To Mecha or not to Mecha?

Actually that’s not really the question. **Spoiler alert** – I’m probably going to go off on a tangent in this post as I am wont to do. I enjoy a good mecha anime and recently I’ve found one. It is a Netflix exclusive which means I can marathon to my heart’s content. The series “Knights of Sidonia” is only on Netflix and you can watch it either subbed or dubbed. It is released after the season is complete in Japan which means its not a simulcast but I don’t mind. I think I prefer the whole season being released in full. The downside to that is that one can get sucked into watching a show hours at a time. Who am I kidding? I do that anyway.

Its great to see that Netflix realizes that it has a huge base of anime fans and they are responding to it. I hope they see great results from this and that we will see more anime exclusives on Netflix especially of the caliber of “Knights of Sidonia/Sidonia no Kishi”.  Its not that the show is an instant classic but it is what I was looking for at the moment. Humans fighting for survival against an alien threat using big robots with a decent plot; hey, I’ll take that over moe moe and smack you in your face fanservice. There is fanservice but it is not too in your face. In fact, I think if they hadn’t given ginormous boobs to the females, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference in gender for characters as all the characters look exactly the same. Though, I was intrigued by the show and definitely loved the robot (they are called Garde) fights against the Gauna, the characters were physically nondescript and were all drawn the same.

There were definitely some harem-like parts with an number of “females” wanting the main character’s (Nagate Tanakaze) affectations. “Females” is in quotation due to the androgynous characters in “Knights of Sidonia.” These are people who do not get a gender until they are partnered up. In addition, one androgynous character (Izana) seemed to get upset when one of the identifiable females (Yuhata Midorikawa) would refer to the character as male. This indicated to me that the character was leaning towards female and that Yuhata was not only insulting Izana but implying that there could be no romantic relationship between Izana and Nagate. In fact, I started thinking of Izana as female as the show progressed and I wonder if this was purposefully crafted by the show. It would be interesting to see where this will go in Season 2.

I have so many questions rolling around in my head about this show. I’m hoping that I am not spoiling anything for those of you who plan to watch but have not yet. I have questions about the Gauna (aliens with tentacles — tentacles, Japan and tentacles). The Gauna reminded me of the Titans of AoT. In fact, this show reminded me of AoT. The Gauna look humanish which was sort of addressed but not really answered; the humans are sequestered on a ship to protect themselves from the Gauna and have to send out troops to fight the threat. The troops have very low rates of survival. They don’t know much about the Gauna, haven’t really tried to communicate with them, but there is someone who might can save them. I think AoT fans would enjoy this series, especially if they like mecha and science fiction. ALIENS…IN SPACE…FIGHTING ROBOTS!!!

 

• Posted in: Anime ♦ Japan ♦ Manga ♦ Science Fiction