Knights of sidonia

[Dop]

The CG has a few awkward moments, but on the whole I don't mind it.
Then again i've seen shows that cram CG into the middle of regular animation in a way which looks very awkward, so it's swings and roundabouts.

I liked it. Nice introduction into the show's world.

[eceso]

story wise it's real good

cg caught me off guard, it was ok though i guess

[VTHokiePride]

I'm not feeling the CGI. I like the plot, but the CGI will take a while for me to get used to.

[dmaxzero]

CGI is really weird on the faces of non important characters. Space battles look great and the story is nice. Gotta read the manga again.

[Kanon]

The impression I got from the first episode is that it's Attack on Titan with mechs in Space. I was surprised by the similarities (the last of humanity living in an enclosed space, mysterious enemies that have only one weak spot, exactly one hundred years since enemies were sighted at the beginning of the story,...). Not much else to say at the moment, except that it was good enough to grab my attention despite the horrible CGI (never ever animate HUMANS this way).

Originally Posted by Circlebutton

What Jehuty said. Stick around for a couple more episodes. You might be in for a hell of a space sci-fi adventure.

Or he could just read the manga instead.

[cupumanager]

Its actually pretty good, but the shading and The Animation just feels awkward. Its so choppy, seems like the animators try to adapt how traditional 2D animation way of motion into CGI, resulting in motions that don't look good, Forced, I think. Nevertheless, this is the only Tsutomu Nihei work that have any chance to get proper animation, so, I'll keep watching.

Originally Posted by Xeiros

I am so torn on this show. I honestly want to enjoy it. The worst part is, I know how unfair I'm being. This is not a CG work with a budget of many hundreds of millions like the latest Pixar or Disney film; yet, that's what my mind compares them to even though there's no possible way it could ever be anywhere near as good as those from a technical standpoint.

As others have already pointed out, the humans (which make up a good chunk of the episode) are animated rather poorly to put it nicely. Why couldn't only the robots be in CG? We know how humans are supposed to look when they move and speak. This is not it. I hate how petty I'm being. The story and characters thus far aren't bad, but I can't look past the downfalls of a low-budget.

Regretfully dropped.

Originally Posted by Kanon

Or he could just read the manga instead.

Seconded. Just like most Anime, it's a Glorified Ad to the Manga. Someone earlier in this thread even said that will watch the 1st EP then just read the rest.

Originally Posted by Circlebutton

Off to a good start, I say. Much better paced than the manga did and their faces actually show emotions, haha.

Spoiler for Moved Scenes:

Yep, I like that the director moved some scenes to clarify things - notably the scene when Kunato tells Hoshijiro how he dreams to pilot Tsugumori. Gives the reason why he dislikes Nagate so much.
...And no Nagate unwittingly slips up to the Photosynthesis room just to be knocked out cold by one of the Honoka - but the fanservice still there. The Bullying scenes aren't there either.
It also compressed by merging some scenes - Kunato and Hoshijiro when bumped to Nagate for the first time with The old protestor spouting Immortal Committee Conspiracy Theory.

Oh, notice the Intermission? The Pictures are from "100 Sights of Sidonia" basically a Guide Book about interesting sites around the Generation Ship. In the Manga, It's used on the Chapter Title. You can imagine how the series would have looked if its not CG...

[ookamigirl]

Opening fight/simulation was more than impressive.
Have I found my perfect mecha anime?
Guess I jumped to conclusions..
The animation was different and kinda stuck out from the start.
I'm not really a fan of CGI animation.
Skipping it.

[Tenzen12]

I would like complain about CGI, but I Found it weirdly fitting. Most people are half vegetable appearently...

Aside of that settings is realy nice, mechas even better and it has very good atmosphere. Not sure yet, but KofS might became my favourite of season.

[Allium]

That was a good first episode. The mecha CGI was impressive, but in the case of the characters, I admit that it took me a while to get used to the animation. (If they were going for an 'Uncanny Valley' effect I think it worked well ) I really like the premise though, so I guess I'll stick around to see where this show goes next.

[MK-95-]

Dat CGI, it burns! I feel like I'm watching the Ars Nova or Aku no Hana anime all over again. Seriously though, the animation is hurting my eyes, it was really hard to stick with Ars Nova because of that & I outright dropped Aku no Hana for eye-raping me. This one, I wonder if I can stay with it? The environments/backgrounds & fights are animated beautifully, but the characters 3D-style animation is hurting my eyes.

The CGI problem aside, the plot is beyond interesting. I'm fascinated by these sci-fi survival stories & the added mecha element only sweetens the deal. As another user said, its like AoT in space...lol

A third gender? Lol, bodies adapt when they choose their partners? So that means you have the freedom to select your gender. Mind = blown.

[Flower]

Now that was interesting. Heavy cgi series like Arpeggio were difficult for me to take at first, and other shows with scenes of heavy of clunky cgi like Kingdom or Machine Doll made it near impossible to finish them, but somehow the cgi "fits" for me in this series and did not bother me at all. I think it may be because of the flavor of sci fi setting, though. It may be that in my aesthetic presuppositions the two work together to not ruffle my feathers.

That being said the first ep was quite good, and I'd even say the most effective premier of the season for a series with mecha in it. The biggest draw for me is the world building aspect - very interesting indeed, and with lots of potential, I think. And actually unnerving and creepy without going overboard or wallowing in these elements.

Will tentatively commit to this one for now. Nice to have a good sci fi series. ^^

[Solace]

Honestly.....this felt kind of...strange. I'm not sure how else to put it, but there was a ton of little details that helped to build the setting that are either glossed over, moved around, or just gone entirely. The exposition leaves a lot to be desired. You can tell that the staff behind this wanted him behind the cockpit and into the first battle as quickly as possible, but that's problematic in terms of how they've moved things around and what they've left out.

