Anime: Sidonia no Kishi

Serie de animación para televisión que adapta el manga homónimo de Tsutomu Nihei. Por ahora lleva dos temporadas. La Tierra ha sido destruida tras el ataque de una raza alienígena Los Gauna, Lo poco que queda de la raza humana viaja ahora por el espacio en unas naves espaciales gigantes, una de estas naves es la Sidonia. Para protegerse de dichos Gaunas en Sidonia se utilizan los Gardes, unos Mechas (Robots gigantes) pilotados por pilotos expertos. El protagonista Nagate Tanikaze, es un chaval que ha vivido toda la vida en los subterráneos de la nave, sin contacto con el exterior, solo en compañía de su abuelo (¿a alguien más le suena esto?) que le obliga a entrenar diariamente en unos simuladores de garde. Cuando este muere, a Nagate no le queda más remedio que salir a la superficie, allí los responsables de la sidonia se darán cuenta del valor que tiene el muchacho para la defensa de la nave y le alistan como cadete. Antes de meterme a hablar plenamente del anime me gustaría dar unos pequeños apuntes sobre el autor. Nihei estudió arquitectura, pero ya desde muy pequeño le llamaba el mundo del cómic y demostró grandes dotes para el dibujo, digo esto porque en todas sus obras gozan de gran importancia estructuras arquitectónicas. La que quizás su obra más conocida ‘Blame’ (Cuyo protagonista tiene un cameo en esta serie) está enteramente ubicada en un mega edificio o más bien un conjunto de estos de corte industrial, lleno de recovecos, pasillos y escaleras imposibles y que crean un ambiente angustiante. la importancia que tienen aquí este tipo de estructuras es clave, en Sidonia también hay construcciones inverosímiles, pero todo es más amable y más humano. La verdad es que el diseño de cada uno de los rincones de Sidonia es una auténtica pasada, desde la fábrica de arroz al cementerio pasando por la academia. Eso sí, las medidas de seguridad brillan por su ausencia, podremos ver puentes sin barandillas, lagos sobre edificios y cosas totalmente estrambóticas, pero que estéticamente quedan genial.
Crítica completa en :
http://bloodstab.blogspot.com.es/2016/01/sidonia-no-kishi.html

Note: This review only considers the first season of Knights of Sidonia, for a full understanding please read the review of the following season as well.
Review
Sidonia no Kishi (SnK) is simply Shingeki no Kyojin (SnK) in space. Wait, both are SnK? Damn, the similarity goes beyond the expected. I'll call it Knights of Sidonia to avoid problems. Anyway, let's delve deeper into this thing to see if it is worth our time.

Knights of Sidonia tell us about humanity facing a supernatural threat with minimal chance of survival. The "gauna", demonic space invaders, came out of nowhere and forced mankind to flee Earth boarding large colony spaceships hoping for a miracle. In order to keep these spaceships protected from pursuing gaunas, humanity built mechas (You knew that! You expected airships? This is japanese animation dude) called Gardes, capable of wielding special spears, the sole weapons capable of defeating the gauna.

However, for nearly a century the gauna were unseen by the crew of Sidonia, one of the running spaceships. This peace is bound to end. It is up to Nagate, a mysterious boy who grew up hiding in the darkest corners of Sidonia, to take up arms and use his unmatched skills to throw off the gauna and keep Sidonia safe.

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1. The Animation
   Before knowing this show is about random deaths, low survival rate, and typical protagonist heroism, you will certainly notice how different the animation direction is. Knights of Sidonia is fully made with CG, with graphics that pretty much reminded me of Ni No Kuni. Although this is a bold move and is done with relative quality when compared to western CG shows, it still quite early to adopt this style without sacrifing lots of dramatic moments.
   
   The robotic motion, the doll-like expression in every scene except close-ups, the somehow artificial light work, and most importantly the general lack of japanese identity all contribute to making the show feel weird, misplaced, and take too long to get used to. At some points is not weird to feel as if you are watching some western CG show like Spiderman. The character design can feel fresh at some points, but whenever you are getting used to everything, you are shown to a bear-woman cook to remember us this is from Japan... yes, BEAR-WOMAN. Fortunately, the background shots are amazing, from the space scenes to events inside the Sidonia, everything is damn well detailed.
   
