Knights of Sidonia manga (Season 2 Spoilers)

[The Almighty Aardvark]

Just a forewarning, this is half soapbox, half looking for opinions

I finally decided to take a look at Knights of Sidonia. I initially avoided it because it just seemed like a generic mecha anime (And while I like mecha, I don't care for episodes full of gundam-esque mook slaughtering action sequences). I was pleasantly surprised that it was absolutely not what I expected. It's got an interesting universe, and is a lot harder scifi than I've seen for a long time in anime. Season 1 absolutely blew my mind, and got me keen on season 2 to see how they'd develop their interesting ideas.

What I wasn't expecting was the total tone shift of season 2. The body horror elements almost all went away, they replaced the ambiguously sentient Hoshijiro shaped ena with an unambiguously sentient bubbly hybrid, and they seemed far more interested in developing Nagate's steadily growing harem (complete with accidental groping and nudity) than expanding on their world. On top of that, it's no longer the departure from mook slaughtering mecha that I was looking for (Though it was steadily doing this since the beginning anyways).

To summarize, the scifi and worldbuilding that I enjoyed from the first season has been replaced with mecha fights and harem romances in the second.

I still feel a lingering hope that they might pick back up on some of the parts I liked going forward though. Has anyone read the manga? What are your thoughts? And given the opinions I've stated so far, am I likely to enjoy it?

Also, feel free to share your opinions on the anime as well. Did anyone else get this feeling? Do you think I'm off base in my opinions?

 

[Queen Michael]

I read the first volume. I gave up; I had too much trouble understanding the plot. And the characters weren't different enough design-wise.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

I read the first volume. I gave up; I had too much trouble understanding the plot. And the characters weren't different enough design-wise.

I can't blame you too much for thinking that, there are 11 character who are all identical sisters

 

[The Lunatic]

I've only watched the anime.

Yeah, the first series was pretty interesting. A few things were a bit... Odd... But, overall the action was neat and story line was at least somewhat engaging.

Then season 2 came and basically all that went away, and there's a bunch of dumb story lines about a bubblegum whale, a person who magically changes gender and these all take centre stage whilst the interesting story lines and action scenes all take a supporting role.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

a person who magically changes gender and these all take centre stage

This was another element that bothered me, though maybe for a different reason than you. I liked the whole middlesex thing they had going for Izana. It felt like another part of the whole genetic manipulation thing they had going on in their society. Having a new gender that's able to procreate with either gender gave an interesting angle to the character. Having it turn out that they just turn into one gender or another at some point was a little disappointing, and I wonder if it was decided after the fact when they decided to build up the harem and decided she needed tits

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

So I decided to go ahead and finish the manga.

Big mistake. I'm not sure I've ever been so disappointed by anything before. I feel like this was a calculated attack on my high hopes.

 

[Fdzzaigl]

If you're interested more in the worldbuilding elements you should probably read Blame! by Nihei. It's a much less accessible work than Knights though. Like it took me 4 tries before I finally got through the first few volumes, but after that I read through it like a train.

With Knights of Sidonia he wanted to make a much more traditional manga with Shonen elements, but I agree that it lost much of its uniqueness in the later stages.

 

[Xeorm]

This was another element that bothered me, though maybe for a different reason than you. I liked the whole middlesex thing they had going for Izana. It felt like another part of the whole genetic manipulation thing they had going on in their society. Having a new gender that's able to procreate with either gender gave an interesting angle to the character. Having it turn out that they just turn into one gender or another at some point was a little disappointing, and I wonder if it was decided after the fact when they decided to build up the harem and decided she needed tits

Might be misremembering, but I do recall the whole process being mentioned in the first season as part of the lore dump of all the things that had changed. Kinda reminded me of how some animals (mostly amphibians I think?) will change genders if needed. Usually in species where they're remote enough that finding a mate can be a real pain and they need all the help they can get. Cool little fact but you could guess right from the start that Izana was there as a woman.

But yea, kinda similar to you. I liked the oddities of the first season and such where the world building gets going, less so the later bits.