be wrong

[@Oueenazolatigressgina]

@@am-xy6sz you do realize that the main characters are gems? This entire series is basically the mc, Phosphophyllite's extremely painful journey about turning into a human

[@kayeanneotico1603]

Houseki no Kuni: Where body horror exists but there no blood and guts splattered around yet there will be scenes of gems in shattered pieces and Phos has her body parts taken away by Lunarians and replaced with other materials

[@cyberstevie]

to throw my own two cents in as a trans person, i wouldn’t necessarily put phos’ body changes as a transition thing either. irl a transition is something a trans person does to allow their personal identity to thrive, while phos’ situation is more like...suffering grievous injury and memory loss and personality change in exchange for a new, stronger aspect of identity that, in the case of their new head, isn’t even theirs. i’d say it’s more of an attempt to say something about prosthetics and disability, which is something i’m not qualified to discuss, but i can say that the narrative of losing your identity every time you have a surgery is not very good

[@fairsaa7975]

Agreed

[@Foogi9000]

Phos is a walking genderless Ship of Theseus metaphor. By Chapter 95 there's barely any of the original Phos left and everything is fucked.

[@lydiaspiros3987]

@@Foogi9000 she can't even recognize her original self

[@Oueenazolatigressgina]

@@lydiaspiros3987 "who's that?"

[@StylishWitch]

Yeah, u right. Houseki No Kuni feels like a play on the Ship of Theseus paradox. After losing so many parts and pieces, are the gems really the same after all that? Is Phos really still Phos? But at the same time, every piece of them holds memories. Our minds hold memories, their bodies doo. So in Houseki No Kuni's case, a violation and hurting of the body is a violation and hurting of the mind.

[@glitchy3400]

As a trans person I love this show. I don’t see phos’s changes as a rep of transitioning but rather a representation of losing themselves. Plus all the gems are not humans. And I love the story, plus the manga is amazing.

[@millipede8602]

To me, a disabled person who also has ocd, something about Phos's character felt very relatable. They're unable to do certain things the other gems can, they're fragile and can break easily. Phos WANTS to help out, they want to be seen by the others, but the way they were "born" makes that incredibly difficult, and because of that the other gems perceive Phos as lazy (and sometimes early in the show they kinda can be lol) and useless. Phos getting new parts is to me more metaphorical to a disabled/mentally ill person really wanting to do more due to pressure from society, wanting to work and not have others see them as a burden, but in doing so hurt themselves, ware themselves out, damage their mental health further, almost to the point of death. I'm not sure if the author of the manga intended this (I haven't read it) but that's how watching Phos's character progression felt to me as when I was watching the anime I was in a similar position to them at the beginning.

[@ceton1843]

mhhh i take it a bit different. At the beginning phos truly is useless, their life has no meaning in the gem society and the other gems treat them as such. Partially this is due to their body which isnt their fault but its also due to their own laziness and faults. other than cinnabar phos is responsible for being in a position of uselessness. so when comming into contact with cinnabar they feel inspired to find a purpose fo cinnabar since they both expiernece the same kind of meaninglessness like no other gem does. Over the course of the story phos learns lots of new things about the world they live in. The bodys of the lsutrous serve as metaphor of their mind. Each time phos changes internally a part of them gets exchanged (refrence to the seven treasures in buddhism). To truly change means to longer be what you have been before, it means to die. This concept of death in the shape of change is foreign to the gems which is why after winter everyone is suddely so fascianted by phos. Phos dies repeatedly over the story to the point where they no longer recognize themselves at the end. This ongoing change is the result of phos constantly learning new things and their drive to do right and for it to be recognized as such by the other gems... to have meaning. This results in what seems like never ending destruction in the pursuit to do right. To expierence immense suffering by being pushed away from everyone because of ones pursuit of happines for everyone is what makes phos human at the end of the story. Truly brilliantly written. to get a better take on phos trasnformation you should read the manga. the anime only lightly scratches at the surface.

[@whatthehell8418]

this!! i always found phos painfully relatable as someone who deals with horrible executive dysfunction and often feels “useless” despite wanting to be helpful. i can only imagine how much more so for someone who deals with chronic pain/some other disability

[@forestmint213]

yeah this is the same i way i feel about it and why i love phos.