   Shocking Factor Phenomena
   When Sword Art Online aired, lots of shows that came next were about virtual game worlds. When SnK aired, lots of shows about survival of mankind aired. Knights of Sidonia follows SnK trend, and as a proper scy-fy version of it, is full of shocking moments. "See those nice girls? Cute, eh? Now watch they get slaughtered in their next mission!"
   
   This shocking factor, however, comes to Knights of Sidonia in a more natural way than it comes to SnK. This is not a super-power shounen at its heart, it is a scy-fy mecha shounen. This difference is quite important because the audience of this kind of show is already adapted to dramatic tales, even if they are not overwhelmed by the shocking factor as much as Knights of Sidonia.
   
   Survival?
   However, as in SnK, Knights of Sidonia fails to capture the true nature of survival tales. First of all, it gets too attached to a protagonist that we know will always prevail. Second, when it faces the death of a truly important character, many extra elements become present to make sure you won't miss her at all. The show works hard to make you feel she is still alive in some way.
   
   Regardless of this mistake, Knights of Sidonia does pretty well into delivering a sense of danger to the rest of the cast. Skilled guys get slaughtered, every mission turns out a mess, pretty girls are just as dumb as they should, and you can expect random dudes to die in the next mission after they are presented.
   
   Protagonist?
   The biggest downfall of Knights of Sidonia, however, goes to the protagonist. Nagate feels completely misplaced in the show. He is immune to the fear of being under constant attacks from godly-powerful aliens, he appears to be a transfer student in a random japanese school, he is absurdly skilled with mechas in a way everyone else is useless, and he could easily be transfered to any typical japanese show out there.
   
   Nope, no end, as usual
   Knights of Sidonia brings its tale to a half-way, decent, finale. Yet the larger tale is far from done and the scale presented by the show is so huge we'll certainly never see a convincing end to this, unless someone turns out to be god and capable of destroying the universe...
   

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Comments
In many ways Knights of Sidonia is a more interesting survival tale than its inspiring senpai, Shingeki no Kyojin. It delivers a cast that feels more natural and realistic, the situation of despair is better demonstrated by the cast's actions, the random deaths are slightly more traumatic, there are no yelling characters every second, etc. However, considering its genre, the animation choice, a protagonist even dumber than Eren, and a dull narrative, it falls short of achieving as high as it could.

Notice: This is a review for both 2 seasons of Sidonia.

Well, well, well, what do we have here? A fully computer generated anime series, based on an incomplete manga by the creator of Blame, with a premise that is basically Attack on Titan in the far future. What could possibly go wrong? Let’s analyze the previous elements, one by one; shall we?

1) Fully computer generated. Major disadvantage. CGI sucks ass without a lot of time and effort put into it, something that isn’t the case with Sidonia. It does make machines look cool and aliens creepy, which adds to the atmosphere of the series, but when it comes to character designs, it looks very off-putting. Unless you have an extreme tolerance to choppy motions and robot-like characters, you will drop this show like a hot potato.

2) Based on an incomplete manga. Major disadvantage. You are left with no ending, or an anime original one, which will contradict the manga, and nobody will like. Sure, you can always wait a decade until enough material is out, but by then, very few will care anymore, and the difference in technology will be making it even harder to get into.

3) By the creator of Blame. That sounds like a plus, because he excels in mindfuck stories full of machinery and bizarre monsters, but in this case it works against him. This is a much more mainstream type of story, full of anime stereotypes that take it one step away from thinking it is a light novel. The expectations are too high because of his fame, and the final product is disappointing.

4) A premise that is basically Attack on Titan in the far future. That sounds like it doesn’t mean anything, when in fact it does. Because of the undeserved praise AOT got, everybody and their waifu are now making shows with the same premise, just to milk those addicted to shock factor and bad storytelling. Meaning, this show is in effect a cashgrab, made on a tight budget just to run to the casual oasis before shows like Black Bullet, Arpeggio of Blue Steel, and Seraph of the End dry completely the money well. And yes, Sidonia began as a manga before AOT, but its adaptation came into being only because of its success.

