#hnk analysis

OG Phos vs Moon Phos

While OG Phos used to be a lot more present-focused and someone who took things at face value, that also made her capable of reaching out in a very honest and genuine way to people like Cinnabar, who was too caught up in her mind and insecurities to see an escape for her situation. Phos used to be someone who was able to enjoy the moment, and the simple things that come with it, whether it was the butterflies, the amazing views, or her own cute mint-colored hair.

I'd argue this way of experimenting life is what HnK argues to be the key to happiness: that existence is what you make of it, and Phos was content as she was, but everyone around her pushed her to become something else, to the point that she absorbed those frustrations and lost sight of her way of living.

What corrupts Phos isn't that she acquires new body parts; that's just an extreme metaphor for what changing would look like if our soul also experimented physical change—it's all about how she loses sight of the simple happiness she could have experimented on her own (and along with Cinnabar, if she reached out to her), in favor of increasingly more complicated goals. (Moon Phos is the extreme version of this.)

Phos' corruption into overthinking doesn't come out of nowhere, though and it starts to manifest strongly the moment she loses herself in the stress and burden of losing Antarc in Winter. Phos does retain some of her groundedness as post-Winter Phos, but she also starts to think more, to question more things and to brute-force her way into change, with disasterous results.

When she realizes this, she makes the right call by trying to stop, but it's too late by then—she had already stared at the abyss, and the world wouldn't let her forget all that she had learnt.

When Phos loses her head, now she has all the tools she needed to generate change and innovation—to look at the big picture and avoid getting caught up on the little things... and that's her demise.

Because in comparison with OG Phos, who looks at the present, Moon Phos is someone who always looks forward. Someone who always uses reason as her greatest weapon, in order to manipulate others while losing sight of many important details (some related to her own well-being and that of others) in favor of big, complicated plans in which everyone's feelings, even her own, are just pawns in her game.

Cairngorm explicitly warns her about this, saying that she hasn't valued those at her side (Cairngorm herself, or Cinnabar) as much as she should, and that's why she's become such a lonely individual.

Moon Phos is someone who lives in her head, in the world of ideas and the abstract, while OG Phos was the complete opposite, and the change in approach has a direct impact on her happiness, as she loses sight of the simple things in favor of objectives that just don't translate into happiness as well as she thinks she does. Moon Phos optimizes, but loses the essence of happiness that she could have achieved in a simple manner by focusing too much on "what should be" rather than "what it is".

To put it succintly, Moon Phos is brute-forcing her way into being accepted, into bringing change for her people, losing all the tact that was needed for a moment as life-changing as a pact with the lunarians could be for the gems. And if OG Phos had something that Moon Phos didn't, was that ability to look at things in a simple way that would have avoided such a mess in the first place.

By talking about both of them, I think it's clear that each have their strength and weaknesses, and that's why talking about Phos is so difficult. Because even if she lost many of the good things that made her who she was, she also gained many others that brought "prosperity" for the gems. Prosperity in quotations because later, we'll see that the optimization didn't really bring many benefits.

Whatever the case, in order to truly understand the strengths and weaknesses of Moon Phos, we need to analyze her sacrificial role in the story according to the themes of buddhism in it.

The Bodhisattva

A sacrificial figure in Buddhism, and that Phos, especially Moon Phos, represents to a T.

But why? Well, one of the fundamental characteristics that the Bodhisattva represents is that they work towards enlightenment in order to save others, being a kind of Buddha in training. The problem here is that sometimes, saving others requires for the Bodhisattva to sacrifice their own happiness and enlightenment.

Phos becomes the opposite of the teachings of buddhism. Hyperrational, manipulative, working towards her own desires and masking them as altruism. (because we all know Phos didn't do everything she did for the gems, she did it for their validation and to be acknoledged by them). And yet, the contradictory part of it is that it was necessary for everyone's enlightenment, but most important of all, for Phos to be given the chance to be happy, away from a world that pushed her to be rational.

Buddhism has this constant theme of paradox in it. The paradox that in order to reach happiness, you must let go of happiness. The paradox that in order to realize that you must focus on the present and stop thinking, Buddha had to spend years thinking about it. And Phos is a living paradox, in the sense that her hyperrationality and look into the future and big picture was needed for everyone to reach happiness, at her own expense. She was played a fool by everyone, and it's even implied that Kongo was on it, all because she was the one most attached to her earthly desires of them all, to the point of changing every part of herself in order to accomodate to what she thought others wanted her to be.

In a way, Moon Phos (and the lunarians, because it's no coincidence that the "lunarian" Phos is the one that represents these themes) doubles as a criticism of our present capitalist society as a whole, with all its hyperrationality and big-picture focus that allowed for progress and suffering alike, always at the expense of oneself. Because we're our own slaves, and we work ourselves to death to reach a happiness that is further and further away from us due to those same efforts (paradoxically). All Phos wanted at first was to be loved by those around her, but she chased that dream with such relentlessness that she ended up casting away the parts of her that made her loveable and losing the people that would have been able to connect with her. And yet at the same time, Moon Phos (and the lunarians, the rationality, Ayumu herself) paved the way for God Phos' chance at happiness at the end of the story.

A Paradox

Thus, to the question of how to live in society and be happy, Houseki no Kuni poses that the answer is balance, or perhaps, a paradox. It showcases the ugly but necessary aspects of humanity, and the reality that every time you gain something, you lose something else, through Phos and her loss of body parts that benefitted society at her expense. Thus, there is no right extreme, and no goal that can be achieved by just rigidly doing the same thing.

