Knights of sidonia

[Jerseykid]

That was quite the sad turn of events

[kobester11]

Getting used to the 3D but still... that framerate... at least blur it or make a smear because it really shows...

[Kaoru Chujo]

Best show of the season? It's in the running, for me. But selecting a "best" show is really not possible. We all have different tastes. I'm sure a lot of people love JoJo -- and it's clearly a quality product -- but I don't enjoy it at all.

However, I do enjoy this show. For me, it may have become the show I most look forward to every week. But I look forward to a lot of other shows, too: Black Bullet, Blade & Soul, Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou, Brynhildr in the Darkness, Dragonar Academy, Is the Order a Rabbit?, Isshuukan Friends, Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san, Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei, Mekakucity Actors, Mushishi2, No Game No Life, Ping Pong, Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii, Soul Eater Not. They're all very good shows, for me, each in its different way. Many have their own high quality aspects (although some are just fun). In any case, I think this is an excellent season.

The flags were flying when Akai and Momose wanted this to be over, and a shark swam above their bubble. But I expected only Akai to "buy the farm."

The idea of jousts with each other as reasonable practice for meeting a gauna seemed silly. So did the pilots' acceptance of such little info from the one man who had fought one. Did they have any idea what they were up against, with those hundreds of tentacles? Or was that info given to them off-screen?

I love the idea of having the captain masked. It means she can't show fear, or any other emotion, making her a very special figure on the ship.

The preview is chilling. How are they going to get out of this? What will Sidonia be like if they do? "Chekhov's gun" was in clear view when we see people falling: they didn't have their safety lines hooked.

Momose's name and colour: her colour is pink, according to Japanese Wikipedia, but her name is not written with the kanji for "peach" (momo 桃 means "peach" in Japanese, and momo-iro 桃色 -- "peach colour" -- means "pink"). Her Momose is written 百瀬; that is a surname whose kanji mean "hundred rapids."

By the way, I see the slow framerate and the somewhat inexpressive faces. But I think of them as features rather than bugs.

[Byakou]

I expected them to fail. It's a basic story ploy, you need to "top guns" to fail in order for the up-and-comer protagonist to get a chance to shine.

This was a great ep but I didn't like the "female character goes emotional and screws up the whole thing" which is casual sexism we see way too often in television.

[Dop]

Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo

The idea of jousts with each other as reasonable practice for meeting a gauna seemed silly. So did the pilots' acceptance of such little info from the one man who had fought one. Did they have any idea what they were up against, with those hundreds of tentacles? Or was that info given to them off-screen?

The jousting thing is more of a competitive sport i think.

They have simulators for practising against the gauna. It's just that there's a difference between doing something when safely sealed in a simulator, and doing it in real life.
Your life's not in danger in the sim.

[Galacticichi]

Originally Posted by Byakou

I expected them to fail. It's a basic story ploy, you need to "top guns" to fail in order for the up-and-comer protagonist to get a chance to shine.

This was a great ep but I didn't like the "female character goes emotional and screws up the whole thing" which is casual sexism we see way too often in television.

True, but Midorikawa also screwed up because he thought he could save Momose if that's any consolation..

[MK-95-]

So from this episode, I noticed some things:

1. In teams, its encouraged that intimate relationships between members are not practiced. Because of Momose getting captured, Akai abondoned the objective & the mission fell apart. He died as a result.
2. Backlash from (1) Reality sets in for Momose & she retaliates because her lover died to save her with an act of insubordination. She loses her cool & proceeds to further fuck up the mission.
3. Further backlash from (1 & 2). Midorikawa tries to save the now unconscious(?)[I think she was already dead, couldn't really tell because of the fugly 3D animation] Momose & abandons the objective. He pushes her out of the way & dies as a result.
4. Because Midorikawa abandoned the objective to save Momose, Aoki got left hanging & fell victim to the Gauna's tentacles.

TL;DR, Momose pretty much fucked it up for everyone. This is one of those classic cases where your actions have severe repercussions.

