‘Knights Of Sidonia’ Season 3 Release Date Confirmed For Netflix Anime: Sidonia No Kishi Manga Gives Spoilers

The Knights Of Sidonia Season 3 release date has been confirmed and the anime production is underway, with Sidonia no Kishi manga writer Tsutomu Nihei and Director Hiroyuki Seshita of Polygon Pictures discussing future plans for the Netflix Original anime. It has been years since the second season aired as Netflix Original, so it will be good to watch more episodes for the third season of Knights Of Sidonia. In the meantime, anime fans can read some Knights Of Sidonia spoilers if they are so inclined to find out what happens next!

Knights Of Sidonia Manga Enough Chapters For Sidonia no Kishi Season 4?

In some cases, anime series take years to complete because the source material is unfinished, but fortunately, the Netflix anime has a completed storyline to draw upon. Manga creator Nihei finished off the main manga story in September of 2015 and the English translation of Knights Of Sidonia Volume 15 released in 2016. Fans hoped the manga’s ending would lead to a lengthy Sidonia no Kishi spinoff but so far there’s only been a single one-shot manga released back in 2015.

Nihei is also now busy working on a new manga series called Aposimz. According to Anime News Network, the new manga does have a small connection to Sidonia no Kishi since the Aposimz was one of the two named seed ships that escaped the Guana, but it’s unclear whether the two stories are set in the same universe or if it’s just a reference. Regardless, the Aposimz and Sidonia were said to be light years apart in space so it’s doubtful the two manga will share any characters.

The lack of a sequel means that Knights Of Sidonia Season 4 seems unlikely unless the anime series diverges greatly from the manga. Now, in comparison to the manga, the anime did change the plot chronology up in some ways. For example, Nagate Tanikaze and Izana Shinatose’s secret mission did not occur in the manga until Chapter 49, yet in general Knights Of Sidonia Season 2’s ending matched up with Chapter 42, which is in Volume 9. That should mean that Knights Of Sidonia Season 3 Episode 1 should start off with events contained in the second half of Volume 9.

The real question is whether Polygon Pictures will only produce 12 episodes to cover all the events of the final act. Assuming the third season of the anime maintains its pacing, there are six-and-a-half volumes left of source material, which is more than a third. In addition, Knights Of Sidonia Volume 15 has eight chapters, making it notably longer than the other volumes. That’s a lot of content for a single anime season, but perhaps not enough for 24 episodes. Fans complained that the manga’s ending seemed rushed, so let’s hope the third season is longer than usual, or perhaps Polygon Pictures could finish off the anime series with a Knights Of Sidonia movie?

Sidonia no Kishi Season 3 Release Date

The first hint that we’d ever be able to watch Knights Of Sidonia Season 3 came in 2016 when the manga author was asked about the possibility of a third season at Comic-Con International in San Diego. According to Anime New Network, Nihei said he was waiting on Polygon Pictures.

“I’m also waiting for Sidonia 3! But I’m not the one who is making it or getting funding for it,” Nihei replied and then pointed at Knights of Sidonia: Battle for Planet Nine director Hiroyuki Seshita. “So it’s up to this guy.”

In response, the director claimed he did not have time to do Knights Of Sidonia Season 3 right away, but he “definitely” planned on producing the anime in the future. He used the opportunity to hype up the Blame! anime (which was released on Netflix in 2017), claiming that watching Blame! “will increase our chance of [Knights Of Sidonia Season 3] coming true.”

In the middle of June 2017, director Seshita attended the 2017 Annecy International Animated Film Festival and Market (MIFA). According to tweets from those who attended the event, Seshita “announced the production of the sequel to the movie Blame! and a third season for the animated Knights of Sidonia!”

Hiroyuki Seshita à annoncé la production de la suite du film Blame et une 3ème saison pour l’animé Knight of Sidonia! pic.twitter.com/DOy4JVpXWe

— Bastien Guetta (@Bastienkun) June 16, 2017

As of this publishing, anime production company Polygon Pictures has not announced anything official about the Knights of Sidonia Season 3 release date, although this article will be updated as soon as the anime sequel’s airing is confirmed. However, there can be reasonable speculation about when the Sidonia no Kishi Season 3 air date may occur.

Based upon history, the Knights Of Sidonia Season 3 release date for Japan is likely to be in April of 2018, which is the 2018 anime spring season. That time frame seems reasonable since it’s the same month the first two seasons were released in and producing an anime season takes several months. That means the 2017 fall anime season (October to December) is impossible, so that leaves either the 2018 winter anime or 2018 spring anime seasons, with the latter apparently the most likely option.

