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Wookie Bouquet
Jan 27, 2013

Too tsundere to drive.

Pierson posted:

Biomega had a great style even for Nihei and I wish it hadn't kinda crazily fallen apart there at the end. Was it cancelled and he had to wrap it up fast or something? Because it felt like there was way more there to be told but then suddenly NOPE it's over. Not that I can really complain if it got us more Sidonia.

The next chapter is already being translated (thanks /m/) and finally the robot girl says what everyone else has studiously ignored.

I feel Biomega needs to be treated as two separate things. Part 1 race to the continental anchor and Part 2 Nihei goes fantasy-adventure w/ Moebius homage. If the first part ended where it did we would treat it like Abara, in that it would be roughly equivalent in how opaque the ending was (but still good show!), the second part is something entirely different from what Nihei had done before and besides for dropping the ball as to what the gently caress happened to Nizue it sort of stands on its own.

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KoB
May 1, 2009
Oh great, a token tsundere, that's exactly what I wanted for this manga :geno:.

Kanos
Sep 6, 2006

was there a time when speedwagon didn't get trolled

KoB posted:

Oh great, a token tsundere, that's exactly what I wanted for this manga :geno:.

While the fact that she's an honest-to-god robot that looks pretty inhuman when she's actually experiencing high emotions is pretty cool, I really don't know if our wacky romcom harem house needed a generic tsundere, especially since Izana already fills a lot of that role on his/her own.

Clarste
Apr 15, 2013

Just how many mistakes have you suffered on the way here?

An uncountable number, to be sure.
If she stayed without skin all the time I think it could work. There's something inherently funny about her attitude when it's coming from a robot skeleton. Same thing as Tsumugi, really.

trucutru
Jul 9, 2003

by Fluffdaddy

KoB posted:

Oh great, a token tsundere, that's exactly what I wanted for this manga :geno:.

Robo-girl. check.
Regular-girl. check.
Became-girl. check.
Tentacle-girl. check.
Clone-girl. soon.
Immortal-girl. give it time.
Bear-girl. not so likely

That Works
Jul 22, 2006

Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy


trucutru posted:

Robo-girl. check.
Regular-girl. check.
Became-girl. check.
Tentacle-girl. check.
Clone-girl. soon.
Immortal-girl. give it time.
Bear-girl. not so likely

Talented but distant and flawed competitor is in there also.

Dan7el
Dec 7, 2008

trucutru posted:

Clone-girl. soon.
Immortal-girl. give it time.
Bear-girl. not so likely
Who is the clone girl? I'm drawing a blank. The Immortal is obviously the Captain. She has all the time she needs as she's immortal and so is he. Give it a few centuries and she'll be moving in with the rest of them.

Yeah. The bear needs to keep out of this.

KoB
May 1, 2009

Dan7el posted:

Who is the clone girl? I'm drawing a blank.

Theres like 14 of them and they all look identical.

Pierson
Oct 31, 2004



College Slice

Wookie Bouquet posted:

I feel Biomega needs to be treated as two separate things. Part 1 race to the continental anchor and Part 2 Nihei goes fantasy-adventure w/ Moebius homage. If the first part ended where it did we would treat it like Abara, in that it would be roughly equivalent in how opaque the ending was (but still good show!), the second part is something entirely different from what Nihei had done before and besides for dropping the ball as to what the gently caress happened to Nizue it sort of stands on its own.
I guess I can't really disagree with that, although I might like to. Nihei does do swerves like that sometimes if he feels like it, which is especially a shame with Biomega since I'd have loved a much longer story set on the cylinder with the characters we met in the first half. The DRF/PHD dudes were cool and I think there was definitely room for something like two plotlines; Zouichi and Funipero wandering the new world in typical Nihei-style on one hand, and Nizue and the less psychotic remnants of the PHD like Kardal etc dealing with Nyaldee's subjugation of the cylinderon the other. Higuide almost got something like that but then he literally vanishes from the story and it goes to the sudden showdown and finale, which I personally didn't really find that satisfying at all.

