Blame!

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“Maybe on Earth. Maybe in the Future”


Content:
As expected of most cyberpunk titles, Blame! is a dark futuristic story laced with enough action to keep you at the edge of your seat. Unlike other works in the same genre, however, Blame! avoids most of the philosophical/existential questions usually associated with cyberpunk. Also not present are the verbose in-battle rants/soliloquies that some would find unnecessary. Instead, the author demonstrates that actions do speak louder than words sometimes.


Literary Style:
One of Blame!'s unique features is its lack of narration: only a few details are tossed in and it's up to the reader how to connect the dots (the ... "no spoonfeeding" policy). Because the author doesn't specify how everything comes together, there are multiple interpretations of how and why events actually happened. The story parallels The City itself in having endless possibilities and the imaginations of the readers are given plenty of room and materials to roam freely and do as they wish. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing would depend on the reader’s attitude towards open endings. Although some would be left unsatisfied due to the lack of details, others may also take it as a form of interaction with the story.


Visuals:
It is said that “a picture is worth a thousand words” and in Blame!, pictures do almost all of the talking. Rather than describing how powerful Killy’s gun is, Nihei spends a few pages showing the havoc caused whenever the trigger is pulled. Instead of saying “The Megastructure is vast and gloomy”, the artist shows the characters wandering through the labyrinth for months, through endless hallways or under pitch-black skies. More often than not, the deafening silence is only broken by the humming of machines or the roar of explosions. To say that the art simply complements the story would be incorrect since the art is pretty much integral to its delivery.

As for the quality of the art itself, it’s nothing short of impressive. The character designs may take some getting used to at first but Nihei’s style gradually improves throughout the series and his illustrations in the latter volumes are flawless. Also, the settings and action scenes are smoothly drawn and insanely detailed. Given his background in architecture, it’s no surprise that Nihei is exceptionally good at drawing colossal structures and perspective shots.


Overall:
Not many manga out there could offer straightforward action, extraordinary art, and a little grey matter exercise at the same time. While most of the characters aren’t exactly emotionally charged, it’s a refreshing break from the clichéd personalities of anime and manga.

"Don't think; feel. It's like a finger pointing away to the moon. Don't concentrate on the finger, or you will miss all the heavenly glory." Bruce Lee in Enter The Dragon (1974)


Nihei Tsutomu is quite simply the Bruce Lee of the cyberpunk genre. Unlike other cyberpunk titles that often centers around the philosophies of existentialism or nihilism, Nihei carves out his own path in BLAME!. There is no thought-provoking or multi-layered story plot. There is very little dialogue and narration. What you get here is just stunning visuals which act as the principal mechanism for story progression, and Nihei accomplishes it with aplomb. To ... be able to transcend the boundaries of normal storytelling is nothing short of a masterpiece. It is an extremely satisfying read that made me finish it in just two marathon sessions.

The BLAME! universe is a post-apocalyptic dystopia. Whatever little that’s left of the human population is scattered into small communities across the vast and seemingly unending darkness of the mega landscape. We join our protagonist, Killy, in his quest to search the gigantic labyrinth for the Net Terminal Genes. I won’t spoil too much but the Genes are the key to save the world which has spun out of control. He wanders around aimlessly for (amazingly) long periods of time, hoping to find clues to his goal. Equipped with his trusty SFG (little brother to the Big Fucking Gun), Killy is a force of nature. Well, I jest. It is actually called the Gravitational Beam Emitter. (Cool name huh?) In any case, this incredibly powerful little gun can blow a hole that extends for miles in anything that stands in its way. On his journey, Killy’s encounters with other strange creatures (cyborgs, machines and the like) usually explode into high octane battles. Surprisingly, there is no lack of action scenes despite the passive nature of the manga. The fighting is straight to the point. The characters do not make any cool poses for the sake of it, and we are also spared the annoying in-battle blabbering found in most shonen mangas. Yes, it’s pure, unadulterated, actual fighting. Absolutely fantastic.

Another highlight is the glorious artwork. Nihei’s experience in architecture really shows in the manga. Never before have I seen colossal structures being drawn is such detail and cool angles. It may take a while to get used to his style, but be prepared for a barrage of eye orgasm. You’ll have to see it to believe it.

As I’ve described earlier, the artwork replaces the role of narration. The characters seldom talk, unless absolutely necessary. The resultant slow pace of the story might be a turn off for some people. However, it accentuates the gloomy atmosphere very well. The delivery also adds a different dimension to the reading experience. Little details are revealed as the story progresses. It may seem confusing to some due to the lack of explanations and spoon feeding by the author, but it allows the reader to interpret the events in their own way. While the plot may not be particularly remarkable, it is very engaging. It fits Nihei’s style perfectly as it lends it a mysterious touch. The reader is constantly left wondering about the history of the events, backgrounds and motives of the characters. It certainly tickled my curiosity. As we follow Killy’s exploits, we watch as the world of BLAME! slowly unfolds before our eyes. Before you know it, you’ll find yourself (spiritually) living in it!

This is not a thinking manga. To truly enjoy it, you must heed the words of the grandmaster. Activate your sensory perceptions and immerse yourself into the world of BLAME!. Don’t just think. FEEL.

