Houseki no Kuni Manga Thread - JFK is Inside the Moon dot com

Best Gem
	Phos
	Rutile
	Red Beryl
	Cinnabar
	Jade
	Diamond
	Bort
	Euclase
	Yelow Diamond
	Zircon
	Alexandrite
	Antarcticite
	Padparadscha
	Ghost Quartz
	Lapiz Lazuli
	Morganite
	Goshenite
	Phos, but with hosed Up Legs
	Phos, but with hosed Up Everything
	Obsidian?
	Did I already list Yellow Diamond
	The Left Amethyst
	The Right Amethyst
	Sensei
	Shiro

mycot: Oct 23, 2014; "It's okay. There are other Terminators! Just give us this one!"; Hell Gem

Today I decided to catch up on Houseki no Kuni :thonking:

I feel like a dummy because I'm not quite sure what was the point or theme behind all of that (other than human qualities really, really suck), but it's impressive that a story where everyone is so unlikeable is so enthralling

edit: The series could have ended this chapter and basically be a complete story, right?

mycot fucked around with this message at 07:03 on Oct 9, 2021

# ¿ Oct 9, 2021 06:25

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 23:06

mycot: Oct 23, 2014; "It's okay. There are other Terminators! Just give us this one!"; Hell Gem

Cephas posted:

I don't know if I'd say that. The manga starts on a scale akin to a personal mystery (what's the deal with my weird gem family and our monk patriarch? why are moon people attacking? what is my purpose?) and evolves to become a systems/philosophical mystery.what is the purpose of Phos's suffering? can scapegoating all of the world's suffering onto Phos really lead to a happy ending? What does that imply about the nature of the world we're reading about? Is it cruel, benevolent, hopeful...? If the story ends here, it seems like an extremely cruel and bleak story.

my instinct is that the story needs to return to the personal scale of Phos's subjective experience so they can get some kind of inner peace, or at least resolution, before the story ends.

Honestly yeah that is kinda what upsets me most about the whole thing. Everyone gets a happy ending complete with literally reuniting in heaven and it only took torturing an innocent soul for thousands of years.

Two thematic things I still don't get: what is the point of Cairngorm and Achemea's everything? What was with the parallels between Sensei and Achemea, with the latter stealing the former's face petting move? Is it all a red herring?

# ¿ Oct 9, 2021 15:16

mycot: Oct 23, 2014; "It's okay. There are other Terminators! Just give us this one!"; Hell Gem

Cephas posted:

The lunarians from times long past were able to line up and a few of them would be relieved of existence each day by Adamant, but to determine who got to be in line, they imposed a caste system. Aechmea decided to give up his high position in lunarian society to become a leader of the "trash" lunarians, who lived in a state of madness, tearing each other apart and regenerating each day (according to chapter 89). I think the Lunarians end up being a bit like both devas and hell beings (the lowest ones are "trash" and are ruled by Aechmea, whose secret name is Enma). So Aechmea ends up being very much aligned with Adamant, because Adamant is a manifestation of Ksitigarbha bodhisattva, who vowed to forgo his own enlightenment until the hells were all emptied of sinners, and Aechmea is Enma, serving as the administrator of hell.

Cairngorm is like... I think Ghost Quartz was a pretty serious person? So Cairngorm was this deep, strong desire that lived inside of them that wanted to come out. Cairngorm is the first gem to become human-like, because they fully renounce the Ghost Quartz part of themself and decide they want their own identity. Cairn seems like the first gem to develop a sense of gender identity, and sexuality, and desire for physical comforts. Their renunciation of the person they used to be in favor of reinventing themselves for the sake of physical pleasures puts them at odds with Phos, who is forced to grow and transform over the course of the story. Cairn wants to be rid of the Ghost Quartz part of themself, and live life as a pampered bad bitch princess. Phos can't let go of Antarcticite, and their desires are existential, not physical: Phos sees themself, and the world around them, as lacking. Phos wants a role, and wants to restore Antarcticite and save Cinnabar, and eventually wants to bring the curtain down on the world. So Phos is very much an idealist who finds both themself and the world lacking in anything worthwhile. Basically, the opposite of Cairngorm, who seems to have no philosophical worries whatsoever, and just wants to live a sensuous life and embrace the self that has finally emerged out of Ghost Quartz's shell.

The internal logic of the metaphysics in the story is pretty complicated. But I think maybe, like... Adamant is a machine bodhisattva, created by humans, to bring about their salvation as humanity began to decline. Humans are capable of enlightenment and of purifying the dead, but the meteors that struck the planet destroyed humans, and their aggregate parts reconstituted in the disparate forms of bone, flesh, and spirit. The separate beings are not capable of enlightenment or purification on their own. Adamant was the exception. He could release lunarians from their eternal forms. But because he was damaged by the meteor strikes (Caused by his brother?) that struck the planet, he became incapable of releasing the rest of the lunarian society.

