This is a love letter wrapped in CGI and orchestral strings, and it knows exactly what it's doing. Nagate and Tsumugi's relationship carries weight that the decade-long time skip refuses to properly acknowledge, but the animation and score move so deliberately through their quiet moments that you stop caring about the narrative gap. The space battles are secondary to watching these two people orbit each other in a dying world, with the Gauna providing the timer nobody wants to count down.

After drifting through space for millennia, the generation ship Sidonia carries the last of humanity, who fled after the alien Gauna destroyed Earth. Ten years have passed since a hard-won, temporary victory secured by the human-Gauna hybrid Tsumugi Shiraui and ace Guardian pilot Nagate Tanikaze. Nagate is now hailed as a hero of Sidonia. Captain Kobayashi knows that peace cannot hold while the Gauna still exist. During these calm days, Tsumugi comes to recognize her feelings for Nagate. Then the decision is made to wage one last battle, with the future of humanity's remaining survivors at stake, and the crew must fight to protect the people they love.