I talked about Knights of Sidonia in my previous post about the Top 5 Anime on Netflix and I really, really enjoyed it when I saw Season 1 so I was quite excited to learn that Season 2 had been released. If you don’t remember what its about, think of Battle Star Galactica with alien creatures (Gauna) hunting the remnants of Humanity through space. Fleeing in a literal fragment of Earth that they’ve transformed into a giant spaceship – the Sidonia has been cobbled together and looks it! With giant robots (the aforementioned Knights) as the only viable defense against the alien menace this Anime offers a something different – namely reality in your SciFi!
Now I know that’s hard to believe but they’ve absolutely tried to focus on realism in terms of how humanity has “modified” itself to live in this new environment as not only do they not require food (they can photosynthesize it), they’ve also created a third (hermaphroditic) “sex” that can be either male or female depending upon the needs of the colony. In addition to the human elements, they very much account for real world physics in terms of how the robots work, fly and fight and even how the Sidonia itself fights. Things like fuel supply and damage that can be caused by inertia were major plot points.
Season 1 left us on a bit of a cliffhanger as our major hero and primary protaganist Nagate has been acknowledged as a bonafide hero but his primary love interest (Hishijiro) seems to have been recreated as a Gauna/Human hybrid. While she was initially uninterested in Nagate, it seems that she has finally started to acknowledge his presence and perhaps her involvement will provide Humanity with a more permanent solution to the Gauna – either through negotiation or by means of a more permanent final weapon.
Season 2 starts of somewhat unexpected for me however as while Nagate is no longer ostracized (in fact the exact opposite … he is now looked up to as one of the premier pilots of the Sidonia), we’re introduced to a 3rd party that I didn’t remember from the earlier season. It seems that one of the earlier scientists mentioned in Season 1 (Ochiai) left an abandoned lab & Kunato (Nagate’s nemesis from Season 1) has the keys to get in. Once he enters the lab however, things are not what they seem and he is quickly bodyjacked by Ochiai who was not killed after all. Now in control of Kunato and his massive resources, Ochiai resumes his plan for domination and quickly acquires the Gauna/Human hybrid removing her/it from the research facility.
This whole sequence by the way was extremely creepy as the parasites were able to quickly overwhelm everyone they came into contact with. Very Invasion of the Bodysnatchers-esque and quite horrible to watch!
Meanwhile a massive Gauna approaches the Sidonia & the Knights are sortied along with Nagate in his new guardian – the “Tsugumori Kai” – to repulse it, but its been created in such a way that the normal weapons of the Knights have little to no effect. But out of nowhere another Gauna-like creature appears, and with a single shot it causes massive damage to the giant Gauna. The new mysterious Gauna introduces itself as Tsumugi Shiraui.
“Hello, everyone. My name is Tsumugi Shiraui. It’s nice to meet you. I look forward to getting to know you all.”