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Knights of Sidonia is another strange sci-fi manga by Tsutomu Nihei. This time following the last known remains of humanity drifting around in a ginormous spacecraft in search of a new home while constantly being attacked by shapeshifting alien monster called Gauna, whom humanity combats with flying mechs called Gardes.
The best way to describe is Attach on Titan meets Evangelion in space.

Story 7/10
Nihei is famous for writing cryptic stories that put the responsibility of figuring shit out on the reader. Whilst Knights of sidonia still retains this quality, it's way more straightforward with its story and even background and lore than other nihei works. While ... this may be disappointing to hardcore Nihei fans who were expecting something similar to Blame or Biomega, this does mean it's a much more accessible read to people who've never read any of Nihei's other works.
The majority of the story consist of space mech battles followed by quieter moments of character interaction, all with some mystery and internal politics sprinkled in between. The battles are great and allow Nihei to flex his artistic muscles to the fullest. They can also be quite brutal, it's not uncommon for major characters to die in combat. The quieter moments really help to prevent the manga from becoming too dark or stale, though in later chapters the story sometimes takes too much of a 'slice of life' where the moments between battles are filled mostly with meaningless banter where little character development takes place. There are also quite a few instances of deus ex machina, but I was only able to point those out on a second read.
The story also has a romance element, but it feels a underdeveloped and can even seem a bit forced at times. However I don't think it takes away from the story's other aspects.
The ending is another contested subject among readers. I personally think it neatly wraps up the story without leaving too many unfilled gaps or plot holes.
Overall, despite some minor issues, the story is solid and has enough interesting twists and turns to keep you intrigued until the last chapter.

Characters 7/10
Knights of sidonia contains a pretty wide array of different characters, most of which are likeable and undergo some interesting character development. The main protagonist of the story, whom early on feels a bit too generic and uninteresting, goes through some quite decent development over the course of the story.
However, some characters feel as if they exist solely as love interests for the main character. Though these are few, they do feel as if more could have been done to make them more developed and interesting.

Worldbuilding 8/10
As stated in the story section, Tsutomu Nihei has a reputation for leaving the reader in the dark about worldbuilding specifics. Very little about the function of specific aspects of the world is explained and exposition dumps are almost non-existent. However, it's done in such a way that the reader knows that there's more to the history and inner workings of the world than is presented. This lack of handholding and exposition may be the story's greatest strength.

Art 9/10
The art is where Knights of sidonia truly shines. In a departure from Nihei's other works, the art in Knights of sidonia is crisp and clean with lots of outlines and solid blacks and whites, this combined with minimal use of soft edges gives the art a very clean, but space-ey vibe. As usual, one of Nihei's biggest strengths is his beautiful background work, especially the highly detailed mechanical parts. But where the art truly shines brightest is in the space battles, which consist almost exclusively of solid blacks and whites with very few mid-tones, this gives every page a high contrast and makes even the most chaotic battles easier to follow.
The Gauna look as if they're ripped straight out of HR Geiger's twisted mind, creating an otherworldly contrast between the strange, chaotic looking alien creatures and the highly organized, mechanical forces of mankind.
There is a catch however; about halfway through, the art switches to a more sketch-like style with very few to no solid blacks. This is not inherently bad, in fact it even works extremely well for the monsters. But the lack of proper contrast makes the battles a lot harder to follow and a lot of the details in the backgrounds are lost. Characters also tend to blend in with the background due to a lack of contrast and outlines.
Don't get me wrong, the art is still good, just not as good as in the earlier chapters.

Conclusion
Knights of sidonia is Tsutomu nihei's take on mecha, made more accesible to a wider audience but still retaining his very recognizable style of writing and art. If you love sci-fi and/or mecha and have never read any of Nihei's other works, I highly recommend this as it is a good place to start. If you are a diehard Nihei fan, you may be turned of by the prospect of this being a 'more accessible' work of his, however I believe it's still worth giving a shot as you might still find it enjoyable. To everyone else, I recommend giving it at least a few chapters to decide whether or not it's something for you.

Overall score 8/10