Outer space, the far future. A lone seed ship, the Sidonia, plies the void, ten centuries since the obliteration of the solar system. The massive, nearly indestructible, yet barely sentient alien life forms that destroyed humanity’s home world continue to pose an existential threat. Nagate Tanikaze has only known life in the vessel’s bowels deep below the sparkling strata where humans have achieved photosynthesis and new genders. Not long after he emerges from the Underground, however, the youth is bequeathed a treasured legacy by the spaceship’s coolheaded female captain. Meticulously drawn, peppered with clipped humor, but also unusually attentive to plot and structure, Knights of Sidonia may be Tsutomu Nihei’s most accessible work to date even as it hits notes of tragic grandeur as a hopeless struggle for survival unfolds. One of Knights of Sidonia's chief strengths is that it doesn't bog down the intrigue of its world with too much unnecessary, bloated dialogue ... Dig into the first volume and see if Nihei's gorgeously depicted wreck of a sci-fi future doesn't secure an immediately tight grip." —Otaku USA "Tsutomu Nihei has been knocking on America's door for ages now. Tokyopop released his ten-volume epic Blame!, pronounced "blam" like a gunshot, and its prequel, Noise in the United States. In 2006, he earned a coveted spot in the amazingly awesome (and financially successful) Halo Graphic Novel, standing shoulder to shoulder with superstar artists like Moebius, Simon Bisley, and Geof Darrow, among others."—Comics Alliance “To complement his expert art, Nihei gives his story some welcome strange touches, such as the spacesuits having a built-in catheter than automatically inserts itself into the wearer—and we see the panels of Nagate...
In volume two, the Sidonia has engaged a new type of Guana. This armored-type is strangely aggressive, and most of the young pilots who have confronted the monster are not prepared for this change in strategy. Rookie pilot Nagate Tanikaze has even fewer completed flight-hours, but that does not prevent him from devising his own plan of attack when his squadron is in danger. Feeling the stirrings of a bond that is precarious at best given that humanity itself is in peril, he ignores orders to save a colleague left behind. And then upon returning to the Sidonia, the history of the Guana is revealed to Tanikaze, not long before battle and a rival's jealousy leaves him alone in space again.