[@mija7640]

4:56 Ive just noticed that you can see the twin's other eye trough their hair.

[@turtle8231]

of all my times rewatching land of the lustrous how come i never noticed that lmao

[@honeytlbadger4365]

It's an anime "trope" I guess to see the other eye through hair. However, to further that in-universe it completely makes sense since it's not hair but a thin slice of crystal, which would be transluscent.

[@olha2]

A couple of things I would like to point out: 1. I don't believe there is a romatic relationship between Cinnabar and Phos., Phos relates to Cinnabar at the start because of their similarities (Both doing useless jobs, well Cinnabars is useless and Phos believes her own job to be worthless and only wants to join the fight most others). Also while Diamond says it's romantic no such things have been portrait not even in the manga also, the fact that they are both physically very weak (Phos 3.5 and Cinnabar 3,0)., now while Phos is a burden doesn't do anything Cinnabar has chosen to take on a job she knows is pointless., so the difference being that Cinnbar refuses to be a burden. The gems are genderless and I believe them to be aromantic as well as asexual towards one another. (Let me know if you are up to date with the manga before I get more into this as I wouldn't want to spoil anything from this amazing show).

[@alexanderzangal4125]

It doesn’t make sense for literal rocks to have genders. Also it’s pretty cannon that having romantic feelings is restricted to the slug people.

[@cf8415]

Manga spoiler Do you think caringorn feels romantic/ sexual attraction to aechmea or is he just manipulating her? I was always confused about that

[@alexanderzangal4125]

@@cf8415 I will say this: it doesn’t make sense for rocks to have romantic feelings. It’s cannon that only the slug people have those @-@ Also kinda off topic but honestly shipping the gems together is kinda weird because they are kinda literally sisters @-@

[@alexanderzangal4125]

@@poop4200 that’s why I said “like sisters” lol Ofc they aren’t sisters but they did grow up as adopted siblings if you think about it. (Also technically speaking the shore of nanananancy or however its called is their mother lmao)

[@alexanderzangal4125]

@@poop4200 I- @@-@-@-@@ holly- the Manga goes dark-

[@WhiteCresentKnight]

It’s now likely that phos being broken and rebuilt is a visual metaphor for spiritual enlightenment, especially with all the Buddhist imagery

[@passionweasel3181]

i wanna point out that the anime isn't focused on the romance between phos and shinsha which is non existent, idk the reason the studio went with the route of making it have romantic undertones because the manga doesn't add to these things at all quite the opposite happens actually.

[@Foogi9000]

In the Manga it's very blatant with how Cinnabar hates Phos in the later chapters and how Phos doesn't even remember their promise. I believe that the creator of this video is just seeing what they want to see and trying to slide in their own narrative and biases.

[@emilyphillips7249]

It's pretty obvious that at the beginning of the manga know likes cinnabar and cinnabar feels the same for phos. Later as phos loses their body cinna starts hating them for forgetting their promise. They were pretty blunt about the way that the two characters felt about each other. For example when Did a was teasing Cinna while trying to figure out how to rescue this from the snail shell. Did asks if cinna likes this and we can see the character blushing... Kinda like they had a crush on Phos... Oh well, guess it was the studio pushing the romance when the anime DIDN'T have the blush

[@user-yy4ir2kz1j]

Calling phos and cinnabar's relationship romantic is so wrong lmao. You dont even need to read the manga to understand this

[@okbuddywhattheflip]

I personally am agender, and seeing Phos wishing they could get rid of their body is so relatable lmao

[@Ellotus13]

I'm sorry to be negative, but I feel you misrepresent what body horror is in the beginning of this essay. I can't be sure of course, but I feel you're working off from a premise where body horror is the opposite of psychological horror or more broadly horror that's focused on bodily harm. In your examples, there are a few which are body horror like The Blob, The Fly and arguably Alien, although I personally wouldn't count it in, but movies like Saw and most zombie fiction isn't body horror. The central image to understanding is the human body mutating as an internal function. It's the body revolting against itself, it's pathologic, detail oriented and it's main source of fear lies in the abject. It's not any old bodily harm, it's the specific horror of disease, decay, malformation and change of the body as a biological function. This is naturally a rough outline, but if you want to contrast the horror of Saw (someone harming you in a way that malforms your body) and say The Fly (the body changing in a horrible way), you see a very clear difference in the feeling and intention. You're still right in the sense, that HnK is body horror, but body horror isn't the same as bodily harm as source of horror.