Whether you look at the enlightenment buddhism promises you (as showcased by the way of living of the gems, simple but without meaning and creating resentment between everyone, with a literal buddhist monk as its leader), or the prosperity that civilization achieves (as showcased by the lunarians, who corrupt and surround themselves with earthly pleasures to distract themselves from their problems), both have their strong points and weaknesses and seem paradoxically necessary to reach one another, to ultimately work towards the goal of enjoying existence, as it is, unabashedly.

The gems truly found happiness on the moon due to finally allowing them to be themselves, and eventually, all the lunarians (including the gems, who turned into ones by virtue of corrupting themselves with the eartly pleasures), reached enlightenment by letting go of those desires. Of course, if you analyze it more, it was a "fake" kind of salvation, and only Phos reached true happiness in her God form (expanding more on it on another post), but at least they got to enjoy more of their life than they would have if they had continued in the endless cycle they were put in (or the "samsara").

In the end, Phos had to gain the rationality that characterizes present-day humanity in order to save everyone, while at the same time, condemning herself. Because for all their short-sightedness, destruction and cruelty, humans are also kind and wise, and they allowed the rocks to live just that little bit more by escaping the sun in chapter 106. Both the optimization and the relaxation and appreciation of little things are necessary in order to become happy, and we need to find the balance in the different aspects of ourselves in order to do so.

As Phos herself says at the end of the manga, despite it all, she is grateful. Because no matter how she got there, every step of her journey was necessary to make her who she is—and that's how it is for everyone. Experiences mold us, they change us, we can't force change and we certainly can't predict where it'll take us... and that's the paradox. Because sometimes, working towards the result we desire leads us astray from it, and viceversa. Phos was someone who had her eyes set on a goal, one that she didn't want to admit: the goal to be admired and loved by everyone.

And in the end, she had no one.

Moon Phos was necessary, but she took it to an extreme and burnt herself up along the way. Thankfully, she was granted a second chance by the very same flawed people (Kongo, Aechmea, Ayumu) that made her into a sacrificial lamb for their own selfishness.

A chance she took to finally accept that no matter what she did, there was no predicting life or changing yourself to an "optimal" version of yourself, so she might as well enjoy the ride.

The Land of the Lustrous: A Story We’ve Seen and Yet Not Seen Before

When it comes to creating a unique world filled with simple and yet morally complex characters and using them to tell an intriguing yet divisive story, I can only think of a few mangaka who’ve done this well. I know there are a few notable ones, but the ones that come to mind would be Q Hayashida with her series “Dorohedoro” and Paru Itagaki with “Beastars.” I think it’s safe to say that Haruko Ichikawa can be added to this list, too, because of “Houseki no Kuni/Land of the Lustrous.”

Now I want to emphasize that Ms. Ichikawa didn’t reinvent the wheel when it comes to storytelling. Far from it. At least in the beginning of her story, she used many recognizable story tropes that are usually expected in a coming-of-age story like this. These tropes include, but are not limited to:

The "fish out of water" narrative

Struggle with identity

Loss of innocence

The pivotal clash against familial dynamics

Rebelling against a status quo

Journey for personal growth

All of these happen within Houseki no Kuni, so on the surface, it does seem like it is just going through a journey we’ve seen many times before. This doesn’t make a story bad in anyway! It just shows that many of the events that occurred within this story fit a timeline that we’ve seen time and time again in a typical coming-of-age story.  However, I’m sure some of you may agree that despite this, Houseki no Kuni feels anything but typical.  Why is this the case?

Unique Premise: Deconstruction and Embodiment of Buddhist Teachings

I believe one of the reasons why Houseki no Kuni stands out so much, besides its unique art style, is its theme. Haruko Ichikawa had such an interesting approach in how she embedded Buddhism into this story. I took a quick look around online and as far as I’ve seen, there doesn’t seem to be many manga series that focuses primarily Buddhism, surprisingly. Yes, there are series that includes it, though it’s usually to a small, almost insignificant degree, like having a side character being Buddhist or something minute that doesn’t have a big impact on the overall story. Other than Ichikawa’s one-shot collection, I couldn’t find any other series where this religion plays such a prominent and integral part in the story like this. And what makes it even more fascinating is that Ms. Ichikawa did it both overtly and (somewhat) subtly.

Examples of Ichikawa overtly showing Buddhism themes in the story:

Visually: There are so many examples to include here, from how the Lunarians appear as Buddhist bodhisattvas or enlightened beings (which is ironic) when they arrive to earth to the lotus flower. The lotus flower, in particular, is a recognizable icon from Buddhism and it’s a striking visual motif that appears numerous times in different forms throughout the manga, especially with Phos. I’m positive that even someone who doesn’t know much about Buddhism would recognize that this flower is significant to the religion.

Through storytelling:

The remnants of humanity being separated into three kingdoms that reflect the three realms of Buddhism:

The lustrous/gems = The bone = The Form Realm

The Admirabilis = The flesh = The Desire Realm

The Lunarians = The spirit = The Formless Realm

The illusion and loss of “Self”: Phos embodies the teaching that concept and attachment of self is an illusion that leads to suffering, which is called “Anatta.” 

In relations to that concept, Phos also embodies “Samsara,” the cycle of suffering and “rebirth,” and “Anicca,” the concept of impermanence or constant change. Phos continuously changes physically and mentally throughout their story, and while they gained from these changes, they also lost of themselves in the process. While the concept of losing yourself may be scary, it’s an embraced belief in Buddhism and it’s the main theme of this story.