Those giant Shrike-like killer robots owned though, want to see those dudes turn up again.

KOGAHAZAN!!
Apr 29, 2013

a miserable failure as a person

an incredible success as a magical murder spider

KoB posted:

Theres like 14 of them and they all look identical.

There's one specific one that's the haremette, though. En?

trucutru posted:

Robo-girl. check.
Regular-girl. check.
Became-girl. check.
Tentacle-girl. check.
Clone-girl. soon.
Immortal-girl. give it time.
Bear-girl. not so likely

Got to say, if I have to read a harem manga, an array of transhumans is a hell of a lot more interesting than the usual spread...

Zorak
Nov 7, 2005
e: wtc wrong thread, whoops

Raskolnikov
Nov 25, 2003

I am enjoying this trans-humanist harem / space opera quiet a bit. The anime encouraged me to get caught up on the manga. I imagine this next big battle will be something special.

Algid
Oct 10, 2007


Author's notes for the latest chapter are hilarious:

"I see nothing but artificial buildings...this is a wonderful city. This book store is like a labyrinth, I feel at home."

trucutru
Jul 9, 2003

by Fluffdaddy
The new manga chapter had me grinning the whole time. So much stupid fun.

tsumugi with a dress was the best

Nate RFB
Jan 17, 2005

Clapping Larry

trucutru posted:

The new manga chapter had me grinning the whole time. So much stupid fun.

tsumugi with a dress was the best
I can't believe they actually went there with the :dong: comparison. I couldn't stop laughing.

ATP_Power
Jun 12, 2010

This is what fascinates me most in existence: the peculiar necessity of imagining what is, in fact, real.


/m has gotten up to chapter 57 and :staredog: Mass Union Ship with a Gauna version of Sidonia interior with a tiny Earth replica and a 17m Gauna clone of a clone. Looks like the Gauna haven't been idle either, I'm very interested to see where this is going.

ATP_Power fucked around with this message at 03:26 on May 31, 2014

Phobophilia
Apr 26, 2008

by Hand Knit
fuuu, they're really pushing the establishment of communication with the freaky aliens and transcendence into human-alien hybrid angle aren't they

Sindai
Jan 24, 2007
i want to achieve immortality through not dying
I think the Gauna are still a little confused about the difference between humans and gardes. Or maybe they think humans want to be that big and they're trying to help. :v:

Pierson
Oct 31, 2004



College Slice
Next step is to put giant speakers on the Gardes and blast music at them, see if that works.

ATP_Power
Jun 12, 2010

This is what fascinates me most in existence: the peculiar necessity of imagining what is, in fact, real.


I'm starting to wonder about the origin of the immortality drug, I can't recall if they had it before Ochiai entered the scene or not. If not the question of where the hell it came from becomes quite relevant given his particular interests.

It also seems to me like Kobayashi took a huge risk in creating Tanikaze, given how much he bleeds EVERYWHERE I'd be concerned about someone not in on the secret analyzing his blood and then whoops, the immortality cat is out of the bag. Though I guess the level of control over anything high tech by the ship's officer corps would make someone getting access to something like that unlikely, and the only person with the means and motives to do so also knows about the secret, and presumably the reason why they haven't made the genetic mods before is more about the risks of breeding immortal children and not a technical restriction.

Zasze
Apr 29, 2009
I guess it's also the need to try and push genetic diversity since 99% of sidonia died when ochai hosed up 100 years ago.

AgentHaiTo
Feb 7, 2003

Well, isn't this a coincidence? So, um, how you doing? You're busy, I know and I don't want to distract you, please, don't let me interrupt you.
After that last chapter, all I can think of is how will Tanikaze fit a 17m girl into his house?

Zenzirouj
Jun 10, 2004

What about you, thread?
You got any tricks?
So all we know is that Sidonia sent their new ship to gently caress around near a star for some reason, right? We have no idea why they shot at the thing or why it turned into a mass union or why pretty much anything is happening?

FallenGod
May 23, 2002

Unite, Afro Warriors!