Well done Sidonia, you already failed before you even began. But for the sake of argument, let’s give it the benefit of doubt and assume everything I said so far, are not enough to drive you away from enjoying it… It’s still terrible. For the same reasons AOT is terrible.

5) Shock factor. You know the drill; lots of gruesome deaths, destroying the characterization of its cast. It doesn’t give them depth, nor does the story become more serious. Wasn’t Akame ga Kill enough to realize that? It doesn’t help how most characters look the same and move like robots. When they die it’s like they get deactivated and replaced by other robots. Also, none of them get enough screen time or feel important enough in the plot, so you don’t give a shit when they die.

6) Lack of focus. As for those who survive and live to fight another day, they don’t get much fleshing out, because the audience is either too busy staring at the creepy aliens, making bets about who is going to die next, or doesn’t give a crap about their personalities because the whole show is an ecchi comedy.

7) Wish fulfillment. For a show that is supposed to be about humanity trying to survive against alien monstrosities, you constantly get fan service moments which break the immersion. There isn’t that much of it, but it is more than enough to not take the show seriously. The protagonist feels like he was transferred there from a harem. Weak, passive, constantly bumps into naked women, and feels like he is incompetent in everything. But as soon as things get serious, he will be a super pilot who will be single-handedly wiping out aliens that not even elite groups could scratch. And then he will be cheered by everybody, and all the girls will be after his D, before reverting to his useless mode and keeps bumping on naked women. All this pandering makes him look like yet another Jesus for introverts.

8) Creepy factor. And it’s not good fan service either. You can’t even enjoy it as guilty pleasure because the characters look like robots. Also, it has some really deviant fetishes that are too gross to even count as sexy. One of the chicks who wants the protagonist’s D is a hermaphrodite with cyborg arms, and another chick is an alien freak which can’t even speak properly.

9) Unused concepts. There are lots of interesting sci-fi concepts that either don’t fit in the setting, or are not used in any good way plot-wise. There is a bear woman with a hook arm that is supposed to be some sort of genetic hybrid. That’s so out there; it is never explained, never used in any way, and it belongs to a school comedy. There are people who photosynthesize instead of eating, as well as hermaphrodites; again part of the genetic engineering going on in the future. Those are not relevant to the plot, and are used only for silly comedy and deviant fetishes.

10) Weak mystery. Not even what the aliens are, or what they want means anything in the longrun, since just like in AOT, the show deliberately never explains their motives, as means to keeps them scary by being a mystery, and not a faction with an agenda or characters with personality. And since by now we all know it is always some variation of Soylent Green, you might as well not give a damn about them.

11) Bad storytelling. The show has no idea of how to surprise you without insulting your intelligence. There is a scene where a guy gives the protagonist an inappropriate command, just to fail and be accused of being useless. Everybody indeed accuses the protagonist and doesn’t even attempt to verify what exactly happened, even when the whole thing was recorded in the robot he pilots. There is another scene where the protagonist bumps on a secret facility by complete chance, and it turns out he is already chosen as a test pilot there, making all the time spent on the accidental discovery pointless.

12) No objective. The whole show is aimless, since the motives of the aliens are never explained, and all the humans are doing is surviving alien attacks. It is a very passive goal that never fixes the problem, and gets dull very fast if all you get is aliens attack, humans fend them off, aliens attack, humans fend them off. And the worst part is that, this formula can never change, because it will mean the death of everybody and the end of the show.

Thus once again you get a good premise that is ruined by bad handling and I do not recommend it, unless you are one of those people who think that constantly killing robots we don’t know or care about is a stroke of brilliance. How about simply watching that wonderful music videoclip by Muse, which happens to share the same name? It doesn’t have pitiful CGI and it actually has a cool space western vibe to it. Also, it’s retro, so it’s better.