# Knights of Sidonia (2014)

> A reclusive young man is dragged out of a hidden underground shelter of a generation starship to fight alien Gauna in mecha battles.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/54274

## Facts

- Seasons: 2
- Episodes: 24
- Episode runtime: 24 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: animation, science fiction, action
- Network: MBS, TBS
- Cast: Ryota Osaka, Aki Toyosaki, Tomohiro Tsuboi, Hisako Kanemoto, Satomi Arai, Eri Kitamura, Atsuko Tanaka, Kohsuke Toriumi
- TMDB rating: 7.7/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3398976/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: somber, tense, contemplative, gritty

## What critics say

Audiences rate the series positively, praising its ambitious mecha action and sci-fi world-building while some find the story uneven and the tone hard to settle on.

## Synopsis

Knights of Sidonia (2014-2015) is a Japanese animated science fiction series produced by Polygon Pictures, a two-season anime with twenty-four episodes that adapts the manga of the same name. The story follows Nagate Tanikaze (voice by Ryota Osaka), a young man raised in the forgotten lower decks of a vast starship, who is suddenly conscripted into military service when the Gauna, an alien race that has already destroyed Earth, return after a century of quiet. Izana Shinatose (voice by Aki Toyosaki) and Captain Kobayashi (voice by Sayaka Ohara) are among the principal figures around him, with Killy (voice by Takahiro Sakurai) and Ichirou Seii (voice by Tomohiro Tsuboi) also central to the crew. Each episode is built from piloted mecha sorties, tense battles against the Gauna in space, and the slow grind of a society that has forgotten how to fight. The engine is a young outsider trying to find his place in a rigid military order while facing enemies that keep returning. Set aboard a generation ship in a post-apocalyptic future, the series carries a somber, contemplative register, with grim imagery and a grounded sense of survival. Fans of Neon Genesis Evangelion and Attack on Titan will find resonance in its alien-threat dread and sober military world-building.

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