** If you're like me and don't read mecha manga, I would suggest watching the anime first before starting on the manga. I have a hard time getting most of the fighting/action scenes in these kinds of manga, so seeing the animated versions of those scenes helped me a great deal in visualizing the action scenes in the manga. **

Humans no longer live on a planet, but in an intricate spaceship called Sidonia, constantly on the move in the galaxy. The biggest threat to Sidonia are the Gauna, alien life forms who seemingly want to destroy Sidonia and mankind. In order to fight and kill the Guana, Guardians have been developed: combat robots that are controlled by human pilots, who have been hailed the Knights of Sidonia. After surviving the most vicious Guana attack, a few decades pass by without a single encounter. Until a supposedly routine mission turns horribly wrong.

Though parts of the the plot might seem a bit formulaic at first (the Gauna attack Sidonia, the Knights fight back, some battles are won and some lost and then repeat), there were more than a few elements to it to keep me hooked. The build-up to all of the battles was gradual (and logical) and during every battle a new twist was added, this prevented them from getting repetitive and dull. How humans came to settle on Sidonia and how they've further evolved was also pretty interesting (man... in order to solve the food crisis humans have been genetically engineered and are now able to photosynthesise. Sounds so logical, but it I never would've thought that such a minor detail would even be covered... genius!). What surprised me as well were the parts where I got to see the Sidonian battle command centre in action: I expected there to be a ton of technical jargon that I wouldn't understand, but surprisingly, there wasn't!

I had rated the story a complete 10 after watching the anime. After beginning reading the manga however, I thought maybe a 9 would be more accurate. There wasn't a continuous flow to it; there were cases where in one chapter they're right in the midst of preparing for a battle and then in the next chapter we get to see what the pilots do on an off-day... It disrupted the flow of the story and I felt that maybe if the sequence of the events was adjusted just a little, it might've worked out better (In this regard, the anime definitely did a better job). After reading more volumes, I had to readjust the score for the story to an 8... The reason behind this was the art. I just couldn't get quite used to it, and no matter how brilliant a story is, if I can't take a liking to the art, the story will seem a lit less appealing to me.

As mentioned above, I didn't quite get used to the art (mainly because of my limited ability to understand action/mecha drawn manga properly). You won't see any chibi versions of the characters, so the drawing style gives a relatively serious feel, though there are a few comedic scenes. Though at first glance the design of the characters seem really similar, subtle adjustments made it just enough to still distinguish them. The coloured covers were absolutely gorgeous though!

The main character Tanikaze plays the part of hero/saviour. He turns out to be naive, sweet and honest (though a bit ditzy). His interactions with some of the characters bothered me just a bit; he's too forgiving and ultimately wants to be friends with his initial enemies. Dude was too nice.
The supporting cast has quite a few members in it: their personalities and stories behind them was decent, but none of them quite stood out enough. However, one character's role bothered me throughout the story: Hiyami. Maybe not so much her role, but more her character design: why was she drawn like a bear of all things... ? (still scratching my head about that one)

Knights of Sidonia was really a rare gem for me as far as mecha manga go. It has a great and enjoyable story (with enough plot twists to keep you surprised) and the art suits it. Though some parts of the story could've been out in a more chronological way, this is just a minor complaint. I marathon-read all the available chapters in one night and am looking forward to the next chapter.

Lastly, if I hadn't seen the anime first, I most likely would not have read the manga. The anime really helped me in getting a clear visual of a lot of the action scenes in the manga and also nudged me over the initial hurdle of the art style... Normally speaking, the animated version of a manga can't surpass the manga itself; at best it's at the same level as or just a hair above the level of the manga. If there's no change in the quality of the upcoming anime episodes, I think the Knights of Sidonia anime will be a lot better than the manga.