Knights of Sidonia: Love Woven in the Stars (2021)

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After six long years of having the series air on Netflix, Funimation now has the rights to Knights of Sidonia and teamed with Polygon Pictures to give fans some much needed closure on the big screen for a limited time with Knights of Sidonia: Love Woven in the Stars. Fans will want to rewatch the two seasons to prep for this one, and newcomers will definitely want to watch those first before soaring into space with this.

Taking place a decade after the events of the second season, famous pilot Nagate Tanikaze and his lady friend Tsumugi are slowly but surely reaching the final stages of their romance, even with Tsumugi being a giant alien being that’s separate from the enemy aliens, the gauna. While their love blooms, it’ll have to continue on the battlefield as the enemy is looking for build up their forces and finally destroy the last surviving members of humanity once and for all.

It looks like they just might succeed as well, thanks to enemies thought long dead making a reappearance (no names as not to spoil anything) and planting spies inside the Sidonia who begin to kill pilots and civilians alike while sabotaging their fighters. It’s going to take Nagate, Tsumugi’s alien abilities, and the rest of the Sidonia crew both new and old to take down the gauna least all humankind ceases to exist.

It was a little of a slow burn at first, as the film tends to focus mainly on Nagate and Tsumugi’s developing relationship, but once the alien attacks begin, the action picks up and rarely lets up. It was nice being able to have some closure to most of the things the series left open, even though the film skips over a lot of the things that happened in the manga so readers beware.

The art and animation are well done and are a slight step up from the CG used in the series. It still has that faint jerky feel as most CG anime do, but you sort of get used to it after awhile. The audio side of things is great as well thanks to the original cast from both the Japanese and English dubs return and do their characters justice.

While die-hard fans, anime and manga alike, fans won’t like how quickly this film tries to wrap up the series, those who enjoyed the original anime will enjoy getting their closure with Knights of Sidonia: Love Woven in the Stars. It has a nice combination of drama, romance, and action that you’ll want to strap into your space fighter for and comes highly recommended.