Well, instead of writing a few more paragraphs, let me try to summarize the whole thing using a few descriptors and keywords:

Atmospheric; Dark Ambience; Vast Universe; Colossal Structures; Explorative; Passive; Surreal; Explosive Action; Magnificent Artwork, Grotesque Character Designs; MASTERPIECE

How I wish I could do a review using drawings instead.

Story & Art - 10 & 9
The art is the story. BLAME! has extremely little dialog and no narration except for an occasional "39216 hours later" or so. Therefore the development of the story is almost solely communicated through the visuals. It is entirely up to you to perceive, ponder about and interpret the present and the past. As you get more familiar with the universe you might be able to draw conclusions about something that has happened earlier, which back then wasn't quite completely understandable and so on...

A critic might call BLAME! confusing, as a bad thing, but the thing is, if it is ... confusing in a bad way is up to you. Whether you actively engage in interpreting it or not and how far your imagination takes you. Personally I'm rather tired of much of the modern day's entertainment which sole purpose seems to be passivate the perceiver to do nothing but sit back and enjoy a ride. BLAME! however is very stimulating and I've spent endless hours thinking about it from different angles just because it can be interpreted in so many ways and that is a beauty in itself. A friend of mine told me, after I had forced him to read it, that he found some of the parts of the manga to be extremely confusing and he had no idea what was going on, my response to him was going on a rant about how I've interpreted it, but I ended up apologizing to him for ruining the pleasure of figuring these things out for himself. On a side note, my friend did not think badly of the manga overall, rather he said that it was one of the best manga he had read. So it could be perceived as confusing so perhaps it's not a person-who-dislikes-confusing-and-cloudy-stories' first choice but I would still recommend it because in essence it's not a mystery manga or anything like that. It is a cyberpunk / action with an intensely dark and brooding atmosphere which sticks like feathers to tar, to the back of your mind. In that aspect it is emotionally provocative, it creates an unique and perhaps disturbing emotion within you which stays with you even after leaving the manga, when you're onto doing something else.

A critical aspect of the art is it's portrayal of this vast and seemingly endless setting filled with colossal structures which seem to have been abandoned since who knows when. Great drawings of cold machinery, some seem to have broken down from having been put out of use, while some still function for the sake of functioning after all this time. Our protagonist's fate is to wander these hallowscapes and when reaches new areas we are given no clues to where we've stumbled into other than our surroundings and the people we meet. The detail is not only fantastic but Nihei Tsutomu's ability to draw perspective truly creates a world in 3d. Even the character design immediately captivated me. This pale, grim expression on the character's face, led me to believe that this was a hardened man who's been through a lot. I felt as if I was getting to know this character by looking at him, even though I've just begun reading the first chapter and he has barely uttered a word.

As for the action scenes, we're allowed to witness the devastation and intense power depicted very clearly. They are for the most part, in contrast to the story, easy to follow. This straight-forward approach spares us the self-righteous rants and interrupting one-liners and just delivers plain awesome action.

Character - 8
It's a cold and harsh world which has no room for harboring the soft or the weak. This is a fact which we are constantly reminded of as we meet the characters of BLAME!. The characters show no particular depth, yet serve their purpose very well. Some have their logical reasons while some remain a mystery. There is not much character development but there is some, it is enough, but there is left room for more. Most of the characters portrayed somewhat cold and indifferent, it is after all understandable and I wouldn't have it any other way, weep scenes would feel kind of out of place, besides there's nothing quite as beautiful as when you catch a small glimpse of emotion through that hard shell which they've grown over time.

Enjoyment - 10
I barely took a single break while I was reading the manga for the first time, I was glued to it. That said, it's not the absolute most enjoyable read. However, like I've said before, I've spent endless hours just thinking back on it, going over it in my mind and attempting to interpret it from as many angles as possible. I get a slight tingly feeling in my stomach just thinking about it. BLAME! has continuously kept me stimulated even when I'm not reading it, practically infinite enjoyment.

I wanted to like Blame!, but Blame! wouldn't let me.

The first 2 volumes are unreadable. The paneling is so poor that it takes a lot of time to decipher what is supposed to be shown. There's no flow; no sense of position or direction, so it's hard to tell where Killy is in relation to his environment, or where the safeguards are in relation to him. The style would look nice if you were able to tell what you were looking at. This improves in volume 3, where you can mostly decipher what's on the page, but it still has the issue of being ... completely lost with position and direction. It remains like this through volume 8. Volume 9 is where it picks up significantly. Instead of being in the cluttered underbelly of the cyberpunk apocalypse, it's a lot more empty, which allows the architecture to be more visible, and is able to display the character and mechanical designs more effectively. In the last two volumes, where you can see the art properly, the character/mechanical designs are quite interesting and spooky. There's an organic, insectoid look to them. The page spreads every few chapters are usually nice, with good architecture and a view of the environment from a good angle, but this does not justify the first 2 volumes being unreadable and 3-8 being barely passable.

