The release date for Knights of Sidonia Season 3 is currently unknown.
This anime is an Original Netflix series based on the manga series “Knights of Sidonia” by Tsutomu Nihei. Five years have passed since Season 2 of Knights of Sidonia, and since then, fans have been highly impatient to hear about a Season 3 as they love this show way too much.
Knights of Sidonia was the first animated Original series by Netflix. Although the series is not all “original,” it is still licensed by Netflix for streaming it on their platform worldwide. Unfortunately, the anime isn’t available on Netflix anymore as they lost their copyrights to it this year.
The question that remains is, will we be getting a Knights of Sidonia Season 3 or not? Continue reading to find out more about this.
What happened so far in Knights of Sidonia
The story starts in 3394, which is thousands of years after humanity has fled from the Earth after being destroyed by the Gauna, a race of shapeshifting aliens. The remaining humans aboard hundreds of spacecraft for their survival. Sidonia is one of these ships, which has a population of 500,000 people; these are the last humans left because the location or status of the other ships is unknown.
Sidonia is protected by weapons called Gardes, which have special spears that can tear down the core of Gauna and kill them. The anime follows the story of Garde pilot Nagate Tanikaze, who’s been living in the underground area of Sidonia since his birth. His grandfather raised him, and he trains himself daily in an old Guardian pilot suit every day, and he soon masters it.
After his grandfather passes away, Nagate goes to the upper layer of Sidonia in search of food, but just then, Sidonia is attacked by Gaunas, causing significant loss to humans. But humanity wins against them temporarily because of Nagate Tanikaze and human-Gauna hybrid Tsumugi Shiraui. After the attack, Nagate was selected as a Guardian pilot.
It is up to Nagate, along with his fellow soldiers, Shizuka Hoshijiro, Yuhata Midorikawa, and Izana Shinatose, to defend humanity by fighting against Gauna to defeat them.
Season 2 is set 10 years after the attack by Guana. People are living peacefully, and Nagate is applauded as a hero of Sidonia. Tsumugi starts acknowledging her feelings for Nagate. However, as Captain Kobayashi has always said, humans cannot achieve peace as long as the Gauna are alive.
Hence, a decision is made to fight a final battle against Gauna upon which rests the fate of humanity’s last survivors.
What is going on with Polygon Pictures?
After completing the first two seasons, the studio remained active. It worked on various projects, including Lost in Oz, Pingu in the City, Star Wars Resistance, Big Hero 6: The Series, and Plaza Effect.
They have produced Knights of Sidonia: The Movie in 2015 and Knights of Sidonia: Love Woven in the Stars, released on June 4, 2021. They are currently working on Pacific Rim: The Black.
What do we know about Knights of Sidonia Season 3 so far?
In 2017, director Hiroyuki Seshita of Polygon Pictures had confirmed that a third season is under development, and later in July 2021, Funimation acquired the streaming rights of both seasons from Netflix.
What are fans saying about Knights of Sidonia Season 3?
Six years have passed since the end of season 2, and fans have been facing a hard time waiting for season 2 of Knights of Sidonia. The fans seem to be disappointed with the ending of manga, but they still want an animated adaptation to see the fights in it.
Some fans couldn’t wait for updates any more, so they went out of their way to email Polygon Pictures about a Season 3, to which they replied this.
Will there be Knights of Sidonia Season 3?
As shown on Google Trends, Knights of Sidonia has been a popular anime ever since its release. Its manga was so successful that it ranked on October 30, 2013, it ranked #47 in Oricon Charts with approximately 20,934 copies sold. The anime received positive responses from famous members of the Japanese anime industry such as Hideo Kojima, Digitarou, Yoshinao Dao, and Akiko Higashimura.
Moreover, the director had officially announced in 2017 that the third season in development would have been enough to assure that a season three will be coming. However, things took a turn when the Director of Polygon Pictures confirmed that their movie Knights of Sidonia: Love Woven in the Stars will be released to conclude the story rather than a Season 3.
The director stated, “The Sidonia is finally finishing its adventure. I would be happy if I could share these last moments with the many fans who supported Cydonia.”
Knights of Sidonia: Love Woven in the Stars was released this year on June 4, 2021, and since it concluded the story and the manga had also ended in September 2015, a third season will most likely not come out.
When will Knights of Sidonia Season 3 be released?
There is no release date for Season 3 as Season 3 will not be released as the sequel movie has officially concluded the story.
What can we expect of Knights of Sidonia Season 3?
Since all the story of Knights of Sidonia has been covered by the previous seasons and then concluded by the last movie, and the manga has ended as well, there will be no Season 3 as there is no plot available for it. The movie was too rushed as it covered too many chapters of the manga, so if a Season 3 were to be created, it would probably show the same plot in the movie “Knights of Sidonia: Love Woven the Stars” more detailed.
Knights of Sidonia: Love Woven in the Stars reboots the Sidonia no Kishi manga’s ending
The story for the anime series is based on the Knights of Sidonia manga series by creator Tsutomu Nihei, who is also known for Blame!, its prequel NOiSE, and Biomega.
Finished in September 2015, the 15 volumes of the Sidonia no Kishi manga were given an official English translation and released in the United States by North American publisher Vertical.
