When hearing the term mecha one cant be blamed if the image of gigantic mobile suits launching rocketpropelled fists at each other come to mind. After all this is how many was first introduced to this bizarre genre. While many mechas still exhibit similar traits nowadays every once in a while comes a show like Sidonia no Kishi which downplays the mecha so much that even replacing them with something else entirely wouldnt change the story by one bit. 320http://i.ur.com/qeehrVj.png The story of Sidonia no Kishi is set in the far future where mankind has been forced to retreat into seed ships basically gigantic spaceships to preserve themselves after the planet Earth was destroyed by a mysterious race of aliens known as the gauna. Nobody knows where the gauna came from or what they want from mankind but the story mainly focuses on the efforts of a military team dubbed the knights to prevent the gauna from reaching and thus destroying one of the seed ships Sidonia. They do this through the use of mecha units dubbed the grades which in execution is very akin to a fighter jet. 320http://i.ur.com/vGw62oO.png The premise itself seems very generic. We have the humans mothership an attacking alien race and a team of pilots tasked to protect the mothership which is where of course our protagonist is. Of course premises dont mean that much to an anime true beauty lies in its execution in which Sidonia no Kishi did surprisingly well. The crew did their best to make the setting as believable as possible. Even though most of the anime takes place in the ridiculous setting that is Sidonia the anime explains everything sufficiently enough that youll never find yourself confused or objecting to any of the events that happen in the anime. Youll also find that the show doesnt fell slow nor dragged on. Theres always a new development whether its a new gauna or interpersonal relationship problems to keep the show going forward. There isnt much of an overarching plot however and due to this often times the development feels forced like how a gauna always manages to appear at the right time. 320http://i.ur.com/BMWVBeu.png But by far the biggest flaw of Sidonia no Kishis story is its characters. Theyre shallow onedimensional and they never seem to do anything new. To make matters worse our protagonist is too perfect. He never messes up and even if he did it was because of another characters doing. He doesnt react much to other peoples insult and he doesnt react much to their praises either. Hes not a Gary Stu or anything but a human being must at least have a few flaws. Other than the story the first thing you mightve noticed when watching this anime is its very peculiar animation. Unlike many animes Sidonia no Kishi is done in full 3D. Im not talking about Pixaresque 3D its more similar to 3D JRPGs taken up a notch. 320http://i.ur.com/WVtaYAu.png As expected from 3DCG animation the shadows are very well done. They are updated dynamically according to its light source which is something very hard to do using traditional handdrawn methods. In addition POLYGON PICTURES opted to have the shadows to be very prominent and this results in some very nice looking scenes. The 3DCG also allows for very impressive looking battle scenes. Whether its a dogfight or a gauna encounter youll never find the animation in Sidonia no Kishi to be lacking in the action department. Its not all flowers and sunshine however. The animation in Sidonia no Kishi suffers from 2 major flaws that holds it back from truly being great. Firstly movement especially those of the human characters seem very awkward. As many of you are probably aware making naturallooking 3D animation is not an easy task. Many major 3D animation studios spend a crapload amount of budget just to overcome this one problem budget that POLYGON PICTURES certainly doesnt have. You might think that Im overexaggerating the magnitude of this problem but trust me its nothing small. There is a lot of screentime devoted to the characters in Sidonia no Kishi and having their every little movement feel awkward really gets annoying. Yes you might feel used to it after a few episodes but the awkwardness wont dissapear it will always be there. Secondly its the framerate. The framerate of Sidonia no Kishis animation is very inconsistent. It might be fine for most of an episode but its not rare for it to have a sudden drop. Some episodes even have most of their duration in low framerate. This is especially true during more complex scenes such as gauna encounters where the animation would feel so choppy that you can no longer shrug the issue off. 320http://i.ur.com/886e5O2.png In the sound department I dont really have much to say. Sidonia no Kishi has a lackluster OP and ED and the background music arent really that memorable either. Im not saying the background music are unpleasant however they do add to the mood but youll likely just forget about them by the time the episode ends. About the voice acting again I dont really have much to say. They get the job done but theyre not really any better than any other anime be it mecha or not. Now with all that said and done that brings us to our final question: is the anime worth watching? Despite all its flaws Sidonia no Kishi does one crucial thing great and that is swaying its audiences emotions. Youll likely find yourself thrilled shocked happy or even angry according to the animes set rhythm. Many animes set in a similar setting fail at this and end up being 3edgy5me Sidonia no Kishi masterfully doesnt so I say give it a shot. If youre a scifi fan like I am youll probably like it.