Ruri no Houseki

While shopping, high school student Ruri Tanigawa is captivated by a crystal necklace. Due to its high price, she can only dream of owning one—until her mother tells her about a mountainous area where Ruri's grandfather used to discover numerous minerals. As she makes her way to the location in the hope of finding materials to make her own accessories, Ruri meets Nagi Arato, a graduate student, who gladly shows her the way.

Soon, Ruri is left smitten when they arrive at an enormous quartz formation. More motivated than ever, she convinces Nagi to teach her more about mineralogy. With each new discovery and Nagi's lessons deepening her love, Ruri learns that there is more to minerals than just their price.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Arato, Nagi Main

Seto, Asami Japanese

Tanigawa, Ruri Main

Nemoto, Miyari Japanese

Imari, Youko Main

Miyamoto, Yume Japanese

Seto, Shouko Main

Hayashi, Saki Japanese

Kasamaru, Aoi Supporting

Yamada, Misuzu Japanese

Ruri's Mother Supporting

Toyoguchi, Megumi Japanese

Nursery Teacher Supporting

Natsume, Hina Japanese

Seto's Mother Supporting

Takeda, Hana Japanese

Iwagumo, Maika Supporting

Terasawa, Momoka Japanese

Seto's Father Supporting

Kawada, Shinji Japanese

Oowada, Tomoyuki Producer

Nishimae, Ayaka Producer

Nagamine, Rieko Producer

Miura, Fumito Producer

Reviews

Sep 28, 2025

Marinate1016

Recommended

Isn’t it amazing how fun learning about even the most seemingly mundane things can be thanks to cute anime girls? Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure mineralogy is a riveting subject, but for the average person there’s few things that sound less fun than learning about rocks. Yet, ruri rocks takes a seemingly uninteresting subject matter and turns it into one of the most enjoyable and fun experiences of the season. I came into this knowing next to nothing about mineralogy and left feeling like I have a PhD in the field. Studio Bind might have been created to adapt Mushoku Tensei, but if they’re ... out to diversify their portfolio, CGDCT is clearly their calling. First with Onimai and now Ruri Rocks, they’ve shown they’re able to take ordinary slice of life stories with cute girls and make them into visual spectacles that stay with you for many years. That’s not to say those manga were not good from the start, but no reasonable viewer could look at the manga and then this anime and not think of it as anything but an overhaul of epic proportions. While it definitely has Bind’s patented fanservice bits, they don’t overshadow or detract from what’s a very heartwarming and endearing story. An amazing cast, educational and some of the best animated sequences of the year made this one of my favorite shows of the season.

Ruri rocks is cool for two main reasons and I’m not talking about Nagi’s chest. 1: Learning the basics of mineralogy and how studying rocks can teach us about the world and ourselves. 2:Ruri’s development and coming into her own as a scientist. It’s such a nice watch because you can tell the author genuinely loves this subject matter and wants to share the field with others who most likely have never heard of it. Ruri is a reflection of the general audience in many ways. She goes from just finding rocks cool to learning proper scientific methodology and analysis. Her growth from amateur to actually wanting to become a scientist is something the author clearly wants people reading this series to do and if it works on only one person, I think that’s a beautiful thing. So many people don’t have access to certain hobbies or interests so they’d never have a way to know if it’s for them if not for experiencing it through media so hats off to this author for showing people the day to day life of a mineralogy from actually hunting for rocks to analysing them for data. The show also does a great job of showing how relevant this is for present day. Rocks are one of the best windows into the past of the planet and humanity in general and can help us predict patterns in the future. While it’s admittedly still not my favorite subject, I have so much respect for anyone working in this field thanks to this show. The educational bits are so well done and don’t feel like they’re overwhelming you. I appreciated the pop ups that would come on screen teaching you about a substance, explaining its chemistry, practical use, where it could be found and other fun trivia. Having Nagi basically act as the instructor for the audience/Ruri made following along very easy and engaging. It’s like that one favorite teacher you had in school that made every day a joy to go to class.

Ruri’s development also was great. In a one cour show, you love to see your MC actually change and evolve by the end. Ruri is frankly very immature and silly at the start of the show and doesn’t approach hunting for rocks the way she should. Thanks to Nagi’s guidance and the respect she develops for Nagi, coming to see her as a big sister, she starts to take on a the traits you’d want from a scientist. She becomes much more measured and thoughtful in her actions and even ends up being a mentor to the girls from her school who end the group! It’s a nice full circle moment where Nagi passes her love of mineralogy onto ruri and she passes it only Seto/Aoi and then onto us. The characters and their interactions really made every episode so special. It’s like watching a family take shape as this show goes on! I also enjoyed seeing Imari come into her own as a leader as well, she played second fiddle to Nagi for most of the series and was sort of in her amen corner up until the last few episodes where she starts using her unique perspective to each the girls new things.