There's no story to Blame!, which isn't that big of a problem. I was looking forward to reading about some guy walking through a cyberpunk apocalypse without any particular motivation. Killy is looking for the "Net Terminal Gene", whatever that is, and for whatever reason. That's all that's need to justify a manga primarily about the atmosphere and aesthetic. But when the visuals are dreadful, it's hard to be immersed in the simplicity of the journey. There's some lore every now and then, but none of it is relevant and it only serves to feed the fans who like this. That's a good thing. If you're interested in Blame! you deserve some sort of reward.

Just like there's no story, there's also no characterisation. Killy the spandex wanderer is looking for the "Net Terminal Gene" and that's all we ever know through to the last chapter. He has companions along the way who are often called Cibo, and one time there was another spandex wanderer who stayed around for a few volumes. Just like with the story, I was looking forward to reading something simple, without any characterisation. And again, when the main selling point isn't good, there's no reason to care.

Blame! is not worth reading. If you like architecture, type "Hagia Sophia" into your search engine. If you like cyberpunk, find something that doesn't look terrible. If Blame! didn't fail horribly with its art and paneling it could have been a great manga. Unfortunately, it's awful.

To put it simply, there is a reason Blame is such a renowned cult hit. It's art style is both captivating and horrifying, it's story extremely minimal, it's atmosphere thick as syrup, and with it Blame has always been seen as a modern classic of cyberpunk and experimental manga. If you are in for something strange and off the beaten path then you will surely enjoy this bizarre and complex piece of cheese.

Blame is about a lone wanderer named Killy, who in keeping up with cyberpunk standards, is not 100% human. Killy begins a quest to find net terminal genes, a genetic code that may ... or not be extinct, To find net terminal genes, Killy wanders in the setting of the manga, known only as The City. The capital letters and context alone may show its quite the mysterious place. The City is a vast technological world whose bizarre nature borders on surrealism in some parts. The City seemingly has no vertical or horizontal end, stretching on endlessly forever, everywhere. No government can be seen in any form, and machines run rampant doing crazy stuff. Factions of silicon based life forms and trans-humans struggle to survive in a very unforgiving and relentless enviroment, constantly put on the pressure of the Safeguard, a relentless machine god horde of creatures seemingly out of God Emperor of Dune. Killy attempts to find the Net Terminal Genes for a human faction, in an attempt to bring control to the City and the Megastructure inside. The Megastructure is an infnitely expanding series of floors in the City, seemingly making it impossible to go up or down to another floor due to it's nature of a being a gigantic infitely long space wall that is several hundreds of miles thick. Killy is the only human able to traverse these megastuctures due to his possession of a bizarre weapon with unknown origins, the Gravitational Beam Emitter, a gun so powerful that it can potentially punch through the normally indestructible Megastructure.

Blame!'s story is not really a story in the typical sense. Usually in a story you have some characters with their own development, backdrop information, and instances that drive an overarching plot forward. All of these things are virtually non-existent in Blame, which is hardcore minimalist. Dialogue rarely occurs, and you can never understand what characters are thinking. All you are presented with is Killy going around, his reasons mostly unexplained, the setting unexplained, a glossary of terms that does not exist etc. But you can figure things out about the story, however its never directly presented to you, so you have to pick things up from the details completely, which are subtle at best. Needeless to say, that makes the story completely open to interpretation, but it's interesting interpretation in the sense that it can make sense in a concrete way. Lets say you finished the manga and then went to forums to see what people thought of the ending, if they reference a particular part in the series to construct their theory, you can say "Ah, I remeber that part." It's interesting.

Art is pretty crazy. You can probably get a good idea what the style is like from this spread I posted with the review. It's very sketchy and unpolished looking, but it works well. Sometimes I like to say that "bad art is not a style, even if its consistent" but I never really found Blame's art to be bad. The only thing that was a bit strange looking was the faces, but you have to keep in mind this manga is damn old. Nihei however, has always had this sketchy style which makes the setting, and ESPECIALLY the enemies look eldritch level insane. There is not a single way I can describe the designs of the Silicon based life besides that, they look like they literally climbed out of a wormhole. Guts spill out of random places, their metal skull based on some animal thing, bizarre needle arms like Bokurano, you name it. They are all unique in overall design and they are all crazy looking.

Conclusively, its very hard to review Blame in a concrete way due its nature of being so broad in interepretation. I loved it due to it's unending surrealism and mystery and the minimalistic plot, along with the art style. I will probably never understand the intention of the story as a whole and especially the ending, if it exists. But without a doubt this rather short cyberpunk classic deserves to be read by all fans of manga.

Story - There is little story to speak of. The setting is the pinnacle of vagueness - "maybe on Earth, maybe in the future". So from the beginning we are given little to no information concerning the plot. That would have been fine, as long as I got more information from the characters. Unfortunately this did not happen. The manga begins with 2 random people whom I could only assume were the protagonists. Another man walks up to one of the protagonists and says "hey! I haven't seen anyone for a long time". The protagonist then shoots him with some kind of weapon that blows ... the man in half. The protagonist then says "I bet he wanted my cell". So our main character has paranoid schizophrenia. And this is just the beginning of the story. Two other random humanoid robot-like characters come along and steal the dying man's memory. There is then a shootout and explosions. I couldn't make sense of the action as it was too random and chaotic, and also badly drawn.

