Sidonia no Kishi
Knights of Sidonia

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Knights of Sidonia is another strange sci-fi manga by Tsutomu Nihei. This time following the last known remains of humanity drifting around in a ginormous spacecraft in search of a new home while constantly being attacked by shapeshifting alien monster called Gauna, whom humanity combats with flying mechs called Gardes.
The best way to describe is Attach on Titan meets Evangelion in space.

Story 7/10
Nihei is famous for writing cryptic stories that put the responsibility of figuring shit out on the reader. Whilst Knights of sidonia still retains this quality, it's way more straightforward with its story and even background and lore than other nihei works. While ... this may be disappointing to hardcore Nihei fans who were expecting something similar to Blame or Biomega, this does mean it's a much more accessible read to people who've never read any of Nihei's other works.
The majority of the story consist of space mech battles followed by quieter moments of character interaction, all with some mystery and internal politics sprinkled in between. The battles are great and allow Nihei to flex his artistic muscles to the fullest. They can also be quite brutal, it's not uncommon for major characters to die in combat. The quieter moments really help to prevent the manga from becoming too dark or stale, though in later chapters the story sometimes takes too much of a 'slice of life' where the moments between battles are filled mostly with meaningless banter where little character development takes place. There are also quite a few instances of deus ex machina, but I was only able to point those out on a second read.
The story also has a romance element, but it feels a underdeveloped and can even seem a bit forced at times. However I don't think it takes away from the story's other aspects.
The ending is another contested subject among readers. I personally think it neatly wraps up the story without leaving too many unfilled gaps or plot holes.
Overall, despite some minor issues, the story is solid and has enough interesting twists and turns to keep you intrigued until the last chapter.

Characters 7/10
Knights of sidonia contains a pretty wide array of different characters, most of which are likeable and undergo some interesting character development. The main protagonist of the story, whom early on feels a bit too generic and uninteresting, goes through some quite decent development over the course of the story.
However, some characters feel as if they exist solely as love interests for the main character. Though these are few, they do feel as if more could have been done to make them more developed and interesting.

Worldbuilding 8/10
As stated in the story section, Tsutomu Nihei has a reputation for leaving the reader in the dark about worldbuilding specifics. Very little about the function of specific aspects of the world is explained and exposition dumps are almost non-existent. However, it's done in such a way that the reader knows that there's more to the history and inner workings of the world than is presented. This lack of handholding and exposition may be the story's greatest strength.

Art 9/10
The art is where Knights of sidonia truly shines. In a departure from Nihei's other works, the art in Knights of sidonia is crisp and clean with lots of outlines and solid blacks and whites, this combined with minimal use of soft edges gives the art a very clean, but space-ey vibe. As usual, one of Nihei's biggest strengths is his beautiful background work, especially the highly detailed mechanical parts. But where the art truly shines brightest is in the space battles, which consist almost exclusively of solid blacks and whites with very few mid-tones, this gives every page a high contrast and makes even the most chaotic battles easier to follow.
The Gauna look as if they're ripped straight out of HR Geiger's twisted mind, creating an otherworldly contrast between the strange, chaotic looking alien creatures and the highly organized, mechanical forces of mankind.
There is a catch however; about halfway through, the art switches to a more sketch-like style with very few to no solid blacks. This is not inherently bad, in fact it even works extremely well for the monsters. But the lack of proper contrast makes the battles a lot harder to follow and a lot of the details in the backgrounds are lost. Characters also tend to blend in with the background due to a lack of contrast and outlines.
Don't get me wrong, the art is still good, just not as good as in the earlier chapters.

Conclusion
Knights of sidonia is Tsutomu nihei's take on mecha, made more accesible to a wider audience but still retaining his very recognizable style of writing and art. If you love sci-fi and/or mecha and have never read any of Nihei's other works, I highly recommend this as it is a good place to start. If you are a diehard Nihei fan, you may be turned of by the prospect of this being a 'more accessible' work of his, however I believe it's still worth giving a shot as you might still find it enjoyable. To everyone else, I recommend giving it at least a few chapters to decide whether or not it's something for you.

Overall score 8/10

STORY: 5
With its post apocalyptic settings and humanity-transcending lifeforms Sidonia no Kishi gets immediately compared to Blame!, the most famous work of the author. Here we have a much simpler story and universe and, while the introductory chapters show a lot of potential, things become less interesting as the story progresses until an ending that many are upset about. Also progression is too long with the boring shonen rhythm of both heroes and enemies becoming gradually ridiculously stronger. This manga should have been much shorter!


ART: 6
The art of Nihei is much cleaner here but still retains his bold style. It's enjoyable despite confusion during battles ... and similar-looking characters.

POLITICAL POTENTIAL: 5
There's a bit of politics in a few arcs but it never goes far. Nothing special.

FEMINISM: 4
Quite a letdown compared to Blame!. Girls are needlessly sexualized and we get all the shonen cliches of peeping in changing room, running by accident on a naked female character and instances of sexual harassment that are treated as comedy. The story even turns into a harem at some point with everyone wanting to sleep with the main character, that was totally not needed.

CONCLUSION: 5
Too long and not delivering on initial promises. Only for fans of the author.

From chapter 1 to 78 a 4/10.

Wow! that was very disappointing.
Especially the final arc. Characters were thrown in the trash along with their developments. Only for a horrible romance to happen, then die, then came back again to life. The plot is all over the place in the final half. The worst plot point and holes (little robot killer?). The first arcs had some very bad artistic decisions, that made the art descriptions and scenes very blurry and hard to understand, everything was always in a dark tone. But that was just the first half of the manga. After that someone must have called ... the author in the back and said "I don't understand these arts at all, bro", couse they all look bright and clearer and more easy to understand/appreciate at the final arc.
in short, the art is good, especially the backgrounds and objects in the background.

Plot is messy, the end is horrible (and bizarre).
What a shame for a manga with such a good start (plot). The romance created between the chimera and tanikaze is bizarre, forced and often disgusting. It is just... strange.

To summarize everything in the phrase of a great sage:
"My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined"
Bad manga 4/10.
Waste time with it.