Knights Of Sidonia Spoilers

The mecha anime of Season 1 was a space opera focused on the remnants of the human race trying to survive against an inexorable alien foe that was seemingly hellbent on chasing them down into extinction. The scene where gravity shifted within the Sidonia seed ship showed the literal gravity of humanity’s condition because of its terrifying consequences. The fight against the maniacal Crimson Hawk Moth only showed the horror of the Guana because it mocked the death of Shizuka Hoshijiro with its existence.

Season 2’s biggest development was the introduction of Tsumugi Shiraui, a hybrid human/Gauna who is essentially a small child stuck in the body of a terrifying bio weapon. This new character also accompanied a dramatic shift in the story’s focus, with technology, politics, and realistic space physics giving way to harem anime tropes. The third season of Knights Of Sidonia should retain the light-hearted harem comedy elements, with a certain male tentacle monster rampaging through naked women’s photosynthesis rooms, but the darker subtext will keep things interesting for the mecha anime fans.

After the end of Season 2, the war against the Gauna aliens falls into a lull but humanity struggles with monsters of its own design. The mad scientist Ochiai managed to return to life by taking over the body of Norio Kunato, heir of Kunato Developments. Ochiai was once a great friend to the Immortal Ship Committee but he became obsessed with creating chimeras to the point that he sacrificed many lives aboard the Sidonia. For this betrayal, his body was destroyed, but his mind was retained since his augmented brain contained the ship’s library, and the scientist planned for his return by embedding blood nematodes with his core memories and personality.

With Kunato as Ochiai’s host body, the scientist created Tsumugi based upon a captured placental clone of Hoshijiro. With that effect successful, Ochiai creates a new experimental chimera hybrid named Kanata, a younger “brother” to Tsumugi. This new chimera is designed to house in his right eye a new weapon called the Graviton Radiation Emitter, a superweapon capable of shattering moons. But the real secret weapon is the neencephalon control system, a device which allows the minds of humans such as Ochiai to assume complete control of the chimera.

Without giving away too much, Knights Of Sidonia Season 3 will cover the story of Kanata, the young chimera’s efforts to understand humanity, and Ochiai’s plans for a second insurrection. However, the overarching story arc focuses on the space battle finale against the Large Mass Union Ship, a tremendous amalgamation of Gauna resembling a jellyfish that is hundreds of kilometers wide. An attack against such a behemoth would have normally been impossible, but the development of the Graviton Radiation Emitter causes Captain Kobayashi to plan a full-out assault.

The reason why humanity takes on such a daunting Gauna is because it’s orbiting the Lem star system, the first solar system discovered to contain a habitable planet which can be seeded with human life. The Sidonia’s primary mission is to be a seed ship, not defeat the Gauna, but once it’s discovered, the pacifist colonists that were left behind ended up dead everyone realizes that ending the war with the Guana is the only way to ensure humanity’s new home won’t suffer the same fate as Earth.

Thus, the large-scale battle for the planet Lem-VII and the confrontation between Nagate and Ochiai will take center stage. Humanity will sacrifice many lives to finally find peace, with even main characters dying. Knights Of Sidonia Season 3 should end with a bang regardless of how many manga chapters the anime covers, but the real question is whether the story will diverge from the source material.

Knights Of Sidonia Season 4 A Chance To Change The Manga’s Ending In Chapter 78?

Many fans of the manga have been extremely critical of the way the creator handled the ending of the manga in Knights Of Sidonia Chapter 78. Without ruining the surprise completely with detailed spoilers, there’s a deus ex machina moment where the entire population of the Sidonia gets a happy ending despite the circumstances being scientifically impossible, which some fans have called “contrived and forced.” One major character burns to death in the heart of a star only to be resurrected in the next chapters. Plot threads are left hanging and important questions like “who and what are the Guana” are never answered.

The tone of the manga also changed over time, focusing even more on Nagate and his space harem, leaving action SciFi anime fans upset because the danger and dramatic tension is diminished. As it is, some anime-only fans already find it creepy how the author shifted from death and destruction to introducing a phallus-shaped talking tentacle that sounds like a young girl. (Seriously, Japan, what is the obsession with tentacles?)

Even “waifu shippers” were unhappy with the manga ending. Central male character Nagate does end up married to a main character but it’s a completely different version of that person, both physically and mentally. He even has a one night stand with a different main character who was never really on the romance radar. After failing at love with Nagate, another character has a sex change and uses prosthetics. And then another fan favorite for being with Nagate ends up hooking up with a random character who is never fleshed out in the manga. As one fan put it, “literally nobody is happy” with the current ending.

Overall, many fans feel the ending was rushed and hope the author could redo the ending through the anime. If that happens, the final act could be split into two seasons and anime audiences could be treated to Knights Of Sidonia Season 4 or even a movie. So far, the director and the creator have been silent on such issues, so anime fans will just have to wait and see what Polygon Pictures and Nihei cook up with Knights Of Sidonia Season 3.

[Featured Image by Polygon Pictures]