The apocalypse pursues humanity into space in ‘Knights of Sidonia’

 

We have this tendency to think small when it comes to the apocalypse. A single country beset on all sides by hungry pink giants? Scary, but way too fantastical. Humanity endangered by an enormous meteor flying too close to home? Realistic, but boring. How about everyone’s favorite – the end of the world via zombie Armageddon? Come on, it’ll most likely never happen. And even if it does, people would probably enjoy it anyway.

 

The anime “Knights of Sidonia”, or “Sidonia no Kishi”, takes the apocalyptic narrative into what could arguably be its bleakest setting – the cold, dark depths of space. There is nothing quite as despairing as drifting aimlessly in the void, especially when you’re sharing that emptiness with an alien species intent on your annihilation.

 

But space isn’t the only frontier the series explores. “Knights of Sidonia” is entirely in 3D, setting itself apart from 99 per cent of other anime this season and seasons past. Though not without rough spots, the result is something quite remarkable.

 

 

Millions of voices suddenly silenced

 

In the distant future, the massive seed ship, Sidonia, journeys through space. She is but one of the few vessels that barely managed to escape the destruction of the entire solar system thousands of years ago. Having lost all contact with the others, Sidonia is, for all we know, the very last bastion of humanity.

 

But we are far from alone. Those responsible for bringing our species to the brink of extinction – the monstrous, near indestructible, shape-shifting life forms known as the Gauna – have returned after a century of peace. Despite her heavy weaponry, Sidonia is unprepared.

 

Raised by his now-deceased grandfather, the young Nagate Tanikaze spends his days in Sidonia’s abandoned underground strata using virtual reality simulators for combat training. Having depleted his food supplies, he surfaces to forage for rice, only to be caught by the local security.

 

Kobayashi, the beautiful, enigmatic captain of Sidonia, promptly takes interest in Tanikaze for reasons unknown. In return for his assimilation into society, she asks for one thing only: that he pilot one of the Guardians – giant mecha that form Sidonia’s last line of defense against the Gauna.

 

Clones, hermaphrodites, and giant robots

 

One of the things that makes “Knights of Sidonia” so intriguing is its subtle, believable science. There is nothing outlandish here; the groundwork for many of the show’s technologies can be traced back to our own world and time, and the dreams of today’s visionaries.

 

Living under constant threat from the Gauna has forced humanity to find new ways around their suddenly fragile existence. A third gender has been created, one that can procreate with either of the original sexes, while extensive human cloning ensures there are quicker ways to replace the numerous dead. People now have the ability to photosynthesize, circumventing the obvious problems brought about by Sidonia’s ever-dwindling food reserves.

 

And then we have the Guardians. From “Gundam” to “Gurren Lagann”, anime has had a long, fetishistic relationship with giant robots. It is therefore refreshing to see the Guardians taking a backseat to the human drama in “Knights of Sidonia”. And with your species subsisting inside what is essentially a gargantuan space coffin, you can be pretty sure there is plenty of that.

 

 

Dust in the (stellar) wind

 

Though there is nothing truly original about “Knights of Sidonia’s” characters, they are all very human, and thus extremely relatable.

 

Tanikaze is a fish out of water, making him the perfect medium through which we experience this strange, yet familiar world. He has a childlike naivety about him, which doesn’t change much throughout the show’s 12 episodes. This doesn’t mean his character undergoes no development – how can it not in their situation?

 

In fact, many of the show’s main characters do evolve. There’s Izana Shinatose, a cute androgyne who is among the first to befriend Tanikaze; fellow Guardian pilot Shizuka Hoshijiro; and Norio Kunato, a manipulative, silver-haired bad boy who is enviously eyeing something that belongs to Tanikaze. During times of peace, we become witness to their smiles and laughter. We see them pout, trade thinly veiled insults, vie for a special someone’s attention: all part and parcel of the petty rivalries that anyone who has ever been young should know.

 

And we see them at their worst. Gauna attacks are always cause for mind-numbing terror, whether you’re a Guardian pilot in direct combat with them, or a civilian watching the battle from afar. Imminent death has a way of flushing all training and common sense down the drain, so even if you’ve aced your virtual reality simulations, there’s no real way to tell how well you’ll fare against the real enemy.

 

In short, people drop like flies in “Knights of Sidonia” – even those characters the show makes an effort to develop, characters you wouldn’t feel are disposable. And this is what makes the battles so suspenseful – you never know just who will die next.

 

When someone is promoted from cadet to official Guardian pilot, it is no cause for celebration, because we can’t help but feel that character’s anxiety. Fear, despair, an inescapable helplessness – these are the emotions that permeate the very soul of Sidonia. And this makes for some genuinely compelling viewing.

 

 

A new dimension

 

3D has been used in anime before, mostly in the form of brief animation sequences, or non-organic objects such as cars, phones, and robots. Everything in “Knights of Sidonia”, however, is 3D from start to finish.

 

The character models look wonderful, preserving the 2D anime aesthetic we have come to know and love. In fact, there are times you’ll be convinced what you’re watching is 2D.

 

Thanks to 3D, character motions are more complex. Don’t expect the cheap and lazy animation tricks so prevalent in most anime; in “Knights of Sidonia”, action means action. This makes battle sequences incredibly exciting, as Guardian and Gauna alike pull off fantastic feats of space acrobatics. Human characters, of course, behave more naturally, which helps further the show’s realism.

 

The frame rate, however, suffers from occasional choppiness, which does make characters move like they were animated using stop-motion cinematography. This is most noticeable during the lighter, slower moments in the story. But things do improve over time, so later episodes generally have more fluid animations.

 

The cel shading looks great. Every so often, however, the darker outlines disappear and the shaded areas bleed into each other, making characters’ chins or jaws merge with their necks. Which makes them look exceedingly flat and just plain odd.

 

Aside from the colors, the texturing of the show’s many environments is exceptionally well done. Unlike the pristine cleanliness of the “Star Wars” prequels and other sci-fi franchises, “Knights of Sidonia’s” future is grittier, filthier. Walls are scratched, dusty, and stained. Even the pilots’ uniforms look like they’ve seen better days. Sidonia is an ancient ship, its people exhausted from their never-ending voyage across the stars, and their eons-long battle for survival. Such small details, such as the nicks in someone’s helmet, go a long way towards conveying humanity’s desperate plight.

 

 

The glorious charge

 

“Knights of Sidonia” is amazing. Though the animation quality isn’t consistent, the 3D visuals give the show a unique yet immediately recognizable look. The characters may not be standouts at first, but the show does an excellent job of making us care for them. When disaster strikes, it’s all the more devastating.

 

We as a species have always been fascinated with tragedy. A cynic would probably suggest this is because humanity is, by nature, secretly sadistic. But I’d like to think this seemingly unhealthy obsession with the catastrophic comes from a more benign place. We are surrounded by suffering, after all; sometimes it just seems like the universe itself is out to wipe us from existence. Perhaps we just need heroes like Tanikaze and his fellow Guardian pilots to remind us that, despite all the hardships life throws at us, we can always find victory as long as we learn to charge forth like the “Knights of Sidonia”. — TJD, GMA News