One of the manga world's most intriguing artist returns with a science-fiction tour de force which combines post apocolyptic action, modern sci-fi video game tropes and a traditional Japanese aesthetic in The Knights of Sidonia.
Knights of Sidonia has been complied into a Master Edition featuring larger print, colored inserts and omibused volumes. Each Master's Edition volume compiles 2.5 volumes of the original Knights of Sidonia volumes.
Tsutomu Nihei (弐瓶 勉 Nihei Tsutomu, born 1971) is a Japanese manga artist. His cyberpunk-influenced artwork has gained a strong cult following. He has a relatively large community of fans in Germany where his manga Blame!, NOiSE and Biomega were published by Ehapa. Blame! was also published in France and Spain by Glénat, in the US by Tokyopop and in Italy by Panini Comics.
At first he studied architecture and later it is shown up in his manga works with drawing huge structures. This became one of his general theme that makes his manga unique. His works are usually in black and white. He is also an avid fan of the video game series Halo, as he mentions in his commentary section in the Halo Graphic Novel.
I suppose it should have been expected, given the author, but this volume feels like where the story starts to get weird; piloting mecha to defend perhaps the last colony ship from giant shape-changing aliens that destroyed the solar system (or at least earth) was just too straight-forward. Though I have to say one of the oddities of the book is inherent to the genre: the tonal dissonance between the sci-fi action mixed with touches of body horror monstrosities contrasted with the shonen fan service and awkward love triangle sub-plot that sees greater development in this volume. On a related note, one awkward thing is characters who suddenly shift roles, like one leg of that triangle who is presented as a very forward younger woman, maybe a bit ditzy or at least overly focused on romance who is suddenly made an assistant commander, though she never seems to fit. And then a character who was mostly a hot-headed young rival pilot becomes a sinister researcher and conspirator, though it is unclear if that is actually him or if he had his mind taken over by an engineered parasite created by an earlier evil scientist.
The volume also provides a flashback to some of the history of the Sidonia and explaining the origin of the weapons used to destroy the alien enemies. Nice to have some background, but the scene transitions are a bit jarring. Also, we learn that a mere century before the start of the story, the population of the ship was decimated and had only 1/1,000th the current number of people. This is presented as the reason for things like people being able to photosynthesize (though it isn't really a fix: the real difficulty for raising children is taking care of them, not necessarily feeding them; also, there isn't a meaningful light source in interstellar space, though I'll assume they have solar lamps set up) and the batch of identical clones that are major tertiary characters.
Really cool followup. Not a whole lot of development, and some of the story direction I'm not sure about. But I have been enjoying the world and the art so much. Much of the story is devoted to the world-building and revealing aspects of this world's science through combat. It's really interesting. The series has done a great job setting up a sense of bleak loneliness in the void of space and the evolution of humanity's ideas of what is human in the far future. It has kept me turning the page.
Same creepy black and white drawing style from the first volume, but with a mystery becoming even more twisted and complicated a conflict that seemed simple.
Action sequences are still a dynamic mess. When both the organic space creatures and the bulky mechs crash into each other, it looks like a trash yard fighting itself.
It's intriguing and I want to know what happens next.
The plot thickens and the intrigue of the first volume is greatly expanded upon. With all these pieces in play it will be quite interesting to see where the story goes.