As we get closer to the end of the limited two week engagement for the Knights of Sidonia compilation film that debuted on March 6th, 2015, a new TV spot has arrived to remind folks to get out and see it in theaters while they can. The original TV series that this comes from, which is based n the manga of the same name, has been picked up for release in North America by Sentai Filmworks. The timing of the film works well as it comes just before the April 2015 debut of the second season. The first season did well in Japan and was streamed by Netflix in North America. It’s expected we’ll likely see the second season do the same, though it’s unclear if we’ll get the movie in that form as well.
Plot Concept: Outer space, the far future.
A lone seed ship, the Sidonia, plies the void, ten centuries since the obliteration of the solar system. The massive, nearly indestructible, yet barely sentient alien life forms that destroyed humanity’s home world continue to pose an existential threat.
Nagate Tanikaze has only known life in the vessel’s bowels deep below the sparkling strata where humans have achieved photosynthesis and new genders. Not long after he emerges from the Underground, however, the youth is bequeathed a treasured legacy by the spaceship’s coolheaded female captain.
Meticulously drawn, peppered with clipped humor, but also unusually attentive to plot and structure for the international cult favorite, Knights of Sidonia may be Tsutomu Nihei’s most accessible work to date even as it hits notes of tragic grandeur as a hopeless struggle for survival unfolds.