Art - The art is very rough and dirty, making it difficult to make out exactly what is happening. Character designs are quite ugly, it's hard to tell the difference between male and female characters. In addition the author seems to have some problems with drawing from different perspectives.

Character - The characters are extremely weird and behave erratically to the point where they are incomprehensible. The dialogue is very strange and makes very little sense, no matter which way I look at it.

Enjoyment - I gained no enjoyment from reading this manga.

Overall - I can describe this manga only as a collection of inane incomprehensible action sequences. If you're looking only for explosions and badly drawn humanoids then consider reading this. Otherwise don't bother.

tl;dr: A terrible plot with badly developed characters set in a pretty interesting world.

Blame is a manga set in a really interesting world. It’s essentially post-apocalyptic cyberpunk, wherein there’s what seems to be a city that goes on endlessly in every direction, including up and down, that’s managed by some sort of AI in the background in what is called the netsphere. However, humanity lost control of that AI, so it’s essentially running things on its own based on the parameters that it was given. As a result, the city has functioning systems, but only barely. Within this city there are four main factions essentially. ... There are humans who are simply doing their best to survive. There’s what’s known as Silicon Life, who are as their name suggests silicon lifeforms that are fully sentient and acting on their own desires and motivations, the primary of which is to access the netsphere and take control of the city. There’s the Administration, who are also AI with some access to the netsphere, but only a limited amount, who mostly seem to have the goal of protecting humanity and the city. And lastly there are the Safeguards, who are AI that were basically put in place to protect the netsphere from outside threats unconditionally and seemed to have decided the best way to do that is to brainlessly eliminate all those that could potentially access the netsphere, meaning all humans and Silicon Life. There are also various others in the city, such as the Builders who mindlessly build the city on and on endlessly, as well as various dangerous monstrosities.

The problem with this manga is that all of this is conveyed badly. And furthermore, in addition to it being told badly, the plot of the manga is pretty awful too. It involves a mysterious character named Kyrii and a scientist woman named Cibo going on a search for a human with the Net Terminal Gene which apparently would allow them to access the netsphere. That’s not too bad of a premise on its own, but the way it’s written it flows really badly. Kyrii’s motivations and actions make no sense half the time. He gets some background, but not really enough to establish why he’s doing any of what he’s doing. Cibo is somewhat better in that regard, as it’s established that she’s a scientist that’s mainly just in it for curiosities sake but that helps out other humans when she can, but the lack of any character development or any relationship development results in her not being much of a compelling character either. And that’s not even getting into the wide cast of side characters who are all pretty much pointless. The way the plot flows is that on the search for someone with the Net Terminal Gene, they end up involved in various situations where they fight various others, mainly Silicon Life and Safeguards. But all of these battles seem completely pointless. They generally have very little to do with the overarching plot, and the lower-level plots are pretty much random nonsense. The characters are all terrible and impossible to get invested in at all as well. Thus, it’s impossible to really care about what happens at all with anything. On top of that, it felt like most of the action was centered around the fact that Kyrii’s gun was overpowered and could destroy pretty much everything, which got really repetitive really quickly.

Lastly, there is the matter of art. It’s largely considered amazing, but to be frank I just don’t see it. The art on the covers is great, but the art in the manga itself I thought was of pretty mediocre quality. It seems interesting at first just because the world is really interesting and it does do a good of portraying that. The bizarre designs for pretty much everything do manage to invoke a sense of dread, and things like endless concrete landscapes, human architecture at an imaginable scale, do manage to invoke some level of awe. However, the art is incredibly repetitive, and these feeling started fading by the end of the first volume and were completely gone by the end of the second, and thus I thought that the art and in the rest of the manga was simply dull and didn’t find it visually appealing or interesting at all. I think a large part of why that happened is that a very large amount of panels in the manga have absolutely no story purpose and are basically just there to show the world. If the story moved at a faster pace and it was more sparing with its art, I probably would have found the art interesting from beginning to end. But just being bombarded with it just results in being numb to it and thus it not have much of an effect. That combined with how the paneling reduces the speed of the manga to a crawl and with how the story is nonsense and characters are impossible to care about, results in a manga that becomes sleep inducingly boring at times.

Also, the master edition by Vertical uses a translation that’s different from the old Tokyopop version of the manga and the anime. Most of the differences don’t seem that important to me as someone with no prior experience with the franchise, though the protagonist being named Kyrii in this but Killy in everything else is a pretty big difference in tone, so I can’t say I’m much of a fan of that.

Manga and anime are known for many things but almost all of them are known for being extremely over-the-top. Brightly coloured characters with hair flowing in every cardinal direction, shouting the bombastic names of their highly destructive attacks and furious punches, all juxtaposed with gratuitous reaction shots and intense inner monologues. This is part of what makes these mediums stand out and it's no less part of their charm. Japan in general very much has a "more is more" approach to everything. Their advertising, television, music, even bars and restaurants, the more there is to indulge the senses, the better. But what if...you didn't do ... that? What if you went in almost the exact opposite direction. Well, that is what you can expect from Blame! and the master behind it, Tsutomu Nihei. This is one of the most unique and memorable manga ever made and I believe anyone should experience it.

