Sidonia no Kishi

I'm kind of mixed about this one, because I know the author and as far as I know this will not be focused in his main strenghts (as I can tell from other works that I've read, and what I've heard/seen of this one). Of this one I think I read some chapter I don't know how long and I don't remember, so the best I can bring on here is my knowledge about this author and hopes that can put his distinctive style in this.
 
Looking at the PVs it seems like this one will be a serious one.Really caught my attention, even if it is full CG it sounds like the story line will make up for that.

Also,I sense some death flags for this show~
 
SO good!

how dare they end ep one the way they did!! it is soooo gonna be suffering watching this one episode at a time i can tell right now.

<3
 
EP1
This is the first time I am leading with this on an anime.
I love the sound effects in this title.

One of the problems in many mecha (or almost any anime) titles is the trope sound effects. The crunchy metalic, or the famous gun pod, or even the same stock explosion. It is almost as overused as the Wilham Screem.

BUT WAIT! This title has gloriously imaginative sound effects with rich deep tones, followed by crisp clanks, or whooshes.

As for the visuals. I think the Cg/Cel looking animation will grow on me, but damn, these folks need to shade out more of a nose at times. It could come off as horribly flat. Sometimes the pink haired mafia were freakish to look at.
The complex Akira inspired tubes and pipes in a conglomerate world of stuff built on stuff built on stuff, was fun to look at for me. I enjoyed the dystopic fueled feel, while maintaining that future.

As for the rest of the episode.

Not like we are treading any new ground here. Gunbuster came to mind with the
far off (maybe light year) alien race. Also, Attack on Titan type century wait for the baddies to show up.
I did not feel a lot for much of the cast yet, but I do chalk that up to cramming so much in the beginning.
I commend the show for making a believable way that our main guy knows HOW to pilot a mecha. He did not just fall in a cockpit and know what to do instinctively. In fact he sucks piloting anything over his mecha model that he had in the old bank of VM/Simulator systems in the bowls of the city.
I am forgetting the title as to what these title mecha look like. The closest thing would be LGaim the MKII at the moment, but I know there is another.
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Hmm I actually liked that episode.

Episode 1:

If there's one thing I absolutely love in a show it's the feeling of a gigantic expansive setting and world, it definitely created a great sense of vast space. The backgrounds and architecture of the buildings I found absolutely stunning and gorgeous while they were walking around the place that I couldn't help but get immersed in it. I think I liked the choice of dull colors with the environment as well, all the white and patches of rustiness made most of it look pretty sterile and cleanly. On another point even the CG itself didn't bother me as much as I would've thought albeit it did look a little choppy and awkward at times it wasn't that bad at all and I thought it really lent itself well to creating a surrealist effect, also mecha designs looked amazing with it. Greatly enjoyed how it had a dystopian society and militaristic feel to it too which just added to the experience. Also liked how the episode leaves you to infer some details yourself and doesn't massively bog it down with a ton of clunky exposition straight off the bat, even with the bits thrown in most of it felt naturally alright. So yeah as a person who's into futuristic sci-fi it's really done a nice job to get me really roped into the general setting and I can only hope it gets more deeply involved with it's world building as I already found that pretty interesting.

The details regarding the plot while nothing new that I haven't seen before with the setup left enough vagueness by not telling you everything straight away that I was pretty intrigued about the circumstances surrounding the war their in and the other elements going on in the background. Although the pacing felt a bit too quick and it didn't feel like there was quite enough done to get to know the characters but I think they're probably leaving that to the next episode hopefully and with how much they threw in here they probably were short on time. However I did appreciate how the episode at least establishes the believability of the main character's ability to fly a mecha and isn't some chosen one wonder who instantly is great at it without any prior knowledge or training. Lastly the end leads me to think it's going to follow a pretty despairing and grim atmosphere where anyone can die with the impression it gave off. Anyway I see some potential and looking forward to how it develops.
 
Episode 1.
That was boring. Giant robot shows aren't supposed to be boring.

Ugly CG.
Bland characters.
A giant group of characters who look exactly the same, which is just lazy.
Pointless "fanservice" locker room shot.(Fanservice in quotes cause again, ugly CG)
A talking bear.
The promotion clip turned out to be a simulation.
And jack shit happening until the literal end of the episode.

Severely unimpressed.
 
Bradalee said:
The characters were fine, with a couple interesting ones.
Click to expand...
Oh, yeah. Just a real well of interest. We've got...

Generic MC.
Generic cocky guy.
Generic bitch.
Generic...clones, I think?

Scintillating...

Bradalee said:
The bear can be a little jarring but it's not got an annoying voice or a a strange verbal tick like so many animal characters do, so it wasn't exactly irritating, and everybody knows how quick i can be to jump on stupid animal mascots.
Click to expand...
...Dude,
IT'S A TALKING BEAR WITH A ROBOT HAND THAT COOKS. I thought I was watching a gritty mech show, not Shirokuma Cafe.

Bradalee said:
I don't see how the simulation is something to be mad about either,
Click to expand...
Oh yeah, why be mad that
the clip that piqued my interest in this show turned out to just be a simulation...

Bradalee said:
and i think it's pretty clear that the character designs for a lot of the cast are similar on purpose, especially those clone girls, so i doubt it's a case of laziness.
Click to expand...
And I think it's pretty clear that they cheaped out. Aoki Hagane was CG and it's characters weren't literal carbon copies of each other...

