First Impressions / Series Introduction / Sidonia no Kishi

OP Sequence

OP: 「騎士行進曲」 (Kishi Shinkoukyoku) by angela

「葛藤」 (Katto)
“Conflict”

Rejoice, humanity! For the Knights of Sidonia have returned to protect us from the alien scourge that foul our universe. Led by the invincible Tanikaze Nagate, we fear no Gauna, for there was no Gauna capable of defeating him in our simulators. Mere mortals could only hope to score even 1/63rd of his 999999 points! But wait! With our brand new simulator and a little effort, you too may be able to get close to his skill level! Now we only have to worry about our brains being taken over by a new potential threat within our very home!

Jokes aside, part of me wonders Tanikaze’s skill demonstration might’ve actually done more harm than good for some. I can definitely see it being an inspiration to the people who will end up fighting beside him and those that will truly gain from the new simulator, but there’s a certainly a measure of backlash to be had from those who would just get demoralized at how inferior they are to him. I guess it’s not a big deal in the long run though, because my pick for best Sci-Fi of 2014 is back, and I couldn’t be more excited.

Even better, things start off like it’s business as usual, and we all know what that means. It’s never a dull moment when it comes to humanity’s fight against the Gauna, and it’s another week filled with emergency deployments, potentially sinister internal plots and conspiracies, new threats, and big plot twists. There’s a measure of pleasure to be gained from Kunato being taken over by Ochiai given what he did previously in the first season, but I’ll say, the devil you know (one who was about to turn over a new leaf no less) is likely better than the devil himself returning from another age—especially one whose deeds almost killed everyone many years back.

At the very least though, humanity does manage to gain an additional weapon in its arsenal in exchange for the potentially insidious threat growing inside the Sidonia itself, even if it may come back to haunt them in the long run. I mentioned last season that if humanity here’s going to have a chance against the Gauna, they’re going to need to stay one step ahead with the constant development of new techniques and weaponry, and it looks like they’ve gotten one right in the nick of time. Ironically, it doesn’t seem to be quite a human construction as it is one involving the Gauna themselves, but it’s as they say: if you can’t beat em’, join em. Granted, it’s more of a “get one of them to join you” thing this time around, but who’s caring about the semantics? Using one’s own weapons against them is always one solution, and I’ll be damned if I’m not excited about all the possibilities this gives us in terms of action and the series’ narrative in general.

The questions do remain though: How did Ochiai end up with this seemingly Human/Gauna hybrid in the first place? Are his motives to protect the Sidonia? Or is it merely a pretext for the establishment of something else? There’s definitely a lot left to the Sidonia story with Ochiai rising secretly from the shadows again, and it makes you wonder just how much he can do with his skill set and his position as the head of Kunato Development. Thankfully, it looks like the answer to that is “a lot”, and we’ll be sure to benefit temporarily as viewers because the peaceful Sidonia is one filled with romantic overtures and hilarious epic jet pack arrivals. And they say that’s emergency equipment? You don’t know how lucky you are, Tanikaze! Or should I say Izana?

In any case, did I mention the OP yet? Because yeah, that was business as usual too. I have a soft spot for sequel opening sequences that borrow bits from their predecessors, and they’re definitely doing it here, giving this new OP a fresh and nostalgic feel at the same time. There was a bit of a spoiler here early on with the reveal of Tsumugu, but I’ll take a little bit of spoiling if it means I get another military anthem to start off my day with. The schematic focus continues in the ending as well (this time on the Gardes instead of the Sidonia), and it’s truly a return to the Sidonia universe in more ways than one. Sometimes, it’s hard to believe how fast time flies.

Author’s Note:

  • Sidonia no Kishi posts will likely come out closer to Sunday morning/afternoon for the remainder of the month.
  • Please keep all discussion of future content from the source material in spoiler tags.

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    ED Sequence

    ED: 「鎮魂歌 -レクイエム-」 (Requiem) by Customi Z

    Preview

    37 Comments

      2. This Kunato Development, where Kunato is bodyjacked by Ochiai, potentially opens up a lot of interesting possibilities. Now, its not just Sidonia vs. Gauna of the week (and Tanikaze’s Harem hijinks), as someone else plots for a goal of his own. Thats something more than mere petty rivalries.

        Also, I believe that Its not only me that get a sense of thrill through one’s own body when witnessing Mozuku and Numi got brainjacked…

        Do anybody think Smoogie shyly introduces herself and calling Kunato “Father” kinda cute?

        https://randomc.net/image/Sidonia%20no%20Kishi/Sidonia%20no%20Kishi%20Daikyuu%20Wakusei%20Seneki%20-%2001%20-%20Large%20Preview%2003.jpg

        And for the next episode, some Tentacle fun!

        kittyraider
        Reply

        2. did you not found it strange, that these little “Cyborgs”? in the Secret Lab could cut her head so clean from the body? Where they took grand blade for that? 🙂 or this was an pinned attack of many Cyborgs

          WorldwideDepp
          Reply

        3. @WorldwideDepp

          Only one cyborg was shown so my impression when I read that bit was that Mozuku was decapitated by force blades similar to what the silicon lifeforms used in Blame.