Examples of her being subvert (at least to me upon first read):

The gem society’s strict routine way of living (or not living) is very similar to how Buddhist monks live while living in a monastery.

Concept of Nirvana and how the Lunarian’s ideation of Nirvana, their society on the moon and their strive to acquiring the gems, being flawed, superficial, and false.

The fact that the series ended at chapter 108, which is a sacred number in Buddhism. From what I understand, 108 is the number of earthly temptations one must overcome in order to reach true enlightenment, which Phos was finally able to accomplish. I only know this thanks to readers who had previous knowledge about this.  

I won’t delve too much into this factor because my understanding is limited, and I don’t feel that it is my place to do so. For while I’ve read a bit about Buddhism for my own reasons, Buddhism isn’t my religion or part of my culture, and I think it’s more appropriate for someone who is/ was part of this culture to talk more about it and its themes. Still, I hope I emphasized enough how Haruko Ichikawa embedding the different ideologies from her sect of Buddhism played an important role in making Houseki no Kuni stand out amongst other coming-of-age stories. But this isn’t the only thing that she did to make this story feel so atypical.

Simple and Yet Layered Morally Gray Characters (At least some of them…)

It's interesting how Ichikawa showed the different aspects of human nature through the different beings in this story. From the Lunarians, to the Admirabilis, and to the Lustrous themselves. The soul, flesh, and bones. All of them are so simple in appearance and nature, but when you go deeper, one can see how multifaceted some of them truly are. In fact, I even claim that almost none of characters within the story solely belong in the white/good or black/bad position on the morality grayscale. Most of them are all morally gray, but though their shade varies from one another; some characters may lean on the lighter shades while others may lay within the darker shades, and it very much depends on the reader’s views to determine where the characters fall on the grayscale. It’s one thing to have a handful of characters like this but having most of the cast belonging on different positions in the morality grayscale somehow makes them feel more well-rounded than one dimensional. I suppose you can say that these characters retained more aspects from their human ancestors than just their appearance.

However, that can’t be said for everyone in this manga. I’ll talk about this a bit more in a later section, but I’d just like to point out that there are plenty of characters within the manga who sadly can’t be put on the scale because they simply didn’t have enough time to show their depth. These characters, at least to me, do end up feeling one dimensional and they don’t provide enough information to help readers figure out their morality. I know it’s not important for each single character in this series to have some level of depth, especially since the cast is very large. However, it was a bit frustrating during times when the manga seemed to be trying to make me care about certain characters who doesn’t leave much of an impression to begin with. Like I said, I’ll try to go into more detail about this in a later section, but I hope you still understand what I’m trying to say.

You know what? I want to try something out on a few characters. These are just simple analyses of random characters from the series, and I would love to hear other people’s thoughts on these. Heck, if you have any characters you want to psychoanalyze, please feel free to add to the post!

Admirabilis ruler Ventricosus:

She tricked Phos and put them in a position that allowed the Lunarians to capture them, resulting in Phos permanently losing their legs.

But she did so in order to save their brother. And despite that being the reason Phos was in this position, she and her brother saved them.

Does the Admirabilis’ later actions make up for them helping the Lunarians in attempting to kidnap Phos? Where would they fall on the morality gray scale?

Cicada:

Now, they were the first person to greet Phos when they arrived on the moon. They were also our first glimpse of what the Lunarians. Because of how nice they are with Phos, and how willing they were to help them with their plans, it can be easy to label them as “good.”

But at the same time, they actively participated in capturing and destroying Gems before and after Phos joined their side. Though they did it because it was part of Lunarians’ ploy to try to get Kongo/Adamant to pray, would you label Cicada as a morally “good” character or “bad”?

Barbata:

I remember this character being a fan favorite. Like Cicada, Barbata was pretty nice to Phos and was probably the most straightforward with them when it came to the Lunarian’s mission with the gems. Through the few times we’ve seen him in the manga, he seems to be one of the few Lunarians, besides Cicada, who seems sympathetic to Phos’s plight and was really receptive to the gems integrating into their society, such as Amethyst 84 becoming his student. Plus, his experiments had been for the sake of helping the remnants of humanity.

But do these absolve Barbata of their involvement with the Lunarian’s past actions towards the Lustrous or Admirabilis?  Compared to Cicada, Barbata seems the most neutral when it comes to morality due to his limited direct involvement with Phos’ story.

Lapis Lazuli and Ghost:

In different ways, these two gems had left huge impacts on Phos and the progression of their story, though they their presence wasn’t there for very long. Where on the scale would they go?

With Lapis, they were known for being very smart and curious before their demise. They were one of the few gems who encouraged Phos to think hypercritically about their current circumstances, especially when it came to Adamant and the Lunarians. However, Lapis was also known for being very manipulative to those who knew them for personal gain and who’s to say that Lapis’ encouragement was solely for Phos’ benefit or if it’s connected to Lapis’ lingering curiosity. With how Phos’ story progresses thanks to Lapis’ influence, where do they belong on the morality scale?

Similar case with Ghost, though more so indirectly by influencing Cairn’s role in Phos’ development. It was hinted that the relationship between Cairn and Ghost was far more complicated than what was presented. From what I saw, their relationship wasn’t healthy since the true nature of said relationship seems to be built on both codependence and resentment from one another, with Ghost blaming Cairn for Lapis’ demise and their own moments of weakness. I’d say that because of Ghost’s influence on Cairn, it contributed to Cairn developing the unhealthy mindset of their role in the gem society and in Phos’ life, such as agreeing to Antarctictite’s stand in for Phos and being willing to sacrifice their own head when Phos lost theirs. Whether intended or not, I think Ghost’s influence was what drove Cairn to feeling helpless and desiring their own autonomy, which they ended up getting through Aechmea. The more I think about it, their relationship teetered between being symbiotic and parasitic.  However, despite the negative aspects of their relationship, Ghost seemed to genuinely about Cairn and the other gems, despite Ghost putting distance between themselves and the others. And despite most of the animosity being shown towards Cairn, I don’t think Ghost was intentionally malicious and seemed to want Cairn to have their place amongst the others. But with what I’ve presented in mind, where would Ghost belong on the moral scale?

