Knights of Cydonia will intially come as a surprise to long time Tsutomu fans, deviating from his recently established stylised realism and grim isolation for a more standard anime caricature approach and deceivingly lighter tone to go with it.

The series is a take on the 'real mech' genre [similar to Gundam and other space based mech series] in the way only Tsutomu can do it: mega structures and scale that boggles the mind. Ready to challenge conventional sci fi tropes at every turn this is a series that takes its context to heart.

Artistically it could be described as 'pruned back', relying on less hatching then previously. Characters are drawn rather plainly, even by modern shonen standards, though there are red herrings that rationalise this and the series does a sufficient job differentiating the main ones. The attention to detail and patchwork world he creates coupled with an uncanny ability to depict speed and impact while also introducing uniform and fixed robot designs make the final result unique and completely fitting.

But more significant is the inclusion of clever and slightly bent deconstructions of harem and slapstick comedy that will take you off guard. This is juxta-positioned against a now disturbingly real sense of danger and impending doom... death is not unusual in Tsutomu universes but this time it is framed to be more of an impact.

It's in that which this series marks a strange deviation for his style. It is more conventional in the sense that it is more approachable and considerably less incoherent but it is exactly in that which it manages to be the strangest and arguably the most compelling series he creates yet: for once you actually care about the characters and want to see where it all culminates.

The plot plods ever onwards and as of writing this it can only be guessed where it will go, but looking back after 10 volumes you marvel at just how far you've come... not in the same dizzying and aimless way you did with Blame! and his other works, but how far you've come with the crew and the ever looming threat of a universe that you start to understand is a lot bigger and more mysterious than we are normally able to believe.