Talking about Land of the Lustrous and Gender

I'm going to start off with just the anime content and then mark a spoiler warning for when jumping into manga content if anyone wants to read just a part of it. With that said, on with it

It is generally decided on that the gems are they/it in terms of pronouns. I don't disagree, but I personally prefer referring to them as she/her, and the manga at times by he/him, and this is why I mention starting with the anime

The anime makes the gems far more feminine, and a lot of that comes down to their voices, they generally have higher voices (I know, generalization but let's go with it for now)

I mean, anime Phos is fucking cute

Now for the manga content, and the big spoilers

As we all know, Phos ain't what she used to be anymore. And this is where I think Ichikawa is doing something very cool. I don't think of Phos as female anymore, but male

One we can look at him visually, especially with that particularly intense page of one of the recent chapters. But also I think we can match that up with Kongo and Enma

Kongo and Enma, while having VERY different ideologies and personalities, share something: physically and personality wise, they come off as male

They are very different, but they both oversee their people as patriarch. Leading them, guiding them, comforting them. And it goes without saying they both have massive flaws

And that brings me back to Phos, who like them takes on a more proactive, leading role. And with that, a more violent, forceful one

Ichikawa seems to be associating male-ness with a governance role, and she does not seem to look on it positively

Kongo is reminiscent of the Cave allegory and willful blindness, Enma is representative of a groomer and dictator. They are not good male role models. And Phos has joined them through force and violence

Now, maybe I'm just looking all too deep into it. But I think that's what makes this story SO fascinating. Ichikawa really seems to be critical of how (capital) MEN handle things in comparison to the gems, or women's, innocence and kindness

Now just for some housework: this was pretty much all done from memory, so I'm sorry if I'm misremembering, if you got some counterexamples, hit me! I'd love that.

But yeah let's chat about it! The more I think about it, the more I think HnK is a fav and not just a 5/5

@Daikichi_Dad @fuggyuggy @Kizuu_ @Jamie_is_sleepy @BoolienCCU
Ya'll getting tagged because after that one convo I know ya'll will have interesting points