Sidonia no Kishi: Daikyuu Wakusei Seneki

After barely escaping a collision with a gigantic Gauna at the cost of many human lives, Kobayashi—the captain of the spaceship Sidonia—is prompted to change her political paradigm. Once she seizes full power, Kobayashi aims to eradicate the Gaunas from the Lem system where former Sidonians have recently established a colony. Her ambition is justified by two breakthroughs: the development of highly effective, long-range anti-Gauna weapons, and the creation of Tsumugi Shiraui—the first human-Gauna chimera possessing great destructive power.

Facing hostility toward chimeras and her uncertain large-scale military expedition, Kobayashi enlists the help of the new elite pilot Nagate Tanikaze. Due to his personal experiences with Shizuka Hoshijiro and Benisuzume's placenta, Tanikaze soon develops a close bond with Tsumugi. As the final battle against humanity's most formidable opponent approaches, Tanikaze tries to enjoy the last days of peace with his friend Izana Shinatose—all while Kobayashi secretly pursues the development of an experimental weapon that could very well lead to the complete destruction of Sidonia.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Shinatose, Izana Main

Toyosaki, Aki Japanese

Shiraui, Tsumugi Main

Suzaki, Aya Japanese

Tanikaze, Nagate Main

Oosaka, Ryouta Japanese

Killy Supporting

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Hoshijiro, Shizuka Supporting

Suzaki, Aya Japanese

Benisuzume Supporting

Suzaki, Aya Japanese

Kobayashi Supporting

Ohara, Sayaka Japanese

Hiyama, Lala Supporting

Arai, Satomi Japanese

Midorikawa, Yuhata Supporting

Kanemoto, Hisako Japanese

Honoka, Ren Supporting

Kitamura, Eri Japanese

Hashimoto, Ryuu Producer

Yamazaki, Yoshihiko Producer

Seshita, Hiroyuki Director

Iwanami, Yoshikazu Sound Director

Reviews

May 7, 2024

nalist

Recommended

Power abuse, alien stuff, a man trying to do a good thing, uncertainty of a bleak future, some love triangles in the mix (this man is unbelievably popular, even the enemy has hots for him), and all this with awesome mecha action.

Overall as good as the s1, but sadly with same problem - for some reason, beyond common sense, the guy Kunato was not jettisoned into space and was not repurposed in the bioreactor. His motivation had been improved beyond basic pettiness, thanks to some modifications, but with this new conflict with the same old foundation from his sabotage of a mission from s1 and ... deaths, which are happened because of his actions, it looks absurd as they should be aware of his actions through mech's logs. They have empowered a madman who will stop at nothing.

You can say that Captain and Kunato are not that far apart, both of them sacrifice people without a second thought for the sake of their own goals, but Captain at least has some concern for human's survival, which cannot be said about Kunato.

This anime was so close to absolute greatness.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jan 13, 2022

JoexySun

Recommended

Short Review: minor spoilers regarding characters

After the excitement of Season 1, I immediately went on to watch Season 2. Alas, it is not quite the hardcore sci-fi war epic Season 1 promised to be. Season 2 is 50% bizarre alien dating simulator, 30% shonen action fantasy and 20% futuristic dystopian drama. It is a significant step down from S1 for me. Though it may work better for some (as the rating on this site shows, that S2 got overall higher score than S1).

Like I said in the review of S1, there is a special charm to how the original author/mangaka Nihei handles sci-fi details ... in his works. In his masterpiece "Blame!", there is an ever-present existential dread and anxiety despite the thrilling actions in the front stage. That is because at the back of the audience's head, once one understands the Lovecraftian implications to everything happens around Killy and Cibo, one is bound to feel insignificant in the larger scheme of things. Is the whole quest futile? Can loved characters even die properly or for good? You never know whose memory/personality the next interdimensional entity Killy encounters might inherit.

In Season 1 of Sidonia, this sense of existential dread is somewhat in the front stage, and the common shonen/space opera tropes are handled with mature reserve. You know something far more sinister is happening to the fate of humanity on a larger scale than what our naive chosen one Nagate can comprehend. This makes what happens in the backstage far more interesting than the MC's expanding harem (which I did not mind that much in S1).

