Sidonia no Kishi: Ai Tsumugu Hoshi

After the Earth was destroyed by mysterious alien lifeforms known as the Gauna, surviving remnants of the human race escaped to space in the enormous generation ship Sidonia. Having drifted through space for millennia, the Sidonia found itself once more under attack from Gauna for the first time in a century.

Once again facing the threat of extinction, a temporary victory against the Gauna was eked out thanks to the human-Gauna hybrid Tsumugi Shiraui and ace Guardian mech pilot Nagate Tanikaze.

10 years later... The people of Sidonia enjoy a brief respite. Peaceful days pass, during which Tsumugi begins to realize her feelings for Nagate, who is now celebrated as a hero of Sidonia. However, as Captain Kobayashi has always known, as long as the Gauna remain, peace cannot last.

The decision is made: a final battle, upon which rests the fate of humanity's last survivors. As the end approaches, will the crew be able to protect those they love?

(Source: Polygon Pictures)

Shinatose, Izana Main

Toyosaki, Aki Japanese

Shiraui, Tsumugi Main

Suzaki, Aya Japanese

Tanikaze, Nagate Main

Oosaka, Ryouta Japanese

Hoshijiro, Shizuka Supporting

Suzaki, Aya Japanese

Kobayashi Supporting

Ohara, Sayaka Japanese

Hiyama, Lala Supporting

Arai, Satomi Japanese

Midorikawa, Yuhata Supporting

Kanemoto, Hisako Japanese

Ittan, Samari Supporting

Tanaka, Atsuko Japanese

Honoka, Ren Supporting

Kitamura, Eri Japanese

Kunato, Norio Supporting

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Herek, Samantha Assistant Producer

Seshita, Hiroyuki Director

Yoshihira, Tadahiro Director

Reviews

Feb 11, 2023

Marco_Yooo

Recommended

THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE REVIEW

"Knights of Sidonia" has always been a special little show in the anime world. The fantastic first season introduced a dark, grim and interesting post-apocalyptic sci-fi world. The story was engaging, and felt a lot like if "Attack on Titan" was set in space. After the second season, the series took a huge pause up until now and decided to end it with a movie titled "Love woven in the stars". This is the final entry in the franchise, so i was eager to get back into this world.

Story - 7/10

Well, this series has had an insane amount of wasted potential. ... The setting was literally perfect for the story they wanted to tell, but this movie runs into the problem that a lot of these kind of shows run into : rushing an ending. A lot of stuff that has been a mystery up to this point gets kind off just glossed over in here. The pacing is incredibly fast, i have never seen a single movie move this quick in it´s storytelling. The events of this movie take place in the span of 6 months (!). This is problematic because this movie has a romantic subplot that definitely needed a bit more time to be fleshed out properly.
However, aside from all the negativity, this world still managed to pull me in just as it did in the first two seasons. The whole design of everything, the vibe, the mechs and everything else is exactly what i look for in an anime. The best thing about this show is how it portrayed the space battles. The fights are HUGE and spread over various front lines all over the galaxy. It can be a bit hard to keep up, but i think the movie gives just enough information for you to be able to follow the insane battles that take place. The stakes are bigger than ever before in this franchise and the movie conveys that very well from it´s first moments.
I also have to say that although the ending was rushed, i am still glad we even got one. This is definitely not a mainstream show, and for them to even put out another movie after so many years deserves some admiration. I can now safely say that Knights of Sidonia is finally a complete story.

Art - 9/10

Well, lets talk about the most obvious thing : this movie is entirely 3D animated. This is what in my opinion turned a lot of people off this show, because CGI has somewhat of a bad reputation in the anime community. However, Knights of Sidonia has always been the one show which i always thought would actually be worse if it was hand drawn. Listen, of course the character models can look a bit off, but the main point of this show is the space battles, and everyone who looks at the animation of this show and thinks it is not perfect for this kind of action has absolutely no idea. The insane angles, the fluid movements, the amazing effects and the sheer speed in which the mechs twirl around each other would be absolutely impossible to recreate with classical animation. This truly is mecha action from another star. The insane feeling of adrenaline and speed the show gives you is in my opinion unparalled in mecha anime.

