Manga Review: Knights of Sidonia – Volume 2

Manga Monday rolls on with a look at volume two of Tsutomu Nihei’s Mecha Space Opera Zombie Apocalypse series.

Title: Knights of Sidonia – Volume 2
Written & Illustrated by Tsutomu Nihei
Translated by Kumar Sivasubramanian

Available from Amazon.com and Rightstuf.com.

The Premise

After Tamikaze kills a Gauna and rescues a lost pilot, he is welcomed back as a hero. Can he live up to expectations on his next sortie? Nope!

High Points

The action scenes with the Gauna are incredibly well done, and the Gauna themselves are horrific, giving the story, as mentioned in the teaser, a vibe like a Zombie Apocalypse Space Opera with Mecha.

Also, the scope of the destruction that occurs inside Sidonia when it does its high-G turn is horrific.

Low Points

By contrast, the deaths of individual pilots feels rather minor compared to the destruction within Sidonia. Because so much of Sidonia’s population is made up of clones, when they die, the impact for me, as a reader, is less than it is for the characters, as I have difficulty telling some of the characters apart.

Scores

Originality: Once again, as mentioned under the teaser, this is probably the first Space Opera Mecha Zombie Apocalypse I’ve ever encountered. 5/6

Artwork: The High and Low points both apply here. 4/6.

Story: The story is okay. We get some development in terms of world-building this volume, in addition to some great character development. We also get some characters starting to ask some of the questions the readers are asking, like “What are the Gauna and where did they come from?”) However, there are no clues to the answers, at least not yet. 4/6

Characterization: There is some great characterization for the Captain, along with Hoshijiro. None of the characters who die, though, are developed much. 4/6

Emotional Response: See the high and low points. 3/6

Flow: 6/6

Overall: This volume was a decent read, but with some notable flaws. 4/6

In total, Knights of Sidonia Volume 2 gets 30/42.