I told all of you that this wouldn't be consistent! The good news is that I'm still making progress through the backlog... I just keep forgetting to write about it. But there is one review that I don't want to sit on anymore, so I'm putting it out here now. Knights of Sidonia is a fantastic show that should be seen by everyone who calls themselves an anime or a science fiction fan.
If you've been watching anime for any stretch of time, you know that it's rare for a series to live up to the hype it generates. Even rarer is a show that completely surpasses that hype to become an incredible experience in and of itself. Knights of Sidonia falls into the second category.
The show follows the seed ship Sidonia and the young pilots trained to defend it against Gauna, which are monstrous shape-shifting aliens that they know very little about, only that they have a single-minded focus on taking the ship out. The description that sold me on the show as it being "Attack on Titan but sci-fi" is accurate considering some of the story similarities; Gauna haven't attacked in a hundred years, their desire to destroy humanity seems mindless, the main character agrees to be a pilot to see the world outside the ship, the unflinching willingness to kill off characters--the list goes on. However, I wouldn't solely reccomend this show to Attack on Titan fans. If you hated the pacing and writing in Attack on Titan but still thought that the premise was interesting, you should watch Knights of Sidonia. If you like good writing in general, you should watch Knights of Sidonia. If you have eyeballs, you should watch Knights of Sidonia.
The show digs deep into its premise and its world in a way that pushes it beyond just "good anime" and becomes one of the best hard-sci-fi stories I've ever seen. For example, I found the CG hard to get used to when I first started watching the show since it felt too perfect and plastic. It wasn't quite uncanny valley (the character designs are preserved well) but for the first few episodes it felt too other for me to get attached to. But as the show started to get into the themes of what it means to be human, I couldn't see the art style as anything but a deliberate style choice. The characters are supposed to feel other. The show invites you to question your own values and scales of reference as you watch it.
I also love Izana as the first and best representation I've seen in anime of a truly gender-neutral character. I'm a little disappointed in Netflix for defaulting to female pronouns in the subtitles despite Izana saying multiple times within the show that they're neither a boy or a girl, but I'm glad that this character exists and has gotten such a positive reaction from people who've seen the show. Izana's character development was also handled the best in this entire first season, in my opinion.
So if you haven't seen this series yet, you absolutely need to. It hasn't gotten the same amount of attention in the Western anime fanbase yet due to the legal stream releasing after the show aired in Japan, but it's well worth everyone's time. Whenever the stream for the second season becomes available, I'll be there.
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| It also has a talking bear. Watch this show. |
For the most part, I agree with you. It is basically Attack on Titan combined with Battlestar Galactica, and it turned out great! I agree with you about the animation. I began to get used to it more and more to the point of liking it, mostly. The sci-fi concepts thrown around like the neutral gender and other aspects were all very thought-provoking and entertaining.
ReplyDeleteIzana is one of my favorite characters too. When comparing the dub and sub on Netflix, I think the dub did a better job of referring to Izana as "it" and sometimes she and he, depending on the character and what they wanted to imply. Overall though, I think the dub and sub are a about equal, maybe with a slight edge to the sub.
The only thing that confused me is the talking bear. It is kind out of complete nowhere! I am still confused about it, but I rolled with it.
Great review!
-James
Thanks for your comment! I haven't watched the dub version and am a little sad to hear that they refer to Izana as "it," but alternating between he/she pronouns is a good compromise.
ReplyDeleteAnd I was completely confused by the talking bear as well. I'm hoping that the second season will give some context for that.
The pronoun thing's a tricky matter to handle in English, since English has no gender-neutral pronouns like Japanese does. Unless linguists can introduce a new word that can grammatically fit in, translators can only do their best with what they have. :)
ReplyDeleteManga readers say there's a reason for the talking bear, but big spoilers. (Their explanations weren't clear.) Artwise, SIdonia's creator, Tsutomu Nihei, had a talking male bear in a previous work of his. Maybe he just likes bears.
In addition, Nihei's experience as an architectural student provided him with inspiration for the giant megastructures prevalent in all his works.
True. "They/them" is the best that English has so far.
ReplyDelete>"Manga readers say there's a reason for the talking bear, but big spoilers"
That makes sense.
>"Maybe he just likes bears"
That also makes sense. XD
I wondered how he came up with the architecture! I really enjoyed the contrast between the big wide spaces and the tiny cramped areas. It's obvious that everything in there has been thought out.
I ended up really liking this show way more than I expected and yes Izana is totally the best guy/best girl/best who even cares of the show. Although it's weird to see people say "there's no good gender neutral pronoun set in English!" since funny enough, English-writing sci-fi author have been using them for years, like "E" and "Hir", although to expect the localizers at Netflix to not only know about something that niche and to actually use it is a bit ludicrous. ^^;
ReplyDeleteYes, this definitely isn't anything new to science fiction! And "they/them" works just fine (I've reached a point where I completely ignore anyone who whines about it being plural only, since that's just not true). I'm very disappointed to hear that the dub uses "it" though. Human beings are not objects. >_<
ReplyDelete