Sidonia no Kishi

Ok, I don't write many reviews, but considering how bad this anime was I feel it can't be that hard.

This was probably spelled out in the plot synopsis, but Knights of Sidonia (or シドニアの騎士) is a science fiction, mecha action anime where humans have fled Earth a thousand years ago on a giant space ship called 'Sidonia' fleeing from the threat of unknown origin known as the 'Gauna'. Protagonist Nagate Tanikaze in search for food stumbles out of the vast inner workings of Sidonia and out into the open society where he is selected to be a Guardian Pilot defending Sidonia against the Gauna ... threat.

I've never been a fan of CGI in anime since it definitely isn't Japan's strong suit (though I commend them for trying something new) and they'd be better off just sticking to what they already do best and focus on other aspects of storytelling. So I came into this anime with a hesitant mindset, but I soon got entranced really quickly when the first space battle happened. The 'gauna' are awesome in my opinion. They can take many different forms and can evolve to increase their efficiency at countering human technology. On top of that, they are horrifying. Not the most scary thing I've seen, but I wouldn't want to tango with any of those.

Although, I think what captured me most about the beginning of this show was space; everything space. I love space, and anything that takes place in space is sure to capture my attention. Also, I was impressed how the concept of space wasn't just a setting, but was also a factor in the story and the battles. And the life on the titular space ship 'Sidonia' was well thought out as well with interesting differences in society affected by advanced technology such as human photosynthesis that allows a independence of food and water for a week. The main character didn't grow up in the society of Sidonia and as a result he can't photosynthesize. I liked this distinction in his character. And herein lies the first problem: that's the only thing I like about this character.

So for the first episode, Knights of Sidonia is going in a pretty good direction in my opinion. And honestly, this had me tricked for the next few episodes. It took me awhile before I realized it steadily got worse. It started when I realized that this anime is almost the exact same plot as Attack on Titan (進撃の巨人). First off, a main character that doesn't know his origins joins the military when the enemy reappears after a hundred years without a sighting. The main protagonist quickly becomes the spearhead of the military when he is discovered to be a special asset that could almost single handedly win the war; a war in which humanity has been waging as long as they can remember and threatens the very existence of humankind. A war with an enemy that is bent on the complete eradication of humans without determinable rhyme or reason. Humans built a special base to defend and counteract against the enemy that is led by questionable leaders that could prove just as much a threat as the outside enemy.
The baseline of this story is extremely similar to Attack on Titan with different setting, characters, and plot twists (very poor and predictable plot twists I might add).

So I started comparing the two, and I began seeing very clear distinctions in what Knights of Sidonia was lacking. As I said before, I despise the protagonist. Not just because he is awkward, annoying, bland, and holds no true character flaws besides being socially inapt, but mainly because I have no idea why he is fighting the gauna so passionately. In Attack on Titan, Eren held a very powerful grudge against the Titans because of his past experiences with them.This is what allowed us to sympathize and connect with Eren as a character. Nagate has absolutely no past experiences with the gauna and suddenly because somebody just simply asked him to become the 'Knight of Sidonia' or some prophetic hero destined to save Sidonia he becomes determined to eliminate all of the gauna and dedicate his life to protecting the society and people that he 'loves'. When you read it, that would at least make a little sense, but keep in mind that he decided this after being in this society for only a few days! How can he claim to love something he hardly as any knowledge of? Worst of all, whenever he is not fighting gauna or speaking with Sidonia's commander, he seems to completely forget all that. The motivation that is meant to drive him as a character hardly affects him at all, and I end up forgetting what his role is in the story. And I'm going to go so far as to say that I forget what the story even is about anymore whenever their not fighting gauna.

