Sidonia no Kishi, or Knights of Sidonia, takes place in a post-apocalypse setting.
No no no, not like Fallout or Mad Max, bur rather in space.
Humans live on this ship called "Sidonia" and despite what first impression that may have, the ship is actually capable of having 500,000 people inhabiting it.
While this was apparently an issue, they had also genetically modified humans to be able to photosynthesize, requiring only sunlight and eating once per week.
I'm trying not to give to much away, but the humans are running from something while trying to find a new home. Now that the setup is out of the way...
Characters- I won't lie, some of them are pretty forgettable, but the ones that were important to the story were very memorable and very...well, you may get attached to them a little. Some of the characters I found were good, but the lack of love and screen time to background or support characters was disappointing. I don't wanna spoil anything, but I was attached to one character in particular and had gotten kinda angry about it later.
Art- WHOA, IS THIS CGI?! Yes, yes it is. BUT WAIT. its not that bad. I actually thought the art style was VERY well done. Of course your always going to have moments where its very obvious and sticks out like a sore thumb.
The art style was actually very fitting. Characters looked neat and well designed, and were animated very well. I do think Polygon studios took advantage of no gravity for some moments where their movements are...less than elegant, but it seemed natural anyway. Environments were very well done and the theme of Sidonia was kinda scary and sad, while at the same time looking extravagant and beautiful.
The color palette was not too bland either, showing off a diversity of the spectrum in some areas more than others of course, but having the environment fit the mood of the scene really well.
Sound- I was not impacted at all by the soundtrack. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't amazing either. However, when there was a scene that really REALLY needed a good BGM, it was. Asakura Noriyuki composed the soundtrack, and he made it fit very well within the setting and it would not be too much or too little. The style was really good, I'll give him that.
Story- I for one, have not seen a story like this. It was really good and you actually kinda worry about how the protagonists are gonna make it through this. Later on they introduce a very important plot element that they unfortunately could not elaborate on, but a second season is confirmed now and I for one can't wait to see how that unfolds. Most of the story centers around Nagate Tanikaze, as he is the protagonist and is foreshadowed to be very very important despite how the rest of the characters make him look...average.
One thing that did bother me was the pacing. The show actually starts right up and gets you hooked immediately, with their being a deployment in the first episode and seeing the kind of horror their facing. However, after a few episodes they slooooow dooown and do some character development. Not that character development is bad, it was only because the show had immediately hooked you in with the action and the awe of the first couple episodes only to stop entirely for about 4 episodes. Then after that, its deployment after deployment. I may also add in just this quick line, all of the "sci-fi" in this show, is all completely plausible. (barring perhaps the photosynthesizing...although.. >.> )
and finally, the mechs- Their...nothing special. Their really not. Take in mind, I do not consider this a bad thing, but something you may care about. All of them, are the same. Same design, same weapons, same capabilities. This is not Gundam. However, I love how they used them. The Garde's could join together to get more thrust of out their engines. By join together, I mean they literally held onto each others arms in what they call a clasp formation. Much of the technology uses Heigus particles (Higgs Boson particles) to do one thing or another. The most seen and obvious use of this, is in the Garde. They are more or less "lasers" to simplify it. The armaments on the Garde's fire compressed Higgs Boson particles. The Garde's engine also runs off these very same particles and if in emergency, the Garde can deploy "sails" to catch and story more particles. As it turns out, the main antagonist of the show are also made primarily out of these same particles.
Overall, its a good show. I thoroughly enjoyed it and have been trying to get my roommate to watch it with me...and I dont even particularly like this kind of genre. 7/10
