Vertical Inc. continues its streak of licensing interesting manga with Knights of Sidonia, a sci-fi series from Tsutomu Nihei, the creator of two series that have already been published in the United States, Blame! (from Tokyopop) and Biomega (from Viz Media).

Knights of Sidonia is set in the distant future, when giant aliens called the Gauna have destroyed Earth, leaving humans to travel through space in giant spaceships, protecting themselves with giant robots called Guardians. The story follows Tanikaze Nagate, a young man who has trained himself to pilot the mechs using a simulator and is later made a pilot. This sounds like an action manga, but it's likely to offer a bit more; Nihei is known for the punk rock-inspired artwork in Blame!, and Knights of Sidonia runs in Kodansha's Afternoon magazine, home to such offbeat series as Love Roma, Parasyte, and Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō (Diary of a Yokohama Shopping Trip).