Review: Knights of Sidonia “Salutations”

Spoilers below!

I keep going on through Knights of Sidonia, and there has been something nagging me. Why is it, that out of any of the characters here, the only one to show any form of emotion is the character is genetically modified to look like a bear? It’s the shit like this that makes me feel no connection to Nagate, Hoshijiro, or Izana. Even Kunato, who has made it known that he wants to see Nagate fail so he can pilot the Tsugumori, just doesn’t show emotion. I harp on Bleach a lot, but at least Ichigo shows emotion. I feel that Nagate is just taking up space, like a bump on a log.

What makes me laugh, is that Nagate’s three weeks doing his own Gravity reenactment with Hoshijiro allowed Sidonia to hit the reset button. There was nothing showing the destruction caused by Kobayashi ordering Sidonia to maneuver out of the path of the Gauna. Izana just goes on saying that the Organic Converter Reactors just managed to get rid of  the dead person stink. I would love to live in a place where everything is back to normal in less than three weeks after a catastrophe. At least Nagate and Izana were shown mourning Akai and his crew.

I was hoping, that by now, something would be said about the people in the stone looking pods. The only thing we have so far is that these people are very authoritarian, are completely useless. These people just sit in a private chamber, only to be seen from when Kobayashi needs to get terrible advice. I think Knights of Sidonia wouldn’t miss anything if these stone pods were taken out, and Kobayashi was just talking to herself. Or at least make the stone people look like real people.

Speaking of stone people, then we get to Kunato. Kunato has had the prima donna mentality since we first saw him gawk with boyish glee at the Tsugumori. Then he throws a tantrum when Nagate gets the Tsugumori on the mission that unleashed the Gauna. And now, Kunato wants to be friends and comrades with Nagate in this episode.  The truly amazing thing in all of this is that Kunato is able to show absolutely no emotion through any of this. Well, Kunato did have a little bit of anger outside that restaurant. I guess every little bit of emotion counts when that’s at an extreme premium. Later on, when Kunato is going over how his fame and glory got taken from him my Nagate, he still shows no emotion, and is seemingly complacent with being second best. This is a complete change from how he acted in the five episodes prior, when he actually had a sprinkle of pride.

And when I get to talking about everyone’s complete lack of emotion, here comes Yuhata, barging in between Izana and Hoshijiro, and Nagate. Yuhata knows what she wants, and she wants some of Nagate. Yuhata calls Izana a mister, and pushes Izana out of the way when Izana was trying to talk to Nagate at the noodle hut. Then Yuhata should have gotten two minutes for excessive force when she checked Izana into the door later on. Yuhata definitely gets an A for effort today.

Actually, everything that happens from when Yuhata finds Nagate until Hoshijiro and Nagate are trapped in the submarine is comedy gold. Yuhata’s way of doing things just botched everything up for both herself and Izana. As “Adrift” and “Salutations” went on, I couldn’t help to think that Hoshijiro is going to be George RR Martin’d in a coming episode, but I didn’t think this week. No one is safe, and this thing between Hoshijiro and Nagate was just too happy. Valar Morghulis, Hoshijiro. I think the writing here was actually really well done. They skipped the whole battle, and gave us the direct aftermath in “Salutations,” and is saving the battle for next week. I haven’t seen this type of plot hook done in a long while.

There is one more thing to come out of “Salutations” that I found interesting. Kobayashi is trying to fashion Nagate to into his ultimate role in the series, and if you watched the episode, you know what that is. It’s something really obvious, and I should have figured it out. The way it was presented now was done rather well, and with a very small dash of grace. It’s good to see that the writers aren’t trying to cram anything and everything possible to cram a series of story into thirteen episodes. I can’t believe I am congratulating the writers for doing their job. Is this how things are supposed to be?

Overall, this episode has a some hits, but a lot more misses. The writers seem like they have things going in the right direction, at points. And the animation of life outside the Gardes is getting better, as well. The animators are doing a better job getting the emotion and feelings to come across. It’s just when the writers and voice actors are mailing it in, the quality drops a lot. Most of the series seems mailed in. It’s sad, because I was excited to hear Johnny Yong Bosch in a role that isn’t Ichigo Kurosaki. At least there’s a few episodes coming up in Naruto Shippuden he will be in.

As for “Salutations,” the plot gets advanced, but in a very messy way. If you’re able to overlook a lot of the shortcomings coming from the cast and writers, give it a look. For me, there are a few too many shortcomings.