I'm sure anyone who actually knows what Knights of Sidonia (not Cydonia which is a song by Muse) is were grinding their teeth at that title, due to the Sidonia manga being released 5 months before the Attack on Titan manga was created. I'm aware of that, I just wanted a clickbait title since it seems to work for Kotaku. Both of them can be shortened to SnK if you turn the Japanese title into an acronym, amusingly enough, but enough about that.
So is anyone watching the anime for it? Only 3 episodes on currently, the third coming out today. It'll be awhile before it comes out on Netflix, yes, Netflix, but a lot of fansubs are out for it (I use Underwater).
It's got quite a few superficial similarities to Attack on Titan in fact (other way around actually, the author of Attack on Titan is a fan of Tsutomi Nihei and it shows). You've got an enclosed community containing what is likely the last bastion of humanity alive, but instead of a series of massive walls containing a medieval-WW1-mashup community, it's a gargantuan slower-than-light generation ship that has been moving through space for hundreds of years. You've got a mysterious and powerful enemy hunting humanity, but instead of humanoid abominations called Titans, you've got more Lovecraftian eldritch abominations known as Gauna. You've got ultra specific weaponry designed to attack the enemies weak point, but instead of giant boxcutters designed to slice off through the nape of the neck, you've got spears tipped with pieces of Gauna placenta which is allowed to pass through their nigh-indestructible shells for biological reasons. And you've got mecha, but instead of shifters which can transform into flesh monsters, it's more hard sci-fi style robots. So far it hasn't been nearly as bad with tragedy and character death, but it has a similarly bleak atmosphere. The characters are more tolerable, especially the main character, if a bit lacking for personality. It is a better execution overall however, and if you didn't like AoT, don't rule it out, it isn't nearly as bad for using common shonen tropes that likely annoy you.
It's got Nihei's signature style of... Nihei-ness, that's for sure. Humans now have a third gender which can modify themselves to suit their parter (one of these is a major character which I like), a lot of humans are capable of photosynthesis which means they don't need to eat as much (our protagonist is an outcast in that he has to eat food the same way we do), and the fact that his maid looks like a god damn humanoid bear makes me think there is quite a lot of gene altering too. Sidonia itself reminds me a lot of the architecture from Blame! in that it has an industrial and vast atmosphere to it. And of course, ludicrous amounts of firepower. Sidonia made a single shot from a single cannon last episode to destroy a single Gauna (it didn't succeed), the explosion made any nuclear bomb you care to name look like particularly small firecracker in comparison.
The most controversial part and by far the biggest turn-off of course is the 3DCG. It is entirely done in 3DCG. And as far as I'm concerned, while it works just fine for the environments, the machines, and the action (the mecha action is fucking hype holy shit) it doesn't work very well for the characters. There is the problem of "sameface" in which a lot of characters are hard to tell apart, and they move very stiffly and it just doesn't look good at all and it's going to take some getting used to.
I've got some issues but it's been enjoyable so far, give it a try. Captcha: Outlook good.
So is anyone watching the anime for it? Only 3 episodes on currently, the third coming out today. It'll be awhile before it comes out on Netflix, yes, Netflix, but a lot of fansubs are out for it (I use Underwater).
It's got quite a few superficial similarities to Attack on Titan in fact (other way around actually, the author of Attack on Titan is a fan of Tsutomi Nihei and it shows). You've got an enclosed community containing what is likely the last bastion of humanity alive, but instead of a series of massive walls containing a medieval-WW1-mashup community, it's a gargantuan slower-than-light generation ship that has been moving through space for hundreds of years. You've got a mysterious and powerful enemy hunting humanity, but instead of humanoid abominations called Titans, you've got more Lovecraftian eldritch abominations known as Gauna. You've got ultra specific weaponry designed to attack the enemies weak point, but instead of giant boxcutters designed to slice off through the nape of the neck, you've got spears tipped with pieces of Gauna placenta which is allowed to pass through their nigh-indestructible shells for biological reasons. And you've got mecha, but instead of shifters which can transform into flesh monsters, it's more hard sci-fi style robots. So far it hasn't been nearly as bad with tragedy and character death, but it has a similarly bleak atmosphere. The characters are more tolerable, especially the main character, if a bit lacking for personality. It is a better execution overall however, and if you didn't like AoT, don't rule it out, it isn't nearly as bad for using common shonen tropes that likely annoy you.
It's got Nihei's signature style of... Nihei-ness, that's for sure. Humans now have a third gender which can modify themselves to suit their parter (one of these is a major character which I like), a lot of humans are capable of photosynthesis which means they don't need to eat as much (our protagonist is an outcast in that he has to eat food the same way we do), and the fact that his maid looks like a god damn humanoid bear makes me think there is quite a lot of gene altering too. Sidonia itself reminds me a lot of the architecture from Blame! in that it has an industrial and vast atmosphere to it. And of course, ludicrous amounts of firepower. Sidonia made a single shot from a single cannon last episode to destroy a single Gauna (it didn't succeed), the explosion made any nuclear bomb you care to name look like particularly small firecracker in comparison.
The most controversial part and by far the biggest turn-off of course is the 3DCG. It is entirely done in 3DCG. And as far as I'm concerned, while it works just fine for the environments, the machines, and the action (the mecha action is fucking hype holy shit) it doesn't work very well for the characters. There is the problem of "sameface" in which a lot of characters are hard to tell apart, and they move very stiffly and it just doesn't look good at all and it's going to take some getting used to.
I've got some issues but it's been enjoyable so far, give it a try. Captcha: Outlook good.
