Blame! is not a manga that everyone will love. Even if your friend is "nosebleeding" about it, the same effect will not take place in your case for sure.
As for myself I've read first volume at least 7 times. When I read it for the first time I think that I stopped at chapter 4. At that time I thought like "What the hell is this about??" and dropped.
Then after some time I tried again and read the whole first volume. And this time my thought was "What the hell is this about, really??" and dropped.
Then maybe one year later I decided to try reading it for the last time. And this time I read really slowly, looking at every page clearly and thoughtfully, tried to make some predictions in my mind and tried to connect past events. This time after 1 volume my thought was "Well... I didn't understand it that well, but god! it's interesting!". The second volume had effect bigger than anything else (I think first two volumes are the most interesting). And so I read it fully to the end. And after that my thoughts about it all were "God, I hardly understand anything, but it was just awesome!". While reading it my head constantly ached, because it was so complicated and very hard to comprehend. But I did get fun while reading it.
And just now I wrapped up reading whole manga from the ground up. And now my thoughts are "Wow... I've understood all this thing!" And my interest for this manga increased quite well. All this NetSphere system with it's rights and creatures is just too interesting! This world just absorbs me. I also have read NOiSE, NGE, Blame2, just to peek something new about this world. This manga is really something, when you love cyberpunk, dark future or if you are interesting in programming or something of that kind.
And I really think that I will read it for once more in the future, just because It's Blame! and it has so many mysteries and inscrutability. And one more thing that I also like in this manga is that you can't read it just without any thoughts, it really requires reflection.

i'm reading it now, i've picked it up mostly because everyone was nosebleeding about it telling me it's "awezume"... ok, I'm at vol 3, but i don't get what's it about, I even searched for blame on wikipedia... I agree with metamike, the dialogue is really too little... yes, the art is impressing, but the story... i'm bored and somewhat irritated being at a loss, not having a clear idea what's going on... i hate it when the plot has no start and no finish, or better to say - no destination point... i don't know whether i'll have the nerve to complete it someday.. i'm not gonna put any rating officially for now, but in general it gets 6 from me only because of the art...

... Last updated on January 7th, 2010, 10:32am

1. the artwork is lavish, detailed, copious and dark.
2. the story is good; not generic cyberpunk. it moves slowly, partly because of the artwork being so elaborative.
3. the story is also elaborated very little itself. there is little dialogue. so many people will find this manga confusing or alienating.
overall, it's great, but not easy to read. you have to really commit yourself to it.

This is one of my favorite series. I love the dark atmospheric art. No other manga I've read has compared with this in setting. The plot is complicated and imaginative, and made further confusing by the lack of dialog. Information is not spoonfed, you really have to pay attention to what the art is saying rather than the (minimal) words. This one definitely has re-read value as well, just to see what I may have missed the first time around. As I said, Blame! is one of my very favories. I own all 10 volumes and I can't wait for Nihei's other work, Biomega, to be published in English. I will run out and buy it ASAP.

I read this quite a while ago. It was one of my first manga. I recall that as I read it I had no idea what was going on about half the time, but it was awesome.

the only reason i gave it a six rather than a 9 is due to the fact I couldnt get what was happening most of the time....drawing wise.........

now im sure he is a great artist......im not saying his drawing was bad.........im just not used to this style.......and it takes me awhile to understand what the picture is.....thus im usually lost

If you are of the kind that requires every point to be handed to you on a dialogue encrusted platter, this isn't for you.

A pleasant manga with a steady pace that when one gets used to it doesn't rush to where it's going at all. While most manga I read usually wraps things up nicely with a pretty little bow at the end, this one will leave me thinking on it's themes for many days to come.

Rating: 9 / 10

... Last updated on September 12th, 2008, 11:06am

How exactly are people calling this a "must read" manga if...well...there isn't anything to read? I'm serious, about 2 sentences max per chapter, sometimes no text at all per chapter. Sure, I said "whoa" a few times, and got a pretty wallpaper from one of the scenes, but...that's pretty much all this manga amounts to.

Sorry, I personally hated this. Still, I won't rate it lower than a 6.

lol i agree too most of the people here. yes at the beginning it was boring as hell, the only reason why i continue it was b/c of the art. but OMG i'm glad that i did continue reading it ! it just got so addicting afterwards! lol i hated the ending =.=""" lol it truthfully at first doesn't make any sense but if u read it over again like i did it actually make perfect sense. lol xD

This manga is totally overrated. For a manga that emphasizes illustrations over dialogue, I found the art unimpressive and unoriginal. It's hard to tell from the drawings what's going on, not just with the plot, but during battles scenes too. Also, it doesn't help that the author explains almost nothing and the characters are not charismatic. The overall concept is not bad. But, it feels like the mangaka was trying to squeeze too much into too little.