Review: Knights of Sidonia “Adrift”
Didn’t Alfonso Cuarón direct this? And where’s Sandra Bullock?
Ok, all jokes about Gravity aside, the fact that Hoshijiro is aimlessly floating in space does bare a striking resemblance to the movie. The better question is: is this even going to be even an eighth of how enjoyable Gravity was? Well, let’s find out.
I’ve said this before, but these recaps for people who have amnesia is really grinding on my patience. I’ve been doing these episodes week by week, and I’m getting pissed. I can only feel for the ones who binged watched this. Luckily, this only lasted about a minute or so. However, an animation of Nagate killing the Gauna absolutely rocked. It was a lot better than it was last episode. There was definitely a sense of impending doom, because Nagate went past the point of safe return, but Nagate’s fuel is about to cut out. The character development for Kunato just dove a little deeper, because he was disabled when Nagate was able to defeat the Gauna. If this holds true, it’s only a matter of time before the self doubt settles in for Kunato.
Even later on in the episode, the doom and gloom doesn’t go away, because Nagate has to eat. That’s not so much of a problem for Hoshijiro, because she’s part plant, apparently. Not even the beautiful look of the weird wings from opening the Heigus reserve tank, or Hoshijiro getting naked to photosynthesize. Speaking of which, I found the shifting awkwardness between the two fucking hilarious. First, Hoshijiro gets all hot and flustered by Nagate waking up as she starts to photosynthesize. Then, Nagate gets embarassed when she drops her arms, and he catches his (seemingly) first glimpse of tits. I honestly have no idea why, but I was laughing so hard, I couldn’t breathe. I think it’s because no possible teenage male would act like that. And then, a week later, the doom and gloom returns.
The oxygen and rations aboard the Tsugumori only last for so long. As the episode went on, the rations were eaten, and Nagate is in dire straits. At least this is showing the lengths that the cadets will go to make sure everyone will stay alive. Towards the end of the episode, Nagate is severely dehydrated. Hoshijiro pisses in her suit so the suit can filter it to make water. She then takes the tube in Nagate’s mouth so he can try to rehydrate. He went so fast, he almost got a mouthful of piss. Again, this had me on the floor rolling. I think I found it even funnier when he said he could filter the Garde’s lubricant to get water.
This leads me to my next point. How long does it take for these two to kiss and get it over with? There’s been this weird attraction to each other since episode two, and it will probably keep going. Then it will probably get even worse when Izuna gets involved again. I only say this, because as they get the lubricant successfully filtered, a legion of Gardes show up in a 256 Clasp formation to save Hoshijiro and Nagate. This episode was just filled with awkward, wasn’t it? I found it odd that Kobayashi had nothing to do with the rescue, and she seems rather relaxed for 256 pilots breaking protocol.
Doom and gloom is going to be a recurring theme here. To believe that either Nagate or Hoshijiro were going to die, is pretty preposterous. This isn’t Game of Thrones, it’s an anime. They do have tropes to abide by. As such, Nagate is assumed dead, and Sidonia goes on as normal. Izuna is falling behind in her studies, because she misses Nagate. Izuna, along with Lalah, are the only two who seem to give a crap about Nagate, and trying to find him. Speaking of studies, I’m glad to see a little back story of how Sidonia came to be, and what happened to the Earth.
I think this was a wrap on the first arc of the series. It was great to see this have such a good ending, even though there were more than some spots that made me cringe. “Adrift” was a good transition episode, so we can get the story to advance more. Kobayashi alluded to there being more Gauna, and I want to see what they absorbed and can do because of it. All of the animations outside of the control room and the Gardes need a lot of work. Luckily, almost all of this episode was inside the Garde. Speaking of which, how do Nagate and Hoshijiro survive with the hatch open and no helmet on? I guess it was assumed when that Heigus net was deployed. Who knows? That was a slight oversight, but nothing too serious.
Like I said before, this was a great episode, and definitely builds on the strengths that the show has. The weaknesses are still there, but are less nerve-shredding as they spend less time out of the Gardes.
