Knights of Sidonia ep9: the girl of your dreams is a tentacle monster; how ironic

The following post is a little bit different.  I had to go with a more note-driven presentation this time around since I watched this episode at the butt crack of dawn.  Hope you don’t mind.

• Hmm, had forgotten that Doctor Yure was Izana’s grandmother. It’s a little weird that someone who looks so young is the grandmother, but then again this whole world is quite screwy. So far, she still seems like a brilliant and admirable woman to me for all the scientific advancements she’s made, especially the human photosynthesis, I wonder if Izana is another of her experiments? I wouldn’t be surprised.

• This Tahiro chick seems like an interesting young scientist.

• What a straight arrow of a question that was asked by Nagate.  What he was essentially asking was if a placenta did not take human form, but retained the memories and personality of the person it copied, just like the copy before them, would it be judged as human.  Tahiro’s answer is an objective yes.  That’s why I find this show so fascinating, it’s the questions that it asks, and the solutions that it proposes.

Tahiro does NOT leave it there, clearing up her own personal opinion right after that.  Clearly her human hatred of the Gauna cannot be ignored.

• It appears that Norio has effectively retired from piloting.  I don’t quite understand if it is an indefinite leave of absence, or if he’s totally called it quits.  I do understand that he’s still horribly disturbed by his encounter with Benisuzume and the other clones.  But it does not appear that his quest for power has ended just yet.  He’s still seen pondering things, and spying whenever he can on others.  The most striking example of this is when he ends up spying on Kobayashi and Doctor Yure as they access Ochiai’s brain and memories for the upcoming ceremony.  Even with just a few moments release from the prison, he doesn’t waste any time addressing the unscene Kobayashi.  Whatever they’ve done to him, it looks incredibly painful.  And somehow, Ochiai is sure that they’ll need his assistance, even after all he’s done.  He even goes so far as to mention a pardon.  Unbelievable…

• In the absence of Norio’s meddling, and with some strange level of inspiration that he culls from his meetings with the Hoshijiro clone, Nagate has blossomed into one hell of a successful and effective defensive tool against the Gauna that come for the Sidonia, his acclaim only growing more and more.  Though it is rather disturbing how infatuated he’s become with the slowly progressing Gauna clone.  While I’ll admit that it is fascinating to see such a creature in person, he’s lost on the fact that the real Hoshijiro is quite dead, and he’s in total denial at this point.  In some way, I still have pity.  Perhaps it’s because it’s his way of dealing with the grief, perhaps it’s because by diving into this strange relationship with the Gauna clone he’s not really accepting Hoshijiro’s death.

• In the end, we see things get a little interesting as the Gauna clone ends up not just floating around, but standing and mimicking Nagate a little bit.  But the disturbing thing is that Tahiro has noticed a strange pattern in the clone’s behavior.  No matter its positioning or rotation, it is always staring in the direction of the Kabizashi.  The only exception to that being Nagate’s presence.  That’s not all, it seems Benisuzme is on the horizon of a return to Sidonia’s defensive space.

I’d like to apologize for the slight change in format.  I’m in no way trying to emulate anyone else’s style of blogging, it’s just that it’s so late as of the watching of this episode that I just had to place my images down to press as soon as possible, for fear of losing them as soon as they left my head.  I’m gonna use the rest of this post to straighten out my thoughts on this episode a little more clearly.

This episode is a good reason as to why I’m so fascinated by this show.  It’s the imagination behind it, the hard scifi questions that are being asked and played with before us.  Much of the time, it seems less about the morals and more about the hard science (or pseudo-science) that permeates this show.  It’s one thing when trying figure out how to address and deal with the ambiguously sexed Izana; it’s a much harder question trying to categorize and understand something that isn’t human, but is so eerily perfectly mirroring a human, especially when the creature was previously thought to be not human at all.  And in the midst of this, we still have to remember that humanity itself is forcibly changing itself to deal with its circumstances.  It’s a forced evolution that may change the creatures thought human on the Sidonia now, into another species entirely.

When it comes to the plot of this show, the things that have me worried are Ochiai’s presence, Norio’s continued ambition, Benisuzume’s reappearance, the Hoshijiro clone aboard the ship, Nagate’s obsession with said clone, and the idiocy of Nagate to agree to go on a date with Izana and Yuhata at the same time.  From personal experience, I can say going out with two women on a date at the same time is bad news.  It’s not good for your health, mental or physical.  Ochiai represents a looming and large threat to the entire of the Sidonia, but he’s more of a long term problem.  He’s not getting loose any time soon, but when he does the entire colony is going to be up sh*t’s creek.  He seems like just that kind of character.  Norio at this point seems like a slightly more immediate threat, and likely to be the idiot to let Ochiai loose, considering his infatuation with the rumour that Ochiai sought unimaginable power, and power is all that Norio cares about.  And the most immediate threat of course is Benisuzume, who is just a terrifying little b*tch.  For the other pilots, she has to be infinitely more terrifying than any of the big dumb Gauna that rotate through space.  She’s like a vengeful ghost that can outpace you, and will instantly kill you the moment she catches you.

So the real unknowns and questions in this situation are the Hoshijiro clone and Nagate.  Will the clone be of any benefit to the Sidonia, or will she just end up getting a lot of people killed when she somehow breaks loose.  And will Nagate’s fragile mind and heart be able to take whatever the clone’s fate inevitably is?  I can’t imagine it being aloud to wander about the Sidonia on its own.  That would be insane….

Further Reading:

• Episode 8