Sidonia no Kishi (Knights of Sidonia)

After destroying Earth many years ago, the alien race Gauna has been pursuing the remnants of humanity—which, having narrowly escaped, fled across the galaxy in a number of giant seed ships. In the year 3394, Nagate Tanikaze surfaces from his lifelong seclusion deep beneath the seed ship Sidonia in search of food on the upper levels, only to find himself dragged into events unfolding without his knowledge.

When the Gauna begin their assault on Sidonia, it's up to Tanikaze—with the help of his fellow soldiers and friends Shizuka Hoshijiro, Izana Shinatose, and Yuhata Midorikawa—to defend humanity's last hope for survival, and defeat their alien foes. Sidonia no Kishi follows Tanikaze as he discovers the world that has been above him his entire life, and becomes the hero Sidonia needs.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Sidonia no Kishi was nominated for the Animation of the Year Award in the Television category at the 2015 Tokyo Anime Award Festival. The anime's opening song, "Sidonia" by Angela, won the 19th Animation Kobe Theme Song Award in 2014.

Episode Videos

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Sidonia no Kishi
Sequel:	Sidonia no Kishi: Daikyuu Wakusei Seneki
Summary:	Sidonia no Kishi Movie

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Characters & Voice Actors

Shinatose, Izana

Main

Toyosaki, Aki
Japanese

Hoshijiro, Shizuka

Main

Suzaki, Aya
Japanese

Tanikaze, Nagate

Main

Oosaka, Ryouta
Japanese

Benisuzume

Supporting

Suzaki, Aya
Japanese

Kobayashi

Supporting

Ohara, Sayaka
Japanese

Hiyama, Lala

Supporting

Arai, Satomi
Japanese

Midorikawa, Yuhata

Supporting

Kanemoto, Hisako
Japanese

Placenta Hoshijiro

Supporting

Suzaki, Aya
Japanese

Honoka, Ren

Supporting

Kitamura, Eri
Japanese

Ittan, Samari

Supporting

Tanaka, Atsuko
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Yamanaka, Takahiro

Producer

Yamazaki, Yoshihiko

Producer

Hashimoto, Ryuu

Producer

Shizuno, Koubun

Director

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Opening Theme

"Sidonia (シドニア)" by angela

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Ending Theme

"show (掌 -show-)" by Eri Kitamura

Reviews

May 24, 2023

Bisquickninja

Recommended

A very good series, there are a few things that bog it down. The series is a bit slow to start, but it progresses and gets better and better, the internal politics district from the story line and take it in directions that lead nowhere.
One small irritation is that they make the main character about as smart as a brick (which is pretty boring and a cliché). Another cliché is the casual and violent assault of the main character by almost all the women. Its not very funny. Otherwise its been a fantastic series with lots great things. ...

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Jan 21, 2020

theRealGuyFieri

Mixed Feelings

Sidonia no Kishi, or Knights of Sidonia, is an alternative future where mankind flees like a pussy from an ever impending extinction.

Straight off the bat, I would like to say that Sidonia no Kishi has a very interesting and eye-catching idea to the whole show. The way humans live in this O'Neill cylinder-ish space station and that there are many different layers of the station. Also, clouds and lakes are even included to make it seems as if it is Earth. Kinda reminds me of Made In Abyss. However, the flaws of the show are quickly revealed as the show progresses in the first few ... episodes. The pacing, planning of scenes and the execution of scenarios are utterly horrible and butchered. When I notice this from the get-go of the first episode, I was deeply saddened and in a state of anger and crestfallen. Anger due to them ruining such a fascinating and intriguing concept, I could really see the potential in it and was looking forward to the show as a whole. Of course, saddened by what the studio did to present this concept of Sidonia no Kishi. To be more specific, our main character, for example, Nagate, a boy that came out of the depths of the station. He has little to no knowledge of the world above and yet, in the span of the first episode, he is found by the authorities and instantly given a position at the school for pilots. This compiled with the fact that we the audience know nothing seems very rushed and out of pace. I was truly shocked by what was happening and how it happened so fast. Plus, by the next episode, our character just blends in normally like he was there begin with anyways. Additionally, how is our character not even shock to see a talking bear? Like, I was shocked and he just took it as if it were natural to see a talking bear. Talking about character issue, Norio, or the super edgy prideful piece of shit. He is painfully shallow and badly written, like, of course, there has to be that kid that wants all the spotlight to himself and proceeds to challenge Nagate. But by challenge, I mean sabotage, and by sabotage, I mean committing an outright murder to get the spotlight. How the hell is students like him recruited in the school, I just can't fandom what the fuck he did just to get appraised. What's worse, or should I say for the better, is that he didn't have the balls to carry on his doing and loses his shit when he hears the voice of Hoshijiro. I am at least glad the show excluded him from the episodes that came after and till the end because I really do not want to see more screen time of his edgelord ass. Like, the time when he bitch slaps Izana after knocking into by accident AND she got her leg piece by a wooden stick, like, that, in bird culture, is considered a dick move. Not all is bad, thankfully, I love Izana, she is such a breath of fresh air to the horrible characters around her and Nagate got better in the later episode. What I can't stand is Kobayashi and why couldn't they pick any other name for her, I love Kobayashi for the dragon maid series. Anyway, who placed this lunatic as the head of the station. She is literally an insane person that makes, not roughness actions, but dumb and stupid ones. Like the time she engaged a turn of the station in an instant without giving time for the people to react, resulting in a ton of flying bodies splattering across the station's internal. I bet in her mind it's like 'LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR'. Plus all she does is agree at commands and disagree at some, only to bring up stupid choices. Moreover, the show does no effort in presenting time in the series. That I mean the sense of time in the show, many a time the show skipped or fast forward the scenarios that are happening, resulting in, what seemed to be a short time, happened over a long duration. The failure in doing that just makes scenes transition off and out of place. Lastly, the show does a trash job on making human pilots worthy of something, by that I mean the way the show presents the death of pilots on every mission doesn't seem impactfully enough and that just resembles disposable underwear to me. You have to be kidding, how did the 4, star pilots train hard and well for an attack and instantly got rekted in the first battle without putting much of a fight. Truly, that is so disappointing to see.

