A Quick Look at Knights of Sidonia

This film is the conclusion to the anime series Knights of Sidonia. A season that was, for a while, a Netflix exclusive mecha series about humans just trying their best to survive. For an entire of Millenia, humans have lived on the gigantic space rock of a ship, the Sidonia. No longer do human beings need to eat as much anymore to survive. Especially against the alien species the Gauna. They can photosynthesize because food is as prevalent as it used to be. That is until a completely normal human being who happens to be ace pilot, Negate Tanikaze, shows up out of nowhere to help keep anime alive. 

The show itself is about Tanikaze showing up and causing a massive stir in the social structure of the Sidonia along with the vs Guana conflict. The first cour of Knights of Sidonia is that including people having crushes on him for being who he is and others hating his appearance because they ruined their chance of becoming an ace pilot. The second cour/season is a bit more of an exploration of that relationship with Gauna. Especially since Tanikaze got a girlfriend out of a friendly Guana while having to fight against others around Planet Nine. An exploration of what makes humans, humans are in place too. Plus a little bit of a struggle along the way for them too. It is a good series and I’m sad I haven’t brought up Knights of Sidonia yet until now. Then this movie happens and that is when things get complicated. 

The Plot of Love Woven in the Stars

Ten years after Planet Nine, for some reason, is when this film takes place. For ten years, all of humankind on Sidonia have lived a very safe life. The Gauna haven’t attacked for that long, but there have been plenty of training drills and preparations for a final encounter that is fated to come. Yeah, I don’t get why it’s a ten year time skip. Is there a new generation of pilots? Sure. Do they add much at all? Not really because they serve more in the beginning to show how Tanikaze has become a teacher and has grown up until that doesn’t matter as much either. A year would make more sense, ten years doesn’t really help at all.

But yeah, this film is the final battle against the Gauna. Their biggest boys, their adaptations they made towards human weapons, and everything. That constant threat they represented to the human race with some attempts at making them more human. Plus that general sort of connection between them and an attempt at joining and understanding between the two races that have been at war against each other for however long they have done anything. Plus the conspiracy that we saw bits of in the tv series itself just being thrown out there. It is a bit of a mess of a film that has to do a lot in a shorter amount of time then a tv series and I feel like that is what greatly hurts the storyline of the series and a lot of the film itself.

Too Many Things Resolved Haphazardly 

Have you ever considered the fact that the mysteries behind plots are so much better than the reveal? You know, because the truth is kind of eh? That is Love Woven in the Stars for me. The conspiracy leading the Sidonia is an important thing in regards to this show? You know, under Captain Kobayashi and so many other people. They reveal that she and so many others in the council are immortal while Tanikaze is yet another reincarnation/clone of a person they know. That’s it. It’s not very interesting because they are all alive for the singular purpose of defeating the Gauna and nothing else. So basically, they are designing all of those details behind it for a purpose that doesn’t feel like much other than deciding this is all of Tanikaze’s fate for him to do instead of living on his own. It really feels a bit frustrating. 

Then there is that small bit of romance that was there for Izana towards Tanikaze. They were the third gender in Sidonia and they can choose who they crush on. They were going to turn female because of that crush and it didn’t happen at all. In the beginning of this film, Izana has started a relationship with someone else. That crush was entirely over and now this is happening. There are just too many things paying off or side lined like that because this is the last film and it feels so strange to just have everything cut off like that with some minor explanation. It’s just so frustrating that we couldn’t get a season or two to see all of it and instead have this with some interesting bits of action and interesting things happening. It leads into the core of this film as well.

Only Humans and Rejecting The Premise (Spoilers)

As I’ve mentioned before in this post, Knights of Sidonia is about that relationship between humanity and the Gauna. The two species fight a sort of adaptational war with the Sidonia building some really good mechanical power and technology and then the Gauna have to react back like some gigantic parasite that won’t leave and can obliterate normal humans in seconds. Then things start turning around when Tsumugi joins the Sidonia and causes this sect of humanity to actually interact with something unusual and they have to adapt to that and try to understand them too. There is even a little bit of that in the film until there wasn’t.

The ending of this film just pisses me off. Tanikaze doesn’t just reject the Gauna’s last attempt to connect with them, because he was the protagonist defeating the final boss. Oh no, the show just rejects anything strange and inhuman. Tsumugi is turned into a human being so that Tanikaze could have a normal life instead of having this weird relationship between him and an alien. Especially since the two actually do go out on a date with Tanikaze in his mecha in the movie. Apparently that doesn’t mean anything at all, Only normal humans will be living on Planet Nine, all the strange photosynthesis people are left on the Sidonia to explore the galaxy or just go away. Yeah, really dislike it. 

Concluding This Film I Hate

So before giving the final verdict that I already said, this film looks really good. The Knights of the Sidonia tv series is kind of meh when it comes to character animation and designs, but looks great when it comes to the cg mecha action in space. Yeah, this film is a major upgrade in those departments. The mecha battles couldn’t look any better then they do with the Sidonia’s laser cannons and other attributes being more effective on them too. All the scenes inside the ship have so much more interesting direction then before and there is a lot of weight put into the mecha action sequences that this is something which couldn’t be found anywhere else or at least not anywhere in any modern places either. 

It’s too bad that all of those elements and visuals feel so wasted. How does a series end with a massive antithesis to what a series is about? What about just resolving things off screen through a ten year time skip that doesn’t make any sense? There are a lot of good moments in this film that are genuine and interesting, but cynicism won at the end of this film. Obviously, it felt like not only did the creators want to end the series just to have it end just for it to end. It really does feel like the case where Knights of Sidonia should have been left unfinished. Such a waste of time and I don’t want to talk about this film anymore. I should watch the two seasons again soon though because that’s good stuff.  Don’t pay attention to this film please.