Sound - 9/10

As always with this franchise, a lot of time has gone into the sound effects and you can hear every single beat of it. I highly suggest you watch this movie with headphones or a very good stereo setup to appreciate the immaculate sounddesign. This takes the fights to even higher levels. The music itself also makes a strong return with both new and old tracks thrown into the mix here. Of course the very first opening theme (Which is an absolute banger btw) gets used during one of the most hype scenes and it was just perfect.

Characters - 6/10

To be honest, this is the category that hurt this movie the most. The fast pacing and the fact that 70% of this movie is just one insane action scene leads to incredibly underdeveloped characters. Tanikaze, our main hero almost feels like a side-character in this movie because for some reason the movie decided to introduce not one, but 3 completely new characters into the mix and although they are all likeable, it takes the spotlight away from the already established characters. Hoshino, (the best girl of season one!) does not even make an appearance. The only characters that developed in interesting ways were the captain and Kunato. Kunato especially had an insane redemption arc and the final moment between him and Tanikaze was a big nostalgic high point of the movie. The main villain also falls a bit flat to be honest. He needed a lot more development and ended up just being evil for the sake of being evil.
I do have to say however that the characters were never the strong point of the franchise but a bit more time for the villain, and a stronger focus on Tanikaze and his romance could have made the movie a true classic.

Enjoyment - 8/10

Although this review should have made clear that i am still a massive fan of this franchise, you can´t deny that it could have been so much more and i know for sure that it will probably never get the recognition it deserves. But this show has what many anime don´t have and that is an ending.
I recommend "Knights of Sidonia" to everyone who likes "Attack on Titan" , "Darling in the Franxx" as well as "Gunbuster" and to everyone else who wants to see a truly good use of 3D-Animation.

-Marco_Yooo

FINAL SCORE - 8/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Sep 26, 2022

JoexySun

Recommended

Short Review: (heavy spoilers)

Baseline quality: 7.5/10. Not nearly as magical as Season 1 but still got some strong points.

A decent sequel and conclusion to the Sidonia saga, though too little and too late. It wraps up certain arcs and elements in a satisfying way, while leaving fans of the deep sci-fi Nihei is famous for a little disappointed.

Imagine the best, most profound Lovecraftian story you have experienced, and it somehow ends with a most conventional fairy-tale ending (where the prince and princess enjoys a happily-ever-after). If you loved Season 1 of Sidonia, skipped S2 and watched this movie finale, you might end up ... with that jarring impression. The tragedy and realistic dread in a cruel battlefield are even further weakened here. Challenging sci-fi choices that might doom or warp humanity are presented to the MC, but the dilemma solved itself pretty quickly. All will be good, all will be good. It's like Rapunzel 2010 except the Sidonia version of "Rapunzel" has a sentient tentacle instead of long hair. Oh and that sentient tentacle likes wearing kimono and cuddling with the MC. Romantic? Definitely! Deep? Never mind. (Edit: after giving it some more reflections, I realized another layer of cosmic horror in MC and Tsumugi's marriage: if the love of your life is perfectly replaceable by a copy of her personality in a clone of your ex, what does that say about human nature?)

Honestly, I am glad for the MC's final choice and happiness, as I felt for his lost love from Season 1. Following the trend of Season 2, this movie conclusion is even more mainstream than Season 2. One stoic character even becomes a pop star for a while without any sensible reason.

