Knights of Sidonia

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Writer/Artist: Tsutomu Nihei (BLAME, Biomega)

Year: 2009-present (manga in Japan), 2013-present (manga in America)

Manga Volumes: 11 so far

More Info: ANN (manga)

Manga Review (Volumes 1-3)
Tsutomu Nihei took a break from brooding seinen action series (BLAME, Biomega) to write and draw Knights of Sidonia, which combines his striking visual style with a Gundam-like story of giant robots and teen angst.

Knights of Sidonia is definitely a shonen work. The fish-out-of-water main character struggles with identity and his place in the world, while also sometimes managing to out-pilot every other character. Every volume involves random female nudity, explained with convenient BS: humans have been genetically engineered to photosynthesize, which clothing blocks. Sure.

While I'm on the topic of the manga's setting, Nihei creates a stark, dangerous scenario. The characters live on a generational starship, and they use mecha to fight off alien threats. Nihei uses his trademark H.R. Giger-style humanoid style for the aliens, from blobs with human faces to human shapes with grotesque features. These aliens don't mess around, and they behave in an utterly alien way. They can't be exactly predicted, which can frustrate the reader (especially when an alien conveniently stops in the middle of a deadly attack). This aspect of their personality makes sense, though. They are alien.

And they are deadly. Side characters die often, at about the rate of the more deadly Gundam series like Zeta and Victory. Nihei kills characters at unexpected intervals, too.

Unfortunately, the characters can be difficult to tell apart at times. They're all spindly-legged, most of them adolescents, most of them female and clothed in identical pilot suits. I had a tough time keeping track of who's who, especially as the story explored love triangles.

Also unfortunately, the protagonist is an emotional blank slate. While he does react like a normal human, he remains bland and inoffensive for nearly the entire series so far.

I felt odd, reading a very Gundam-like story from Nihei. Much of the story is spent on mecha missions, flying angular robots very much like Gundams, piloted by holier-than-thou teenagers. Moreover, the story alternates between gritty combat missions and daily life in a quasi-military institution.g

As always, Nihei's environments feel large, impersonal, and strikingly, weirdly beautiful. As always, most of his characters are impersonal and diffcult to read. Except the talking bear; the talking bear is always the most emotional.

It's hard to love Knights of Sidonia, but that's not the point. It smashes disparate influences together to build a unique experience, placing Gundam mecha and visual novel protagonists against Evangelion-like aliens. I'll certainly remember it for a long time.