Bradalee said:
And a lot more than jack shit happened, but like i said, not enough explosions so you probably missed it all.
Click to expand...
How about you quit trying to be clever with "REDNECK ONLY LIKES EXPLOSIONS!" crap.
 
Episode 1

I liked it. Sure, it wasn't anything amazing, but I thought it was still enjoyable and an okay way to start off the show. I actually liked the CG, thought it had an interesting style rarely seen in anime, and it well established the dystopic tone that it's going for. It was occasionally a tad awkward, and the very existence of the shower room scene was just completely unnecessary fan-service, but as far as CG animation goes, I thought it was well-above average.

Not sold on these characters yet, but I never really think it's wise to judge characterisation based solely on the first episode. There's the potential for something interesting here, just give it more than a single episode.

Although, seriously, the fuck was with that bear. It was completely out of place. Seriously. What was that. Why is it here.

All in all, I thought it was a pretty good for an initial set-up. I think I'll enjoy this.
 
Well, the Tsutomu Nihei expert enters here.

Episode 1:

This felt like a mix between classic shonen mecha show and some elements of Nihei. To be honest I would have prefered much more of the latter and less of the former because despite those elements it still felt very generic, but those details made this was more enjoyable.

To sum up this author and other works, he loves (and I mean LOVES) drawing structures, backgrounds and ambients, especially with a dirty (in a good way) and cyberpunk style. This with the cyberpunk style and some brutal fight scenes, he usually does his stories, characters and dialogues too minimalist, working sometimes or not, but usually not being the main focus of his works (and to be honest, I think he is self-aware of his own qualities and defects). And he usually likes starting in media res and without exposition or explaining anything to the viewer (in fact, I think many times he doesn't even try to do that, you have to learn by conecting all the hints every dialogue has when you re-read), but that makes all his setting and world more fascinating and with a charming and inmmersive feeling.

Now, this work... has only a few of these elements in small doses. It doesn't have anything of his dirty style, but you can find some of his loved designs of the city. The setting and story feels generic, but the way they give you information is still very implied with many hints here and there (the photosyntesis, those obvious clones, the fact that Sidonia is a giant pipe piercing a meteorite, etc.). The characters are bland, which is not surprise, but here they have more stereotype personalities and it seems they are more the focus (in other works even the main characters were more intentional blank slots not being that much the focus), which is my concern because I don't think he's good in that and this episode shows it too.

About the episode itself, it advanced a bit too fast and convenient, but it worked okay enough. I don't know how much fun the battles will be but I hope he can be as brute and fun as his other works. So as a whole, I thought it was okay, although I feel kind of disappointed with the typical shounen direction for this author, it just looks inadequate for him.
 
Episode 1:

Well, Sormat hit on the best part of the episode for me. I liked the background world building that wasn't shoved in our faces with big exposition, but instead just casually inserted into the dialogue here and there. The obvious clones just being there, the not making a big deal out of there being a third gender, the photosynthetics. It's easy to figure out the meaning behind these things so there's no reason to excitedly point them out, but instead have them there as a natural part of the world. The world of Sidonia so far is very interesting and grabbed me in a way the plot and characters did not. This is just the first episode, but so far everyone seems pretty standard mecha genre characters.

The CGI was weird to start, but I think it compliments this future. It looks a little like we're used to but it's different enough to give it a real alien futuristic feeling so we know just how far the world has come in this future. I got used to by the end of the episode, but I think this style of animation works for this kind of sci-fi series.

Overall, I liked this episode and I'd put it close to the same level as Captain Earth, except...I have more worries about Captain Earth going wrong. I think the interesting world here could be enough to save this a little from a mediocre plot. Captain Earth on the other hand could easily turn into a train wreck with pretty visuals.
 
Does this show have a good sci-fi element in you folks opinion?

They bring up that either people have evolved, or science has evolved. Honestly how many people would wish to merge, change sexes? I personally wouldn't, but it does bring up a facinating element.
I kinda want to know more about that in the series.


Also, that op is damn catchy
 
The OP was the best part of the episode and one of the coolest this season. Although, it did get overshadowed a bit by Jojo's rad new OP which I watched right afterwards.

As for the sci-fi of the series, I think it's too soon to call. The world does seem pretty cool and there do seem to have been some interesting advances, but all of it lies in the background at the moment. I thought the first episode was a good way to go about easing the viewer into the future, but I'd have to wait to see what other kind of explanations we get before calling it good sci-fi or not. This was episode was a good start though, the world already feels expansive and it makes me want to know more about it. The show also has a main character that's pretty much a blank slate so he actually needs a lot of this shit explained to him, so I'm hoping for more world building in the future. The world was the best thing about the first episode, so I'll be a bit disappointed if it doesn't get developed some more.
 
I'm pretty darn sure I'm going to love this. The first episode was great, and easily my favorite of the season (except JoJo, of course). Watching this week by week is going to be painful.

Also, that OP. :love:
 
episode 1...... dear diary, today i
fell into a rice silo, broken my fingers, got a concussion, got arrested, jumped out of a 10th floor window onto my fucking neck, got knocked the fuck out, got arrested again, almost starved to death...... and then forcibly enrolled into a school for mech pilots. i hope tomorrow will be better.

signed, mole man.

i'm watching it now just to see what else they put him through.
 
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