Page 45 Review by Jonathan
Fans of the frenzied, over-drive, sci-fi-meets-zombies experience, replete with big motorcycles, even bigger guns (and a talking bear) that was BIOMEGA, fall to your knees and rejoice, because here comes another sci-fi / horror mash-up from creator Tsutomu Nihei that's pretty much guaranteed to please you. Firstly, I have no idea why there is the titular and phonetically inaccurate reference to the 2006 Muse track Knights Of Cydonia, given the Muse reference was to the area on Mars where the so-called face of Mars was observed, but still, perhaps Nihei is a modern prog rock fan? And perhaps the translator was unaware of the reference?!
Sidonia is, though, the name of the lone seed ship carrying the future of humanity, floating through the space between galaxies since the destruction of our solar system by weird alien life forms, that bear more than a passing resemblance to the amorphous evil guys from BIOMEGA, just in space. Enter our hero Nagate, who has spent his entire childhood in the depths of the huge vessel, never seeing another living soul except for his now-deceased uncle. Forced to the upper levels whilst desperately scavenging for food, he encounters an entire civilisation he was previously completely unaware of. A civilisation fighting for its very existence against the vast alien gooey blob things. Fortunately for everyone all he had to mis-spend his youth on was a simulator of one of the Sidonia's transformer-like fighters. Obviously having logged a fair few hours in there, it's fair to say his giant fighty robot technique is pretty slick. Time for the real thing...
Just great fun, written at a (slightly) slower pace than BIOMEGA, which allows for some character development and intriguing side-plot building. The art is pretty much identical to BIOMEGA and there are definitely some amusing little nods to that work, including amongst other things, a talking bear.
Collects the first two and a half smaller volumes because why not?!
