I was terribly hesitant to delve into another dystopian anime with mechs, as I feel it can be one of the most overused plot elements in any anime, but at the strong recommendation of a friend I tuned into Sidonia no Kishi (Knights of Sidonia). What I found was a CGI-infused space epic of sorts, which I even later found out to be compared often to Attack on Titan. It’s a show I wanted to like, but turned out to bland in a lot of ways, hindering its overall successes.
Knights of Sidonia takes place years after unidentified creatures known as “Gauna” invaded Earth, forcing the population to seek refuge elsewhere in space aboard Sidonia, a massive, self-supporting deep space vessel. Tanikaze, the MC in this series appears to have been living in the depths of Sidonia his entire life, practicing blowing Gauna away in a spacefighting simulator created by his Grandpa. His grandpa passes away and is left to venture out into the real world for the first time. Honestly, he ends up adjusting to never interacting with other humans before quite well. For initially unknown reasons, the captain of the Sidonia military takes a liking to Tanikaze and puts him into pilot training. There also seems to be an instant harem element present, as the academy’s vice president and other random girls blush at every glance from Tanikaze… of course they would.
The biggest gripe I have with the story in Knights of Sidonia is the actual lack of plot depth. You see battle after battle with lots of pilots dying, but no one seems to know anything about the Gauna or where they came from. You would think that after several centuries of fighting with these things… that SOMETHING would’ve been uncovered, just a little clue. Also, we come to find that there is an immortal council devised of Sidonia residents who seek immortality and provide general guidance to their figurehead, who just so happens to be the military captain. The only problem is, their formation is alluded to but never fully explained. And, to make it better… there’s also a chick that is a bear for some reason. In a ship full of humans, just one bear…. with a robotic hand. Nice. You think at one point Tanikaze would ask… “Hey Lala, why is it that you’re a bear?” Nope, of course it’s normal.
Tanikaze literally seems like the only intelligent pilot in existence. Despite the amazing amount of preparation that the other members of the military had to fight against the Gauna, their best four pilots get wiped out almost instantly in their first battle. Seems legit. To top it off, by the third battle or so the mediocre pilots are slaying ten to twenty of the Gauna at a time. All the battles seem to play out the same way as well, which makes the detailed and flashy battle scenes less impressive. Don’t worry though, Tanikaze will end up pulling through in the end! The story isn’t all bad though, the relationship between Tanikaze and Hoshijiro blossoms well, and the outlook of the dystopian society is well written… just not enough to make up for the blandness. I also didn’t notice a large amount of similarities between AoT and KoS, except for the low amount of people remaining from Earth and some unexplained entity that they’re fighting to survive against. I feel that archetype is presented in other animes as well.
An even weaker part of Knights of Sidonia is the characters and the writing of dialogue. Tanikaze is the stereotypical haremy badass of a protagonist, but his inner emotions and history are never really expounded upon at all. It would help me relate to the character more if these areas were explained… at least a little bit. Due to the heavy CGI used in the animation style, it can also be tasking and difficult to decipher proper body language of the characters themselves. If it weren’t for the random blushing redness on their faces, a comment could honestly be taken way out of context. The character’s movements made me slightly nostalgic to older shows like Reboot on Toonami, as they seemed to all move similarly. If you listen closely you can hear their bleeps and bloops.
The rest of the characters are so boring that when they die, I feel apathetic to the whole thing. If that’s the effect they were going for, they hit the nail on the head. I did feel Kunato got some development as the series went on, and I actually kind of felt bad for him from the stress consuming him from being a pilot and throwing Tanikaze under the bus regarding Hoshijiro. It’s a spark of some development but not much.
Some people say the CGI makes or breaks viewer’s experience with KoS, but I’m not quite onboard with that mentality. Sure, it is rather hard to watch at first, because it is different. And yes, it does detract from the static conversations between characters, but the action scenes are actually beautiful and well constructed. And they’re plentiful in the anime, which made me actually anticipate what would come next. The sound is also pretty good. The opening theme does remind me of Attack on Titan with its fanfare, and the sound effects of the Gardes are cool to say the least. The OST in general never lacked, and the dramatic openings of battles were orchestrated very well. Voice acting is alright, but nothing noteworthy. I had a hard time differentiating between some of the female cast.
Aside from the plot holes and unoriginal or bland characters, I did enjoy KoS. It was nonstop action which allowed me to watch almost the entire series in one sitting. The special effects were great, and I am a sucker for space mechs with oversized guns.
Knights of Sidonia could’ve been improved in several ways, and I think the CGI art style may have been a bit too ambitious for the writers to counterbalance with the plot and characters. Although I enjoyed it, I don’t think it would be for everyone. If you have some time to kill, and you’re looking for a lot of fast paced action, this one is for you. Thanks for reading!