          celebrinen
          Reply

        5. That, Or a Monomolecular Razor Floss.

          Ever think why Autonomous Droids are so hard to find in the Ship? Sidonia rely so much on Clones, willing to Augment them with heavy Genetic Engineering and Cyborgization – but not AI. Distrust? Or simply because of the main idea of Sidonia as a Human Seed Ship?

          kittyraider
          Reply

        7. Remember? Only a handful survived the Gauna attack, and lucky for them the Doctor that know how to fix the Human Body for eternal Life. So they could recover slowly from nearly extension. And they used Clones to fill the Genes and Holes in the Crew and Population. Best example are these many Twin Sisters. Perhaps her genes was Perfect for Piloting the Mechas at their Time. So in a way, many Crew members are nearly relatives in genes

          WorldwideDepp
          Reply

    5. my Thoughts to the OP and ED Music

      OP Music sounds good, as i wrote in my Appetizer it’s some sort of Military March (like moving your foots to the Beat)

      but the ED.. It is to soft for my taste. But perhaps i need time get used to it

      What i found strange:
      in the entire Scene on the Bridge with the Gauna, the Captain was not on Bridge. Only the Vice Commander

      WorldwideDepp
      Reply

    6. The major worry I had for this season was the OP. I’m glad they could match the S1 OP. Not too sure about the ED though.

      The simulator scene is anime original I believe and Tsumugi’s intro was altered a bit too. One problem is they haven’t really shown the passage of time since Norio getting screwed over and Tsumugi’s appearance happens in the same episode. Note to anime watchers a bit of time passes between these two events.

      celebrinen
      Reply

    8. Welp, more changes to plotline, but still doable for the time being (glorious action is still glorious action), it is the first episode for SnK2.

      fyi. more spoilers in the ED than in the OP.

      info600
      Reply

    9. This episode suffers bit from a problem with Nihei’s way of storytelling amplified by the anime rushing some parts.
      As far as I remember Nihei tends not to mention any time skips as long as he doesn’t skip a consideral amount of time (eg. hundreds of year).

      While everything seems to happen really fast in this episode, at least several months have passed between Kunato falling under Ochiai’s control and the Gauna attack.

      Zannafar
      Reply

      1. Complete spoiler warning for magical manga plot-time-machine comparison:Show Spoiler ▼

        tl;dr – blame streamlining for the flashback-like first section…and I don’t really want to say the stuff in the spoiler too…

        info600
        Reply

    11. https://randomc.net/image/Sidonia%20no%20Kishi/Sidonia%20no%20Kishi%20Daikyuu%20Wakusei%20Seneki%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2010.jpg
      Numi “Iyada, Kunato kun what are you doing?”
      https://randomc.net/image/Sidonia%20no%20Kishi/Sidonia%20no%20Kishi%20Daikyuu%20Wakusei%20Seneki%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2011.jpg
      Doucheb Norio “I’m evil now. My master plan is to control all the oppai in Sidonia starting, my dear, with yours. Muhahahah”
      https://randomc.net/image/Sidonia%20no%20Kishi/Sidonia%20no%20Kishi%20Daikyuu%20Wakusei%20Seneki%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2012.jpg
      Numi “Nooooo…”
      Veiwers “NNOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooo…!”

      celebrinen
      Reply

    12. They basically just rewritten three characters in a clever way, Norito was a spoiler jealous annoying teen who got people killed because he couldn’t deal with not being the best, Mozuku who basically sucked Norito’s dick 24/7, Numi was fine but it couldn’t be helped.

      Dwarg
      Reply

    13. Wow, Sidonia’s 2nd season doesn’t waste a second, we start with a body-snatchers senario (involving tiny cyborgs with blades for legs who chop heads, brain-jacking organisms and cactus without thorns), then we switch to picnic hijinks complete with emergency jet-packs and lots of Onigiri, then we complete it with Sidonia gaining a very unexpected help from an eldritch giant human-gauna hybrid monster-robot cyborg thing.

      I’m not even sure what she is anymore .. she just creeped the hell out of me (specially with the “father” part), and is Ochiai/Kunato actually piloting her from the inside!!?, and is she the result of his experimentation on Gauna Hoshijiro, i had the impression she had her personality or part of her memories!!!?

      Personally i feel that Ochiai is actually a far bigger threat than the normal Gauna, a power conflict in a closed community like Sidonia is going to end up in a big mess, we have the immortals on one side and Ochiai on the other .. and that struggle will surely tear Sidonia apart before the dust settles and one of them takes the reins of Sidonia (if there is anything left of it and humanity) … good times ahead XD

      Hunter-Wolf
      Reply

    14. Well that is one big earthquake to start series off with. Mad scientist returning from beyond grave is kinda like the vampires of the legends which seemed to return due to any unwisely scratched finger or similar…
      I am personally most annoyed at effective death of the scientist Meganekko (you think that with the level of tech available simple corrcting sight would be no problem for Sidonians?), but boy the new development stokes the tension as new faction enters the fray with some extreme Gauna-killing power… and challenge to the power of ruling council of immortals. Bonus points for fashioning it’s Gauna-derived weapon into cute girl… Rei Ayanami, anyone?

      ewok40k
      Reply

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