Again, because the manga didn’t focus on these characters too much, it’s hard for me to determine where they’d go on the morality scale. Maybe if the manga showed them interacting with the other characters more, I could have developed more definitive answers. But based on what I read and how I interpret these two gems, I’d say that they belong to the darker shade of gray.  

Okay, I originally just wanted to do the small analyzing on small characters that played a part in the main story, but I felt like I needed to briefly talk about two characters who not only are morally ambiguous but play big factors in the whole series.

Adamant/Kongo:

Unlike the previously talked about characters, who were only around for a handful of chapters, Adamant had been a prominent character since the beginning of the story. For most of the story, his ambitions and reasons for being have been ambiguous. I remember when the anime first came out, many reactors were debating whether Adamant was a good or a bad person due to how he interacted with the other gems, especially Phos. His stoic, stern, and sometimes harsh nature can give the impression that he didn’t have much love or affection for the gems, save for Antarctictite. This was an understandable belief seeing how he acted in the early chapters.

But time and time again, he’d shown that he not only cares about the gems, but he’d also go through great lengths for them. If he did not care about the gems, he would not  break pieces of himself to use as a weapon to destroy the Lunarians whenever they attempt to take them. Though the gems were limited in what they could do, Adamant gave them the freedom to choose what they could do within that scope, including Phos and Cinnabar. If he didn’t care for Phos, he wouldn’t have sought to help them figure out their place within their society repeatedly, nor would he have gone through great lengths to put Phos back together after they were shattered. Yes, it took over 200 years, but Adamant still did that for Phos when he could have just left him in pieces (you can see that as him doing a bare minimum, but the thought counts and it was more than what the moon gems did for them in my opinion.)

 And though he knew that it was because of him that the gems were suffering at the hands of the Lunarians, he continually did what he could for them, including encouraging them to go with Phos to the moon so they wouldn’t suffer because of him. And many times, throughout the manga, Adamant tried to pray; even though he knew he was incapable of completing the prayer properly, he still tried for the gems, especially Phos. Yes, he had yelled at them to the point that they’d shatter, it still doesn’t detract from that fact that he cared… In many ways, Adamant reminds me of a stern, over-protective father who learned to softens and opens up over time.

But even so, with his questionable actions towards the end of the story in mind, is Adamant a morally good person or bad person? Like the other characters, he’s a gray character. Though for me, I’d say he’s a lighter toned gray character, for while he’d done things that definitely don’t paint him in the best light, I believe his intentions were overall good. I know I’m biased since I remember defending Adamant a lot in previous posts, and though I had mixed feelings about his story arc’s conclusion, I think Adamant was probably one of the most morally complex characters who belonged to the lighter side of the morality scale.

Aechmea (Prince Yama/Enma)

Now here’s a character who certainly belongs to the darker side of the scale! Aechmea is the source of the suffering for many characters, both directly and indirectly. He was one of the driving forces for Phos’ changes, manipulating them from the start for his own goals and continued to have Phos beat to the rhythm of his drum even after he and the rest of the remnants of humanity were erased. Yes, he truly belongs on the darker side.

However… as easy as it would be to just claim that Aechmea is an outright evil, morally black character, he is not. He’s the antagonist, for sure, who’s done many terrible/gross/ morally questionable things to varies characters of this story, especially our main character. But despite all of that, I don’t think he can be considered a morally black character.

One of the reasons he doesn’t belong in that category is because of his motive for his actions. As it was explained in the later chapters in the story, Aechmea’s motivation is to end the eternal suffering for his people, for while they were able to create a Nirvana on the moon, it’s not real. It’s a façade to temporarily placate their suffering, and Aechmea is seeking a way to end it for them as well as the other remnants of humanity. Though I can’t say for all characters like this, morally black characters are typically motivated by pure self-gain with no empathy for others. While that can be applied to Aechmea to an extent and his methods to accomplish this involves the suffering of someone else, he’s doing it for the sake of everyone else. This makes me think of the phrase “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few,” and the more I think about it, the more I think this encapsulates Aechmea’s mentality fairly well.

Additionally, while he orchestrated Phos’ development, I hate to admit it, but it was not out of pure maliciousness towards them. In fact, in a twisted way, it led to both of them getting what they wanted; for Aechmea, it was freeing his people and the rest of humanity from suffering, and for Phos, defining a purpose within themselves and freeing those they care about and eventually, themselves. Funny enough, I read somewhere that again, in some twisted way, Aechmea and Phos share some similarities with one another in that they are both characters trapped in cycles of continued suffering who do terrible things for good reasons.  I kind of see it, though Aechmea clearly has more power in their situation than Phos did, so the comparison is still imbalanced to me. Anyways, back to my original point; despite all he’s done, Aechmea’s actions came from a place of care for his people and his desire to end the cycle of suffering by any means. Those are not characteristics akin to a morally black character.

Another reason that I hate to bring up is his relationship with Cairngorm. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve said it many times that I didn’t like how that relationship developed when I first read and for the most part, it’s still feels icky. And after rereading it again, it’s still wretch inducing.