[@anonybelle]

Nice video! Though I’m surprised you didn’t mention the way the gems can lose their memories through losing body parts, I feel like that contributes an interesting detail.

[@isitreallythatscary]

I did overlook that! Good point.

[@LunaticTrumpet]

This is why I love Land of the Lustrous. There’s so many ways to interpret this series. Every time I come back to this show I find something new.

[@turtle8231]

I've seen a lot of comments talking about something similar to this but I thought I'd point out that idek if I'd call land of the lustrous a queer story. Though every character is agender and asexual that's because they're non-human and have no concept of gender and sexuality. I can't really describe this story as queer because it's no where near the real world in terms of queer identity. What is a queer story without any concept of sexuality and gender. Edit: I do see how people see it as queer rep, to me it just never clicked but maybe that's cuz I'm not asexual and i fit into the gender binary😅 those thoughts aside I adore this series and I love how the author uses body horror in such a unique way (especially in the manga)

[@soooun8716]

one thing that I love about Land of the Lustrous is the fandom that makes beautiful and insane art pieces from the story and characters, playing with this theme between the "human-like" and gems themes of body horror, there's a yt video that talks about it in deep

[@Hopper_Arts]

Ohhh my god the body horror in this show makes me sick i love it You know what it reminds me of? That one Kikuo song "breaking things into pieces", some of the visuals towards the end look straight out of Land of The Lustrous

[@0mn0m15]

Phos is the William Birkin of the Manga and sooner or later, the show.

[@unrested]

I’m guessing you didn’t see possessor. Proof body horror isn’t dead seeing as it came out in 2021 although I will say it’s pretty rare in film these days. I hope to see more in the new re Netflix series infinite darkness

[@isitreallythatscary]

Body horror lives!

[@fairsaa7975]

Glad to see you uploading again man, really enjoyed the Firewatch video. Gonna go watch this before I watch your essay, be back when I'm ready.

[@tekinafiction9324]

as a transmasc person, this video makes me so happy to see. thank you for making it :)

[@elphie2390]

Wait, what? How are you gonna be a non-binary trans???? Please explain this to me so I can better understand ^^

[@kj6053]

@@elphie2390 Trans just means you identify as a gender other than the one you were assigned at birth. So all non-binary people are trans.

[@maplechrry]

@@kj6053 not all nonbinary people are trans. It’s a term to represent people who are outside the gender binary, or those who don’t exclusively identify as male or female.

[@nkyfong]

This is getting confusing.

[@kikiscribbles]

@@nkyfong sometimes people can be born unisex, which can be considered as them being nonbinary at birth if they choose to identify as such because of it being outside the biological binary. Sometimes people learn that they felt more like a nonbinary later in their lives, identifying as trans because they transition into a nonbinary identity. Hope this helps!

[@krow8940]

THIS IS AN AMAZING VIDEO!! I didn't think it was possible for me to love this show even more but you showed this new perspective I had never thought about before. great work

[@castleroque3218]

Loved the firewatch video! Cant believe you havent blown up yet dude! Subbed

[@piplup223]

Loved the vid :)! I hope u make more land of the lustrous vids again 😭

[@brigantiasmemerepository6439]

Buffalo Bill was clearly stated in the movie to not be an actual trans woman

[@mateo4508]

It think the gems or loustrous are agender and asexual,maybe aromantic but not sure about the last one

[@mosk4495]

they are cannonly non binary (the are neither male nor female), but i dont think they are asexual by default, maybe some are but they can defenetly feel arousal, in the manga there is a scene where a gem gets frisky with some magic ikemen, so they are all able of feeling arousal or cairngorm is just built differnt like that.

[@DavidGarcia-kw4sf]

Indeed. They are minerals and not biological. They do not age, nor become sick, they do not need to eat or even breath. When broken, they can be put back together. They are immortal and do not reproduce.