Zenzirouj posted:

We have no idea why ... anything is happening?

Welcome to every manga by this author! Just strap in and enjoy the pictures.

Avulsion
Feb 12, 2006
I never knew what hit me

Zenzirouj posted:

So all we know is that Sidonia sent their new ship to gently caress around near a star for some reason, right? We have no idea why they shot at the thing or why it turned into a mass union or why pretty much anything is happening?

Right now they're fighting the small Mass Union Ship because it was in their way. As to their mission at the star, Kobayashi is willing to blow up a planet in order to flush out one or two Gauna, how far do you think she would go to hurt that Mass Union Ship (the big one)?

Ghost of Babyhead
Jun 28, 2008
Grimey Drawer

Zenzirouj posted:

So all we know is that Sidonia sent their new ship to gently caress around near a star for some reason, right? We have no idea why they shot at the thing or why it turned into a mass union or why pretty much anything is happening?

The blob thingy was a mass union ship the whole time. The last one they fought ('Ocarina') liked to disguise itself as a gas cloud. The large mass union ship (currently orbiting Lem's ocean planet?) is large enough to not give a gently caress about subterfuge.

There are scans of the prequel manga that accompanied the anime BDs floating around. It covers the war 100 years prior to Knights of Sidonia proper. Ochiai's first chimera is pretty sweet:

.Clash
Apr 10, 2009

Zenzirouj posted:

So all we know is that Sidonia sent their new ship to gently caress around near a star for some reason, right?

You seem to have missed the part where they were discussing the gravity cannon and how to power it.

Phobophilia
Apr 26, 2008

by Hand Knit
If they're going to bring up human-gauna chimeras for the anime, then they are likely to bring up Tsumugi :swoon:

trucutru
Jul 9, 2003

by Fluffdaddy

FallenGod posted:

Welcome to every manga by this author! Just strap in and enjoy the pictures.

I am currently reading BioMega (I've read his other works) and I wonder how long did it take him to alter his drawing style for KoS. I mean, not only is the insane cross-hatching missing, and the main color being white instead of concrete-grey, but the whole thing feels very different.

Zenzirouj
Jun 10, 2004

What about you, thread?
You got any tricks?

FallenGod posted:

Welcome to every manga by this author! Just strap in and enjoy the pictures.
Yeah, I started into Nihei's stuff with Blame!, so I'm pretty used to just kinda going with whatever he has going, but sometimes I just miss or misunderstand actual explanations in Sidonia. So this is just to get something out of the way of the ship, not that secret mission to that far star? And they had a pretty good idea that they were heading out to take down a cloaked gauna hive?

.Clash posted:

You seem to have missed the part where they were discussing the gravity cannon and how to power it.
Yeah, I only have a vague memory of it firing as a result of a hybrid...

Zasze
Apr 29, 2009

Zenzirouj posted:

Yeah, I started into Nihei's stuff with Blame!, so I'm pretty used to just kinda going with whatever he has going, but sometimes I just miss or misunderstand actual explanations in Sidonia. So this is just to get something out of the way of the ship, not that secret mission to that far star? And they had a pretty good idea that they were heading out to take down a cloaked gauna hive?

Yeah, I only have a vague memory of it firing as a result of a hybrid...

In all fairness the translations we have been getting is worded really strangely sometimes, or atleast ive glazed over something important in the past and had to re-read the chapter again because i found myself wondering what the gently caress. For reference I had no trouble following BLAME! or Biomega im not sure if its the panel lay out or what.

Dan7el
Dec 7, 2008

First off, gas giants are like a dime a dozen in any galaxy. Plus, they have no life on them since life only ever existed on Earth and then there's Guana. So, blowing the poo poo out of a gas giant is nothing. Right?

Second, (youtube video somewhat relevant to the last episode) big girls are beautiful https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDSK91mUNLU

Third, I always thought you needed four-hundred-plus people to have a viable survival population. Apparently, not.