HOWEVER… despite how this relationship came to be, Aechmea does somewhat seem to care about Cairngorm, and he gave them something that they wanted deep down: the sense of autonomy, even if it feels superficial. Funny enough, this kind of counteracts one of the themes of Buddhism, the illusion of self, which fits with the whole notion that the moon serves as a fake Nirvana for its inhabitants. Anyways, the point is that Aechmea encouraged Cairngorm to think for themselves for once instead of continuingly putting others (Phos) first. Remember how Cairngorm was willing to break themselves up and assume Antarctictite’s role for Phos?  Thanks to Aechmea, Cairn was able to say no. That is the only brownie point I’m giving Aechmea when it comes to this! I’m sure Ichikawa wanted to present their relationship as a good thing and I really wish she’d developed it differently, but that’s a storytelling criticism I’ll likely go into in a later section. For now, I hope I was able to present enough evidence to show that despite it all, Aechmea belongs on the darker side of the morality scale but is still not a morally black character.

You know what? Thinking about the morality of the characters from Houseki no Kuni made me think of the characters from Dorohedoro. If you haven’t read Dorohedoro, let’s just say that most of the characters, especially the protagonists, are morally.  I can’t think of anyone from that series that would fall under the “lawfully good” category; heck, I’d even say all the characters are a bit evil to a degree, though that doesn’t necessarily make them “bad” people. It just makes these characters, who also seem very simple at first glance, more complicated and fascinating. Though to be fair, there were some arguable evil characters in that story. Still, I highly recommend the series but please be warned that it contains some intense and disturbing imagery and subject matter that isn’t for everybody.

And of all the characters that has been able to encapsulate what it means to me morally gray, multifaceted, and yet simple and understandable, let me talk about our dear main character; Phosphophyllite.

The other way to argue immortality that causes boredom is to say that an immortal life would not be constrained by time, and, therefore, lack a certain urgency. Lacking the energy to actualize one's desires and complete projects would make life dull. This is labeled as "motivation-boredom" (361). While perhaps not as intuitive argument as content-boredom, motivation-boredom is an application of the common practice of procrastination at its most extreme. Where one may put off a task until the last possible moment despite wanting and knowing that they should have started that task earlier, people who support the idea of motivation-boredom believe people can and will put off everything indefinitely since there is no last possible moment. Motivation-boredom is best substantiated through the Earth Gems, but most importantly, through Euclase, an elder gem who displays more apparent control over the Earth Gems as the series progresses. Showing how this is the case is what the real substance of this post is.

First of all, Euclase's role in demonstrating motivation-boredom is something only Euclase can properly do. The other elder gems (i.e. Yellow Diamond, Padparadscha, and Alexandrite), are caught in problems regarding immortality that are outside of boredom. The same reasoning applies to Kongo.

Ironically, they acknowledge the idea that immortal existence fundamentally differs from mortals in a psychological sense, but they (through their own admission) ultimately seem unaware of how motivation-boredom affects their judgments. Before any budding criticism comes to mind in how the previous sentence is phrased, Euclase does only mention that an immortal being's sense of danger being distorted—not necessarily an immortal being's sense of urgency being distorted. However, the following paragraphs should demonstrate the compatibility and sometimes interchangeability between the two traits. Euclase's distorted sense of danger is actually rooted in Euclase's distorted sense of urgency.

Relative to other gems in the series, Euclase's conversations take a lot of focus on temporality. There are many examples. In fact, Chapter 4, their first major appearance, foreshadows this tendency. The third image shows a juxtaposition between Euclase and Phos in valuing time.

Another example early in the series (one in which credit goes to Shamu, for he pointed this out during our note-taking process of this video) takes place during Chapter 7 when Jade reports that Euclase dropped their schedule and is in need of more time to reassign roles for the future. The reason is indirectly linked to Phos, which hints at how Phos will impact Euclase’s future.

Euclase, contrasting from the Lunarians, values the benefits that come from the lack of urgency. With infinite time comes the infinite opportunities for conflicts to resolve. The earliest moments where this sentiment shows itself is through Chapter 41 and Chapter 58.

While a bit digressive for this post, Euclase's word choice incorporates time once more to compliment Phos' condition by returning from the moon in Chapter 58. There is an irony here in that Euclase's support for the idea that a lack of urgency eventually will towards positive outcomes through patience is vindicated through Phos. Euclase's encouragement to Phos could have only happened through the systemic neglect that Phos is under.

Chapters 60 and 61 display where motivation-boredom's consequences start to directly impact the plot. Euclase recognizes the threat Phos poses but fails to enact any action outside of sharing their suspicion to Jade and expressing an ambiguous threat towards Phos. Euclase failure here stems from two reasons. One is that Euclase misreads the identity of Phos. Lapis is a gem known for their analysis paralysis. Euclase, by believing Lapis has the most control over LaPhos, assumes that Phos would not follow through any plans with such haste. Furthermore, by predicting their actions through the Lapis-colored lens, they fail to consider what would happen if really is Phos in control, a gem that carries human-like tendencies to carry out tasks with an urgency.

The second reason originates from Euclase's inability to detect time constraints. Notice the juxtaposition between Euclase and Phos here: the threat not only fails to prevents the gems departing for the moon but actually hastens the result.

Even though Euclase manages to prevent a few gems from leaving the moon, it's a pyrrhic victory, suggesting once more how Euclase's inability to feel urgency causes negative results. Consider Rutile, whom Euclase successfully prevents from going to the moon. Rutile could have served as a pivotal piece in preventing the departure to the moon, for they were the only one to consider disseminating Phos’ plan to Kongo. Instead, Rutile’s psyche starts to take a turn for the worse in the series. Euclase’s failure here is multilayered.