Blame! is unlike pretty much any manga I have ever read and it goes against almost all common tropes of the medium. Firstly, one of the most noticeable things is the prevailing lack of dialogue, rivalled only by the all-silent Gon. There is no narration, no gratuitous inner monologue, no lengthy exposition and characters speak briefly and only when necessary. The rest of the time, these pages remain silent. But that doesn't mean there isn't a deep story being told here. This is a minimalist and surrealist manga, rich with subtext that showcases a phenomenal universe full of unique and intriguing characters. We are told just enough to get a grasp and the rest is to flow from the reader's own imagination. A distinct "show don't tell" approach. For example, main character Killy/Kiryi has a very powerful gun, but instead of describing how powerful it is, Nihei-sensei shows Killy flying back violently from the recoil every time he fires, which is followed by panel after panel of glorious destruction. We aren't told how tough Killy is, we are shown how he can fly through multiple walls and still get up and keep going. This type of quiet, limited approach and visual storytelling is very refreshing and thoroughly engaging.

With so little words, the art has to do a lot of heavy lifting. But that's not an issue, because the artistic foundation of Blame! is among the most solid. Nihei-sensei is known for having a background in architecture and this shows. The backgrounds are among the most staggering you could see in any manga, with sprawling columns, corridors, intricate machinery and indescribable megastructures that are both endlessly vast and suffocatingly claustrophobic at the same time. The colossal size of these structures combined with Nihei-sensei's penchant for drawing the characters really tiny in a lot of panels also serves to create this absolutely tremendous sense of scale. Everything also feels so artificial (because it is), that you can almost feel how devoid of sunlight and oxygen these unending buildings are, as you see them vanish in the distance. The creatures and landscapes can also often devolve into these twisted Lovecraftian amalgamations of flesh and technology, so hideous and beautiful at the same time that they would make H.R. Giger jealous. Few worlds feel as rich and unending as this. The scale of space and time themselves become too vast and twisted for the human mind to fathom.

But Nihei isn't here to just show how good he is at drawing architectural sketches. His art is full of personality, quiet emotion and dense atmosphere. All of this forms the meat, bones and machinery of Blame's storytelling, which remains intriguing from beginning to end and keeps you asking about the meaning of it all. His art has this scratchy, sketch-like quality to it that contrasts great with the clean lines of the backgrounds and adds a lot of character. The action flows really well and the violence and destruction and glorious and captivating. The only real complaints that can be made are that, on the one hand, the faces are clearly the weakest point, being a bit wonky on many occasions. On the other, the murky nature of the art means that, while this is rare, the art can sometimes be a bit lacking in terms of visual clarity, as everything becomes a crooked blob of blackness. He makes up for it with the surprising inclusion of a few great colour pages though, with a distinct oil painting style.

At the end of the day, Blame! is a cyberpunk manga and one of the best at that. The story features lots of hi-tech, cybernetics, rogue automatons, alternative life forms, genetic mutation, digital realms, cruel organizations, technobabble and more. If you just want to see some great visuals and some pumping action about cyborgs fighting each other in a decrepit city, you can find that here too. It has everything you need for a quality cyberpunk tale, while also standing out greatly from all other works in the medium by taking its unique surrealistic approach to its visual presentation and worldbuilding. The writing itself is razor sharp and the characters are equal parts charismatic and enigmatic. You may be uncertain about the meaning of things, but don't let this deter you - the nuances of the story and characters, the message behind the events that unfold and the intricacies of the universe are all left to be explored and pondering what it all means is part of the experience that makes Blame! so great. So don't be afraid to stop, rewind if need be and think about it for a little while.

In conclusion, Blame! is one of the greatest manga ever made and should, in my opinion, always be considered as being up there with the true greats of the medium. It's an exciting cyberpunk story, but it's also so much more. It's a thoroughly atmospheric experience that engulfs you in its world and will captivate your imagination for a long time after you finish it. Beyond that, this manga is so rich on fine details and subtlety, that it's also among the few works that may get better on the second readthrough. In any case, I believe anyone should read Blame! and submerge themselves in this unique world, you are genuinely doing yourself a disservice by not doing so. We still need to find the Net Terminal Gene.

LOG. END.

Sure, most people older than eight hate narrators in stories, as if you can't realize it yourself eh? Point is that most people can't, and most stories have a narrator as a consequence. The so called 'hidden narrator', a supernatural being that possesses all the characters at random moments and lets them say or discuss things that are completely out of character and just absurd for them to discuss, but it helps clear things up for you, the reader. You don't really say to your arch enemy 'It's you, the guy that...' when you see them now do you? Just picture yourself doing that to ... an old enemy, it's pretty stupid and you're probably cut off and punched before you can complete.

BLAME! doesn't do this, the manga is infamous for the fact that the character hardly ever speak, in reality, they speak as little as most people would speak without a hidden narrator, and as a consequence most people are struck dumb by what exactly BLAME! is about, and most diehard fans don't know it either in detail. The plot seems gigantic but at the same time it could all be power of suggestion. The author has published some details afterwards which indeed reveal the intense and consistent with what's showed machinations in the world of BLAME! of which only shards have reached the readers eyes. A lot of planning probably went into this to make it all fit.

