Knights of Sidonia S2 – 8

I think something is wrong when I consider a protagonist from a movie these characters are watching a more compelling lead than our current one. I was surprised when starting the episode to see a sudden rise in visual quality only for it to turn out to be a movie within an anime. Actually I am rather curious as to what happened later in that movie, as I am sure it’s bound to be more interesting than the episode itself. This isn’t a sci-fi show with harem elements anymore. This is a harem show with sci-fi elements. Only one thing related to the main plot happened in this episode and that was Izana’s mother letting the female engineer in on what’s going on. Seems that she’s had a hit of conscience and has decided to turn against Kobayashi. While that’s interesting, the show thinks of it as not that important as she then goes and sets up a romantic vacation for Izana and Tanikanze. It is true that this could just be a means of keeping her daughter out of harm’s way so that she can pull off a plan but I am sceptical. I do find it amusing though that the only way she could get Tanikanze to agree was to threaten him with a lie about a bomb in his neck. Dense as the plot demands him to be, Tanikanze still thinks this is a genuine mission. Can we for once have a protagonist who is aware of these girls affection? I have heard the line “What is she so mad about” so many times from so many protagonists that I could spend over a year chronicling every single one of them. I can understand that there are people who enjoy these segments of the show and that’s fine. I too don’t mind them as long as the main story continues. But when these aspects of the show begin to overshadow or even hinder the main plot that’s when I have a problem with them.

What’s even scarier is that Tsumugi has become a member of Tanikanze’s harem. Tsumugi being that nonhuman chimera. I find that immensely disturbing. Tsumugi may act and sound like a standard moe girl but she is not human and having her be a potential harem candidate is unsettling. What’s also odd is that no one seems to find something wrong with this, as a man watches them blast off together with a “Ahh young love” and Izana getting jealous at the two. Humans were pretty anti-chimera not too long ago but even taking away that I think we should be concerned about how messed up this relationship would be. Well the show doesn’t seem concerned with that and I watch Tanikaze sweet talk a blushing weaponized Chimera, all the while wondering why Kunato would outfit her weapon form with a blush function. I did like seeing Izana make use of a ten fingered controller for her mechanical hand as it at least promises that her character might have some use besides being a harem candidate. But then we have her going out in revealing clothing to make her mother happy because why not. Izana is now the harbinger of harem, with her every appearance being a signal of incoming harem hijinks. Should I consider it sexist that now that she is a woman, she is now being sexualized at every opportunity? Actually lets not go down that road, it never leads to anything good on the internet. This shift to slice of life ecchi antics is not reflected in the next episode previews which still have foreboding music to what looks to be more of the same. Guess that is a sign that this show is moving far away from what it was originally about.