It went something like:

Momose in danger = Akai abandoning the mission & his death.
Momose's insubordination = Midorikawa's insubordination & death.
Midorikawa's insubordination = Aoki's death. (All rooted back to Momose's insubordination)

If they had ignored her getting caught by the tentacle & proceeded to carry out their mission, they'd have successfully eliminated the Gauna before things could get any worse. This is what happens when intimate relationships between team members get in the way.
------------------------------------------
Also, Kunato thinks he's hot shit. He needs to pat down, he isn't as good as he thinks he is. Dude, your Guardian freaking uses an advanced autopilot that does all the basic actions [wipes your ass] for you. All you need to do is guide it & apply a little skill. Tanikaze will floor you so bad. I hate the extreme egomaniac type the most.

Akai is also a beast in his own right, he's skilled. Idk how skilled since the type18's autopilot basically assists with everything, but he's shown that he can use the machine with utmost efficiency. So I think he's up there.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by mangakid95

Also, Kunato thinks he's hot shit. He needs to pat down, he isn't as good as he thinks he is. Dude, your Guardian freaking uses an advanced autopilot that does all the basic actions [wipes your ass] for you. All you need to do is guide it & apply a little skill.

That's true of everyone's mech but Tanikaze's.

Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo

The idea of jousts with each other as reasonable practice for meeting a gauna seemed silly. So did the pilots' acceptance of such little info from the one man who had fought one. Did they have any idea what they were up against, with those hundreds of tentacles? Or was that info given to them off-screen?

He said it was the same as the simulations. Which is the important bit: that the simulators prepare them well to fighting Gaunas. Except they don't, because apparently the best pilots panic at the real thing, but how was Tanikaze or anyone to know that?

[MK-95-]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

That's true of everyone's mech but Tanikaze's.

I know, I basically mentioned that when I talked about Akai in my post also.

I know there are skilled pilots among them, but it really loses the shine when they mention that there's an autopilot doing most of the work for them. Not only that, but the concept of "skill" also decreases by a considerable margin.

With the type 17, pilot ability depended purely on skill & that set the bar pretty high for pilots to be truly considered skillful.

With the type 18, pilot ability depends on how well you can guide the machine & skill is decided on how well you compliment the machine. In this sense, the bar is set pretty low & anyone can more or less be called skillful once they know how to guide the machine in an acceptable manner.

Case in point:

Type 17 = A person who is skilled at playing football. (Soccer for the US folks)
Type 18 = A person who is skilled at playing the fifa games.

[Anh_Minh]

"Best" is "best". It's a level playing field, so I don't see why Kunato wouldn't take pride in his skills. (Though he's an asshole, yeah, and probably not as exceptional as he thinks.)

It's like saying the pilots of modern fighter jets aren't as skillful as WW2 pilots. They use different machines, but what we're really interested in is in having a competent air force, whatever that means at any given time.

[MK-95-]

Fair point.

It all boils down to the standard set in the first place & what is being gauged. Also, public perception is another thing that fuels one's ego. So he isn't entirely to blame for being so full of himself.

The current standard set is the one of the type 18. So being called good at piloting it is something, but when they cross reference two types of technology (type 17 & 18), its clear that the bar was lowered for the new generation of pilots.

In this regard Kunato is "skilled". He's above everyone in the academy (save for Tanikaze).

[Galacticichi]

Originally Posted by mangakid95

So from this episode, I noticed some things:

1. In teams, its encouraged that intimate relationships between members are not practiced. Because of Momose getting captured, Akai abondoned the objective & the mission fell apart. He died as a result.
2. Backlash from (1) Reality sets in for Momose & she retaliates because her lover died to save her with an act of insubordination. She loses her cool & proceeds to further fuck up the mission.
3. Further backlash from (1 & 2). Midorikawa tries to save the now unconscious(?)[I think she was already dead, couldn't really tell because of the fugly 3D animation] Momose & abandons the objective. He pushes her out of the way & dies as a result.
4. Because Midorikawa abandoned the objective to save Momose, Aoki got left hanging & fell victim to the Gauna's tentacles.

TL;DR, Momose pretty much fucked it up for everyone. This is one of those classic cases where your actions have severe repercussions.

It went something like:

Momose in danger = Akai abandoning the mission & his death.
Momose's insubordination = Midorikawa's insubordination & death.
Midorikawa's insubordination = Aoki's death. (All rooted back to Momose's insubordination)

If they had ignored her getting caught by the tentacle & proceeded to carry out their mission, they'd have successfully eliminated the Gauna before things could get any worse. This is what happens when intimate relationships between team members get in the way.

