In terms of what type of science fiction this series goes for, it takes on the mantle of very straight and fact-based sci-fi, and the laws of physics and nature come into play very often. Ideas like propulsion and acceleration become key concepts when determining how battles sway and how life prospers on board the "Sidonia," and this ends up making battles a lot more thrilling and exciting because the lack of fantastical plot armor creates some extremely tense situations and often results in extremely high death tolls during battles. This turned what would have otherwise been an extremely generic plot into a captivating experience.
That being said, the truly generic nature of the plot itself is nearly unbearable at some points, and I found myself making a gagging motion whenever the standard dialogue clichés started popping up. There were also a lot of points where things just didn't make any sense. Without spoiling anything, there comes a point where Nagate messes up during a mission and it causes a big problem. Then, after the mission, one of the other soldiers actually beams him in the head with a rock. Now only was this infuriating on the level of "this crap probably wouldn't fly in an actual military," but also on the level of "here's that clichéd plot point where everyone hates the main character after he messes up, but then he does really well in the next mission so they're ok with him again." And, I kid you not, there is actually a montage scene where they flash between different moments on Nagate's rise up in power and respect within the military. This is just a sample of the unbelievably terrible writing that takes places between the epic thrills of each battle.
Characters really don't do much to differentiate themselves from their standard tropes either. Nagate is probably the most fleshed-out of the cast, but even his background of living in the underground alleys of "Sidonia" felt a bit generic. From there on out, between token love interests with no personality other than "love interest," and a quite literal bully character with very few redeeming qualities, the characters really don't do much to make themselves stand out. Character interactions also feel a bit forced at times, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the fact that there are enough main characters fawning over Nagate to fill a small harem for any other anime. By the time they had added a fourth love interest, my eyes were about to swivel back into my head so hard that they'd fall out of their sockets.
And then, there's the bear. There is literally a talking bear with a robotic arm that actually gets to be a main character...just let that sink it for a minute. I don't know if this was their attempt to insert some kind of comic relief despite the fact that the bear never does anything comical, but if it was, then it worked just about as well as every single forced comedic relief scene in this series.
The animation was produced by Polygon Pictures, and to my knowledge, this is the first television anime series to be animated completely in 3D rendered models. This ended up creating an incredibly stark contrast in animation quality. On the plus side, the action sequences were some of the best I've seen from this year, with every single movement choreographed and animated to near perfection. The heavy attention to explosions and particles effects also added a great deal to every fight, though some felt less realistic than others. On the reverse side of this category, any animation that wasn't a fight sequence ranged from incredibly mediocre to unbelievably awful. The characters have an extremely limited range of facial features, blushing and crying looking extremely jagged and unnatural, and any sort of body movement looks severely robotic and completely destroys any attempt at immersing you in this story.
On the dub front, I actually couldn't tell you who exactly dubbed this series, but I can tell you that we have definitely found a fundamental flaw in Netflix's business plan for original anime series. I do have to give credit to Johnny Yong Bosch and Todd Haberkorn (credited as Todd Stone) though, but saying that those two were good in a dub is practically unnecessary since they've been voice acting legends for at least the past decade. Unfortunately, aside from a minor role by Spike Spencer (Shinji of Neon Genesis Evangelion), I did not recognize a single name on this dub cast. Upon further research, I discovered that a good portion of them had never even done any anime voice acting before they were cast for this series, and the effects of this were plain to seen. I personally was able to slosh through the dub because it's a heavy action series and Bosch can in fact carry an entire cast by himself, but I would not blame you in the slightest if you switched to subbed while watching this. Hopefully Netflix will learn from their mistakes before they begin their work on The Seven Deadly Sins.
The music was composed by Noriyuki Asakura of Rurouni Kenshin fame, and his mastery of soundtrack composition has certainly evolved since the late 90s. Battle sequences were always accompanied by grand and epic orchestrations mixed with heavy guitar work and electronics, while more intense non-battle scenes often carried creepy electronic elements; I will say that I felt somewhat unmoved by some of the softer tracks though. The opening theme "Sidonia" was performed by angela and plays us in with a heavy techno beat back by a march-inspired feel, while the ending theme "show" by Eri Kitamura plays us out with a heavy rock track. Additionally, both of these tracks are available for purchase on iTunes, and I would definitely recommend checking them out.
Overall, I'm once again left in a quandary over whether or not to recommend Knights of Sidonia. There are a ton of really, really awful moments in this series, yet I was still able to watch the next episode without any pause for a break. Ultimately, I'm feeling a bit generous towards it since it's the first anime exclusively licensed by a streaming company outside the direct anime industry, and any attempt to promote and expand anime in the western market should always be given a chance.
If you like heavy action anime, then definitely give this one a shot, but otherwise stay clear of it.