Said author's an architect, and this clearly shows, the backgrounds are more detailed than the characters, way more detailed. The characters in this black-and-white manga are mostly pale faced and lack detail in a way, it helps to the setting that they are quite featureless. The the contrast with the extremely detailed dark background of enormous structures works here, which are drawn with disproportionally high detail and certainly for a manga series. It's not the case like with a lot of manga that there is no background and just a face if that's enough to infer the idea. There are a lot of scene with only background in fact. It couldn't be any other way, the setting is the inside of a seemingly endless and extremely chaotic structure called 'The City'. A welcome change as I'm often to lament on the fact that humans are overused in art and fiction and getting fed up with this egocentricism of man. But The City seems to have more prominence in the story than the characters, and the characters are still pretty well made. No heroes larger than life here, sorry if you like that. The characters and the entire setting is quite surreal and grotesque, be ready for a lot of mutilation and amputation. But surely in a different way than most media, it adds to the surreal feel and the grotesque, the characters hardly even seem to notice their arms torn of and remain staring stoically from it. Imagine Alice's Wonderland assimilated by The Borg.

Naturally, as the feel is a big part of value, the re-read value is practically infinite, the second time is probably better for most people. It's like Donnie Darko, the more you read, the more you seem to understand it. And it's equally cryptic and vague. The Tagline is 'Maybe on Earth, Maybe in the Future', and that sums up the idea of BLAME!, it could take place in Earth's future, but maybe not, maybe it was a distant galaxy a long time ago? It's really not a world connected in any way to our own, and that's another escape from the arrogance of man. There's not a lot to relate for here. One of the best things I ever read.

Wow, what an amazing manga! The artwork is beautiful and very detailed. The setting and plot of the manga are very unique and futuristic. I find that even though this is a serious manga, I tend to laugh during it. I think it's because there is such little dialogue that you have to interpret the characters faces. Killy is hilarious in that respect. Anyhow, the characters are very well designed with their own distinct personalities, even the Silicon Creatures. Overall, BLAME! is a wonderful manga with a great story, amazing characters, and gorgeous artwork and detailing!

I seriously love this manga artist and I have no idea why! So obviously I liked the art? The story in this one took a while for me to pick up on, but once I did it was hard to stop reading. There are so many twists and turns and unexpected things going on in this strange world. I kinda wish this one went on a little further. I generally like more dialog but the amazing artwork makes it worth while... It almost communicates better than words

I was encouraged by a friend to read this manga, as it was a little more niche, and I like science fiction that doesn't rely on time travel to make it interesting. I thought that perhaps this manga would help me find my own personal tastes in sci-fi and cyberpunk. This wish went without fulfillment, however, as I was taken by surprise that the manga has absolutely no plot.
I'll start off with the good parts that I found enjoyable. The art and character design is stylized, and works perfectly for the "story" attempting to be ... portrayed. It gives the audience a sense of unease and sorrow, which is perfect for a post-apocalyptic world, and is uncommon these days in almost all forms of art. Moreover, the villains' character designs are all creepy and genuinely terrifying to a degree. However, this is where the praise ends.
Here's the main issue with BLAME!; a book or movie or show needs a plot of some assortment, no matter how small. Even the expendables gives a slight excuse for all the gore and violence. BLAME!, however, gives no excuse for the violence accept that a vague mcguffin is being hunted for by Killy, our main character, and he's a violent loner. Which brings me to the characters, who may as well not even exist, as they never speak, never emote, never interact interestingly, and make the experience as bland as physically possible. Even when these two mains, Killy and Cibo, are separated in this hostile, violent world, neither seems to care. Even when either or both are severely injured, they simply shrug and never speak. Why would this choice be made, when there are so many interesting interactions within the "plot" presented to be had? All that's spoken about is the aforementioned mcguffin, and that isn't even fully explained at all.
Very little is explained or expanded upon, and the entire art style, which I still really like, becomes nothing but an excuse for violence, and not even a good one. You could say that the environment becomes the explanation for all my gripes, but then there's the matter of why Killy wants the mcguffin, why Cibo decides to help him in her multiple incarnations, why the silicon lifeforms and safeguards are hunting them, how the entire Net Sphere is accessed, why humans have been banned, and why their main antagonist is so virulent throughout the city. Thus, I give my rating of an overall 3/10.

Originality isn't necessarily a good thing, and Blame! is a complete example of that.

At its core, this manga follows a very classic "quest" storyline, similar to all the poems about the holy grail etc: we meet a hero on a quest, the hero has to fight a lot of enemies, he makes some friends along the journey, the enemies are getting stronger, some of his friends betray him, but the hero finally manages to overcome all those obstacles and completes his quest. That's the basic outline of this type of story, and Blame! follows it quite meticulously.