This show doesn't seem to know whether it wants to be an awesome scifi, or if it wants to be a mediocre harem. Honestly, the harem aspect takes 75 percent of the screen time, and almost all of it is completely useless. There was only one time when the harem part of the story affected the actual plot. I attribute this to a misunderstanding of (or just pure apathy to) the concept of character development. Knights of Sidonia seems to interpret that as 'sexual tension' and 'love drama'. To make it worse, sometimes this sexual tension/love drama is so poorly written and cheesy that I started to think I was watching a porno. Dialogue is bad, characters are one dimensional and unappealing, and its just overall disappointing to see this interesting society getting plague by these cardboard cutouts of overused character archetypes. The protagonist is terrible, the female characters are worse because they are head over heels for this guy for absolutely no other reason than a 'because I said so' attitude by the author, and this other male character who seemed to be important had promise since he was the protagonist's opposite and was willing to make morally ambiguous decisions to get his way; however, when he started to see some of the effects of his decisions, he quickly became a wimp, quit being a pilot, and was kicked out of the story never to be relevant again. Honestly, the best character in this show is the Benisusume, whose identity is a spoiler so I won't reveal anymore than that except that this character has only about four lines that are almost exactly the same. And the worse part of this is the portrayal of women. I know that the anime industry usually targets adolescent boys who can't focus on anything that doesn't have breast the size of jupiter, but this is ridiculous. Also, this show can't possibly be intended for young boys, because it clearly attempts to make itself dark and gritty like Tokyo Ghoul or Attack on Titan but can never stick to that tone. So I don't know what audience the author is writing to and what he is trying to say with his story. It sounded like mindless babbling to me.

I don't talk too much on the story in comparison to the characters, but that is because the story was interesting and held promise; though, it was quickly overshadowed by every other terrible thing that it completely lost its appeal. I watched this show to the end in hopes of rekindling that promise and maybe the story would once again have the majority of the screen time, and I was given at least a fraction of reward with a season finale in both seasons that were done fairly well and proved that if this author had simply stuck to what he does best instead of this harem garbage this could have been a good thing.
Not to say that I don't think harems can be good. I have watched a lot of harems and enjoyed a few. I'm just saying this is a very bad one.

Since sound is an area of critique on this site, I'll mention a little something about that. There isn't much that stands out about the soundtrack and nothing leaves an impression except for the opening credits. I imagine that these openings were meant to be exciting and with a hint of patriotic-like pride just as the Attack on Titan openings were. However, these fail terribly at replicating this. The animation for the opening is literally shots from the rest of the show dreadfully edited together with a very underwhelming song choice that lacks energy, emotion, and impact.

Overall, I didn't enjoy Knights of Sidonia despite the very interesting concept behind it simply because it didn't allow me to enjoy it by shoving other things I don't care about in my face and trying to get me to accept them. This show really has an identity crisis, trying to wear the clothes of a harem comedy while also trying to be a gritty, realistic scifi. If a harem comedy anime wants me to take it seriously and realistically, then it either needs to not be a harem comedy or try harder; a lot harder.

In conclusion, don't watch this show. It is horrible, and it is the definition of what is wrong with the anime industry that can't seem to let go of its horrendous cliches and characters archetypes. When will they start trusting us to be interested in a story that doesn't have kinky sexual comedy and breasts the size of jupiter?

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."

At a point of time, I loved this anime, it was one of my favorites.
Then, after watching many more quality anime, I saw how truly awful this anime can be, and the number one reason for that is the main character, and I'll get to that.

STORY 4: yes, cool things happen, but what really happens to more the plot? The pacing is rapid, and many things happen too quickly for you to understand compeletly what's happening.

ART 7: The CGI isn't very great with the character designs and some of the motion shots, but the artwork in the background is fantastic and a sight to see.

SOUND ... 7: In epic scenes the music is epic, nothing very special so it isn't getting a higher grade, but certainly not a fail.

CHARACTERS 2: I like a couple of the side characters, Izana is enjoyable sometimes, so as far as the side characters it's fine....buuuuuut.... I HATE THE MAIN CHARACTER MORE THAN ANY OTHER ANIME CHARACTER EVER!!!! He's god awful, and the cgi makes it worse, he just has this like blank face ALL THE TIME!!! But HEY all the girls in the show LOVE HIM LOOOOOVVVEEE HIMMM, and it make he sick seeing it. Yes I know that's a function of many harem shows, but in many of the other harem, the main character has at least some personality, Nagate(sidonia main character) is like a doll and the writer makes it say cliches constantly.

ENJOYMENT 2: I use to LOVE this show, I bought the premium edition, worst buy ever, can't even watch it anymore.

OVERALL 3: the art is beautiful at times, and some side characters are enjoyable, but the main character is an embarassment.

I’m not entirely certain what the point of this anime was. It presents itself as a more realistic version of mechs in space, which is potentially appealing, but more ‘realistic’ seems to mean that it just drops the insane action sequences that makes mech shows so absurd/fun in the first place. And in its place they put... nothing. Nothing at all. The show feels like an empty shell.