It seems implied that Adamant's "flaw" is that he gained a small amount of desire for the companionship of the gems. Because they reminded him of his human companions, and he nurtured and cared for them, Adamant became incapable of wishing for the dissipation all forms of life.

On the moon, Aechmea was an exemplary individual who decided to take matters into his own hands to bring about the release of lunarians from stagnant eternal life. He surmised that the best way to do it would be to destroy the gems, thus depriving Adamant of the source of his desire for companionship. But once Phos entered the picture, and it became clear that Adamant was broken beyond repair, Aechmea realized that it might instead be possible to replace Adamant with Phos.

Basically, both Adamant and Aechmea realized that Lunarians were relying on Adamant for salvation. He had gone from being their savior to being an obstacle to their salvation. So both of them surmised that it would be better for bone/flesh/spirit to reunite, and become human, and become able to reach enlightenment on its own. They both realize the solution: "If you meet the Buddha, kill him." Adamant recognizes Phos as a human, and thus as his heir in having the power to pray. He instructs Phos to wholeheartedly pray for happiness.

The cliffhanger we're waiting on is that Phos has become human, but they're in a really lovely place right now, and it's evidently going to take them 10,000 years before they reach a point where they can wholeheartedly pray for happiness.

I think I can see it now. I could recognize Cairngorm as another example of how the gems are actually capable of extreme character development, like Phos, but while Phos gets closer to ENLIGHTENMENT, Cairngorm becomes more hedonistic. I guess you can say Cairngorm also became more human, but in a superficial way. You could probably bring up how they literally wanted to become a lunarian (i.e. human-ish) too. There is something unnerving about their relationship with Aechmea, but maybe they really are a gross schmoopy couple.

re: Adamant I interpreted it as he couldn't pray partly because he loved the gems too much to want them to die, partly because he became human-ish himself and has a Can't Self Terminate clause written something in there (which is why he couldn't destroy himself until Phos ordered him to). But I guess he must have literally broke at some point too based on the backstory and what Aechmea ends up doing.

# ¿ Oct 9, 2021 21:46

mycot: Oct 23, 2014; "It's okay. There are other Terminators! Just give us this one!"; Hell Gem

I understand missing when the series was a slow paced meditation on emotions and relationships because that's probably my favorite part too tbh, but the story was always going to end tragically

# ¿ Nov 26, 2022 22:19

mycot: Oct 23, 2014; "It's okay. There are other Terminators! Just give us this one!"; Hell Gem

Julias posted:

once the last chapter comes out i'm just gonna reread the whole series from the start yeah. The constant hiatuses really killed the pacing.

Yeah it's been 4 (!) real life years of what feels like an extended ending (everything past the gem massacre). It feels dragged out to follow it live but it's actually a really short period in terms of chapters.

mycot fucked around with this message at 01:57 on Mar 26, 2024

# ¿ Mar 26, 2024 01:54

mycot: Oct 23, 2014; "It's okay. There are other Terminators! Just give us this one!"; Hell Gem

Squidster posted:

All true and likely intentional! It's also just not particularly fun.

I was hoping for a payoff for Diamond's insecurity, for Cinnabar's keening isolation, for Rutile's obsession with reviving Padparadscha, etc. The series started with a wide engaging cast full of bubbly noise and quiet pathos, and now? Now it feels like even the author is exhausted with the work. Pray for me, author

Most of those got resolved around the same time Phos destroyed the school, though usually on a bummer note (sorry if this sounds like summarizing what you remember, I'm just using this as a chance to make my own comments on things)

White Diamond realized their happiness could only be secured with the destruction of Black Diamond.
Cinnabar was finally accepted by the other gems. The scene where Red Beryl presents them with a customized pod so that they can hiberate with the rest of the gems seems like a quick joke, but to me it signifies that Cinnabar's problem could have basically been solved at any time if anyone put in a little bit of focused effort, it's just that nobody bothered because gems are kinda assholes like that.
Rutile basically goes insane, cradling Pad's missing piece but never using it. I was never quite sure what to make of this. Is Pad ruined in Rutile's eyes because they weren't the one to fix them?

Most of this is undone on the moon but for all intents and purposes they were killed by Phos and that is just their afterlife, and the above are the real endings to their stories.

I don't know anything about Buddhism so I have no ability to parse whether the series use of religion is a simple reflection of the author's philosophy, a set of symbols used to illustrate a more general story, or an aesthetic like the Christianity in Neon Genesis Evangelion for a purely personal story.

mycot fucked around with this message at 04:08 on Mar 26, 2024

# ¿ Mar 26, 2024 03:56

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 23:06

mycot: Oct 23, 2014; "It's okay. There are other Terminators! Just give us this one!"; Hell Gem

Mraagvpeine posted:

The only bit that confused me was Kongo's brother. Who is he? Where did he come from? He just suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

I think he was first introduced (and briefly shown) in the big Achmea lore dump about Adamant's real purpose. He was the first robot of his type and his complete freedom is why Adamant was designed with so many restrictions.

# ¿ Mar 26, 2024 17:04