Alas, Season 2 decided to center its narrative focus on the MC's bizarre budding romance with the human/alien hybrid, Tsumugi, who interacts with him by a sentient tentacle that looks terribly like a "Johnson". Izana, the once gender-neutral best buddy of the MC, now develops deep feelings and female parts for him. You think the MC will make a sensible choice with Izana, who risks arms and legs for him? No, he acts like Shinji in NGE, not only with Izana but also with all other women who want a piece of him. Think anime fans and furries are weird? You probably haven't seen Sidonia Season 2. Perhaps one can argue the MC's space harem is an interesting concept with subtle transhumanistic debate hidden somewhere, though I doubt that is the reason such harem became the center of S2 (cute elements and fan service from the said harem sell better than existential dread, for sure). That said, it's not impossible to appreciate the character development here. It's just often tonally off for me. To be fair, Tsumugi is likeable.

Battle sequences in S2 are also impacted by this creative choice, from a certain point onwards you know the MC will never be truly in danger under the protection of his super tentacle space waifu. The sense of insignificance in the vast space/infinite battleground from S1 is heavily weakened here. Also, the subtitle for Season 2 "Duel on Planet 9" is also somewhat misleading, as space battles take a backseat for most of the season. The promised great duel that determines the fate of humanity is also postponed to the movie finale.

In the meanwhile, a coup is taking place in the backstage, with the evil scientist Ochiai and the Captain both showing their hands. The ambiguous implications of their power plays and controversial choices kept the entire season from falling apart.

The art in Season 1 has the signature crudeness/roughness Nihei is famous for (which adds to the atmosphere quite well), but now in Season 2 most of the roughness is gone, replaced by typical CG cleanness which makes certain elements look washed. Fortunately more elements retain Nihei's artistic vision. Soundtrack in S1 is good if not too outstanding. The opening song in Season 2, however, immediately rub me the wrong way. For a show about existential dread, that song is way too triumphalist (it's not even a parody of the national anthem antics, just a serious propaganda song).

In the end, Season 2 ended with an exhilarating epic battle and is still a decent show. My disappointment mainly comes from the quality drop compared to S1.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Apr 30, 2024

hexashadow13

Mixed Feelings

tl;dr: A sequel season that has flashes of what was good about the first season but is overall pretty mediocre.

The second season of Knights of Sidonia continues the story of Nagate and company as they fight against the Guana in an effort to preserve humanity. However, beyond that the season is vastly different from the first and not for the better. What made the first season great was the world building as well as the major battles that always felt like such a desperate struggle for survival that they even had horror vibes at times. This season seems to go in a different direction.

In terms ... of world building and overarching plot, it kind of feels like it threw out most everything that the first season was setting up. It doesn’t just ignore the various related plot threads completely, but rather it comes up with what feel like overtly convenient and forced means of getting rid of them really quickly. For example, placenta Hoshijiro , Kunato’s angst, the pacifists, and the Council of Immortals really don’t matter at all. It does that so the focus is more heavily on a single plot thread centered on Ochiai and some smaller plot threads that stem from that. But these are far more generic and less interesting than the plot threads thrown away. And they’re not all that well written either.

Another area this season feels like a step back is the action. There still is some really good action this season. However, the biggest problem is that there simple isn’t enough action. There are only two battles that felt like they had the intensity and weight of those from the first season, the one in episodes 3-4 and the one from 9-12. And even with the final battle, it felt like pacing was too slow which made it less exciting than it could be.

What it has instead of the action is doubling down on the slice of life and romance/harem stuff. Now I’m certainly not opposed to content like that in anime like these as it can often help with pacing. But the first season wasn’t very good at it, and this season is even worse. It doesn’t really flesh out characters or build up investment in them, and it’s just not all that entertaining or amusing. Character’s are as flat as they were in the first season. There is apparently what is supposed to be relationship development, but it’s moments that happen very abruptly without any proper build up, and thus it doesn’t really feel like it flows well at all. And though I think there was an attempt at a character arc for Nagate, it really didn’t work at all and the final sequence of the last episode that was meant to showcase it fell completely flat.

The art and animation are very similar to the first season, meaning good at mech action but terrible at handling people. However since there’s much more of an emphasis on the people when they’re out of the Garde this time, this results in the art and animation of the season overall being weaker. The OP has a pretty good song, though I still prefer the first season OP’s song. The ED song is okay. The visuals of both are pretty dull. The soundtrack has good tracks, but it felt like it was pretty much the same tracks as the first season without any new tracks or new mixes, which got kind of boring. Also, it straight up played the OP song of the first season twice in the last episode, which was definitely overkill.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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