It’s not like there’s nothing positive to be said about the series. The starfighter squad sometimes works in a vaguely Battlestar Galactica way. By toning down the extreme personalities they provide an opportunity for a more serious look ... at what life as a combat squad is like. In space. But like so many of their good ideas they just waste it. In fact, I’m going to list all the good (or at least potentially good/interesting) ideas and what they do with them:

Humans have been engineered to survive mainly on photosynthesis.
Used to make Toyosaki’s nonphotosynthetic eating habits stand out. And nothing else.

Dead people are recycled for... nutrients I guess?
Toyosaki’s vaguely scared by the idea.

The ship’s acceleration requires people to hook onto walls or be thrown to their deaths.
We do actually get a pretty cool action scene out of this.

There’s an entire ocean above them.
They use it to go on dates. And nothing else.

There is a third gender now.
Goes absolutely nowhere. Not even a romance really.

It’s not a show devoid of ideas, just one that goes nowhere with them.

The animation is weird and takes a biit of getting used to. It basically looks like a JRPG, with digital characters being manipulated to act out scenes. I suppose it saves them the money they’d have to use to correct these designs digitally, but it does look odd. Characters look identical as part of the efforts at “realism”. Everyone has black hair and a typical anime face. Except the villain and one random girl. Honestly, I can only tell the two main girls (or rather one girl and one third gender) apart by the size of their breasts. It’s that bad.

The plot is typical mech stuff. An evil alien race destroyed Earth and is now chasing the surviving ships. Sidonia is one of those ships and the inhabitants have found a way to kill the enemy using mechs armed with a rare type of metal. The fight scenes are brief and basic. Extreme fight mechanics have been erased. This means that there’s never any real thrill to the battles. Sometimes this approach leads to interesting ideas, like an entire episode spent trapped in space in a powerless mech. More often it just means interminable dialogue that establishes nothing.

I dunno. I wanted to like this but I couldn’t even make it through the first season. It just didn’t have any substance. And without substance and without mindless fun... what’s the point?

tl;dr -
The series may have a few redeeming qualities, but overall, it falls short of what it could have been. The plot is too convoluted and relies too heavily on cheap plot twists and overly dramatic fight scenes. The characters are one-dimensional and lack any real development. The animation may be nice to look at, but it's not enough to make up for the lackluster story and characters. "Knights of Sidonia" had potential, but it was squandered by the need to appeal to a certain audience, resulting in mediocrity.
Story: 2/10
Characters: 2/10
Sound 4/10
Art: 7/10
Overall:4

Real review:
There are a few moments when the series exceeds its own boundary ... with its utterly nonsensical plot, and outlandishly underdeveloped characters. Essentially, the series seems to cut corners in developing its cast of characters, making the storylines seem arbitrarily drawn. A story that should have thrived as the new type of big bang story built on sets of intriguing principles and methods allowing for great suspense and surprise, Sidonia reveals its true need for surprise instead of straightforward plot development by altering the entire story around and repeating mystery arcs with basic alterations and one dimensional special effects.

Don't get me wrong, a lot of the shots of the are breathtaking. The animation and story set-up dragged me in from episode #1, and so for like the first 5 episodes, I couldn't stop, but once it suddenly decided to throw regular anime harem statistics into the mix 6 episodes in, the series lost it - pure and simple. Fight Scenes occasionally outshine the surprise moments with some peril, but then I notice the use of bands and orchestra to make everything seem so much more epic and stupid. I honestly believe that it'd be just as scary without the choirs blaring in the background. Okay some of the choir bits are reasonably nice, but nothing memorable. For the series to have such an ambitiously dramatic set of elements, the story really needs to remain politically complex and astoundingly mysterious. It doesn't.

I really don't think there was much intelligent thought here when developing this series because it's just a litany of bad plot choices to be a great space epic. This series really doesn't reach the required standing. Instead, you'll find yourself thinking only one constant. "Sidonia is good at being entertainment, but not much else."

Good premise, but it dies in the details. They have a couple amazing pieces for the soundtrack... which get so overused you are tired of hearing those clips by the third fight scene.

The story also gets sidetracked with some contrived love stories, intrusive fan service, and a bunch of beautiful successful women all throwing themselves at the main character, and everyone is too awkward to make a move despite all being supposedly strong of character.

If you pull the fan service out (and yes that includes the agender character that is still obviously a chick who only grows boobs when she falls in love with a ... man) then the anime would be at least two points better overall, but it just pulls you out of the meat of the story and gives these awful side plots that are just plain stupid.