-SCORES-

Character- 5/10: Love Izana, Hoshijiro (even her placenta form), the last half of Nagate and of course, Lala. The rest of the characters just seemed too shallow and weak, and Kobayashi is just a lunatic.

Art- 8/10: I honestly think they did a great job on the art, I absolutely adore the half-time art scenes of episodes, probably from the manga but those are gorgeous to me. Other than the times when scenes are too bright and that their clothing is always dirty, I say the style they made on was pretty and decent. Nowhere close the studio Orange standard of 3D but still a decent one.

Writing- 4/10: Planning, pacing, storyboard, character-wise, execution, dialog, and some others are weak. I disapprove of the implementation of Slice Of Life and Romance genre at first, but after seeing countless 'Sortie Alert', I just want them to continue the path of the world around them in the station and not what is going on outside. The 'Sortie Alert' is probably used too many times, I sigh whenever something interesting is happening and then,' Sortie Alert' appears. For Nagate, it's back to sorties for you.

Sound- 7/10: The did a decent job, the intro is nice by everything seems kinda flushed out. Like I just want to enjoy it at max but the studio probably forgot to increase the volume of the intro in production.

Overall, please for the love, please get better in the next season. I really love the concept but hate the studio for presenting it in such a shit manner.

Strong 4 to a Light 5

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Jan 8, 2017

BStrifeSword114

Not Recommended

Sidonia no Kishi, aka "Knights of Sidonia," can best be summed up as a collection of interesting elements that never reaches it's potential.

The story is set in the distant future, featuring space ships, war, a third gender, and super powerful aliens known as Gauna. The Gauna in particular is where the story reaches it's peak; these super-powered aliens which resemble machines are incredibly deadly and constantly evolving. You can really feel the fear the characters do when their squads are being cut down like butter, having to watch their comrades gruesomely die screaming.

The third gender that is introduced is also one of it's finer ... ideas. This hermaphroditic third gender can act as either male or female, depending on what Sidonia needs to bolster it's population. But like the series as a whole, the idea is never entirely fleshed out. There is merely one episode dedicated to this fact, and it's around one of the main characters, Izana. She falls in love with the main character and ultimately decides to become a girl, which is fine in it's own right, but what being a third gender is like never explored enough, simply glossed over. Sexual identity, a big topic today, is never brought to terms with the third gender. It's unfortunate that the idea wasn't executed as well as it should have been.

The characters in general aren't unlikeable per se, but neither are they particularly interesting. Izana's identity as a third gender is brushed aside after one episode. And every character has a bland design, looking nearly identical to everyone else and having vague motivations. The three protagonists all have short dark hair, with similar eyes and statures (including Izana). There's the general chick whom has dark hair and wears a mask, with some vague history of a grudge or something and a silver haired prodigy of sorts whom is jealous of Nakate, the main protagonist, for taking a legendary ship or something. There's also an old repair guy whom gets a few lines towards the end of the series, the main protagonists grandpa who's mentioned several times for some sort of history and training Natake. A group of old guys whom run things and probably know stuff. Everyone amounts to nothing more than a bunch of vague "somethings."

That only scratches the surface as to the problem with the characters. Other than the fear factor the Gauna emanate, you'll be asking yourself "Why should I care about these people?" Most of the story and characters give that impression regardless, and it's mostly due to the perplexing elements that are never told or explained properly. Who? Why? When? How? These are questions which are too often never answered.

The art is usually fantastic in it's presentation, even if the "high speed" scenes can be difficult to follow sometimes, it's usually good and battles often look slick. My only complaint, other than the aforementioned boring character designs, is that the majority of environments are bland and uninteresting. That may work for a series set in modern day Tokyo, but not one that takes place in the distant future in space. The sound is okay, usually- things that shoot go pew, things that blow up go boom. Yet neither are there any particularly memorable tracks or songs. I guess the patriotic opening was decent.

The story harvests a bunch of good ideas together. Unfortunately, few of these ideas ever become ripe enough to be worth indulging. It becomes apparent by the eighth episode that it won't ever be anything more than a mishmash of several good concepts, and in the end it fails to succeed at even a few basic, essential ones. You'll finish it befuddled, wondering what could have been. By the following week, you'll have forgotten everything about it, forever referring to it as "that space anime I watched one time."

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Poll: Sidonia no Kishi Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Stark700 - Jun 26, 2014	227 replies	by fooumies »» Dec 21, 2023 5:12 AM
Poll: Sidonia no Kishi Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Jun 19, 2014	135 replies	by Archean-Return »» Oct 31, 2023 1:33 PM
Poll: Sidonia no Kishi Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Jun 12, 2014	112 replies	by Archean-Return »» Oct 31, 2023 12:57 PM
Poll: Sidonia no Kishi Episode 9 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Jun 5, 2014	117 replies	by Archean-Return »» Oct 31, 2023 12:14 PM
Poll: Sidonia no Kishi Episode 8 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Stark700 - May 29, 2014	163 replies	by Archean-Return »» Oct 31, 2023 11:27 AM

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Shinatose, Izana

Hoshijiro, Shizuka

Tanikaze, Nagate

Benisuzume

Kobayashi

Hiyama, Lala

Midorikawa, Yuhata

Placenta Hoshijiro

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Sidonia no Kishi

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Synopsis

Background

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Staff

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