Sidonia no Kishi

I have watched some mecha anime and although I'm not a guru in this field, I've come across this plot of "humanity is under threat from some creatures" in anime so many times. Going into Sidonia no kishi, I had no expectations but the anime proved me wrong. Season 1 was pure gold. There is weight behind the series as your favourite character can die anytime soon. The drama among the humans was so good as equally as the action against the monsters. Like all series, there are flaws. For instance, the main character might come off as the generic shy guy but by a little into the series, he gains a 3 dimensional growth.

Season 1 was a good introduction to the series but Season 2 was just unacceptable. First of all, they exchanged the beautiful serious plot for a lighthearted harem like fan service. I'm not a fan of harem or fan service but that is not the reason alone why I did not like the second season. The first season was dark, mature, psychological and sad. As a result, the transition into this bright romance like harem sequel was just weird and executed wrongly. Imagine an alternate Attack on Titan season 2 turning from a seinen into an anime where Sasha, Mikasa and Historia are after Eren. Silly right after that beautiful and serious first season? In knights of Sidonia, the second season did not further the entire story anywhere. It became repetitive and dull. I just hope the 3rd season will be far better than what we have now.

First, there are many good things about this series. At the top is the story, which is one of the more interesting ones you will find in anime. There are many clever devices and inventions which provide additional interest. Next, there are many battle scenes which offer up action and drama, along with the essential problem of Sidonia - a huge space ship on which live people that have survived Earth's destruction by the guana creatures hundreds of years ago - which is survival against space itself, their aloneness in the universe, and the attacking guana. On the down side are some really stupid and impossible things that are strewn about in an otherwise great adventure. Primarily, there are the guana; they are simply impossible creatures that just couldn't exist any way at all in any universe or reality, ever! They are, apparently, stupid things, essentially blobs of who knows what, unable to communicate, they can manage sophisticated propulsion and space travel by no scientific means whatsoever, as well as utilize complex weaponry to kill their enemy (Sidonia), which is their enemy for no known reason. They can also occasionally transform into something that looks human-like, especially after they've eaten a human! Making relatively tiny Sidonia their enemy in an enormous universe where they could go anywhere (since they travel easily in space by who knows what means), is just dumb! Additionally, there is nothing that the guana creatures - or the Sidonians for that matter - do that is actually possible, which is where the series deserts sci-fi and becomes pure fantasy. This is okay, if the series is going to be pure fantasy, but it treats the storyline as sci-fi, which it isn't. Asking where does all the fuel to power everything come from, offers no answer - it's just there: magic! Which is not supposed to be what this series is about; and yet they employ it liberally because there is no even REMOTELY scientific way any of these things could happen.

Moving on, the characters are mostly decently portrayed, although, yes, you could develop them a little more, but that is not a major complaint for me, since the drama is not driven by the psychology of the characters; rather, it is the action that does it. The animation is okay, although not startlingly good (like a Disney or Pixar offering), and could use more coloration, instead of the drab grayish-bluish hue they cast over everything. Yes, I know everything's in space, but still, you can have color in space, and they do have a few scenes where they employ it.

Like most of these Japanese anime, having characters which are paralyzingly shy about their feelings for one another, or seeing each other partially nude, gets old; it's silly and unrealistic. No reason for it.

Tanikaze, our main main protagonist, is a strong pilot and soldier who shows the same spirit and bravery that our fighter pilots show today. He is charming in his own way because he is not an average alpha type male, but always maintains his shy & humble demeanor throughout, regardless of what he accomplishes; understandably, the women are attracted to that, along with his heroics. There are a few women he is close to, and that provides further story development.

Overall, despite the impossible "science," propelling things around by employing magic power and unlimited fuel, the story is a good one, and does pull you into its matrix. There are fairly attractive characters, good animation, and plenty of battle scenes utilizing mecha for those folks who love that sort of thing. Too many mysteries work against the storyline - what the guana are, where are they from, why kill people they don't even know and have never interacted with - but they don't completely destroy it, and so despite some of the scientific irritations, it's a worthy story to follow and a pleasant anime to watch.

Although I originally had this pegged as somewhat below Attack on Titan for one of the best anime series I've seen in the past decade, the second time through it entertained me just as much.

This is about a future humanity fighting aliens in giant mechs. Wow, that's an anime cliché that usually goes south and needs superb execution to be something decent. This series does just that. Executes this premise in a way that has a unique feel, despite appearing derivative and cliché on paper.

This is a very grown up anime, no real chibi here. Although not at all the dystopia of Attack on Titan. In my experience, Sidonia was built up as this amazing place, almost a character itself with many sides and mysteries, that draws you in. I felt like I wanted to be in this world and share in the adventures and drama.

I found the action to have real weight. The humans and even main characters feel vulnerable, and have to really struggle. No real deus ex machina to make everything better in the end. People die and there are real consequences for the actions that occur in the battles.

There's an interesting dynamic about the aliens, where some characters have interesting hypotheses on them and why they're fighting, which may lead to some great plot twists later on.

I loved the love stories, which take time to develop as well as the character interactions. Although there were a few clichés, each character ends up with their unique characteristics, hopes, wants, and dreams.

There are real themes of love, loss, war, friendship, political intrigue and manipulation of power, and so on. There's also a real sense of humanity.

There are a few flaws in this, but hell, there are a few flaws in Attack on Titan: a near perfect anime in my opinion. The first one is that the main character Nagate, although truly likable, can come off as that quintessential anime protagonist nice guy that the girls are all into for some reason. But with his background, it makes sense that he's out of it and socially inept. But he was still a character that was much more than a cliché by the end.

I felt that Titan balanced the many secondary characters better and there are several in Sidonia who seemed to come and go and by the time they're reintroduced, you've forgotten who they are. But this didn't really matter as there are 5-6 main characters who were integral to the plot, that were focused on.

There was one character who was just about to have an arc when something happened to this person in the second season, that was neat as a change but kind of left me hanging.

Much of the political story that gives you small bits at a time seemed confusing but made more sense the second time through.

Overall, I found that this show was truly addicting and serial watching it never became a chore, I couldn't wait to see the next episodes.

Can't recommend highly enough.

Knights of Sidonia has some good stuff going for it, but I find the animation distracting from the story at times. Sometimes it's incredible, even beautiful; other times you can tell that this a 'three-dimensional imitation' of traditional cel-animation and the look still hasn't grown on me yet. It's difficult to describe how exactly I feel about the animation style: the fight sequences look great, but everything outside of that still feels oddly alien to me (the jerky CGI at play here is not a substitute for that traditional animation look). With that said, there is stuff to enjoy here. It's a legit space-opera with some good music and stories to tell, but it's far from perfect.

'Knights' gets 3.5/5 stars.

Growing up on Robotech (Macross) and the Gundam franchise, I have a tender spot in my core for mech anime. If you grew up on said anime, then you have to immediately view this series. It's not for you that I need to make the case. You'll already be willing to finish the series in one sitting.

For those of you, maybe a younger generation, without the mech background, give this a chance. My girlfriend is of the Hunter x Hunter, Kill la Kill, Blue Exorcist generation. But, Knights of Sidonia has your emotional character development, cutesy facial expression (heavy blushing) and the artwork will hold the new generation. I've tried in vain to get my girlfriend to watch many of the late 80's early 90's classics. She loved Ninja Scroll and Armitage, but still admits to not watching older anime for the dated animation. Knights of Sidonia is the perfect oldschool mech vs alien anime with an updated appearance.