Subject: Knights of Sidonia - 2D Sci-fi Posted by Dave Baranyi on Sat, 12 Apr 2014 02:30:53 GMT View Forum Message <> Reply to Message From Newsgroup: rec.arts.anime.misc
“Sidonia no Kishi”, aka, “Knights of Sidonia” is a sci-fi action series set in a giant world-ship that is travelling through distant space while trying to avoid (and training mecha pilots to fight) monstrous aliens. A teen who has been raised in the abandoned centre of the world-ship stumbles his way to the inhabited zones in search of food and gets captured by the authorities. But because the boy's grandfather was special in some manner the authorities decide to take in the boy and train him to be a mecha pilot. However, the boy's rushed integration into the larger world is rudely interrupted when his first milk-run space mission runs into an enemy instead of the expected ice asteroid.
“Sidonia” is what I think of as “2 dimensional” science fiction. What I mean by that is that this is the sort of story where the technical details are meticulously crafted (and subtle techno-babble is used to gloss over the rough spots), but in the attempt to make everything seem “realistic” the story is told from a deathly serious perspective, the society is simplistically depicted as a dystopic dictatorship, and none of the characters are developed into anything resembling real human beings. These are 1930s pulp sci-fi tropes that were mostly abandoned in written science fiction when the pulps became digest-sized in the 1950s, but unfortunately they have been carried over endlessly in too much cinematic sci-fi up until the present day.
So I won't be watching more of “Knights of Sidonia” because I don't care about the world setting or the characters. My final rating is C+; pretty much for the CG alone.
Dave Baranyi
--- Synchronet 3.13a-Win32 NewsLink 1.83
Subject: Re: Knights of Sidonia - 2D Sci-fi Posted by GeoffC on Sat, 12 Apr 2014 18:38:45 GMT View Forum Message <> Reply to Message From Newsgroup: rec.arts.anime.misc
On 12/04/2014 02:30, Dave Baranyi wrote:
> So I won't be watching more of “Knights of Sidonia” because I don't care about > the world setting or the characters. My final rating is C+; pretty much for the > CG alone.
Page 1 of 8 ---- Generated from Megalextoria > > Dave Baranyi > >
Agreed. After the pre-broadcast buzz, it was disappointing. It looked slick, but the story and dialog were unconvincing and I didn't feel involved with any of the characters. --- Synchronet 3.13a-Win32 NewsLink 1.83
Subject: Re: Knights of Sidonia - 2D Sci-fi Posted by Arne Luft on Tue, 22 Apr 2014 22:32:59 GMT View Forum Message <> Reply to Message From Newsgroup: rec.arts.anime.misc
On 12 Apr 2014 01:30:53 GMT, Dave Baranyi
Yes, it looks like that, but besides the emotional expression of the persons, it is very detailed.
> from a deathly serious perspective, the society is simplistically depicted as a > dystopic dictatorship, and none of the characters are developed into anything > resembling real human beings.
(Spoilers are rot13)
Well, I guess, you don't have read the manga. Truth is that the manga develops very slowly. The anime has taken up some pace in relation to the manga. Details, which explain later, what you can see now, are partially told in an earlier stage as in the manga.
I.e the story about the inbetween gender, where the body of the person decides itself, which gender it wants to be, when the person has fallen in love with someone.
Or the reason, why the people are able to perform photosynthesis. In the same attempt, when the Sidonia was nearly wiped out, and food production was partially lost, gur nzbhag bs crbcyr sbe ercebqhpgvba jnf erqhprq gb na nzbhag, gung gur tracbby jnf fb erqhprq, gung gur abj yvivat crbcyr ybbx nyy irel zhpu nyvxr. That is, why the Honoka sisters are 11 identical clones.
Now, the character. The hero of the show, Tanikaze Nagate, is a very
Page 2 of 8 ---- Generated from Megalextoria realistic guy. What happens to him, when he is bullied, because he is different in compare to the other people, is a very real experience for some. It is very clear, that the bullying people do that, because they imagine things, and do not look into the details. That is like in the real life.
Those comrades of him, which look into the details, do not bully him but try to support him.
At the other side, he often runs into situations only, because he is not accustomed to the surface society. It takes time to adopt.
You can see that already in ep1 and ep2 of the anime.
I prefer this kind of character development far beyond giggling children, which rule the world, because the adults are unable to count to three.
In the show 'Sidonia no kishi' there are no children, nor they are ruling the world. It is ruled by adults, which have a good reason to defend their ship against the Gaunas, because they know. Gubfr, juvpu ner va punetr, ner nyy fheivibef bs gur ynfg Tnhan jne. They are not pacifists, which doesn't understand, what is going on. Pacifists, which believe, how it is now, will it be forever, as long as they flatter the enemy.