Euclase starts to recognize urgency more due to Phos. Kongo's pending request for a self-imposed exile forces Euclase into action. Why Euclase feels compulsion to stay on Earth is slightly outside the scope of this post, but Euclase's argument for staying on Earth lies in identity and its connection to time. Note that Euclase's urge to make up each other's shortcomings results from Phos' actions as well as Kongo's response being tied to the relationship future life forms and the present day.

The scouting mission in Chapter 69 implies that Euclase's natural state is one that tries to maintain a state that avoids urgency when they can. Pad's analysis, considering their constant state of inactivity, suggests that Euclase's character has been unchanging for a while. The threat of Phos does urge Euclase and the Earth gems to respond with a defensive plan, however, as seen in Chapter 70. The following interaction between Phos and Euclase centers once more on time.

Euclase's decision for everyone to rest after the night raid lies upon the premise that relationship between Phos and the Lunarians is currently one of dysfunction. Urgency to act only comes when the danger is immediate and the time constraints are evident for Euclase.

When Phos is separated for 220 years, Euclase once again approaches the problem under the assumption that the amount of time to solve all the conflicts with Phos is not constrained by time. The following chapter shows Euclase's belief that Phos no longer endangers their safety; the small amount of motivation they have to ask Kongo to pray is caused not out of sympathy for Phos but instead of out consideration of the possibility that that Lunarians might invade.

While Euclase's reasoning to delay cleaning up during Kongo's birthday party may have justifiable reasoning, it does show how motivation-boredom even plays a part in casual situations.

Upon recognizing danger from Phos' imminent invasion, Euclase's response is to buy time, which seems rather indicative that their response to urgency is infinitely delay whatever causes urgency.

Through Alexandrite's action sequence, due to the positioning of Euclase at the start of the sequence compared to the other images, it almost seems as if Euclase is trying to delay inevitable danger by using their companions to buy time.

Based on Euclase's previous actions, their reasoning for their negotiation plea towards Phos expresses sincerity. However, as time has proven before, Phos shows that they need to be the danger in order for goals and desires to be reached. Euclase's shortcomings show that becoming immortal does not mean everything can be put off until later.

When wondering why Euclase fails to get anything done later in the series, a serious factor to consider is the influence of motivation-boredom. Euclase's passivity may not be entirely based on intentional callousness, for their existence and their relation to time distorts all decision making, and living as they have distances themselves from a perspective like Phos' and reinforces those distortions.

To wrap everything up, Houseki no Kuni frequently criticizes immortality. Does the depiction of both kinds of boredom claim are aspects that necessarily happen to those who have immortality? No. In a sense the two types of boredoms oppose one another, yet they coexist in this story. However, having these two kinds of boredoms correspond to a respective immortal species shows how these criticisms could happen to those who are immortal. Additionally, unlike content-boredom within Houseki no Kuni, motivation-boredom does not directly lead to unhappiness for reasons concerning the lack of energy to fulfill desires like its supporters suggest. Instead, the manga shows that those in power who lack urgency due to their immortality can lead to excessive and idle conservatism and eventual, destructive consequences by not recognizing and responding to time-sensitive issues. To me, that sounds more like a warning rather than a criticism.

The paper summarizes both types of boredoms, but interestingly, they reject these two concepts as sufficient reasons to oppose immortality. Originally, before making this post, I did not think either forms of boredoms had any merit, but analyzing Euclase has shown me that immortality would, while not necessarily causing motivation-boredom, a distortion of urgency within projects that would require it, thereby risking to harm one's quality of living. Furthermore, for supporters of content-boredom, reading "The Makropulos case: reflections on the tedium of immortality" by Bernard Williams may interest you. For supporters of motivation-boredom, I cannot say I have read them, but Fischer and Mitchell-Yellin's response on content boredom is based off of Todd May's "Death" and Martha Nussbaum's "The Therapy of Desire".

I’ll start my theories with this one, focusing on the Land where the gems live.

It’s said to be the only island on the entire world. It’s shape designs clearly that’s a meteor crater, probably the last one since it doesn’t seems to have been hit by others or any sign of destruction caused by another impact, but it’s just speculation here.

We don’t know with what frequence the meteors hit the Earth, but it’s probably a meteor shower of great importance, very similiar to the one that caused the K-T event, also called the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction. You know, when the dinosaurs died, but stretched on a larger amount of time, since sedimentary rock was capable of deposit from one impact to the other. On the rock in the Beach of the Beginning, 6 layers of sedimentary rock can be seen. 

It means years, at least. So, how many year passed from one impact to the other? centuries? millennia? We can’t know. 

We know what is it (an impact crater), but how long ago it happened? Some real life examples can help here.

The shape of the Land is very, very similiar to the Vredefort dome in South Africa, both as impact type and as erosion.

Vredefort dome is one of the oldest impact craters on Earth, estimated to be 2 billion years old, and one of the largest, originally having a diameter of roughly 300 km (190 mi). It shrinked to 70 km (43 mi) and lost half of his original circle, thanks to erosion.

Vredefort Dome and the Land are very similar, the shape being mirrored.

Vredefort Dome is a ringed crater, meaning it has concentric rings and not only a single circle, just as the one of the Land of the Lustrous, and it’s caused by a massive impact. One very clear example is the Valhalla crater on Callisto.

