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Description
Killy is a man of few words. He wanders, seemingly endlessly, through a lonely, gargantuan labyrinth of concrete and steel, fighting off cyborgs and other futuristic nightmares, searching only for something called Net Terminal Genes. And he has a very powerful gun, which he uses without hesitation whenever anything resembling danger rears its ugly head. Who is this quiet, violent, determined man and what are these Genes he seeks? The small communities he finds tucked into the crevices of this towering, dystopic ruin hardly give him leads on his treasure, driving him to find larger enclaves of civilization where people can reveal more about the world he lives in and the quarry he seeks.
This manga focuses on and succeeds in giving itself the feel of a wired world of meat and cybernetics living in the wake of a much greater past. It's massive and hostile architecture dominates scenes and creates a sense of scale that makes the City seem truly unending.
The main characters are actually rather good for the genre. They are not supremely emotional, but they convey what they need to and have their own wants, desires, and feelings which are brought to bear with their actions. Though there is some explanation given, most of the setting and the past is shown through action as opposed to monologue, which enhances the mystery of the world.
Just a few pointers: - Overleveled scans can be a very bad experience to read, so, buy the volumes, they are translated to many many languages. - If the only thing you usually read is something neatly draw, you have get accustomed to the art (more than a minute to read a page would be needed xD) - Don't expect to know everything in just a chapter, nor a volume. This is supposed to be read slowly. - Don't expect to know every detail at the end of the manga (like the origin of every character). - Have some imagination. - If the latter is missing, reading many books usually helps xd.
Many people complains that they didn't really know what the story was about, some even dare to say it has no story at all -_-' It happens simply because pacing can be so slow, small pieces of data comes bit by bit and you have to arrange them by yourself to know what was really going on. Once you straighten all of those pieces in your mind, this is a really simple, straightforward story.
Personally I always hated all those shonen mangas that explained everything to you in a panel like you were some kind of dork, they didn't care of making the story interesting, they didn't left anything to the imagination, didn't put any effort to create art and just used panels to prostrate words. Blame! was the best it could have happened to me on my early days reading manga, it set a standard that i consider it to be the one in which every other manga should be measured to, in terms of letting the art do some of the storytelling, i think manga must be all about that, otherwise there would only be light novels around.
The lack of natural object in this manga is what makes BLAME! a good read.To really describe how cool this style is, words can approximate but you want to read BLAME!
Apart from visual arts, the world of BLAME! is so depressing and chaotic. It also shows how small and how low humans are. Like most reviewers, we have read it for the first time a few years ago and the flashback of this chaotic world remains in our memories. Pick it up again and love it, then write a review.
The plot is *not* ambiguous. Nihei is always like this, he left all the hints or details just about necessary, readers have to read it slowly and thoroughly to understand what is going on, it is intentional. The biggest challenge is on the cryptic or technical words, I don't like it either but it is arguably part of theme though
Read this a few years ago. The art is amazing (well, since then I have been humbled by Kaoru Mori, Etorouji Shiono, In-Wan Youn, and more) mostly in term of a "cybernized" world. The story, while being almost devoid of dialogue, generated a heavy atmosphere of devastation and ruin with scattered semiconscious beings driven by instincts or obsolete eon old commands.
Well, as I recall, the whole story was - about or ended up being - the sowing of an embryo of hope into this world overtaken by death and darkness.
Truthfully, apart from the art and somewhat slowish pace, it was not as memorable as I thought. Nonetheless, still a great post "Ghost in the Shell" work.
I love it, I'm annoyed by it, I can't stop reading, I get bored of it. Blame is a cyberpunk manga that relies heavily on its visuals and detailed environments and not on dialogue, text, or facial expressions. The places and creatures are very beautiful but it's frustrating to not know what's going on. Either way, I think blame is worth the time to check out. Other details:
Spoiler (mouse over to view)
The plot is very ambiguous and often I don't know what just happened. Time has no meaning as the characters live for centuries and can exist beyond flesh or metal as data. They're also killed off at a rather high frequency (though whether they really die all the time can be questioned. Though, I think the plotholes are on purpose. Killa's mission propels him to continue on his journey and not stay behind to see the fallout. Therefore, he and the reader never know what has happened, will happen, or why.
First and still the best Nihei's manga. Blame! depicts a seemingly endless journey of Killy. But who is this Killy and what is the purpose of his travel? Does the author knows?
A border between cyberpunk and biopunk isn't clear. And right from the beginning some explanation may come in handy, Blame is cyber/biopunk in its pure form or it's close to that form. Before reading Blame! try to forget the modern (and wrong) "feel" of cyber/biopunk presented by various creators mostly of American nationality (you definitely know what exactly I am talking about). Cyberpunk is supposed to be confusing, ambiguous, somewhat inconclusive, with morally questionable protagonist. Nihei got every single damn thing right.
What's more expect great almost soundless atmosphere accompanied by excellent drawings. If possible I would like to take a little trip to the Megastructure.
And please, let Oshii Mamoru direct some movie adaptation of Blame!. Nihei plus Oshii would be the best possible combination. Come on, we're waiting for something like that to happen for years now!
Who is that cyborg with dog in first volume? What organisation stands behind her? Definitely not authorities or safeguards (Killy doesn't recognize them at first meeting). First authority was like a human child. But there are no more authorities of such model later on. Why did that child attack humans? That's what safeguards would do. Second time Killy meets authorities they look exactly like safeguard's exterminator model. Why Killy seeks for net-terminal gene? Why he abandons his search for clear genes? "Net-terminal gene" doesn't sound like "clear".
I can go on... But to say it simply. Nihei has no plan for whole story.
What saves this manga is gorgeous atmosphere and art. Lack of dialogs adds to atmosphere of desolate world. No humans - no dialogs.
The whole Manga is hard to relate too because all the characters are alien in the true sense of the word. No character is acting with any sort of human perspective that the reader could relate too. Also not a lot of expiation is given so it wasn't until vol 4 that there was any sense of real plot. But due the alien nature of all of the characters is was more of looking at the pretty pictures and seeing what happened next then proving any real story or characters.
In short: it's an interesting art piece.
Don't go reading it expecting anything in the way of plot or characters.
The art is always good and, by the ninth volume, incredibly moving. It is difficult to tell what is going on-- and when-- for a number of reasons.
The main one is that you have to think while reading it. You have to actively ponder what is going on.
Blame! creates a very, very unique atmosphere that can be hard to get used to (though I loved it) It doesn't have a sense of time other than "endless." All we know is that a long time passed between certain points.
Characters tend to stick in your memory, and the story is filled with a bunch of symbolism
A very good series. It says much without a lot of dialogue. You get a real feeling for the size, space and emptiness of the setting because of the lack of dialogue. You feel that Killy has been wandering around the structure for a long time. The art is unique and interesting, but may not be everyone's cup of tea. I pretty much couldn't put it down. That said there are places where it suffers from a bit of incoherence and it breaks down a bit. Places where if things were better expressed would have helped the story. It sometimes gives off a feeling that it is a collage of ideas and settings stitched together. Still a very good series.
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