'Sidonia' meets here 'Shingeki no Kyojin' and both meet the actual situation, in which we are in. Ohg urer naq gurer rira gur cnpvsvfgf unir fbzr gehgu, ohg vg vf abg, nf gurl nffhzr.
Besides that, SnK is full of changes and surprises, but it is slowly in the development. The show takes place in space. They are not bound to the physical laws as living on a planet.
I really look forward, how it looks like in an anime. I hope to see more small but nice details, like Izana was emptying its boot, because Nagate had chundered into it.
There is fanservice, too, but it is in accordance with the needs of the story, and not invented to please the audience with unrealistic viewing angles or nude fighting big-boobed heroines.
-- "Are ha jaaku na ishi o motsu tekiseiseibutsu no su da." (jap.) (Ochiai in "Sidonia no Kishi" v7c33s073) --- Synchronet 3.13a-Win32 NewsLink 1.83
Page 3 of 8 ---- Generated from Megalextoria Subject: Re: Knights of Sidonia - 2D Sci-fi Posted by Arne Luft on Wed, 23 Apr 2014 00:05:29 GMT View Forum Message <> Reply to Message From Newsgroup: rec.arts.anime.misc
On Tue, 22 Apr 2014 23:32:59 +0200, Arne Luft
> Well, I guess, you don't have read the manga.
Btw, the manga is available in English as Kindle edition from 23 Apr 2014 on. --- Synchronet 3.13a-Win32 NewsLink 1.83
Subject: Re: Knights of Sidonia - 2D Sci-fi Posted by Arne Luft on Wed, 23 Apr 2014 14:31:18 GMT View Forum Message <> Reply to Message From Newsgroup: rec.arts.anime.misc
On 12 Apr 2014 01:30:53 GMT, Dave Baranyi
> giant world-ship that is travelling through distant space while trying to avoid > (and training mecha pilots to fight) monstrous aliens. A teen who has been > raised in the abandoned centre of the world-ship stumbles his way to the > inhabited zones in search of food and gets captured by the authorities. But > because the boy's grandfather was special in some manner the authorities decide > to take in the boy and train him to be a mecha pilot. However, the boy's rushed > integration into the larger world is rudely interrupted when his first milk-run > space mission runs into an enemy instead of the expected ice asteroid.
The story behind the anime is this:
Earth was destroyed by alien creatures, called the Gaunas. This part is told in the manga "Abara". At the end of this manga (2 vol.) seed ships are starting, which leave earth with the rest of the surviving mankind to search for a new habitable planet in space.
These ships were scattered and lost contact whilst their journey went on. One of this seed ships is the 'Sidonia', making now her way through space since one thousand years.
Time by time they were attacked by single Gaunas, which are obviously
Page 4 of 8 ---- Generated from Megalextoria creatures, which live in space. One hundred years ago there was a major attack by the Gaunas. Only a few of the people in the 'Sidonia' have survived by the skin of their teeth. They were rescued by a knight, who rode the 'Tsugumori'. That is the reason, why the Tsugumori is kept as some kind of 'national treasure', ohg gurer vf zber.
The story is well constructed. Things come part by part together, and unveil all the mysteries in flash backs or during the ongoing events. New mysteries and events occur, give things a turn, and so on and so forth.
It is not a slapstick show or a "happy together we make the world better"strip.
I have read the manga from the beginning, and bought all Japanese editions, because there were no in English or German available in that time, and even the scanlators had given up on it.
I am really happy about the anime, and, as far as I can tell, they followed the manga close. The cg has its limits, well, but at least I become accustomed to it. The problems are identical as I saw it in "Xenosaga" or "Appleseed". Emotions are sometimes expressed in odd movements of the body, and the facial expressions are very limited.
But that is compensated with very detailed backgrounds and technology, which are identical to how it is shown in the manga. Even the situation triggered high technology (it isn't steam punk, and they are traveling space) it is brought into balance with the rotten down suits and environment (short supply) or the chaotic grown settlements in the seed ship.
