Shopping Guide
On March 16 in the Toho Cinemas of Tokyo’s Roppongi Hills, an advance screening premiere was held for the MBS Animeism TV anime adaptation of Knights of Sidonia.
The new anime series is based on the manga series by Tsutomu Nihei currently serialized in Kodansha’s monthly Afternoon magazine. This hardcore sci-fi action story takes place in a distant future in which humans have fled from a devastated Earth to live aboard Seed Ships in an attempt to save the human race from extinction. It follows Nagate Tanikaze and his comrades aboard the ship Sidonia as they train to pilot mecha called Gardes and battle a mysterious alien race that destroyed Earth known as Gauna. The original comic has already been translated into many languages and is popular around the world.
The anime adaptation will be a hybrid of 3D CG animation and 2D art. The series will be animated by Polygon Pictures, the production company behind the Transformers: Prime series, as well as many other popular animated works abroad. The Sidonia series, which corresponds with the 30th anniversary of the company, is expected to showcase some of the world’s best CG animation technology.
On opening day, the 600-person-capacity hall was full and bustling with fans excitedly awaiting this highly anticipated anime adaptation. The enthusiasm in the event hall steadily grew until the scheduled screening time of 7:00 p.m. Nippon Broadcasting announcer Hisanori Yoshida, a frequent MC of anime events, gave a few words to introduce the piece before Episodes 1 and 2 of the new series were shown.
The beautiful imagery and overwhelming sound was certainly something to behold on the 8.4 x 20.2 meter screen with 5.1-channel audio. The space battle scene between Garde mecha pilot and main protagonist Nagate Tanikaze and the Gauna was simply spectacular. After the screening, the audience, overwhelmed and fascinated but the work, forgot the applaud, and the event hall briefly remained silent. Once some people began clapping, the rest of the audience erupted in applause. The resounding support for the new work was clear.
After the screening, Ryota Osaka, who provided the voice for Nagate Tanikaze, Aya Suzaki, the voice of Shizuka Hoshijiro, and other cast members came on stage for a talk show and told various behind the scenes stories about the making of the new series. Sayaka Ohara, the voice of Captain Kobayashi, commented, “Because we prescored 1 the series, I was able to speak freely as I liked, and at my own pace. Since I was portraying Kobayashi, this let me slow down and use timing effectively and I really enjoyed it.” Aki Toyosaki, the voice of Izana Shinatose, also enthusiastically mentioned, “Izana isn’t a male or a female, but gender neutral. It was a part I had never played before, so I found it quite challenging and exciting."
Director Kobun Shizuno and assistant director Hiroyuki Seshita also joined the talk show. Assistant director Seshita commented, “With every project that we do, I can see the mastery of our production team get better and the quality of the images become more and more amazing. I really want people to continue watching this series to the end."
Knights of Sidonia has breathed new life into anime fans across the globe. After it’s April broadcast in Japan, it will be released worldwide this summer on Netflix. This international anime series is not to be missed.
^1^ Prescoring: To record the dialogue, music, and songs beforehand and produce the animation accordingly.
Knights of Sidonia Official Site
Broadcasting begins in Japan on April 10 on MBS Animeism
©TSUTOMU NIHEI・KODANSHA／KOS PRODUCTION COMMITTEE
This is a Tokyo Otaku Mode original article.
