Knights of Sidonia ep10: watch as your delicious world of ignorance melts away

There are reasons for keeping things behind a locked door. Security, safety, secrecy, greed, even a slight buffer of time; all these reasons apply to this episode of Knights of Sidonia. And I think a hundred generations of humanity living on this colony has made people forget that sometimes that door is there for their own safety.

Secrets, secrets, secrets; this show has always been about the lack of knowledge in the populace, and the important secrets kept by a chosen few.  The immortal council of course seemingly knowing stuff that no one else does.  And a lot of this stuff is hidden by a lot of locked doors. So when Yuhata “finds” a key that leads them into the one of the immortal councils inner sanctum, you can kinda assume you’re gonna see some shocking sh*t.  I was not disappointed.

What’s going on in this colony is clear.  The Gauna are coming after the immortal council’s secrets, the same secrets that make the immortal council immortal.  But what’s even more disturbing is this continual trend towards merger between both sides. Previously, it was easy to believe that the Gauna’s new found technique of assimilating and cloning a human host and a Garde was brand new and a freakish turn.  But we find out this episode that we had attempted to merge humans and the Gauna at least a hundred years before that!  God knows – but I’m guessing that crap may even have been occurring before Earth was destroyed!  And the funny thing is, these mergers are very fruitful, even if they’re not necessarily successful.  The dead hybrid aboard the Sidonia has given the humans on it the ability to go on the offensive for the first time in history!  Though I still would avoid anything that aggressive, I don’t think that’s the decision that’s ultimately gonna be decided upon.  Especially with a new titanic Gauna collection coming there way.  No.  No, no, no.  This will only escalate.

Focusing more intimately on the episode, it is interesting again to see some of the nuances of the colony, and how small and very distinct aspects of culture still survive on this ship.  Even a simple and small makeshift tea house hosted by Kobayashi of all people, manages to be a near shocking and disturbing thing on this bland and sterile place.  This place is such a marvel of science fiction fantasy that I want to know every little made up detail on how this ship functions.  From the biology, the chemistry to the computer science that makes this place run; I desire a total breakdown of it all.  But just the slightest bit of culture on this ship is like a freshly scented breeze in a stale room for this show.

Since I’m gushing on the science fiction, even while I attempt to lay praise on the need for culture, there’s the little matter of that creepy Gauna clone that seems to be infatuated in Nagate.  Every.  Single.  Goddamn time I see her in a scene I get a bit disgusted.  This feeling comes across even more when Nagate pops up and is just so infatuated with her.  I don’t feel it’s a good thing, but whether it actually is in the context of the show is what matters, and I can’t determine that yet either.  Many times throughout the show, it’s been shown that no one has ever managed to communicate with the Gauna.  Would making a hybrid help bridge the gap in communication, or just help one side destroy the other?  Perhaps the answer to that is the biggest secret in the show.

Also of note: isn’t Izana just so adorable in this episode?  Screaming and pouting and carrying on like a little fool.  I wonder if people are going to be upset when she decides if she’s gonna have a penis or vagina?  I can already imagine people complaining about her lack of ambivalent sexuality forum pages everywhere.

 

Further Reading:

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