Ah well. The CGI isn't that great, but you get used to it. Worth following since sci-fi like this isn't that common and the manga was pretty good.

[Traece]

As expected my reaction to Knights of Sidonia is a big bag of "meh... shouldn't have been CG."

I admit that under a certain light (literally, under certain lighting conditions) the CG is passable, but I mostly found it to be a distractor. It's better than many titles before it, but it's not so good as to not detract from the show. The mecha scenes would have been fine if they had been 100% CG, but when you include the characters it really hurts the show. Even worse is when you try to get yo' ecchi on, and all of the girls are CG too. Overall though? It's just passable. It helps that the combat is done well.

Really, it's the story (and mecha combat) that makes Sidonia worth watching. The idea of Sidonia isn't new by any means, but it's always interesting to see. The way it's approached here is full of lots of interesting ideas like the gender and the reprocessing that they do to maintain what I assume is a mostly closed system. On the other hand though, the MC is so deathproof and that fact is so hammered in within the first half of this first episode that I nearly had to stop watching. We can pretty safely say that the MC will never die in Knights of Sidonia, because if all of that couldn't do it, I highly doubt that space tentacle monsters can.

[Tiberium Wolf]

I liked the fact that suits and the mechs looked worn out. All other series you see all shiny new stuff without a scratch.

[Guardian Enzo]

Aside from the fugly CGI, anyone else worried that this is one-cour? Story-wise it seems to be trying to be a serious sci-fi epic/space opera - and you can't do that in 12 episodes.

[jeroz]

I main issue would be some cheap gags that just feels lazy. There's not much of a dire tone either since it's just the MC bumbling around while he's given praises without a reason why. The atmosphere just feels aimless in general. I just hope they don't kill off characters easily like they are cheap discards, just for the "serious" factor.

As for the CGI, Ars Nova showed that if there's one positive about CGI, it's that the studio can learn from the practise and makes the movement calibrations smoother in the latter episodes. However the colouring is the bigger issue here. They just look dead to me. Could be intentional, and if so I hope the story address it soon.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

Aside from the fugly CGI, anyone else worried that this is one-cour? Story-wise it seems to be trying to be a serious sci-fi epic/space opera - and you can't do that in 12 episodes.

I am. They did the same to Arpeggio of Blue Steel (another 3DCG sci-fi series) which resulted in Sanzigen team had to dump about 50% of the original plot and make a completely original story from episode 6 onwards (with some input from the mangaka). Thank god Sanzigen & Kishi could pull it off and made Arpeggio a sweet little show with quality story & great sales. Now the question is, can Polygon (or whichever studio animating this) do the same to Sidonia if we only get 12 episodes? Let's hope we get 24 episodes or more for this one.

[cupumanager]

Originally Posted by Solace

Honestly.....this felt kind of...strange. I'm not sure how else to put it, but there was a ton of little details that helped to build the setting that are either glossed over, moved around, or just gone entirely. The exposition leaves a lot to be desired. You can tell that the staff behind this wanted him behind the cockpit and into the first battle as quickly as possible, but that's problematic in terms of how they've moved things around and what they've left out.

Ah well. The CGI isn't that great, but you get used to it. Worth following since sci-fi like this isn't that common and the manga was pretty good.

This is actually better than how The Manga presented it.

Originally Posted by Traece

On the other hand though, the MC is so deathproof and that fact is so hammered in within the first half of this first episode that I nearly had to stop watching. We can pretty safely say that the MC will never die in Knights of Sidonia, because if all of that couldn't do it, I highly doubt that space tentacle monsters can.

This is part Protagonist Immortality Contact...and part Plot point later.

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

Aside from the fugly CGI, anyone else worried that this is one-cour? Story-wise it seems to be trying to be a serious sci-fi epic/space opera - and you can't do that in 12 episodes.

This is actually my main worry after the bad CG. I don't see how would they wrap up the Anime around Vol.4: There is many mysteries that left dangling - At best, It'll end in a Sequel Hook, judging from the Manga.
2-cour would be far better, since it provides a possible closing point.

[AvianWing]

Originally Posted by jeroz

I main issue would be some cheap gags that just feels lazy. There's not much of a dire tone either since it's just the MC bumbling around while he's given praises without a reason why. The atmosphere just feels aimless in general. I just hope they don't kill off characters easily like they are cheap discards, just for the "serious" factor.

Did we watch the same thing?

I don't feel they were cheap gags, but rather how foreign the surface is to the MC, who seems to have been prohibited by his guardian (The mummified remain once named Hiroki) to head to the surface. The higher ups seem to have an idea of MC's heritage and have a high expectation of him, and going by the simulator scores in the very beginning, they are quite justified in their reasoning. Hiroki's score, while the low on the simulator, still blows away any score from the students, so Hiroki was perhaps once a badass pilot.

Going by the third gender person, it's quite prestigious to become a Gardes pilot, so the students are wondering why someone random seem to simply join their ranks. I would be curious too to see if he has some special ability.

Lastly, the Masked leader noted that 100 years have come to an end once the Gauna appeared, so perhaps it's been a while since an encounter with a Gauna. The higher ups seem to be dead serious about the Gauna threat, so there's your "dire tone" you speak of, but to the students I don't see why they have to be excessively emo.

[cyth]

Wow, that was physically painful to watch. Typical plot issues aside, if low FPS 3D is the future of anime, then I rather die with the rest of the dinosaurs.