Review: Knights of Sidonia “Oblivion”

Nagate has met the Gauna. It’s not going to be traumatic, right?

 

Spoilers Below!

We start right where last episode stopped, with the Gauna wrecking shit on the pilots. Nagate and Yamano take the brunt of the initial wave of tentacle flailing. And of course, the command center has no idea what’s going on, because they just detect the Heigus particles. That gives them the confirmation that the Gauna are back. Way to be on the ball, guys.

We get a flashback, where Nagate and Izana are shaking hands, because Izana believes in a superstition that if squad mates don’t touch, they will get into an accident. Yamano walks past, and refuses to shakes hands with Izana. Yamano is still complaining about being stuck with Nagate and Izana. She then thinks back to when she made it to the academy, trying to confirm that she’s better than them.

This part has me both cringe, and laugh horribly. Nagate got to experience the skin suit for the first time, along with the catheter that snakes itself up and in. We get a look into the girls’s locker room, and you see all of the girls squirming because of the catheter going in. Then Nagate gets to feel the sensation, which gets Izana to crack another smile.

The cadets are in their Gardes, and off to the mine. Yamano is losing her shit, because she is about to have her armor breached. The Gauna then eats Yamano, absorbing her into its system. Most of the cadets bail, leaving Izana and Kunato fighting, while Nagate has a broken back and going into cardiopulmonary arrest. Command wants the cadets to get out, and they will provide cover. They, however, leave Nagate and his mech behind. they fire their heavy cannons at the Gauna, providing cover fire for the cadets to leave.

Nagate resuscitates himself just in time to protect himself from the incoming tentacles. The Gauna takes on Yamano’s face, and he rushes in. His commanding officer wants him to leave, because he doesn’t a Kabizashi. Izana manages to grab him as he was smacked away, and the make it off. Just as they make formation, the heavy mass cannon blasts the Gauna to bits. Unfortunately, it’s coming back sometime in the future. Everyone makes it back safe, and Kobayashi has a meeting with her stone people. That meeting was pretty much telling the people in the stones that war with the Gauna is inevitable.

Back in the colony, a person is trying to say that the Gauna haven’t really come back. That person is confronted by a soldier, but he is steadfast. Elsewhere, they have a funeral for Yamano, with all of the cadets present. The cadets think that it’s Nagate’s fault, because he’s cursed. The classmates want to know details, but they are put under a gag order. In class, they tell us how humans came to use photosynthesis for nutrients. Nagate’s classmates rag on him, because he doesn’t have that.

They pull pranks on him, including putting a sack of deodorant in his locker. Seii walks out of the class, and yells at Nagate for not having his belt on. So he chooses the most prudent course of action for Nagate. Nagate is now testing the railings for sturdiness, where he ventures to the girls locker room. There’s that awkward moment of silence, then one of the Honoka sisters knocks him out before he even hits the ground.

This is where the scenes get a little choppy. At the Tsugumori dock, Yuhata overhears some people talking about Nagate piloting the Tsugumori. Elsewhere, Nagate is recovering, and Izana invites him to go to Yamano’s grave. In one of the classrooms, Yuhata hacked into the system to get Nagate’s battle data.

We then have a weird scene that seems like a dream sequence, where Gauna-fused Yamano is begging to be killed, but Nagate isn’t able to do it, no matter how hard he stomps on it. The heavy mass round then smashes the Gauna, which freaks out Nagate. Izana is letting Nagate wake up. He wakes up, but doesn’t remember throwing up and passing out. Izana tells Nagate that no one has an idea why the Gauna attack. The person who was able to pilot Tsugumori with the Kabizashi was the only person who was able to save Sidonia.

Izana asks why Nagate was so good with the Tsugumori, and it was because Nagate had a Mark-17 training sim underground. They switched from the Mark-17 by Toha Heavy Industries, to the Mark-18 by Kunato Developments. Nagate notices a funeral going on down below. The people died, and are on their way to the organic converter reactor.

Kobayashi is talking to her computer person, and the Gauna is already reforming. It’s closing in on Sidonia, and will arrive in three days. Nagate makes it into what looks like a diner, where Hiyama is tending the counter. Nagate looks up, and sees Norio on a program for being top in the cadet class. Nagate almost collapses again, this time from imagining the Gauna again. The program then shows the four best pilots in the fleet.

Akai, Aoki, Midorikawa, and Momose are getting briefed by Seii. Akai is given lead in the mission to destroy the Gauna. At the sick bay, Nagate wakes up with a doctor who he mistakes as Kobayashi. Nagate collapses, and is helped back to his bed by the doctor. He isn’t sleeping well, and he isn’t able to keep food down. The doctor deduces that it’s malnutrition. Man, this girl is a winner. She makes a call, asking for the cadet representative. Nagate is asking the doctor to let him to his classes, because he promised.

Nagate narrates how he was brought up to a huge window, with Kobayashi, that shows space. Nagate then narrates how it’s been a thousand years since the Gauna destroyed their solar system, with the Seed Ship Sidonia ensuring humanity’s survival. There, he promised Kobayashi that he would go into the cadet program. Then, Shizuka Hoshijiro comes to the room, so Nagate can get to class. Ochiai shows up as he’s leaving, and the doctor doesn’t want a trace left of Nagate’s medical history.

Bells are tolling, and the pilots made it to the academy. Izana is thinking of taking Nagate to the Gravity Festival, and turns to ask Nagate, who walks into the courtyard, with Shizuka helping him. That makes Izana just a little mad, and she walks off. Kunato is getting talked up by his entourage, saying that the Akai and his squad are here to check Kunato out. In fact, everyone thinks Akai is there to see Kunato. Except, they blow right past him, and go for Nagate. Yuhata breaks through to meet Nagate as well, who says that her and Nagate are going to be great friends.

This episode was pretty good. There was action, plot, and it didn’t make me feel like I needed an encyclopedia to get what was going on. This episode was more straight forward, dealing with the Gauna attack, and the aftermath with Nagate. This dude has gone through a lot in two episodes. The worst was watching his classmate assimilate with the Gauna, then having the Gauna take its shape. The two episodes mirror Attack on Titan a bit, where the first episode almost put me to sleep, and the second was almost pure adrenaline.

Everything seemed more lively this episode. The characters even felt a little human. They went through changes in life, and watched great tragedy. This felt more like an anime series, and less of a course on human psychology. The focus shifted from the introduction of the characters, to the world itself, and why things like the Gauna are important. The Gauna actually means something after this episode, because we saw how destructive it was and what it can do. This is a stark difference between the two episodes, because the people were still there, and their biggest dilemma was what genetic / mechanical enhancement they’re getting next.

Hopefully, this episode starts a trend. The backgrounds are still rather bland, and there are times where the characters move very rigidly. However, the characters still have moments where they show signs of life, so there’s hope.