Warning: mild spoilers for Knights of Sidonia ahead. Tread carefully.

Knights of Sidonia season one was a show seemingly created by someone with a direct line to my subconscious. Giant robots? Check! Lots of female characters actually doing things other than pining after the hero? Check! Some quality animation where characters actually move? Check! Well-choreographed action sequences? Big check!

Set aboard the titular spaceship Sidonia hundreds of years after the Earth was destroyed, humanity is under attack from creatures called the Gauna. Sidonia, with its population of approximately three hundred thousand people, may be the only remnant of mankind. Travelling throught the galaxy to find somewhere to colonise, its protectors pilot mecha known as Gardes to defend the ship from the brutal Gauna.

Season one is excellent. An exciting science fiction show with some great ideas and did I mention giant robots?

So, when Netflix released the second season a few days ago I understandably ploughed right ahead. The positives I listed above from the first season are mostly all present and correct. The animation remains spectacular. It oozes quality, care and most importantly, a decent budget. The action sequences (although sparser than in season one) are there too. A couple of flaws are making themselves apparent as the show progresses however. Nagate Tanikaze,the show’s protagonist, remains as exciting as wildebeest dung. It’s a flaw common to many anime; the main character is uninteresting with the supporting cast providing much of the entertainment.

The pacing of the show, such a benefit the first time around, really slows down for the majority of the second season. There’s some rationale behind this, some new characters are introduced and need to be set up and relationships are deepened between some of the cast. Sadly, those same relations are moved along in predictable and, frankly, boring ways. Tanikaze somehow becomes the guy every female character of around his age becomes fascinated by; eventually he removes himself to a refuge in the hills, bringing two of the ladies and one half human hybrid to live with him in his own private world. It’s a another trope of anime that’s been done to death which the show could really have done without.

One aspect of the show I really liked upon my initial viewing was that a majority of the cast are female. There are literally a dozen women in positions of power and influence in the show and they’re all treated with respect for the most part. Season two takes a couple of backwards steps in that regard, with a noticeable increase in jokes at their expense, cheesecake shots of females in revealing poses and the aforementioned harem out in the local equivalent of the woods. The addition of the half human half Gauna hybrid Tsumugi is also a low point. As she represents potentially the most annoying addition of a younger girl to a cast since Dawn in ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’. She’s needy, childish and absurdly irritating.

Thankfully, the good outweighs the bad. The last three episodes bring things back around and come close to the best of season one, but those middle five or six episodes are a bit of a slog. It’s a guarded ‘thumbs up’ here. Try season one and if you really, really enjoy it, then continue ahead for a mostly entertaining season two.

Rating; 3/5