Although I originally had this pegged as somewhat below Attack on Titan for one of the best anime series I've seen in the past decade, the second time through it entertained me just as much.
This is about a future humanity fighting aliens in giant mechs. Wow, that's an anime cliché that usually goes south and needs superb execution to be something decent. This series does just that. Executes this premise in a way that has a unique feel, despite appearing derivative and cliché on paper.
This is a very grown up anime, no real chibi here. Although not at all the dystopia of Attack on Titan. In my experience, Sidonia was built up as this amazing place, almost a character itself with many sides and mysteries, that draws you in. I felt like I wanted to be in this world and share in the adventures and drama.
I found the action to have real weight. The humans and even main characters feel vulnerable, and have to really struggle. No real deus ex machina to make everything better in the end. People die and there are real consequences for the actions that occur in the battles.
There's an interesting dynamic about the aliens, where some characters have interesting hypotheses on them and why they're fighting, which may lead to some great plot twists later on.
I loved the love stories, which take time to develop as well as the character interactions. Although there were a few clichés, each character ends up with their unique characteristics, hopes, wants, and dreams.
There are real themes of love, loss, war, friendship, political intrigue and manipulation of power, and so on. There's also a real sense of humanity.
There are a few flaws in this, but hell, there are a few flaws in Attack on Titan: a near perfect anime in my opinion. The first one is that the main character Nagate, although truly likable, can come off as that quintessential anime protagonist nice guy that the girls are all into for some reason. But with his background, it makes sense that he's out of it and socially inept. But he was still a character that was much more than a cliché by the end.
I felt that Titan balanced the many secondary characters better and there are several in Sidonia who seemed to come and go and by the time they're reintroduced, you've forgotten who they are. But this didn't really matter as there are 5-6 main characters who were integral to the plot, that were focused on.
There was one character who was just about to have an arc when something happened to this person in the second season, that was neat as a change but kind of left me hanging.
Much of the political story that gives you small bits at a time seemed confusing but made more sense the second time through.
Overall, I found that this show was truly addicting and serial watching it never became a chore, I couldn't wait to see the next episodes.
Can't recommend highly enough.
