Houseki no Kuni chronicles the story of a “jewel people” who are trying to find a place in their world where they can live at peace. They have to deal with attacks from Lunarians, mystical beings resembling Buddha who try to kill the jewel people and turn their shattered fragments into jewelry.
The main character, Phosphophyllite (Phos), is one of the weakest jewel people and has never been allowed to fight because they would basically be useless in 
battle (they have a Mohs hardness of 3.5). Master Kongo, a wise man who lives amongst the jewel people and has some kind of authority over them, tasks Phos with creating an encyclopedia about their world. Phos wants only to become a fighter and initially rebels against the project.
As a last resort Phos travels to the outskirts of their city to meet Cinnabar, a jewel person whose body, for some yet unknown reason, creates a poison that taints their fellow jewel people. If a person like Phos were to touch the poison, that part of their body would no longer allow light to pass through and would have to be chipped off. So the jewel people have exiled Cinnabar to live in the wild and patrol their lands at night to protect them from the Lunarians… except that the Lunarians have never attacked at night. As you can imagine this leaves Cinnabar feeling rather unwanted and useless. Furthermore because use of their poison taints the physical environment, they also feel guilt whenever they do use their poison because it often results in plants and grass being unable to grow back.
Phos bumps into Cinnabar in the early evening when, lo and behold, the Lunarians attack just as the sun is setting. Cinnabar and Phos both manage to survive but Phos has to have some of their body chipped off. Seeing Cinnabar exiled to a solitary existence makes Phos realize for the first time that maybe they can be useful to their people without being in battle. As the first episode ends, Cinnabar finds themselves willing to help Phos with their encyclopedia, while Phos tries to think of a way that Cinnabar can simultaneously be helpful to their people and allowed back into society.
My thoughts: Maybe you’ll notice I didn’t use gendered pronouns in this review. That’s because most of the characters in Houseki no Kuni don’t have a labeled gender. Many of the jewel people could pass for either “male” or “female”, but they are never specified as either. Even Phos, who sounds rather male to me, could easily pass for female what with their body frame, mannerisms and hairstyle. It sometimes throws me not being able to tell which gender some of the characters are, but in the end it doesn’t really matter. More than anything I’m excited to see a title where many of the characters have an unspecified gender, and I feel that Houseki no Kuni could help set a new precedent in the world of anime.
It looks like most of the characters are named after gemstones, and each episode title will be named after a gemstone as well. There is a manga but, surprise surprise, I have never read it.
Not since seasons 2 and 3 of Berserk have I seen a show that is almost entirely CG. As with Berserk some character movements and environments are a little clunky and obviously-CG, but once more I find myself not caring as long as the story holds up. Am I intrigued by Houseki no Kuni? You bet!
Possibility of Watching: High
Possibility of Blogging: High
Cinnabar is a major source of mercury. That’s why she’s poison itself.
Ohhh oik, thanks! Duly noted. :3