Straight off the bat, I would like to say that Sidonia no Kishi has a very interesting and eye-catching idea to the whole show. The way humans live in this O'Neill cylinder-ish space station and that there are many different layers of the station. Also, clouds and lakes are even included to make it seems as if it is Earth. Kinda reminds me of Made In Abyss. However, the flaws of the show are quickly revealed as the show progresses in the first few episodes. The pacing, planning of scenes and the execution of scenarios are utterly horrible and butchered. When I notice this from the get-go of the first episode, I was deeply saddened and in a state of anger and crestfallen. Anger due to them ruining such a fascinating and intriguing concept, I could really see the potential in it and was looking forward to the show as a whole. Of course, saddened by what the studio did to present this concept of Sidonia no Kishi. To be more specific, our main character, for example, Nagate, a boy that came out of the depths of the station. He has little to no knowledge of the world above and yet, in the span of the first episode, he is found by the authorities and instantly given a position at the school for pilots. This compiled with the fact that we the audience know nothing seems very rushed and out of pace. I was truly shocked by what was happening and how it happened so fast. Plus, by the next episode, our character just blends in normally like he was there begin with anyways. Additionally, how is our character not even shock to see a talking bear? Like, I was shocked and he just took it as if it were natural to see a talking bear. Talking about character issue, Norio, or the super edgy prideful piece of shit. He is painfully shallow and badly written, like, of course, there has to be that kid that wants all the spotlight to himself and proceeds to challenge Nagate. But by challenge, I mean sabotage, and by sabotage, I mean committing an outright murder to get the spotlight. How the hell is students like him recruited in the school, I just can't fandom what the fuck he did just to get appraised. What's worse, or should I say for the better, is that he didn't have the balls to carry on his doing and loses his shit when he hears the voice of Hoshijiro. I am at least glad the show excluded him from the episodes that came after and till the end because I really do not want to see more screen time of his edgelord ass. Like, the time when he bitch slaps Izana after knocking into by accident AND she got her leg piece by a wooden stick, like, that, in bird culture, is considered a dick move. Not all is bad, thankfully, I love Izana, she is such a breath of fresh air to the horrible characters around her and Nagate got better in the later episode. What I can't stand is Kobayashi and why couldn't they pick any other name for her, I love Kobayashi for the dragon maid series. Anyway, who placed this lunatic as the head of the station. She is literally an insane person that makes, not roughness actions, but dumb and stupid ones. Like the time she engaged a turn of the station in an instant without giving time for the people to react, resulting in a ton of flying bodies splattering across the station's internal. I bet in her mind it's like 'LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR'. Plus all she does is agree at commands and disagree at some, only to bring up stupid choices. Moreover, the show does no effort in presenting time in the series. That I mean the sense of time in the show, many a time the show skipped or fast forward the scenarios that are happening, resulting in, what seemed to be a short time, happened over a long duration. The failure in doing that just makes scenes transition off and out of place. Lastly, the show does a trash job on making human pilots worthy of something, by that I mean the way the show presents the death of pilots on every mission doesn't seem impactfully enough and that just resembles disposable underwear to me. You have to be kidding, how did the 4, star pilots train hard and well for an attack and instantly got rekted in the first battle without putting much of a fight. Truly, that is so disappointing to see.
-SCORES-
Character- 5/10: Love Izana, Hoshijiro (even her placenta form), the last half of Nagate and of course, Lala. The rest of the characters just seemed too shallow and weak, and Kobayashi is just a lunatic.
Art- 8/10: I honestly think they did a great job on the art, I absolutely adore the half-time art scenes of episodes, probably from the manga but those are gorgeous to me. Other than the times when scenes are too bright and that their clothing is always dirty, I say the style they made on was pretty and decent. Nowhere close the studio Orange standard of 3D but still a decent one.
Writing- 4/10: Planning, pacing, storyboard, character-wise, execution, dialog, and some others are weak. I disapprove of the implementation of Slice Of Life and Romance genre at first, but after seeing countless 'Sortie Alert', I just want them to continue the path of the world around them in the station and not what is going on outside. The 'Sortie Alert' is probably used too many times, I sigh whenever something interesting is happening and then,' Sortie Alert' appears. For Nagate, it's back to sorties for you.
Sound- 7/10: The did a decent job, the intro is nice by everything seems kinda flushed out. Like I just want to enjoy it at max but the studio probably forgot to increase the volume of the intro in production.
Overall, please for the love, please get better in the next season. I really love the concept but hate the studio for presenting it in such a shit manner.
Strong 4 to a Light 5
