Knights of Sidonia vol. 12

At first I thought this would be the first volume of the series to offer nothing worth writing about.  It kicks off with the launch of the brand new Tazugane-class vessel and most of the core cast is onboard to put it through its paces.  Narratively, this involves the vessel coming into contact with a Gauna cluster ship and Tanikaze being accused by the Honoka Sisters of peeping on them while they’re photosynthesizing.  Again.  It’s a mix of the conventional and the trite that’s picked up again in the volume’s final third.  I’ll at least give mangaka Tsutomu Nihei credit for making the popularity contest in that part amusing and for allowing simple detective work to clear Tanikaze’s name.  That said, events like these make up the bulk of this volume and render it one of the less interesting ones so far in the series.

I’m not saying “least interesting” because there’s a part in the middle section that offers some potentially fascinating hints at what the Gauna are after.  During the cluster ship’s battle with the Tazugane, one of the Honoka Sisters is captured and brought aboard.  When she wakes up, the girl finds herself in a bizarre facsimile of a human environment with the reality of her situation slowly dawning upon her.  While this sequence is unsettling on its own terms, Nihei offers up an additional twist upon the girl’s escape that makes you wonder about the Gauna’s true motives.  If these aliens are really out to destroy humanity, why would they go to the extent they did of manipulating the girl’s perceptions and her own mind?  Intelligence in the Gauna’s actions has been evident for a while now, but this is the first time we’ve seen anything implying they have an actual plan for dealing with humanity.  It’s compelling material, far more so than the predictable silliness that surrounds it here.