The reason why this kind of story usually ... works, and why in Blame! it falls flat on its face, is quite simple: the CHARACTERS. The characters in this manga do not have any personality at all, no background, no dreams, nothing. I usually complain that some manga characters are one-dimensional, but here it's even worse, these characters barely have any dimension at all. As a result, I don't feel anything at all for the protagonist when he faces danger, when he escapes "death", when his friends betray him, and so on. I don't feel any attachment to them, and no emotion at all apart from complete frustration. It's even worse for the "enemies", who are basically nothing more than faceless clones. Because of Blame's unique technique of storytelling, this results in a quest story for which I couldn't feel anything at all, and even though I can't deny it is quite original in itself, I can't say it makes for a good story, quite the opposite.

Other elements don't help matters, such as the repetitive action scenes, the "same-face" syndrom for the main cast, and the non-sensical twists, but I don't mind them that much compared to the utter void that is the characterization in this manga.

Despite all these flaws, I can't give this the lowest score, because they were a couple of elements that I liked. The ending is actually quite beautiful, even though it's not worth slugging through 65 tedious chapters to get there. The worldbuilding is fairly interesting, with an otherworldly air, and the art is pretty good when it comes to post-apocalyptic landscapes. I think I would've liked it much better if this was a single-volume manga about Killy simply walking through all those desolate landscapes, considering how bad the actual story is it would've been better to have no story at all.

WARNING:
I am not a writer, in any form; so sentences may seem random and misplaced. I apologize ahead a time. ALSO - This review is fully biased, GET OVER IT. ALSO - I don't like writing either so this is most likely going to be extremely short.

I FUCKING LOVE THIS SERIES! Ok, I got that out of my system, but the point isn't to rant on about how much I love it. I'm suppose to convince you to read it. Before I get to what makes me "FUCKING LOVE THIS SERIES", I'm going to ask this - "Why haven't you read this already? WTF ... is wrong with you?"

Anyway, Blame is just one masterpiece after another from the gorgeous artwork to a unique story telling method. Let's start with the artwork.

The artwork is beyond that of a manga, in my opinion. Each panel seems like it could be standalone and make major profit. Just the fact that all of these beauties are all pieced together into a story is awesome (I can remember most of all of the panels, and I have favorites.). The artwork would be the key point in the series, because it is used more often than words to tell the story.

SO, from that you can tell - you are going to be confused to what the fuck is going on for a good amount a time. ACTUALLY, scratch that, if you don't come to your own assumptions and use your imagination - you'll never understand what's going on. AND, that to me, is the beauty of this series. It's something you can sit and chat with friends to form your own opinions of what is going on and form your own story. Except from the key points the series already gives you, which are; man named "Killy" is traveling upwards, in a strange world, searching for some kind of DNA. This is a form of story where you could re-read this multiple times and get a different story every time you read it and that is awesome to me, it's like an RPG.


I don't know if I already said this, but I FUCKING LOVE THIS SERIES. This is something that I am going to recommend time and time again. So to any of my buddies, if you ask for recommendations, be prepared to see Blame! on the list every time. One thing I do have to complain about is - WHY ISN'T THERE MORE, I WANT MORE. That is all.

Later.

Wow. That was what I said when I read the first volume.
Wow. That was what I said when I finished the manga.

Before reading the review, if you are new to BLAME!, read it right now. My review will not help anyone at all.

Alright. I spent an hour trying to think of how to write this review. It ended up as twisted and confusing as the story in BLAME!. Just like the manga, I don't know where to start I decided there is really nothing to accurately describe the story. I believe it was the author's intention for the reader to come up with their ... own explanations.

What I will tell you is that this is a very bleak, lonely, journey for the protagonist Killy. He searches for a human who can access the Net and save the "City". The City is a huge infrastructure of innumerable levels that Killy must climb to find what he's looking for. On the way he meets many bizarre villains and characters. He and his trusty gravity beam emitter will destroy anything that gets in his way. While on the journey, he befriends Cibo who he saves at a plant and she becomes an invaluable character to Killy's aid (in more ways than one you will read).

You cannot really dump BLAME! into one genre or category. It has many elements of cyber/steampunk, but you will also get surrealism (think de Chirico/Dali later on), and many VERY SUBTLE philosophies (i.e. read the chapter with clones, deep meaning) on random chapters.

The art is the storyteller for words cannot express what the hell is going on. Dialogue can mean everything or nothing at all or both at the same time.

You don't ever know much about Killy, some characters know him, some don't. He hardly talks but as you read, you will find that he has many hidden human aspects on the decisions and actions he makes.

What can I say of enjoyment? You get addicted. One reviewer said he/she already started to miss it right after reading it. I feel the same way. The manga gave me better satisfaction than some mangas that take 300-500 chapters.

The closest thing to this that I can relate to is the anime Texhnolyze. The only thing in common between those two are bleakness and loneliness. At least for BLAME!, there is little hope at the end of the labyrinth.

This is a must read. You will not be let down. I will now read the other books and reread this one and I may update again.

Blame! is an absolute nightmare.

Blame! feels more like a tone poem than a narrative. There isn't a terribly coherent story. No clear goal or destination. Characterization is vague at best. The whole thing feels somewhat surreal.

What you do get is an exploration of a truly hellish city that's completely devoid of humanity. Every panel feels claustrophobic and threatening.