In my opinion, the Land was enormously wider than the one we see now, in the recent event of the manga and the anime. The more the crater shrinked and eroded, the more the crater is old. Usually, an erosion like that can take at least a billion years. This teory would also explain why the island is so flat: no mountains if not little hills seen sometimes in the background. They eroded.

Ok, so we kinda said the impact could be 1 GA (billion years) before the event in the manga or before, but can we be a little more specific? Yes, actually.

The first Gem to be born is Red Diamond.

Diamonds often forms under the great pression of a meteor impact, and they take roughly from 1 to 3.3 GA to form completely, on average 1.8 GA. 

The info overlaps with the one of the erosion!

But we still don’t know how many years Red Dia was born before this generation of gems, and we have no clue to know. Or we do..?

Carbonado is the type of diamond that takes the most amount of time to form, 3.3 GA. And Bort is the last diamond to be born on the Land.

As Phos’ agate legs are not really agate, Ghost Quartz is not really a phantom quartz and Jade is not really a jade, can Bort not be a bort, but a carbonado?

The mineral bort, or industrial diamond, is a simple diamond that cant be used for jewellery, be the size, the shape, the crystalline structure inside the mineral or the dark (metallic, black or brown) colour or the opacity, but it’s a normal diamond in its physical properties. Ballas bort (from “ball”) it’s more similiar to the Bort character we know, since ballas is a ball-shaped diamond, spherical and stronger and tougher than the gem quality one but always crystalline.

Carbonado is another story: polycrystalline and porous, it’s the is the toughest form of diamond. Just like Bort, and just like the character is the one that forms last, the youngest diamond.

So, Bort is probably born 1 or 2 GA after Red Dia, and Bort themself, in the present of the manga, it’s not even 1000 years old. It’s a lot of time, but the erosion on the Beach of the Beginning, shown in the present and at the time of the birth of Red Dia, is unequivocal, and not only of the rock itself.

The coastline is eroded, too. At the birth of Red Dia, the Beach wasn’t a beach at all. So the idea that Red Dia is born so many years before this actual gems generation is not that crazy. I hope.

So, my conclusion is that the last impact event, the one that formed the Land, happened between 3 or 4 GA before the events of the manga.

And this HUGE time frame would explain why there is no other islands or craters, too!

Craters on our Earth are found only on the mainland and never in the ocean. Why? Because the oceanic crust, the tectonic plate where the oceans lie, is heavier and thinner than the continental crust, and often subdues under another crust lighter and bigger than it and melts in the mantle. 

The subduction happens frequently with the oceanic crust, and it’s always replaced by new oceanic crust. If the other islands were on a oceanic crust that was being subdued, they are completely gone. 

But, maybe, the hope is not all lost. Not at all. Probably there is, at least, one other land, at the exact antipode of the world.

As said before, the type of crater left is a multiple ringed one, and that type of crater is the symbol of a very violent, stronger-than-normal impact, that causes a leak of the mantle at the antipode of the planet, called mantle plume. A thing similiar to an hot spot then, maybe a volcano! Volcanoes are famous to give birth to a lot of minerals. Maybe another island of gems?

My conclusions are:

the Land is an huge impact crater, eroded by years

it’s probably 3 or 4 billion years old

there could be another island in the dark side of the earth we didn’t see.

a little curiosity at the end of this big, crazy theory/analysis, just to say thank you to all has read everything: the school is a big block of quartz because in impact craters, the shock quartz is often found. It’s a special kind of quartz, created by the impact and the pression of the meteor. They are normally quite small but well, the world of Houseki no Kuni is not normal at all, so...

so I have a few very specific things I want to cover: Phos, Aechmea, Cairngorm, Dia, and the fate of the series. 

We’ll start with Phos. 

Personally, one of the biggest draws and attachments for hnk was phos’s transition from a sweet, naive gem to a depressed, anxious, horrifically warped individual. There’s not a lot of series out there where you can actually see a character become changed so drastically in such an intricate manner. I find character development, as a whole, to be extremely interesting. 

Phos’s transition has been building up for the entire series. They kept growing stronger, learned more- but continued to fail over and over again. They tried to make an encyclopedia, and failed. They tried to find a job for shinsa, and failed. They tried to help bring Ventricosus home and got betrayed and lost their legs. They tried to save antarc, and failed. Ghost was abducted trying to save them. They lost nearly all of their body. They couldn’t bring back the ground up gems. Their night raid was a failure and might’ve killed padpa. 

They’ve had a few triumphs- becoming stronger (although I’m ultimately not sure how much good this led to), giving the gems on the moon potentially happier lives (?), and help uncover more of the truth of their world. The gem abductions have seemed to stop entirely. And cinnabar seems to have finally reintegrated back into gem society through their efforts. 

Ultimately though, phos’s life has become full of constant efforts sustained on hope and bravery that almost always end in failure. At the end of the day, how could you not snap? How could you not become a self-doubting, depressed mess? In a world where everyone has given up on you in your efforts to stop the cycle of suffering, how could you not become the despair-filled person that Phos now is? 

I hope they get a satisfying ending. Phos has been fucked over from the beginning. They’re far from perfect, but I believe the things that ultimately drive them are kindness and a desire to end this cycle of pain for everyone- and I think that’s important to keep in mind. 

Now let’s go to Aechmea. 

This man really is an absolute lying bastard, huh? 

There’s no doubt about it- Aechmea straight up lied to EVERYONE about the fate of the other two societies (admirabilis and gems). Honestly, I’m not even sure the lunarians knew about it. I don’t think they did- he genuinely ran lunarian society on the operation that the gems and admirabilis would be around after they disappeared. 