It was truly the emotions of Team Elite that caused their downfall. I found the sequence of events comical and at least hoped Midorikawa and Aoki wouldn't fail. I regret that they couldn't live an episode or two longer to be cool senpais for Nagate and his friends since I enjoy an older, knowledgeable presence for MCs in mecha anime. I guess he's still got Kobayashi but I don't think they will have any heart to heart chats.

Feel for Midorikawa's sister

Hopefully the next team won't have this problem since Nagate has 3 admirers now there's a good chance 1 of them will be in his team.

[Anime Online]

The pilots are certainly aware of the basic tactics of fighting a Gauna. The strategy appears to revolve around shooting beams from their head cannons to expose the core, so the designated pilot with the Kabizashi gets a shot at piercing the core. It was going well until Momose got caught by one of the tentacle arms. I think the development of the Gauna battle demonstrates what famed German strategist Helmuth von Moltke the Elder stated, "No plan survives contact with the enemy". One small error or one unexpected development and your whole plan is trashed.

I can see the point of view Momose yelling when she got caught by the tentacle arms looks like sexism, but I think anyone getting caught would freak out. I would certainly freak out if a giant octopus catches my foot and starts dragging me towards those beaks. Yikes!

As I see it, the sparring competition was practice for the pilots to make a single, sure strike at the core of the Gauna, while dodging the attacks of the opponent at the same time. That was why it was announced the winners of the competition receive the right to use the Kabizashi.

I can agree with the reason why Type 18 was developed. Since there is a shortage of pilots, it makes sense to complement the pilot's skill with the mech's hardware. Take, for instance, the Japanese Zero fighter pilots in World War 2. The demanding training program created highly skilled and trained pilots in small numbers. However, once the aviators take casualties, they could not be easily replaced. The Japanese even had to start roping in flight school instructors to pilot fighter planes.

[Flower]

Well, I thought it was a pretty good ep on the whole, but once the bathosphere scene began I thought "uh oh... death flag". And surprisingly (I am terrible at predicting these kinda things) I was right, but part of me kinda wishes I were wrong. Felt very sorry for the engaging squad. "No plan survives contact with the enemy" indeed.

The OP continues to grow on me as being very appropo to the series for me.... A curious futuristic balance between a marching song and a "heat of the battle" theme. I like it.

[Esclair]

I hope there's not a going to be a recap at the beginning of every episode like another SnK anime.

[cupumanager]

Originally Posted by Galacticichi

I regret that they couldn't live an episode or two longer to be cool senpais for Nagate and his friends since I enjoy an older, knowledgeable presence for MCs in mecha anime. I guess he's still got Kobayashi but I don't think they will have any heart to heart chats.

There is some other Senior Guardian Pilots shown in this episode: The Guy I forgot his name who got beaten up for a lame pick-up line; Samari Ittan(Angry Ponytail Girl beating the former pilot) ; and Seii Ichiro(The Whitehair Instructor)

You can see in this episode, Seii requested Captain Kobayashi to replace himself with Yuhata Midorikawa, since he want to be deployed in battle.

[Top Sergeant]

I'm glad the subtitles of the OP went back to what they were for the first episode. The connotation of the sub for the op in ep.2 were very different, and I disagreed with it.

[foxbox360]

Pretty much it remind me of Gen 2 Gundam Age, when asuno have become a super pilot with seer training and master the gundam. It's the same with Nagate.

[Allium]

The fate of Arai's team reminded me of SnK's ep 21. Pretty much expected that would happen, but still it was sad to watch, they would've been good mentor figures for Nagate.

Anyway, so far, so good. The OP song is quite the earworm.

[Galacticichi]

Originally Posted by cupumanager

There is some other Senior Guardian Pilots shown in this episode: The Guy I forgot his name who got beaten up for a lame pick-up line; Samari Ittan(Angry Ponytail Girl beating the former pilot) ; and Seii Ichiro(The Whitehair Instructor)

You can see in this episode, Seii requested Captain Kobayashi to replace himself with Yuhata Midorikawa, since he want to be deployed in battle.

Forgot about them you're right! There is hope