I guess Sidonia was never in too much trouble. I would imagine that repopulating correctly over the next 100 years still took some serious effort. What concerns me is that they don't seem to have any "normal" humans left. They're all either photosynthesizers or some other type of hybrid (transgendered, immortal, and who knows what else -- robots and even half-guana).

Haven't we learned, time and time again, that not keeping some kind of pure genetic base-stock will ultimately bite you in the proverbial rear end in the late game of genetic engineering? Look at what happened to those little gray aliens on Stargate SG-1, for example!

Kanos
Sep 6, 2006

was there a time when speedwagon didn't get trolled
Sidonia didn't repopulate normally, it repopulated through massive cloning projects and artificial births. There's also no "normal" stock left because it was determined that a population of "normal" humans would be totally unsustainable with Sidonia's vastly reduced food production capacity after it was obliterated and hollowed out by the Gauna breakthrough.

Phobophilia
Apr 26, 2008

by Hand Knit
There is no baseline. Humans evolved to form small tribal social groups wandering the African savannah. The Asgard only exist to make the humans, which most science fiction stories deliberately occupy the middle ground and incorporate the best traits of all sci fi races, look better.

Sidonia's solution is fine. They use natural meioses plus genetic engineeer to maximise diversity. The Honoka series are a deliberate experiment, and I doubt they will become dominant in the ecosystem. The only danger are the immortals, as they are stagnant. The immortals like to think they have the best interests of the ship at heart, with their oaths to serve Sidonia and to never pass on their evolutionarily destabilising genes, but they are too conservative and end up swept aside by the Captain and Ochiai's revolution.

Ochiai is, of course, the wild card.

Kanos
Sep 6, 2006

was there a time when speedwagon didn't get trolled

Phobophilia posted:


Sidonia's solution is fine. They use natural meioses plus genetic engineeer to maximise diversity. The Honoka series are a deliberate experiment, and I doubt they will become dominant in the ecosystem. The only danger are the immortals, as they are stagnant. The immortals like to think they have the best interests of the ship at heart, with their oaths to serve Sidonia and to never pass on their evolutionarily destabilising genes, but they are too conservative and end up swept aside by the Captain and Ochiai's revolution.

They explicitly say the existing immortals don't pass on immortality to descendants. If they did, Izana would be immortal because grandma is immortal.

Tanikaze is super weird because he's the first immortal made that way from the ground up, so who knows if he follows the same rules or not.

Clarste
Apr 15, 2013

Just how many mistakes have you suffered on the way here?

An uncountable number, to be sure.
Yeah, the immortal council doesn't have immortality genes, they just undergo some medical procedure to live forever. It's implied that brain transplants to vat-grown clones is a thing.

Algid
Oct 10, 2007


Clarste posted:

Yeah, the immortal council doesn't have immortality genes, they just undergo some medical procedure to live forever. It's implied that brain transplants to vat-grown clones is a thing.
It is a thing, but it hasn't actually been used because it's not necessary. Tanikaze was meant to be one, but only because grandpa's body couldn't be salvaged by the anti-aging drugs anymore.

Wookie Bouquet
Jan 27, 2013

Too tsundere to drive.
Most recent chapters seem to have added not 1 but 3 new characters, including one with the most ridiculous hair ever. Taking bets as to how long it will take them to either die or join the harem.

But in all seriousness, adding new characters this far along makes me feel like there are no plans to end the series anytime soon.

Avulsion
Feb 12, 2006
I never knew what hit me

Wookie Bouquet posted:

But in all seriousness, adding new characters this far along makes me feel like there are no plans to end the series anytime soon.

After reading through this series in a day, I decided to check out some of Nihei's other stuff. It seems like he has a tendency to radically alter the tone, art, and even story halfway through a series before eventually going completely off the rails insane (Ex: Biomega, Abara). I think he just gets bored of drawing the same thing but with bigger enemies and decides to experiment. Hopefully the structure of Sidonia with the story alternating between robot/monster fights and slice of life episodes will help him stay focused in the long run.

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Bistromatic
Oct 3, 2004

And turn the inner eye
To see its path...
couldn't help but this of this with the recent translation :v:

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