[@luizy6701]

@@mosk4495 wtf is aromantic?

[@mosk4495]

@@luizy6701 when we talk about sexuality we are really talking about attraction right? This type of attraction can be divided in two different categories: romantic and sexual. Sexual attraction is the desire of a interaction that causes sexual arousal , while Romantic attraction is the desire to have a profound emotional connection with someone (aka. You want a emotional romance). People who are Asexual are unable to feel sexual attraction, but they have no problems feeling romantic attraction (aka they can fell in love BUT they are not interested in having any type of sexual contact with their loved one), now [finally] Aromatic people: they experience sexual attraction, (they have a desire to engage in sexual interactions with people who they find sexually attractive), BUT they are unable to feel any type of Romantic attraction (they don't feel comforted by having a partner or by being treated in a romantic way, in the most extreme cases people can feel complete repulsed by the idea of themselves in a romantic situation) .... whY I wrote so much, I just needed to say that is like asexuality but backwards or something idk

[@mlordwhiteslayerfromf.u.g]

I'm not sure they even have sexual identity seeing as they are essentially non-biological beings. The social connections they form with each other aren't really romantic or sexual and any such feelings are remnant artifacts from before the bones were separated from the flesh and the soul.

[@littlestrawberryfaery]

It made me personally VERY happy seeing this as queer rep since we hardly get any positive queer rep. I didn't grow up with any queer rep so seeing any at all makes me over joyed.

[@enzozaqueu1759]

Awesome essay! I didn't think about the manga as a body horror at first as the setup was mostly 'alien' to me. Being a body horror that don't portray the queer body as an vile thing is really an step further to the devillanization and a good thing to see, wich set an expectation to see more of this kind of tragic, subversive theme and story with a queer setup that don't go to the wrong way. And I can understand your point of view as the anime portray the relationship of phos and shinsha in a almost romantic way as shinsha is a dramatic bitch and phos is in a rush to try to get closer, but in the end you see that it was mostly due to their (broken) personality and not a attraction.

[@lHabbeable]

Great job on the video! I think this one goes to my top list of Houseki no Kuni ^W^

[@rougestarlight4308]

You really need to read the manga, it's awesome!!

[@alexanderzangal4125]

1st they are gems, how do you expect rocks to have gender 2 nd they are gems they don’t have romantic feelings. The only characters that can have romantic feelings are the slug people if I recall correct. Heck not even the lunarians do.

[@alexanderzangal4125]

Honestly and even if they did it would be super weird since they are literally technically sisters ;-;

[@monochromeink.]

okey, spoiler time in the manga a gem and a lunarian get married. I haven't read the manga tho, I just know it

[@alexanderzangal4125]

@@monochromeink. yes I know, but I think we might need the context of that since lunarians and gems are canonly uable to have romantic feelings and iirc spoiler alert phos gets married with the prince of the lunarians so it could just be like one of those arranged marriages lol

[@alexanderzangal4125]

(I haven’t read the manga either lol)

[@monochromeink.]

@@alexanderzangal4125 oh, alright XD

[@esreiticduality]

thank you for the amazing video def a new light that I haven't thought about as deeply before

[@isitreallythatscary]

Glad you enjoyed it! :)

[@shinshin8527]

I love the land of the lustrous, I feel that in general there are many issues beyond, such as self-harm (at which point phos wanted to tear his arms off in the snow) and how he doesn't assimilate his own body and wants to change it but it only happens to who loses their identity, this story accompanied by body horror demonstrating the changes that the phos undergoes, is a clear metaphor of the ship of theseus and the sad story of the phos for changing, that's how I see this story, I even feel that it touches on deeper issues such as suicide and body dysmorphia, physical and mental inferiority, and the search to find an identity and a place to belong, without a doubt a great story 💞

[@someuser4166]

I saw something awfully similar to this back in 2012. A girl turned a woman's hand into glass or something like that and broke of her fingers. I've been trying to find out what anime that was for a while but can't seem to find it. At first I thought this might've been it but hearing this was made in 2017 it obviously isn't

[@Makanalanimakamae]

This is a super relaxing video I love ittttt

[@CygnusLaboratorys2056]

Huh, this was actually a great quality video loved it!

