Weird Science (Fiction) - Knights of Sidonia
This has nothing to do with the 1985 movie.
I recently watched the second season of an anime called Knights of Sidonia on Netflix, and I must say I have a strange fascination with it. At times grotesque, cute, funny, and action packed, this sci-fi anime has a lot of what I love about sci-fi, and things that I wish there was more of.
Spoiler warning, this post will talk about things in the series, and you should just watch it for yourself, as it is really cool.
The story is set on a spaceship called Sidonia, where the last humans are travelling to find a suitable place to colonize, or just survive as they are being chased by aliens known as Guana for unknown reasons. The humans fight the Guana in giant machines called Guardes. The main character, Nagate Tanikaze, is an ace pilot of one such Guarde and works to protect Sidonia from the ongoing Guana threat.
The reason why I wanted to talk about it was that it does so many things with sci-fi that you just don't see these days. Everything sci-fi is so grounded, and even the crazier aspects of the sci-fi is explained in the narrative leaving nothing to the imagination and making it so sterile. It's like they try to make it so that it suspends disbelief, but they try too hard and don't just let the imagery do the job.
I'm not saying necessarily that this is bad, as the main movies I'm thinking of I loved, but I just feel that too many movies these days are trying to be grounded in reality because the studios are afraid of audience alienation.
For example, Interstellar was an excellent film, probably well researched, and explained the science just enough that when it got to the weird stuff it didn't feel so weird as it was awe-inspiring.
I want more sci-fi that touches on the unknown in such a way that it's so far outside our realm that we can't even go past the point of thinking "WTF just happened?"
In Knights of Sidonia, there are a lot of moments that pique my curiosity that just aren't explained, and I kind of love that. Not only does it enrich my appetite for the series, as I'm always thinking there's going to be more tidbits shared, but it leaves you with a feeling of wonder that modern sci-fi doesn't have.
In Knights of Sidonia, you never know why the Guana are attacking humans, why they destroyed earth, and perhaps you never will. The Guana at the beginning look like pink shapeless masses. Soon, though, they begin to take the shape of humans, and even talk. It's creepy to see a human with pink scales across half their body talking in single word sentences. Each step closer to this makes the answer of just what the Guana are more attainable. Part of why I'm watching is to see that storyline advance.
Another strange aspect is what humans are using to fight the Guana. Prior to the present day storyline, humans could do nothing but run away as the Guana had impenetrable scales. Across the travels in deep space, Sidonia found a massive structure made of an unknown material and origin. It was shaped like a pyramid, but hollow and with holes across the entire surface. It was found that the material was volatile to the Guana and so they started to use it to fight against the aliens, but in the present day series it's found that the Guana are actually attracted to the material, so Sidonia could just be causing their own destruction.
Where did this structure come from? What are the Guana and why are they so obsessed with humans? Are they intelligent? I want the answers.
Everything in the series is excellent, but it's those moments that have me at the edge of my seat and chills running up my spine.
I certainly love grounded sci-fi, don't get me wrong. I'm super excited to see The Martian when it comes out, but the age of Star Trek (The Next Generation) seems to be dead, and it makes me a little sad.
I recently watched the second season of an anime called Knights of Sidonia on Netflix, and I must say I have a strange fascination with it. At times grotesque, cute, funny, and action packed, this sci-fi anime has a lot of what I love about sci-fi, and things that I wish there was more of.
Spoiler warning, this post will talk about things in the series, and you should just watch it for yourself, as it is really cool.
The story is set on a spaceship called Sidonia, where the last humans are travelling to find a suitable place to colonize, or just survive as they are being chased by aliens known as Guana for unknown reasons. The humans fight the Guana in giant machines called Guardes. The main character, Nagate Tanikaze, is an ace pilot of one such Guarde and works to protect Sidonia from the ongoing Guana threat.
The reason why I wanted to talk about it was that it does so many things with sci-fi that you just don't see these days. Everything sci-fi is so grounded, and even the crazier aspects of the sci-fi is explained in the narrative leaving nothing to the imagination and making it so sterile. It's like they try to make it so that it suspends disbelief, but they try too hard and don't just let the imagery do the job.
I'm not saying necessarily that this is bad, as the main movies I'm thinking of I loved, but I just feel that too many movies these days are trying to be grounded in reality because the studios are afraid of audience alienation.
For example, Interstellar was an excellent film, probably well researched, and explained the science just enough that when it got to the weird stuff it didn't feel so weird as it was awe-inspiring.
I want more sci-fi that touches on the unknown in such a way that it's so far outside our realm that we can't even go past the point of thinking "WTF just happened?"
In Knights of Sidonia, there are a lot of moments that pique my curiosity that just aren't explained, and I kind of love that. Not only does it enrich my appetite for the series, as I'm always thinking there's going to be more tidbits shared, but it leaves you with a feeling of wonder that modern sci-fi doesn't have.
In Knights of Sidonia, you never know why the Guana are attacking humans, why they destroyed earth, and perhaps you never will. The Guana at the beginning look like pink shapeless masses. Soon, though, they begin to take the shape of humans, and even talk. It's creepy to see a human with pink scales across half their body talking in single word sentences. Each step closer to this makes the answer of just what the Guana are more attainable. Part of why I'm watching is to see that storyline advance.
Another strange aspect is what humans are using to fight the Guana. Prior to the present day storyline, humans could do nothing but run away as the Guana had impenetrable scales. Across the travels in deep space, Sidonia found a massive structure made of an unknown material and origin. It was shaped like a pyramid, but hollow and with holes across the entire surface. It was found that the material was volatile to the Guana and so they started to use it to fight against the aliens, but in the present day series it's found that the Guana are actually attracted to the material, so Sidonia could just be causing their own destruction.
Where did this structure come from? What are the Guana and why are they so obsessed with humans? Are they intelligent? I want the answers.
Everything in the series is excellent, but it's those moments that have me at the edge of my seat and chills running up my spine.
I certainly love grounded sci-fi, don't get me wrong. I'm super excited to see The Martian when it comes out, but the age of Star Trek (The Next Generation) seems to be dead, and it makes me a little sad.
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