Knights of Sidonia

The story is set in a distant future, a thousand years after humans flee from Earth, after it was destroyed by shapeshifting gigantic alien monsters called Gauna (奇居子(ガウナ)), aboard massive spaceships created from the remains of the planet. One of such ships is "Sidonia", which has developed its own human culture closely based on that of Japan where human cloning, asexual reproduction, human engineering such as human photosynthesis are commonplace. It is also revealed that the top echelons of this society have secretly been granted immortality. With a population of over 500,000 people, Sidonia is possibly the last human settlement remaining as the fates of the other ships are unknown.

Little is known about the true nature of the Gauna or their motivation for attacking humanity. Each Gauna has a near invulnerable core protected by a huge mass of material known as the "placenta" (胞衣 ena), most commonly called "Ena". Once the placenta is shed away and the core is destroyed, the Gauna's body disintegrates.

Sidonia is defended by large mechanized weapons called Gardes (衛人 Morito) whose weaponry and mobility is powered by "Heigus particles" (ヘイグス粒子 Heigusu Ryūshi), armed with a high output cannon for long range assaults and a special spear known as "Kabizashi" for close combat. The tip of the kabizashi is made of an elusive material which has the unique property of being able to destroy a Gauna's core. Later the Guardians are also equipped with firearms whose ammo have the same material of the Kabizashi after a means to artificially mass-produce it is discovered. Most people in the surviving human population are screened and drafted as Guardian pilots at a young age, if they are shown to be capable of piloting them.

The story follows the exploits of Nagate Tanikaze, who lived in the underground layer of Sidonia since birth and was raised by his grandfather. Never having met anyone else, he trains himself in an old Guardian pilot simulator every day, eventually mastering it. He emerges to the surface and is selected as a Guardian pilot after his grandfather's death with hope he can defend Sidonia from the Gauna's attack using all the combat expertise Nagate learned from him.


I really enjoyed the Anime and the Manga ia amazing. Not sure if anyone has heard, but this is apparently getting a season 2 witch should be good.

Now...

Any viewers/readers?
Watched this on Netflix over the summer on a car ride to Pittsburgh. I really liked it, so I recommended it to several of my friends, who then asked me what it was like.

I told them, "It's basically Attack on Titan in space." xD

EDIT: And, of course, they watched it and enjoyed it just as I did.
It kinda feels like a mash up of Terra Formars and SNK for me. Though, this series came before both of them in terms of Manga.

I'm actually excited for season 2 just to see if it follows the Manga. Hopefully it turns out good.
Second season started about two months ago
>5 episodes in
>still feels like Attack on Titan in space