[@estarossa1847]

Having the gems be gems rather than humans seems pretty integral to the story

[@rougestarlight4308]

Houseki no Kuni is my favorite type of body horror

[@JXAChambers]

My friend, I'm sure this has been mentioned, but just incase it hasn't you should really watch Steven Universe. If you want to discuss the queer genre of Gem beings and t he body horror that is shattering, it's a must. The evolution of the series reflects the innocence of the main character and his growth as a being, so it does start out fairly kid-friendly, but when it gets into shattering and force-fusion, you'll see what I mean.

[@humanthetooth]

i dont see how them being "non-human" changes anything in relation to body horror, while technically another being in script they certainly have human figures which are being corrupted

[@shinoataya]

8:32 oh dear

[@Will0wisp_]

Why does the antarc clip scare me so much now also WHY ANTARC 😭😭😭😭

[@treeguardien]

as a normal human, i love the beauty of this series

[@kacisullivan9003]

Is Steven Universe referencing this at all? Queer crystal people seems quite the coincidence.

[@islandgyalr]

i didnt even consider assigning gender or seeing the gems as queer, they are gems .. body horror ok, but queer? part of what i liked about the manga was the lack of gender confirming parts imo

[@obakezoku]

This show is masterful 💚thanks for the analisis! I have my first amv in my channel, its a houseki no kuni one, it has a lot of references from the first to the lastests chapters till date with only the first anime season! Is it acompanied with one of the most iconic queer underground bands from Argentina 💚Hope u take a look

[@SugaMot]

As an agender person, I think it's way more damaging to the community when people insist on giving the lustrous gender. I cringe every time I hear someone use "she" to refer to Phos in a video. It's super invalidating Also, I think there's a strong argument that Alexandrite is trans. They insist on using the suffix -chan, which is feminine, rather than -san, which is gender neutral. And they also use "atashi" the feminine form of "I" rather than "watashi" or "boku." They are also a gem that *transitions* between green and red

[@dhe-origjin]

Akhem, know you about romantic attraction not? It's not an exeption for aceness.

[@j99044]

lmao is every film gonna be considered “queer” now

[@IDontLikePplPlayinOnMyPhone]

So….is it possible to define a Queer identity as a VERY simplified way to give a label to a person’s sense of self, when it does not fall under certain accepted biological expectations, archetypes, roles, and personalities according to the majority mainstream society? In my personal view of humanity, each of us, internally, is a self aware agency m/witness that’s effected by our material form but not defined by it since it’s our mind’s choice of how to respond to the outside world, including the body, that is definitive. I’m asking w absolute sincerity and not to be controversial btw. Also, i have to say, I don’t think I agree with the thesis of this video. Let’s take one example; Norman Bates. He’s in no way understood as being a trans woman, or “cross dressing” as they would have said in the time Psycho came out. What’s relevant about the womens clothing has nothing to do with gender and is solely based on his Oedipal and lethal obsession with his mother. His codependency with her has left him shattered after her death and he’s dressing in her clothes for a sort of worship or his own way of keeping her “alive”. A more critical eye would see this quite easily in most examples given. They are grounded in plot and not there as a way to reject trans or non binary people or to comment on anything of the sort. Norman was messed up and killed women because of his super unhealthy and dangerous relationship to his mother (and fictional, genre film). One example that DID demonize the idea of trans women might be Silence of the Lambs, but again, you can say Buffalo Bill idealized and objected the female form to the degree that he didn’t want to just identity as a woman, he wanted to literally exist inside the flesh of one. Ok. Now that I type it, i can see that being unhelpful, but i highly doubt anyone of sound mind is going to connect that to a community the same way no one thinks all black men are Candy Man or all gay white guys are Jeffrey Dahmer or straight guys Patrick Bateman from American Pyscho. I think they just wanted to make a villain who wanted to wear peoples skin to make the story edgey and the reasons they give in the film was the best (or at least easiest to write) rationale for it. I think this type of critical theory in media does have a function, but I also think it’s used in recent years more recklessly than the Christian Right who used to try and ban or censor every piece of music or film that had any superficially unpleasant or unfamiliar content, taboo or otherwise. I don’t see Land of the Lustrous as a queer project, the characters are merely not human. It’s fiction, it’s fantasy. Fantasy beings made of gems and minerals having no gender isn’t a choice that’s hard to understand for the mangaka to have made. Just because the biology of the beings shown doesn’t match directly with biological Homo sapiens doesn’t mean it has anything to do with the “everything is political” lens of American audiences. However, If your identity or sense of self is somehow inspired by it, than more power to you. I suppose I’m all on this topic because I feel like this is an attempt to force and normalize a group identity on those of us who are defined by their own uniqueness and I would rather see that be empowering in itself instead of comparing something like your essence to something so nebulous. Just a bunch of messy thoughts anyhow, love to everyone. And still an interesting idea and good essay.

