| Knights of Sidonia : Review |
-------------------------------------
Knights of Sidonia is an another Dystopian Sci-Fi Mecha series that's set in Space written by Tsutomu Nihei who was famous for his highly successful manga Blame! and bought life by Polygon Studios.
I went into the series without reading the manga and without much expectation , and it was an fairly average experience. I wouldn't necessarily say it was awful , but was it good enough to stand out from the rest ? No. Is it worth watching ? Let's find out shall we.
-----------
Story - 6
-----------
The premise of the story is solid and competent but nothing unique. Earth is destroyed , Humans now colonize in space on a giant spaceship which in now being attacked. But one of the glaring issues is while it supposed to be this dystopian setting , the viewer doesn't really feel that tension. Beside a few civilians dying in one episode and a few civilian protest scenes , you would expect the environment to be more chaotic. The pacing feels rushed , nothing is properly explained , the show keeping throwing half-baked information at you and it gets rather confusing at times. The romantic subplots feels cheesy.., forced and awkward.
Beside it's flaws , it does provide enough conflicts and space battles to keep the viewer interested , even tho most of it is cliché and predictable.
-----------
Art - 3
-----------
Dear Polygon studio , what the fuck ?
Okay , I don't hate CGI by default. I think CGI can look great when properly utilized , Ghost in the Shell : Innocence is a great example for that. But here , It's an atrocity.
I feel like they could have at least put some effort into making the different characters look unique , But No. Even the main characters of the series are indistinguishable from most of the side characters in the series. I was genuinely confused about who is who most of the time. This isn't helped by the poor characterization which I'll get into later.
All the backgrounds and environments are kept pretty simple , which isn't entirely a bad thing because it's doesn't feel bloated. Everything look black or white most of the times. Something that deserves fair points is how they animated the space battles , which looked fairly good most of the times , everything felt smooth and the effects were adequate.
-------------
Sound - 6
-------------
This is where a series like this could have truly shined. But sadly , Musical score of the series is almost non-existent. I value the soundtrack of a series very highly , and I felt this series could have profited from a good soundtrack and the lack of it was clearly apparent.
But what they should receive major points for the fantastic opening theme , which I never skipped even though I was bing watching the show and heard it 10 times in the past 12 hours.
I should also point out that the sound effects on the series was really well done , so plus points for that.
-----------------
Characters - 3
-----------------
Oh boy! , This is one of the sections that the series really faltered. I already mentioned that the characters were indistinguishable from each other because of the poor characters designs and the artwork , that really highlights how poor the characterization were. They didn't just simply look the same , there were no unique characteristics to identify them , most of them had any unique personalities and was pretty generic.
The main character was one of the most boring and bland protagonists I've seen in quite a while. In the first episode , his introduction was him stealing bread and doing somethings he shouldn't be doing. You would expect some kind of punishment , But the writers say "Well , Fuck that" and gives him a job as a pilot ?
I did hoped that the main character would get some development later on but character development was ignored here , almost completely. The MC was the same bland and interesting character when the series ended as when it started.
Most of the female characters in the show are there as romantic interests for the main character , and not interesting or unique , although fairly likable.
So in short , characters are bland and uninteresting.
----------------------------------------------
Enjoyment and Overall Experience - 5
----------------------------------------------
Enjoyment ? Honestly , not that much. The most enjoyable part for me was the opening theme. At times it felt like a chore mostly because I had to put in an effort to even differentiate characters from each other. and I expected more out of the soundtrack.
Would I recommend it ? No , But if you really like Mecha's ,Love Triangles and Space battles , you might want to give it a try.
---------------------------
| Recommendations |
---------------------------
[Neon Genesis Evangelion] Just a much better Dystopian Mecha series , that excels and blows Sidonia out of the water in every department.
[Attack on Titan] A series that truly captures the desperation and intensity of what it feels like to be corned and attacked as a race.
