Knights of Sidonia is a gorgeously animated sci-fi 'Last of the human race in a colony ship' series with entertaining space battles and perfect use of CGI. unfortunately, that was about all it had to offer.
Story:
The conflict with the Gauna is pretty much the extent of the story here, which is fine considering that the show is about the struggle to preserve the human race due to problems caused by the Gauna in the first place. However, this meant that the parts of the show devoted to other things, to the pilot's free time, just felt like a waste. The world of Sidonia, while beautiful, wasn't developed enough to make me feel like it was an actual place. I could have derived a similar amount of enjoyment from looking at an art book of this series.
Anyway, the Gauna destroyed earth in the year 2371 CE and several colony ships scattered into deep space in an hopes that humans might one day colonize another planet, but the ever-present Gauna threat means they will have to be dealt with before humanity can achieve that goal. Throughout the series, I didn't get the sense that anything was progressing aside from humanities ability to combat these giant space monsters which affirmed the fact that the Gauna conflict was the only thing actually happening. There are vague hints at political unrest but it's ultimately unimportant in the grand scheme of things.
One of my favorite parts was when three of the characters explored the city and reading Sidonian lore, I though this might lead to something interesting that wasn't space battles but it ended up tying right back into it.
Characters:
None of the characters were particularly memorable, in fact, after watching it recently I can only remember the name of one." NAGATE!" screamed every girl he had ever met while staring in horror as the Gauana wreaked havoc in a manner reminiscent of Krillin gaping uselessly at Vegeta using his powers. Unfortunately, this isn't DBZ, and that trope is inexcusable in an action anime that takes itself seriously.
The relationships between characters is almost Victorian. The sexual tension is so awkward it's hard to watch and everyone is stoic to the point of not having a personality at all. There's a girl with green hair and a mole who actually gets some character development but it's not enough to relieve the frustration.
However, the biggest issue is that all the characters are part of the military despite the fact that they are hopelessly ill suited to combat. They make irrational decisions, shut down in the face of danger, and behave in ways that are outright detrimental to themselves and their comrades, in and out of combat. The commander actually listens to her pilots when they have a good idea, which was a nice break from the constant barrage of authority figures in most shows who never listen to anyone ever.
Nagate's character is actually okay. He doesn't have much going on other than being a really good pilot, but that's okay considering he's lived underground his whole life with one other person, and devoted all his free time to pilot simulations. It makes sense that he'd have zero social skills.
Animation & Direction (Space battles):
This is exactly what I want to see out of a mecha, space battle anime. While it isn't really a mecha show per se, all of combat takes place inside them. The problem I have with mecha (and most action anime) in general is amount of time spent shouting the names of your moves, charging energy, and flashing lights without any actually action. The combat is fast paced, pretty to look at, and easy to follow. It's never chaotic, and things can only be hard to follow because every mech looks the same. However, this fits in with the uniform, militaristic style of the show, so it's not a problem at all. It's hard to put into words how well done the combat is because it's so rare to see anything like it. This was what kept me coming back along with the desire to learn more about the Gauna.
Character Design:
The character design is realistic and consistent. Not a single character's design break immersion. Realistic hair color (even the green haired girl's hair is muted eough to not be distracting) , and similar faces, you get the impression that they have homogenized over years of cloning/being grown in test tubes. Unfortunately, they are also pretty similar and easy to get confused because of it.
Style/Aesthetic:
Like I mentioned before, Knights of Sidnoia depicts consistent realism. It never deviated from this despite the space battles and Sidonia being drastically different, both in terms of pacing and content. This brings me to my next point.
Pacing:
I don't know if it's because the characters mostly lacked personality, or the absence of world building, but the segments of the show spent in Sidonia, which comprise most of the show, are really, really slow. There needed to be something other than shots of generic looking characters walking through gray hallways and reserved, uninteresting dialogue and there just wasn't. I wanted to see Sidonia, I wanted to learn about it's inhabitants, but I got almost nothing in those areas.
Sound:
Fantastic sound effects. Never have I heard weapons with so much Oomph. The sound really conveys just how devastating these weapons are. The score was properly dramatic for a fast paced robot vs. massive alien space battle.
Intro/Outro
The opening theme was perfect for the show. I wasn't crazy about it, but I acknowledged that one would be hard pressed to find a more appropriate song. The ending theme was a little energetic and dramatic for the tone of the show, but sounded cool.
If anyone knows of an anime with animation on par with this show that actually has interesting characters, an intriguing story and decent world building, please let me know.
