In Season 2 Episode 8, "Reunion", the main characters watch a movie with a character named "Killy". Tsutomu Nihei, the creator of Knights of Sidonia, made a manga before it called Blame! which featured a character named Killy Blame, now a Netflix original movie.
Based on is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tsutomu Nihei. It was serialized by Kodansha in their seinen manga magazine Monthly Afternoon between April 2009 and September 2015, with its chapters collected in 15 tankobon volumes.
Sidonia no Kishi was nominated for the Animation of the Year Award in the Television category at the 2015 Tokyo Anime Award Festival. The anime's opening song, "Sidonia" by Angela, won the 19th Animation Kobe Theme Song Award in 2014.