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Low-mid 7/10
Knights of Sidonia progresses nicely early on, but eventually becomes riddled with deus ex machina.

At the start, Knights of Sidonia stays refreshing by having this back-and-forth of humanity creating a new weapon and figuring out how to use it; and the gauna developing a new ability or form, and the humans having do figure out how to deal with it. Once the Gardes are fully tricked-out, though, it degenerates into "this mech is cooler and better" and "this monster is bigger and tougher." The series finds its footing again when it takes that formula to a ship vs ship scope, but these additions ... feel out of nowhere, which is something the series struggles with a lot. There's lots of very interesting stuff going on in Sidonia, but it feels like these stories are only remembered when they are immediately convenient to the main plot, and are left unresolved by the end.

The main character doesn't develop much after the first few arcs, but the other main characters (Izana and Yuhata) have pretty great development, and the recurring characters are also mostly fun or interesting, and I wish we could have seen more of them, some of them even seem to have parts of their development missing altogether.

Overall, I enjoyed Knights of Sidonia. The series remains interesting throughout, even if it's strongest closer to the beginning. The unfinished subplots and characterization are annoying, but it wouldn't be that way if those aspects weren't interesting to begin with; I'd just be glad the focus was on something else. While the main character is pretty boring the supporting characters more than make up for it. The art is of course incredible, though the fights can be confusing at times. While I may be listing a lot of cons here, pretty much every one is more than outweighed by some corresponding pro.
I also just wanna note that the fanservice gets less frequent a little bit in. If it felt out of place to you you're not alone, but it gets better to the point of not being worth mentioning (except right here).

Note off the top: the title's literal translation is "The Town Where Only I am Missing," which is important to keep in mind.

Erased's ending is famously bad, but going into this, I thought that applied only to the anime. While I was wrong, it's not as bad as people say; when your series goes from an easy 10 to a 6, it feels worse than it is. Erased is absolutely still worth the read.

The strength of Erased's early volumes lies with the contrast between the wholesome making friends at school aspect and the intense "let's stop a serial child murderer" aspect, and that the fact ... that the former is a necessary part of accomplishing the latter. Making friends is literally life-or-death. The nostalgic slice-of-life parts had me smiling or laughing, and complemented the slow pacing of the thriller parts incredibly well, making them all the more jarring once they came around. And, of course, these moments make you care about the characters more, making victories sweeter and failures more devastating.

After these early volumes; Erased isn't as good, but it's still very alright. It remains entertaining and still has things to say about failure and starting over, and the influence people have on each other.

I'm not sure if the ending was just rushed or if the mangaka also isn't great at writing epic conclusions. Regardless, an epic conclusion felt out-of-place for Erased, but certainly doesn't ruin it.