Review: Knights of Sidonia (Sidonia no Kishi)

Konichiwa!

Is it me, or are apocalyptic scenarios really popular in this day and age? In the past ten years, we've seen the rise in popularity of zombies, nuclear fallout and just general doom for the human race. We've seen movies like The Book of Eli, 28 Days Later and The World's End, video games such as The Last of Us, Mass Effect 3 and God of War 3 and pieces of literature exemplified by World War Z and Metro 2033 become extremely popular and hit the mainstream market with an impact that the apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic genre has never had before. Of course, this is a trend among anime viewers now as well. The biggest anime last year was Attack on Titan and now it seems as though the copyists are here. Two anime came out this Spring that functioned on the same level as Attack on Titan: Black Bullet and Knights of Sidonia. Both were set in a city that was constantly under threat by monsters and the characters all faced dilemmas that were very similar to the sort SNK's faced. Today, I'm going to review the one which I preferred: Knights of Sidonia or, in Japanese, Sidonia no Kishi.

Story: 8/10
The story of Knights of Sidonia is actually quite interesting. The setting is 1000 years after the humans fled Earth after it was destroyed by giant shape-shifting and tentacled aliens called the Gauna. One of the ships which the humans escaped on is called Sidonia, where our story takes place. Nagate Tanikaze has lived his whole life underground, until one day he is discovered and taken up to Sidonia, where he is selected to be a Guardes pilot, Guardes being huge Mecha that carry spears and fight the Gauna. The overall story presentation is well done and in each episode the viewer feels that they have learnt something important about either the history, the environment or the characters, which is something any good story should do. The show is definitively story-driven; I did not see in any of the twelve episodes anything that deviated from the overall plot. The only complaint I have is that it is left extremely open-ended and, unless the creators make a season two, that overall diminishes the score.

Characters: 8/10
This is the department where I think the anime really does suffer overall and this is mainly because Nagate, the main character, is boring. You know those stories where there is a chosen one who will topple evil? Well, in those, I really do tend to hate the chosen one, especially when he is declared the chosen one only after about seven episodes. The thing is, Nagate's growth as a character is not really that well handled. We know he's a good man and that he is learning about the world around him, just as we are, but there isn't much that goes on from there. We don't know his likes or dislikes, something that I think should be essential to any character growth. However, with that said, Nagate isn't the most boring character I've ever seen and the rest of the characters are quite interesting in their own right. The Immortal Crew Members, for example, are absolutely fascinating as they have a history of making Sidonia what it is in the present time of the story. Izana Shinatose, one of the main characters and Nagate's best friend, is defined as not having any sort of gender, as part of a hermaphrodite race that grew after the humans left Earth. The characters are all filled with ideas of what a post-apocalyptic sci-fi scenario may look like and it's little touches to the characters that pretty much save the fact that Nagate is not very interesting.

Animation & Sound: 9/10
One of the things that bugs a lot of anime fans about this anime is the splicing of CGI and hand-drawn animation. Many have criticised it for being quite ugly and unnatural. However, I disagree, I believe the splicing of CGI and 2D animation is a good idea because it accentuates the sci-fi art style and the action scenes look a lot better with it. I also loved the way the characters and environments were drawn into an almost ancient-looking civilization. The sound is just fantastic. The opening and ending themes are awesome, the sound effects are cool and the voice acting is pretty top-notch. I loved Aki Toyosaki (Anohana, K-On! 2009) as Izana and Satomi Arai (Code Geass) as Hiyama. There is no English Dub as of yet, so when it finally does air, I will make sure to tell you whether the dub or the sub is better.

Overall Enjoyment: 9/10

I really, really liked this show. From the opening theme to the sci-fi setting, I couldn't get enough of it. However, when I look back on it overall, my overall enjoyment was still high but not as high as it was. I think I've realized to just how much of an extent this rips on SNK's story. However, while it was definitely a knock-off, the overall enjoyment is still at a good level.

FINAL SCORE: 8.5/10

My recommendation of this show is that you should probably stream it rather than buy it and it seems that it is your only option at the moment, as Netflix are the only ones legally broadcasting it. An English Dub is under production as we speak, with Johnny Young Bosch, Todd Haberkorn and Spike Spencer to fill in roles. As for the open ending, it appears that it will be fixed as production on the second season is happening even as I write this review. So, until next time,

Sayonara!