If the numbers on MAL are any indicating, the franchise had lost its popularity for good during the 6 years of waiting since S2 (more than 57,000 have rated S2, but only 285 have given this movie a rating). Still, kudos to the production team for finishing the story. Again, it's not a bad movie or bad production, and 3d elements are properly implemented as well. The battles are still gripping if not as white-knuckled as S1. If you are a fan of the Nihei and the previous seasons, I would say still give it a try.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Sep 14, 2021

Gippy

Mixed Feelings

This is a direct continuation of season 2 and concludes the story. Though it takes place 10 years in the future, the time skip only serves to display some new minor characters. The main characters don't appear to have aged or have gained much wisdom. Everything looks slightly better with the movie budget, and improvements in 3D animation technology from 2014 to 2021. The choppy framerate, which was the largest criticism of the TV show, still appears at times, though this seems like a stylistic choice as there were some scenes that were animated smoothly.

Sidonia S1 was a bombastic marvel, and led to many people ... declaring it as Attack on Titan in space. It had the perfect balance of character-driven story arcs and action, and it seemed like a fresh take on the space opera, giving backroom politics a lesser role in favor of the frontline drama. Our hero, Nagate Tanikaze, had to make difficult decisions again and again. But S2 was a strange departure. The immediacy and horror of the Gauna threat took a backseat to rom-com antics with the introduction of Tsumugi. I felt S2 was a much weaker season than S1 and it left many questions unanswered. This movie needed a great payoff and return to the grim seriousness that made S1 so great.

The movie returned to its serious form after a short introduction that breaks the ice a little. But it's a jarring switch, as the rom-com elements were eliminated entirely, and there was no closure to the harem that Nagate accumulated in S2. Instead, Nagate swiftly and suddenly made his choice without too much on-screen brooding. This allowed more time for the space battles, which looked and sounded better than ever due to the movie budget.

My biggest criticism of the movie was that it tried to do too much and juggle too many characters at once. The screentime of the new minor characters took away from what could've been more screentime and development of the characters we were already familiar with in S1 and S2. Nagate himself felt like a minor character, as he wasn't the main focus for much of the movie. Giving a large cast enough time for each of them to shine is an issue that many anime adaptions must deal with. Notably, the two shows in which Sidonia evokes memories for me, Legend of the Galactic Heroes and Attack on Titan, had much more time to develop things. Sidonia had only 24 episodes and this movie. Though the movie clocked in at almost two hours, it really could've used some more time to explore the mystery of the Gauna.

The antagonist had great potential, but he wasn't given proper development. Instead, he ended up acting comical, delivering hammy dialogue instead of being nuanced and making an attempt to convince viewers that his grand plan had any merit. This is a shame, as S1 had the compelling drama and fallout from the fate of Shizuka Hoshijiro. S2 and this movie's writing were significantly weaker. The climax sets up the final battle as the Gauna's last major stand, but with a hammy villain behind it all, I didn't get the same thrills as the climax of S1.

The ending is satisfactory, and it is certainly the slickest space opera production in years. But while everything wrapped up nicely, I can't help but feel that we were cheated out of something completely epic. Nagate needed to be more than just a nice guy with amazing Garde combat skills, and the Gauna needed to be more than just an evil alien force. It's clear that underneath all of the technobabble, the Sidonia movie didn't intend to present a deep, substantial story that will resonate with viewers long after everything's over. But hey, if you want shiny space battles with some of the best sound production you'll ever hear in anime, this movie delivers that in spades.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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	Poll: Sidonia no Kishi: Ai Tsumugu Hoshi Episode 1 Discussion jjrocks24 - Sep 15, 2021	27 replies	by monster855 »» Dec 4, 4:08 PM
	Anyone still watching this?? GERANSASAKI - Nov 8, 2023	2 replies	by zckfox »» Nov 8, 2023 4:26 AM
	Where can I watch this? Kirukato05 - Dec 25, 2021	8 replies	by ZGUEGCHOV »» May 30, 2022 6:51 AM
	Poll: Do you think the big finale should be changed? (manga spoilers) raull127 - Dec 31, 2020	10 replies	by nyugvo6 »» Dec 9, 2021 6:28 AM
	It Lives as a Movie! 64BitRatchet - Jul 2, 2020	17 replies	by Kendoka76 »» Aug 8, 2021 1:54 PM