Knights of Sidonia - Episode 10

Concerned by his obsession with his new Hoshijiro-esque placenta friend, Midorikawa and Izana have both had the idea to drag Tanikaze away for a day to distract him from this item of interest - little did they realise that they'd both be accompanying him on a day trip together.

It seems that Midorikawa's agenda is about more than just distracting and cheering up Nagate however, as she's somehow managed to get hold of a key to an otherwise accessible area of Sidonia, rumoured to be the home of the research of a scientist named Ochiai who was ultimately branded a heretic for his work pertaining to the Gauna. This isn't exactly an ideal holiday destination, but nonetheless our trio set out to investigate, quickly finding themselves running into a group who really don't seem too happy to see them as a result.

Rather than killing them or anything of the sort however, it seems that this chain of events has all occurred with an over-arching desire in mind - to use Nagate to test pilot an experimental weapon which might just give Sidonia the upper hand against the Gauna. Conveniently this is also the exact moment that another Gauna appears, setting its sights upon a ship packed with emigrants who have just left the Sidonia. Tanikaze will broach no thoughts of leaving them to their fate, instead insisting upon using this experimental weapon which he'd unwittingly trained in the use of during his youth - a decision which saves the emigrants from their fate. As life goes on, with placenta-Hoshijiro learning to write Nagate's named and Izana becoming a fully-fledged pilot, there are bigger problems emerging on the horizon - a problem 8,000 times bigger than Sidonia itself, to be precise.

After a weirdly jarring shift from "fun day out" to "get sedated then asked to use an experimental weapon" which seemed exceedingly clumsy, this week's Knights of Sidonia still managed to provide plenty of fascinating fare. As well as continuing to literally and figuratively grow the placenta of which Tanikaze has become so fond, it also ramps up events elsewhere in both personal and broader terms before landing us with another almighty cliffhanger to finish the instalment and ensure that I'll be impatiently waiting for next week's outing. In turn this leaves me wondering where this first season will end things, as it seems to be ramping up to something which it may not be able to finish in its final couple of episodes.