Aechmea gives no indication that the fact that adamant will pray away all remnants of humanity is new information. It serves in Aechmea’s favor that he doesn’t tell anyone, either. While there’s certainly a few gems who likely don’t mind this fate (yellow), i imagine the bulk of admirabilis and gems wouldn’t desire such a fate. And how would the lunarians feel, if they found out the gems and the admirabilis would go with them, especially now that gems and admirabilis have all been on the moon for at least several hundred years at this point? 

Aechmea didn’t care if they took all the gem dust on the moon and tried to reform the gems. Aechmea didn’t harm any of the gems on the moon. He stopped abducting gems. He listened to their demands. Because ultimately, it didn’t matter! None of it mattered, because they’d all die alongside the lunarians anyways! 

I suppose I can find sympathy in their reasons for wanting to cross over to the nothingness. But at the cost of two entire other species? At the cost of killing so many other living things who likely don’t want to die- who don’t even know the fate they’re getting? Is there really nothing else that can be done? You got any lunarian therapy up there? 

Its a hard thing to discuss. Obviously I’ll never know the feeling of being given the ability to live for eternity. Could they have not chosen to build some sort of positive relationship with the admirabilis and the gems, rather than terrorize and use both of them for their own purposes? 

It feels so selfish. I suppose that’s not surprising, given how selfishness is just part of being human- or the personality and essence of humanity, at least. While selflessness is good, we all need a little selfishness sometimes. We need to take time to ourselves and do things for our own goods, rather than contribute ourselves 100% to others and completely burn ourselves out. It seems lunarians (or at least Aechmea) have selfishness in spades, to the point of being utterly apathetic to the fate of gems and admirabilis. 

Now onto Cairngorm. 

They look terrified and horrified the entire chapter. 

Cairngorm is certainly no stranger to the concept of death. They had suicidal thoughts during phos’s first 200 year coma (right after they’d lost their head), they brushed by death when their outer shell (Ghost) was ripped away from their body. They’ve outwardly expressed before how they want to go with Aechmea into the nothingness, and yet- here they are. Not excited, not happy, not anything near positive. 

There’s a giant difference between saying “i will die with you/i want to die” and actually, genuinely embracing death. Its so easy to say something, but so much harder to actually do it, and I think this is when cairngorm is actually, fully realizing this. 

I don’t know whether or not they’re suicidal anymore, but I imagine not. This is probably the happiest they have been in their entire life. Imagine finally overcoming the desire to die, to find a place that makes you so happy - and then to realize that you’re about to lose it all and become nothing. 

If there was ever a time for cairngorm to go against aechmea, its now. If we ever have a moment where cairngorm realizes aechmea lied to them, where cairngorm is finally going to become their own person without being under the rule and command of anyone else, it is now. 

Personally, I’m hoping they’ll somehow attempt to interfere and try and stop Phos, but I’ll cover this more when I talk about the fate of the series. 

Now onto Dia! This is probably the most lighthearted part of the whole chapter. 

They’ve finally shined under their own light. 

This is going back waaaaaaay far into the manga (like chapter 3), but we’re finally seeing some sort of resolution to Dia’s desire to become good at their own thing, without always being second best to Bort. 

I feel like Dia and Phos, at this point, had very similar feelings. Both felt insignificant and useless as a result of not being as good as a fighter as their societal expectations hold them to- leading to feelings of self doubt, and the desire to become better. 

A lot of people have called Dia selfish, for wanting to go somewhere where there is no Bort. Perhaps, a little bit. However, I don’t think Bort was purposefully trying to ‘show off’ and show how much better than Dia they are. They seemed to just be doing it out of the desire to protect Dia. But ultimately, Dia still felt very second-best to them, despite the fact that Dia should’ve been one of the best themselves. Yet their partnership was suffocating for Dia, constantly under the shadow of Bort. It just simply wasn’t healthy. 

But now Dia has found a thing where they’re able to shine under their own light- an idol!!! They seem really happy doing it. They have a whole crowd of adoring fans, too. (blows a kiss to the moon) this is for u dia u fuckin get em 

Finally, onto the last point: The fate of houseki no kuni. 

This really feels like we’re so close to the end, doesn’t it? But how close to that end are we?  As most of us are aware, chapter 80 is just the first chapter in volume 10. So, I find it very hard to believe that Phos is going to be successful in this particular attempt to get sensei to pray. A maximum of 21 minutes is certainly not enough time to tie up all the loose plotlines. What happened to Yellow? To Padpa? How are the earth gems? What about all the stuff that was happening between Cinnabar and Phos? What about the professor? etc etc im probably missing a few things, but you get my point. 

Personally, I think there’s either going to be a gem that wanders out and sees phos going apeshit, and manages to stop them. Or, we’re going to get interference from Cairngorm. Right now Cairngorm seems the most likely candidate, despite the fact that they aren’t physically there. (Boy, if they do that though, I’m afraid to see how aechmea will react.) But I don’t really find it hard to believe that one of the earth gems will wander out, unable or unwilling to sleep. 

Phos, obviously, won’t stop. They haven’t stopped trying for hundreds of years, why would they stop now, unless somehow they also bypassed whatever was preventing sensei from telling them “hey, you’re gonna kill everyone so maybe chill out”. I find it unlikely Sensei would do anything, however. He’s seemed extremely passive towards the gems lately (the most violent he’s ever been towards them was when he yelled at original goshe and morganite and accidentally shattered phos in like.. chapter 1) and aechmea said it himself- he doesn’t seem to be resisting.