I watched Land of the Lustrous in August 2020. Looking at its visuals and the uniqueness of the show, I was really excited to just dive in it and have some fun time. After watching this show, all I can think of is how did they get away with such awful character writing and plot structuring.
I've seen that a good number of reviews have praised this show, and I certainly understand why. This show was like a breath of fresh air in all fronts and graced our eyes with awesome visuals and a promising concept. However just because something is innovative or new doesn't equate to it being necessarily good. Let me explain why.

1) This show doesn't know in what direction it must take itself. Firstly we are slowly introduced to the world and kinda get an idea of who Lunarians are and the history of this world. It all was fine. However after that point, this show became a jumbled mess, which opened a lot of paths and didn't follow any of them. At the start of the show we are introduced to cinnabar, who we never get to see again, despite her role being important. Then the middle part comes which is nothing but your typical monster of the week saga. As this whole chapter closes, the viewers still don't have an idea of what the hell is going on this show and why its happening. We get introduced to more mysteries which never get cleared. It's that this show opens up multiple plot points which could craft a compelling story only to either abandon them, forget them or not resolve them. Mind you, this is not good writing, simply because it fails to invest the viewer in the show. This show is neither a slice of life which I could enjoy while being laid back nor a compelling introspective story. It tries to be both and fails. The direction of the story and how its structured is bad.

1. Characters- All are bland. Yes. I expected complexity in them, but all of them are your typical marketable archetypes. There is no issue with having a cast full of trope characters, but you oughta develop them or atleast make them likeable or distinguished for one to care for them. Bort is the "elite" fighter, Cinnabar is like the mysterious tsundere, who is meant to be the focus of plot, but is never developed. Master is the Alpha guy with an air of mystery. That's it. Antarc was a trope as well, but he was likeable and had some dimension to him. Now coming to main character, Phos. I will say this anime was meant to be a character study of her (I'm sorry im not using the pronouns). Many people seem to praise the portrayal of her character as being complex. An anime which explores the concept of being useless; What it means to grow physically and mentally. The desire to be strong, when you have limitations. The desire to change. The aspiration to be something you can't and what happens when you get to that point.

Themes related to self-discovery, insecurity, identity, change are always tricky to pull off. Phos's character was meant to represent these themes, but sadly the show doesn't do that. The reason why the plot is sacrificed and is structured in an uninteresting way is so to accommodate the dynamic development of Phos's Character. Which in itself is poor writing. However Phos's development isn't feeling organic or natural either. All we get to see is Phos whining because she is pretty much useless to her turning into a completely changed person. Why? Because of a cliched dramatic event, where something bad happens and the character turns into an absolute badass. Haha.
This is what Houseki no Kuni does, it tries to tackle complex themes in a shallow way. There are various directions they could've took Phos's story to. Maybe she could've went down the path of self acceptance and found other ways to make her self valuable or perhaps negative character development could've been the center of the show. It could've been truly complex and it would've been fun and engaging to see such complex themes being put to use. It never happened. The show opted to throw all out of the window. And presented them in a very simplified, uncompelling and cliched manner.
The show dumped expositions, sacrificed its plot structure and had various holes in its plot- only so Phos could be the central focus and they failed at it. It felt "deep fake" to me.

Just because Philosophical themes exist or is unique, doesn't mean it gets a pass. For something lauded and praised for being complex and enjoyable- this show was nothing but an disappointment. All expectations shattered.

Now I would like to say that the CGI aspect of the show is handled really well. The characters are genderless but for weebish marketing purposes they are drawn like females. The world exploration is pretty good. Graphics are great. Soundtrack and OPs/EDs are just fine. Due to CGI, The characters always look consistent, and it does help with camera movements, however sometimes the motion does feel stiff.

Thats all.
My conclusion is that it was a promising series, with a great premise, but a very sub-standard execution.
For that reason I give this show a 59/100