Knights of Sidonia (Manga/Anime)

Just watched the first episode of Knights Of Sidonia. Loved the gritty art style and lighting (which reminded me of Tron Uprising, which was amazing and far, far Too Good to Last), but the animation is a little tame outside of action scenes, though the action is pretty good when it happens.

Anyone else see this or read the manga? No spoilers, please.

I've been reading the manga. Not really interested in the anime

Any real reason?

First, I rarely watch anime of manga I've read to begin with. Second, there's a lot of stuff in the manga that I don't think the CG they're using is capable of doing justice to

edited 16th Apr '14 4:30:18 PM by Hylarn

I love watching anime of stuff I've already read (in fact, that's pretty much all I watch), but I don't think this series suits an anime format at all. In addition to the artstyle which would be hard to render in traditional animation let alone experimental CGI, the basic structure of the storytelling doesn't really suit an episodic format with a defined beginning middle and end. It's very... meandering. The first episode of the anime already decided to present a ton of exposition that doesn't happen until much later in the manga, and while that's nominally a good thing in terms of allowing the audience to understand what's going on, disrupts the atmospheric storytelling in a way that I fear leaves not much left. The main character certainly isn't compelling in the slightest.

So, did people ever translate past the chapter where Izana asks Nagate if he even really cared about her. For some reason, the places I've checked only lists chapters up until that point, and that was back in 2013, apparently.

And the OP is catchy as fuck. The 3D turns me off, but I sure as hell am waiting for the OP full version.

Is this the chapter where Izana's grandmother sets them up for a "date", only for Nagate to botch it because he was convinced it was a mission, and that he would die if he didn't follow it to the letter?

I've only seen anime so far, though I plan on reading the manga after the first three episodes or so. I've heard the series is actually really grimdark, which typically turns me off. Is this true?

Also, for what it's worth, I thought the anime was very atmospheric and captured a bleak, rusty tone well, CG be damned.

Well, if you think of "99% of humanity is dead, idealistic youths throw their lives away for causes they don't understand, conspiracies of immortals use everyone else as pawns in their internal struggle to control the direction of humanity's growth, and the only extraterrestrial life we've encountered can only communicate by eating people" as grimdark then yes. Also, like hundreds of people die every time the ship accelerates because they're not wearing their seatbelts.

Other than that, it's fairly moe.

I really like this series, I binged it a few weeks ago. Not entirely sure how I feel about the CG, but aside from that the first episode was very solid.

@danna 45: Supposedly the translators didn't translate past that point due to poor raws quality, but I heard a rumor that it was because they were asked not to by the manga's company. Anyway, I'm pretty certain people are working on the newer volumes.

@illegalcheese: Not really. Although it is grim, it's not ridiculously so. The circumstances are pretty bad, but people still live on.

I've heard that Attack on Titan's author is a fan of Sidonia's, and I think you can see lots of similarities between the two works: Humanity is nearly driven to extinction due to some inhuman force that eats people (yet is disturbingly similar to humans in some aspects), and said force reappears at the start of the story after hundreds of years of peace. Even the initials are identical: Sidonia no Kishi and Shingeki no Kyojin both can be shortened to SnK.

Don't take this as criticism, however. There's enough differences between the two that any superficial similarities can be dismissed. There's hardly any angst in Sidonia, and the author has a rather dry sense of humor that contrasts nicely with the horror the pilots face each time they face the Gauna. And unlike Attack on Titan, the inhabitants of Sidonia have a rather higher standard of living, with lots of food, fewer social conflicts, and a far more decent military.

And like Clarste says, it's oddly moe at times, so there's that.

edited 16th Apr '14 8:20:51 PM by Crinias

@Myssa, yup, that one.

Ah, I see. That's a shame. Really bad place to leave off, because character relations is one of the few things I do care for in the series. Too lazy to lurk around /a/ or /m/, so I guess this is more reason to git gud at moonspeak.

And yes, Sidonia is pretty damn moe, strangely enough. Yes, the setting itself is pretty damn grimdark, and when you look objectively at what happened so far, yes it's grimdark. Yet the atmosphere(excluding whenever they're fightig Gaunas) is actually kind of moe and relaxing in a grimdark sort of way, which is pretty nice if you ask me.

edited 16th Apr '14 6:49:46 PM by danna45

Well, grimdarkness is supposed to refer to bleakness in a work to such an extent that it can't be taken totally seriously (although it can still be very entertaining), so I don't think it's the right term in this case.

Sidonia is probably about as dark as the average seinen series, from what I can compare with others.

It actually gets ridiculously bleak for a while, and even in the last translated chapters up on the online readers things aren't rosy, as Sidonia's resident mad scientist with a god complex is on the loose, and NO ONE who could do anything about it is even aware of it.

edited 16th Apr '14 8:31:58 PM by MyssaRei

And yet, said mad scientist wants to help Sidonia, due to said god complex. It's classic mad scientist behavior: he wants to be acknowledged for how great he is, because in his mind, only he can help save everyone.

Despite all the terrible things he's done, he created Tsumugi, who is emotionally mature despite her creation, has saved Sidonia multiple times and has become a main character of the cast. People aren't absolutely terrible in reality - same here. Ochiai genuinely improved Sidonia's conditions by creating her.

That said, we should be worried about the other Half-Human Hybrid he created, and with which he has less patience or care.

There is a program called SVP that helps tremendously with the framerate, but if your computer is on the lower end, it could very well melt. Just something to look into if the animation really bothers you.

After watching the second episode, I can say that this will likely be a great adaptation, the music and atmosphere are top notch, the action was pretty good as well.

I wish they could get as far as Benisuzume vs Tsmugi, but it's probably unlikely for a 12 ep season

How does it help with the framerate? Because I actually do like the cell-shaded CG Models, but the lack of proper between animation kind of kills it for me.

Interpolation, it smoothes it out by creating in-betweens, the animation will be better but it will still stutter sometimes since the anime seems to animate at 8fps or less at times instead of the stated 12fps.

If you can get it to work that is. [1]

Hm, do I need to download the episodes themselves or does it work on top of the video player?

The soundtrack needs more Muse.

edited 18th Apr '14 1:10:25 AM by illegalcheese

I like the OST, it has an old school 80s Sci Fi feel.

So far the series feels like Attack On Titan IN SPACE.

Me, I hate the cell-shaded CG. It just looks horrible. I guess they were trying to make it look like a non-CG anime. It does, but it looks like one that's horrible drawn, so I'm not sure that is an improvement. It's not to bad in the suits, but people look horrible outside of them. It's like everyone is shining a flashlight up at their faces all the time.

RWBY has better looking character models.

Honestly, this seems darker than Attack On Titan. I'd call it more: Eva in Space without the mindscrew elements.

edited 18th Apr '14 11:01:52 AM by kiukiuclk

It's more grounded, certainly.

The creator of Attack on Titan is a fan of the creator of Sidonia, so it's not strange to find similarities.

Have been watching this. I've gotten used to the CGI, and it's pretty good so far.

Here in episode 3...

The Elite Colors, especially Akai, got a ton of hype. Well-deserved too. Of course, I just knew that they weren't gonna come back from their Gauna sortie. Oh, how horrible it was! ELITE COLOOOOORS~!

And Kunato's quite the jerk...

Bright side, find a bright side, darn it! Um, um... I like the cafeteria lady bear.