Reading Blame! was a weird kind of torture and I'm honestly not sure if I enjoyed this series or not. It was off-putting and I frequently wanted to just stop reading. But it's engaging and fascinating in a way I don't ... understand. I had to see what happened next. I wanted to see where the story would go.

The first thing that should obviously be noted is that this comic lives by its art. If the art style was anything different or not as outstanding it would fail — it tells a story through its art; a story of shifting emotions and also plot but there's very little dialogue involved.

The story also does not have a beginning or an end; it's præsented simply gaining a view-port, a small time-frame of a far larger and complex plot and world that adds to the expansive feel of the story.

It's very emotional but it's about human emotions; it's more about being immersed into a vast world ... and being amazed by the phantastic otherworldly design of it.

Personality wise the characters are very uninteresting but their design is often remarkable; this is not a story about men but about the world they inhabit.

Due to its unorthodox narrative it seems to be something one either loves or hate — truth be told I can't even honestly answer whether it is actually "done well" because it is the only thing that has done it so there's not much to compare it with.

There are definitely week points like a lack of psychological definition to its characters, a seeming lack of actual plot and certainly a lack of plot twists but it also feels like it really doesn't need it and one doesn't feel after having completed it what truly happened but it's also a comic that makes you not really care.

As a result of this the re-read value is very high; one could be spoiled about every single development and it still would not really diminish the value in any way.

Blame is a cyberpunk series that explores the effects of transhumanism in a post-apocalyptic setting. In the world of blame! machines called builders were built by humans in eons past and they do exactly what you'd expect. The built and built unchecked forever building more and bigger builders until they're progress exceeded the bounds of earths atmosphere and enveloped the entire solar system. The resulting gargantuan labyrinth came to be known as "The City".

We're introduced to Killy, a man of few words, as he traverses the city looking for a human with net terminal genes. A very illusive set of genes that would allow humanity ... to gain access to "The Net", a supposed future rendition of the internet, where they would be able to stop the progress of the builders and maybe save humanity.

Tsutomu Nihei's series boasts a very dynamic and sketchy art style that's most likely a result of his training as an architect. His world is expansive and ever changing. His character designs are also very eerie and similar to the works of surrealist artist H. R. Giger.

Though there isn't much dialog the world manages to draw you in with it's atmosphere alone. It's landscapes are some of the best of cyberpunk has to offer and with characters straight from the bottom of uncanny valley.

The humans that inhabit this world have all been warped in some way. Some are excessively tall and some have been given physical augmentations to help them survive the cruel world of the City. On Killy's journey decades and then centuries pass without result. The further up he travels, the further he gets from earth, the stranger the humans become and the less human Killy acts and is perceived by the reader and other characters as he regresses further and further from his humanity. Without spoiling anything this makes the ending bittersweet as Killy's final acts of the series are some of the most human represented in this manga.

this manga is not for everyone. Its abstract story telling style and lack of dialog and characters could easily be seen as boring by the more casual reader. But for anyone who felt intrigued by this description, it is defiantly worth looking into. unfortunately, it was owned by tokyopop who have gone under making copies expensive to buy first hand.

Blame is a niche series tailored for a specific audience that enjoys strange cyberpunk stories with ambiguous endings. There is little dialogue, and the plot is minimal—it’s essentially about walking around a labyrinth in a post-apocalyptic world, searching for something.

The true driving force of Blame is its architecture. The buildings and backgrounds on every page are astonishingly imaginative and showcase the mangaka's incredible skill. I can't even fathom creating such designs, let alone drawing them.

However, Blame has its issues. The action is often hard to follow. For instance, a character might be shooting one moment and falling several stories the next amidst a flurry of ... explosions. This sounds fine on paper, as gun battles and explosions are commonplace in action stories. Yet, it is difficult to discern the characters' positions relative to each other due to Blame's complex environments. The dark inking and scratchy art style also makes it challenging to visualize and understand the scenes.

Despite these issues, I wouldn’t call Blame a bad manga. Its high rating is largely due to its exceptional architecture and backgrounds. The intricate designs that the mangaka achieved in Blame are something 99% of people would find impossible to create and draw. However, if you're looking for a story-rich manga with deep character development, thought-provoking themes, and easy-to-follow action, Blame might not be for you.

One of the first things you'll notice about Blame! is just how well drawn it is. Each page has so much detail that some of the more subtle details may even be lost on you unless you really pay attention or just flat-out re-read it.


The next thing you'll probably notice is that there isn't much dialogue in Blame!. The world of Blame! is incredibly bleak and empty, and the lack of dialogue really reinforces that feeling of hopelessness you may feel in some of the chapters.


The story is pretty basic at it's core. The story follows Killy ... as he travels around this massive cyberpunk world on a mission to find Net Genes. This is no simple task however, as the world of Blame is so massive it basically takes up our entire solar system. Along the way he'll meet different people, make enemies, and endure hardships.


Probably the best thing about Blame! in my opinion is just how wonderful the art is. Nihei creates a world that really sucks you in with just how imaginative it is. The environments are all very unique, ranging from very cyberpunk-esque cities to temple-like buildings. The character and creature design is also top notch.

All in all this is a must read for anyone who is into cyberpunk settings with bleak atmospheres.