[@goldengaming3917]

Yes. This is what I feel. No problems to any community, but not everything is made to show some sort of political agenda. Some things are just made for entertainment, and may have a greater lesson that may or may not relate to gender/politics.

[@MsFae]

I don't know if you have seen the whole movie but it's stated clearly that Buffalo Bill is NOT a transgender woman. Maybe it's the mandela effect in action

[@nathanpolilla8767]

I'm trans non-binary and this is my favorite manga ever, I don't think it's damaging the community, in my case it even helped me when I was questioning my own gender because it gave me this "neutral" ground of neither this or that, just you. It also probably helped that I love gems and other minerals, but the other queer people I've introduced to the story are really surprised and happy by this idea of genderless sentient rocks.

[@yukidandelion8537]

Spoiler warning: they are not hunted to be turned to jewelry, the gems were hunted to grind them up to make the moon shine and hopefully make Kongo pray so the lunarians could disappear. I think that calling these gems queer is wrong as you would not call a chair or a cup queer as it does not have gender. The gems have no concept of gender or sex, I also feel the relationship between phos and cinnabar is not romantic but more relatability and jealousy. Phos relates to cinnabar as they share a low hardness and can’t do any jobs as it would just hurt the people around them. Cinnabar is jealous of phos as everybody likes them. Even the lunarians want phos for their rare teal colour. These gems are shaped by Kongo to look equal and to mimic humans as Kongo is their teacher, at the end of the day these are rocks and are incapable of having gender. I also think that this manga/anime is more about the concept of humanity than gender. IM JUST SAYIN : READ THE MANGA

[@FrootDeMoN]

This kind of horror is interesting

[@ozorcus]

I didn't watch the video, cause before that i wanted to ask why there's Queer in the title?

[@unrested]

Japanese pronouns work different? Huh? How I live in japan and speak Japanese. Sentence structures often assume the subject being talked to and don’t always begin with identifying one but that is usually due to polite form Keigo or if there are 2 subjects in the room. But male and female subject identifiers do exist and when used are done in the same ways as English. So how do Japanese use pronouns different?

[@mlordwhiteslayerfromf.u.g]

I guess it's because of the large amount of gender neutral pronouns. I dunno alot tho so I could be mistaken.

[@leofotia]

do i realize that it can be harmful to compare gender transition to something as obviously negative as phos's trauma regarding the loss of their limbs, memory, and personality? yes. do i still like to think hes trans bc im trans and the thought of it makes me happy? Also yes

[@IDontLikePplPlayinOnMyPhone]

Not to be THAT guy, but Eraserhead was NOT “popular” or even really know/seen by too many ppl outside of internet-less cinemaphiles, like the type who actually went to art house theaters (I did!) , and on top of that, who specifically enjoy super experimental, surreal and black and white “avante-garde” films. I don’t think that was a very large number of people…

[@pruneauxyz]

Body horror ?! Houseki no kuni is PURE POETRY !

[@northernalpine4350]

people who has a mutilation fetish: *JOKES ON YOU IM INTO THAT SH&T!*

[@tehterminator3605]

Why did you censor "shit" but not "fetish"?

[@northernalpine4350]

@@tehterminator3605 one word youtube

[@espada0687]

Norman Bates isn't trans

[@ivangutierrez7602]

this is 17 minutes of saying almost nothing beyond the title?

[@mooshinu]

What a load of absolute BS

[@charlesballiet7074]

meh its just a fetishist version of attack on titan