History Manga / KnightsOfSidonia

* HaremComedy: It's not easy for Nagate to navigate between the affections of [[spoiler: a variable gender teammate with ArtificialLimbs, a command officer directly responsible for his MissionControl, and an absolutely adorable and innocent human-Gauna crossbreed the size of his mech. Nearly every other lady in the cast also has her moments.]]

** One possible interpretation is they are sort of child like. They struggle to immitate, yet at the same time their immitations are usually hostile, almost like someone learning fighting tactics and then immediately using them against their teacher in an effort to constantly supplant them as superior. This can be seen throughout season 1, where the first attempt to imitate an individual pilot, then the mechas, followed by a mass with a meteor inside of it, almost as if its trying to imitate Sidonia itself. Each time, they are brought down by desperate tactics.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Take Macross and Battlestar Galactica, add them in a drink mixer and shake. If you loved both of those, then you’ll love this.
** The crew is notably more civil to each other, like Macross.
** The main conflict is as bleak, if not bleaker than Galactica’s.
** The Sidonia crew doesn’t benefit from an enemy that can be negotiated with.

* {{Homage}}: The camerawork in a lot of the space battle scenes is pretty blatantly done in the style of ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}''

** That doesn't even go into how such things as emergency maneuvers can and will override Sidonian gravity, leading to anyone not protected by PlotArmor to go smashing into whatever's in the way at up to five G (gravties, in other words, five times Earth's gravity) acceleration.

* ActionPrologue: The beginning of the anime shows Nagate attacking a Guana, then [[ProsceniumReveal stumbling out of the simulator]] after executing that particularly challenging maneuver.

* EldritchAbomination: The Gauna are massive, shapeshifting fetus-like creatures with the ability to assimilate humans with their CombatTentacles. While their placenta bodies can be injured, Gauna are only able to be killed if their True Bodies are destroyed. Gauna are further capable of replicating human technology, something they become increasingly proficient at after assimilating Hoshijiro.

* HonorBeforeReason: Kunato never gets over Tanikaze getting the first chance to pilot the Type 17, nor for Tanikaze getting a Gauna kill before he does. This drives Kunato to screw with Tanikaze in a number of ways, most notably [[spoiler: sabotaging Tanikaze in a fight with a Hive-Type Gauna, which results in a number of his squadmates being killed unnecessarily and [[NiceJobBreakingItHero indirectly enabling the creation of the Benisuzume.]]]]

** The asteroid Gauna's propulsion core needs to be disabled before it can be destroyed, to prevent evasive maneuvers. Ninety percent of it is destroyed...[[spoiler: only for the Crimson Hawkmoth Gauna to break off from the main body and slaughter the squad taking care of it, and the propulsion system quickly regenerates]].

** Much is made of the issue of communication with gauna, but the aforementioned adaptation shows the possible motive for the eldritch beings out of space falling upon and shattering the Earth in the first place. The gauna combine material and act as hive entities, showing communion and learning through shared genetic memory. It should be noted that the growing sophistication and technological equivalence comes as Sidonians are absorbed by gauna, organic Higgs-boson cannon and the Benisuzume being fairly blatant examples.

* MirrorMatch: The Garde versus Benisuzume, [[spoiler:a replica of a Garde eaten by the Gauna]].

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: If Kunato hadn't been so obsessed with his vendetta against Tanikaze, it's likely that [[spoiler: Toshijiro would not have been integrated by the Gauna, which would also mean the Benisuzume wouldn't exist either.]] An unusual example in that Kunato ''knew'' he was breaking it; he just wanted to pin the blame on Tanikaze.

* TheUriahGambit: The Immortal Council wants Tanikaze dead for reasons not immediately explained and to this end has the Captain order him to fly in every single mission against the Gaunas in the hope that they'll eventually kill him. [[spoiler:This backfires as not only Nagate always survives but he eventually becomes ''Sidonia'''s greatest hero. The reason for this is that [[spoiler:Tanikaze is an immortal and they couldn't tolerate an immortal outside of the committee hierarchy, so as a compromise to outright killing him, the captain agreed to put him on what should have been a suicide mission as a compromise. As long as he keeps succeeding, he can live. Of course once the committee is offed in a coup by the captain, he's no longer required to attend missions but tends to do so anyway due to having become used to being a hero.]]

* ForMassiveDamage: The only weak point on the Gauna is their core, or "True Body", which when sufficiently damaged cause them to explode. Most engagements boil down to the Guardians desperately trying to chip through the Gauna's nigh invulnerable regenerating armor to reach the weakpoint.

'''''Knights of Sidonia''''' is the latest manga from Creator/TsutomuNihei, creator of ''Manga/{{Blame}}'' and ''{{Manga/Biomega}}''.