Unfortunately, a Knights of Sidonia manga sequel was never produced or even promised. In 2017, Nihei began serializing the APOSIMZ manga, which is up to Volume 6 as of May 2020.
APOSIMZ may be very loosely connected since the Aposimz seed ship was another human craft that escaped the Guana in the Knights of Sidonia manga.
Even if the two stories share the same universe, the APOSIMZ manga takes place on an artificial planet called Aposimz, and there’s no direct overlap in the main plot.
The Aposimz’ crew lost contact with the Sidonia hundreds of years ago. The two ships would have been hundreds of light-years away from each other.
The first two seasons of the Knights of Sidonia anime series adapted the manga’s story all the way up until Volume 9: Chapter 42.
However, the anime did adapt some of the manga chapters out of order since Nagate Tanikaze and Izana Shinatose’s secret mission did not occur in the manga until Chapter 49.
Otherwise, the Knights of Sidonia movie should pick up the story again in the second half of Volume 9, which leaves six-and-a-half volumes.
While that’s more than a third of the entire story, it doesn’t sound like the movie will leave an opening for an actual Knights of Sidonia Season 3.
The official website says the film will depict “the last battle of Sidonia that bets the existence of humanity.”
To adapt so many chapters, director Yoshihara says the movie will “condense the drama of humanity and the Gauna’s struggle to survive” by weaving a “dense emotional drama.”
Chief Director Seshita also says, “The Sidonia is finally finishing its adventure. I would be happy if I could share these last moments with the many fans who supported Cydonia.”
The announcement also states the movie “includes many new contents different from the manga version.”
These should be canon since Nihei is supervising the creation of the story. Both the manga creator and director Yoshihara say the Knights of Sidonia movie will differ in ways that should appeal to fans who have already read the Knights of Sidonia manga’s ending.
The director wrote that “the story was constructed with the hope that not only” long-time manga fans would enjoy it, “but also those who see it for the first time should know more about the magnificence, individuality, and fun of this work.
Hopefully, the movie will have a long runtime. Some critics of the manga’s ending felt the pacing was rushed, so a film that condenses the plot even further may invite further criticism.
It’s also a chance to change certain events that upset the fans in Chapter 78.
Without getting into spoilers, the Sidonia’s crew experiences a deus ex machina happy ending that stretched the limits of science fiction in a manner that felt “contrived and forced” to some. A major character event that should have been final was even quickly undone!
The existence and nature of the Gauna was mostly a mystery.
The Gauna appeared in human form when first attacking Earth, but that plot thread was left hanging. (Some fans debate whether the Abara manga, which also has Gauna, exists in the same universe or if they’re all loosely connected).
Some fans were not happy with the tonal shift in the manga, which went from SciFi drama/action/politics to focusing on Nagate’s space harem.
Even those into character shipping weren’t happy since characters that ended up in relationships did so based on strange circumstances. One harem member even hooks up with a rando that was never properly fleshed out in the manga.
However, since the film is essentially a retelling of the manga’s ending that introduces new plot elements, it could be heralded as a better ending than the original. We’ll have to wait and watch how it turns out.
Knights of Sidonia: Love Woven in the Stars movie spoilers (plot summary/synopsis)
Note: These spoilers assume that the Knights of Sidonia movie will keep the same general framework as the manga’s ending.
The last time we watched Nagate and the Sidonia crew, the swarms of Gauna were chasing them down into extinction.
The horrifying nature of the Gauna was exemplified by the Crimson Hawk Moth, which mocked the death of Shizuka Hoshijiro by taking on her image.
After defeating the Crimson Hawk Moth, the external war against the Gauna enters a lull, but internal forces make trouble for the Sidonia. A mad scientist named Ochiai has managed to resurrect himself by taking over the body of Norio Kunato, heir of Kunato Developments.
Once an ally to the Immortal Ship Committee, Ochiai became obsessed with making chimeras. His actions resulted in many deaths, and as punishment, his body was killed.
Since his augmented brain contained the ship’s library, his mind couldn’t be similarly destroyed.
The scientist planned for his resurrection by embedding his core memories and personality into blood nematodes, which then used Kunato’s body as a host. Having created Tsumugi Shiraui using the capture placental clone of Hoshijiro, Ochiai creates a new “brother” for Tsumugi.
Kanata’s right eye is a new superweapon called the Graviton Radiation Emitter, which can shatter moons with its power. Ochiai also secretly creates the neencephalon control system, a device that allows human minds to take complete remote control over a chimera.
Thus, the story of the Knights of Sidonia movie will likely feature the young chimera struggling to understand humanity while Ochiai is plotting a second insurrection.
I say “likely” since a movie’s condensed runtime will need to make concessions, but the Graviton Radiation Emitter is a necessary invention for the plot to progress.
The overall plot of the manga’s ending focuses on the fight against the Large Mass Union Ship, an amalgamation of Gauna measuring hundreds of miles across that resembles a giant jellyfish.
Taking on this behemoth would have been impossible before the creation of the Graviton Radiation Emitter.
Usually, Captain Kobayashi would have avoided this deadly obstacle, but the Large Mass Union Ship is in the Lem star system, the first star with habitable planets.
Since Sidonia’s primary mission is to seed planets with humanity, they decide that confronting the Gauna and ending the war is their only option.