-- "Are ha jaaku na ishi o motsu tekiseiseibutsu no su da." (jap.) (This is a nest of hostile creatures with an evil mind.) (Ochiai in "Sidonia no Kishi" v7c33s073) --- Synchronet 3.13a-Win32 NewsLink 1.83
Subject: Re: Knights of Sidonia - 2D Sci-fi Posted by Dave Baranyi on Wed, 23 Apr 2014 19:43:34 GMT View Forum Message <> Reply to Message From Newsgroup: rec.arts.anime.misc
Arne Luft
Page 5 of 8 ---- Generated from Megalextoria
> On 12 Apr 2014 01:30:53 GMT, Dave Baranyi
>> giant world-ship that is travelling through distant space while trying to avoid >> (and training mecha pilots to fight) monstrous aliens. A teen who has been >> raised in the abandoned centre of the world-ship stumbles his way to the >> inhabited zones in search of food and gets captured by the authorities. But >> because the boy's grandfather was special in some manner the authorities decide >> to take in the boy and train him to be a mecha pilot. However, the boy's rushed >> integration into the larger world is rudely interrupted when his first milk- run >> space mission runs into an enemy instead of the expected ice asteroid. > > > The story behind the anime is this: > > Earth was destroyed by alien creatures, called the Gaunas. This part > is told in the manga "Abara". At the end of this manga (2 vol.) seed > ships are starting, which leave earth with the rest of the surviving > mankind to search for a new habitable planet in space. > > These ships were scattered and lost contact whilst their journey went > on. One of this seed ships is the 'Sidonia', making now her way > through space since one thousand years. > > Time by time they were attacked by single Gaunas, which are obviously > creatures, which live in space. One hundred years ago there was a > major attack by the Gaunas. Only a few of the people in the 'Sidonia' > have survived by the skin of their teeth. They were rescued by a > knight, who rode the 'Tsugumori'. That is the reason, why the > Tsugumori is kept as some kind of 'national treasure', ohg gurer vf > zber. > > > The story is well constructed. Things come part by part together, and > unveil all the mysteries in flash backs or during the ongoing events. > New mysteries and events occur, give things a turn, and so on and so > forth. > > It is not a slapstick show or a "happy together we make the world > better"strip. > >
Page 6 of 8 ---- Generated from Megalextoria > I have read the manga from the beginning, and bought all Japanese > editions, because there were no in English or German available in that > time, and even the scanlators had given up on it. > > I am really happy about the anime, and, as far as I can tell, they > followed the manga close. The cg has its limits, well, but at least I > become accustomed to it. The problems are identical as I saw it in > "Xenosaga" or "Appleseed". Emotions are sometimes expressed in odd > movements of the body, and the facial expressions are very limited. > > But that is compensated with very detailed backgrounds and technology, > which are identical to how it is shown in the manga. Even the > situation triggered high technology (it isn't steam punk, and they are > traveling space) it is brought into balance with the rotten down suits > and environment (short supply) or the chaotic grown settlements in the > seed ship. > >
Arne - you obviously like the story very much, so I will leave it to you to give progress reports to r.a.a.m. on how well the anime depicts the story.
Dave Baranyi
--- Synchronet 3.13a-Win32 NewsLink 1.83
Subject: Re: Knights of Sidonia - 2D Sci-fi Posted by Arne Luft on Wed, 23 Apr 2014 20:58:18 GMT View Forum Message <> Reply to Message From Newsgroup: rec.arts.anime.misc
On 23 Apr 2014 18:43:34 GMT, Dave Baranyi
> Arne - you obviously like the story very much, so I will leave it to you to give > progress reports to r.a.a.m. on how well the anime depicts the story.
Well, I shall do so, if I have the time, but that is not a promise.
At the moment it looks as if there are still a lot of people in Easter holiday. But it may change in short. I am sure about that. --- Synchronet 3.13a-Win32 NewsLink 1.83
Subject: Re: Knights of Sidonia - 2D Sci-fi
Page 7 of 8 ---- Generated from Megalextoria Posted by Arne Luft on Fri, 02 May 2014 08:13:42 GMT View Forum Message <> Reply to Message From Newsgroup: rec.arts.anime.misc
On 23 Apr 2014 18:43:34 GMT, Dave Baranyi
> Arne - you obviously like the story very much,
I've seen now ep4 of this anime, and I am under the impression that the CG had become better than it was in the first two episodes.
The show follows the manga very close. Fb lbh jvyy frr arkg rcvfbqr, ubj Ubfuvwveb naq Antngr ner erfphrq, naq jung gurl unir gb raqher va gur zrnagvzr.
With this then will end the first arc of the story.
The main difference to the manga is so far, how the Gauna, which has incorporated a human, looks like. In the manga it resembles first more a giant real nude body of the human, and turns with the time into a more disgusting shape, whilst in the anime it has a horrible expression from the beginning.
Other differences are of minor interest, like how and when they introduced Yuhata Midorikawa or where the meeting with Akai's crew took place.
There may be the impression, you have seen all the main characters, how they are, which problems will occur, and the rest is predictable. It is not like that.
Things will take a turn soon, how it is typical for this show, and I am really looking forward to that.
--- Synchronet 3.13a-Win32 NewsLink 1.83
Page 8 of 8 ---- Generated from Megalextoria