You can’t talk about this show without talking about the amazing production quality. Every episode is a work of art oozing passion and love from BIND. I mean a show about girls finding rocks has no business having some of the best animated scenes of the year and yet here we are. The scene of Ruri finding gems underwater will always be rent free in my mind. Every single episode is gorgeous and almost every scene could be paused and screenshotted. This is a beautiful piece of animation and it takes what’s already a really sweet story to the next level.

I’m hoping Bind see the success they’ve had with this and Onimai now and continue to seek out these lesser known stories and bring them to life with the quality only they can. I love shows like this that remind you of the magic and wonder anime can bring.

Ruri Rocks gets 9 gems out of 10

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Nov 6, 2025

kekekeKaj

Mixed Feelings

Funny

Ruri Rocks has an alternative title "Introduction to Mineralogy". With a drab title like that, the show likely filters for its own audience, namely those who are into hobby-focused slice-of-lifes and, perhaps less commonly, those who are actually rock enthusiasts.

The show begins with Ruri (whose name literally translates as Lapis Lazuli), going on a search for crystals after hearing that they could be found in the mountains. During her expedition, she runs into Nagi, a grad student in mineralogy, who she ropes in to help her in her quest for gems and stuff. The two soon starts going on regular expeditions together, and over time ... Nagi helps Ruri gain a deep appreciation for rocks that goes beyond the latter's initial motivation of greed.

While the title and premise clearly indicate show's focus on mineralogy, the first episode actually threw me off, as the humongous breast sizes of some of the characters and the numerous breast and ass shots made me wonder whether the "rocks" in the title is meant as a lewd joke rather than actual rocks. I was also distracted by the body shapes of the characters which, possibly distorted by the breast sizes, has such an unanime-like stoutness to them that I wondered whether I needed to adjust my TV's aspect ratio.

What's undeniable though, is the show's enthusiasm for its subject matter. The characters are practically reaching rockgasms while geeking out over lumps of stones, and that enthusiasm counts for a lot in this kind of genre. The show often succeeds in invoking a sense of wonder about rocks, aided by the strong visuals when showcasing a particularly pretty piece of stone or a breathtaking discovery. It's a show that uses CGI effectively, leaning into the colours, contrasts and sparkles that CGI can be so good at rendering.

At times though, I wish the show could have channelled across its enthusiasm in a more accessible manner: some scenes resembles little more than audio info dumps aided by a cartoony power point presentation, and the fun graphics just isn't enough to save those scenes from being a bit dry. In addition, the hunt for gems and minerals can often feel too easy. There's not so much of a sense that the anime is able to make you appreciate the ordinary and the mundane as it is trying to wow you with truly extraordinary finds that seem to happen in almost every episode. Regardless of the rarity of precious stones the characters are looking for, they'll hit the motherload to the extent that they could all realistically become multi-millionaires by the end of the series. There're only so many such events a show can have before its believability tanks, especially when the show in question is meant to be a slice of life.

The better episodes of Ruri Rocks often mingles the minerology lessons with human elements, and this is epitomised by the emotional apex of the series in the penultimate episode. The series often returns to the theme of the rocks being threads to the past, and the penultimate episode really drives home that point by tying it to Ruri's connection with her grandfather.

Character growth is often a key component of these sorts of shows, and on this front Ruri Rocks duly delivers. The protagonist Ruri is one of those energetic genki architypes, and initially her energy is often disruptive: she's impatient and susceptible to fierce tantrums when things don't go her way. But gradually, like a rock whose rough edges were polished smooth by a gentle stream, Ruri learns to channel her wild energy into focused, dogged, investigative effort thanks to the tutelage of Nagi and her massive rocks. Sorry, I meant massive store of knowledge about rocks.

Unlike its subject matter, Ruri Rocks is never going to be eye-catching. You don't really come for the spectacle, plot twists or intellectual challenge. But if you're looking for a laid back exploration on a topic off the beaten track, then Ruri Rocks will be probably scratch that itch.

As long as you don't mind pausing now and then to read an on-screen essay about the formation of sandstone or something.

Personal rating: +0.5 (decent)

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Oct 10, 2025

NTruths

Not Recommended

Funny

The good: This is an anime about geology and collecting rocks, woot! We haven't had one of those before and it's a fun topic to learn about. The bits of actual science all seem accurate and worth learning.

The okay: The art and animation, and sound design are all fine for your average seasonal anime. I do wish they hadn't gone with the "ecchi" style of character design - it's fine in actual ecchi anime, but here it just felt pointlessly distracting.

The bad: The writing, the characters and plot were all two dimensional. Unfortunately, this show lacks any real depth or conflict. ... The characters all get along in every situation, the problems they encounter are quickly resolved without any real thought or effort, and the over-arcing story is extremely basic. Essentially, this is a story in which the characters never face any real chance of "failure" and thus their "success" feels worthless and maybe even unearned.

Overall, this is a 4/10 show - boring and lazy writing created a show not worth watching, out of a reasonably good and interesting topic.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Ruri no Houseki Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Stark700 - Jul 6, 2025	155 replies	by Redlinkkid »» Jan 17, 12:03 AM
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