BLAME! #1

Blame! [ブラム!] #1

by Tsutomu Nihei

Las aventuras de Killy en el cyber-laberinto. Una mezcla impactante entre la estética Matrix y el cine gore. El primer manga cyberpunk.

Genres: Manga, Comics, Science Fiction, Graphic Novels, Cyberpunk, Fiction, Horror

248 pages, Paperback

First published June 23, 1998

About the author

See also 弐瓶 勉.

Tsutomu Nihei (弐瓶 勉 Nihei Tsutomu, born 1971) is a Japanese manga artist. His cyberpunk-influenced artwork has gained a strong cult following. He has a relatively large community of fans in Germany where his manga Blame!, NOiSE and Biomega were published by Ehapa. Blame! was also published in France and Spain by Glénat, in the US by Tokyopop and in Italy by Panini Comics.

At first he studied architecture and later it is shown up in his manga works with drawing huge structures. This became one of his general theme that makes his manga unique. His works are usually in black and white. He is also an avid fan of the video game series Halo, as he mentions in his commentary section in the Halo Graphic Novel.

Taken from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsutomu_...

Reviews

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rereading this series after three years has just got me thinking one thing:

Blame! is a place where art is the story, words are optional and loneliness is inevitable



I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A lot of the comics and manga I've read are passable, or even good.



Others are excellent and exceed my expectations.



But for the first time, something so profound and beautifully stylised has come along (or has been around for a long time) and blown my mind.



This is a manga with fantastic drawings that set an atmosphere I haven't encountered since the mystique of Blade Runner. This manga is an author's blood, sweat and tears poured into an artwork that took him six years to complete. And you can feel its beauty seeping at the edges of every page.



Unlike anything else I've read before, this work of art does not hand you the story up front- it gives you an atmosphere, a drawing and a tiny smattering of dialogue to fit the pieces together. Blame! contains one of the most unique forms of narrative I've ever experienced - a narrative where you are the co-author; where you fill in the blanks and enrich the story with your own thoughts.



Blame! is filled with philosophical meanderings that aren't too forced or lacking - in fact, it has the perfect blend of existential dread and kick-ass action.



Most importantly, this manga is so personal. In every frame featuring a life form you feel their sadness, distrust and anger shouting at you from the pages.



A must-read for fans of cyberpunk and the existential elements that follow suit.

[Caro the Helmet Lady · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review goes for the whole series, there might be mild spoilers ahead.

You're not gonna like this cyberpunk manga if you're into:
- funny/humorous stories,
- well developed/likable characters and/or ones you can identify with,
- witty dialogues and/or dialogues in general,
- logical explanations and answers served to you on a golden plate,
- art that is pleasant to your eyes and full of diverse landscapes,
- any kind of action that is developed more than an average shooting computer game,
- optimism.

All above said, I shouldn't like it much myself. But I loved it to the point that I finished 10 volumes in just two nights (then again, it's not like there was a lot of reading...). What is it, making this graphic story so interesting?

First of all graphics, of course. Quite messy in starting chapters, later it gets better and more polished, and it gives you the feeling of endless bad dream that you can't escape - biomechanical(?), concrete and steel megastructures, pipes, endless corridors, wires etc. (I am still not sure if it wasn't a virtual world somewhere deep in the Matrix, to be honest.) And there's some strange sinister beauty in this landscape that is definitely not human friendly. Cyborgs, robots, AIs - just awesome. Strange, scarily anthropomorphic and zoomorphic creatures, alien and deadly. I could read this manga just for those.




Plot - not that special, pretty much it's an endless quest for an item that barely exists, some kind of Holy Grail. But the plot is not the most important thing here, while the depiction of this cold world is. And it's all depicted in - surprise! - graphics.

Characters - Killy and Cibo, who get a lot of damage and physical transformations - and considering those of Cibo, I guess the psychological transformations as well. We don't know about them much, we don't learn more in the end. They remained as mysterious as they were.

This story leaves you with more unanswered question in the end than you had in the beginning. Who was Killy? Was Cibo really who she said she was? And Sanakan, what about her? Was it even real world? What with the timeline, was it linear? Who was the child Killy saved in first chapter, who was his friend helping him? And when did it really happen? What about the ending? I could give you more of those.

I like stories that are challenging and this one was definitely one of those. Atmospheric art is a huge plus and it helps you to get inside the world. I would wish for a different ending but then again - it would be a different manga, and this one is just fine.

I'm looking forward for more Tsutomu Nihei's works, this guy is really interesting and promising mangaka.

[Dennis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has actually been the second time I was reading this. Last June I read the Master Edition, which collects volume 1 and the first three chapters of volume 2. But it was terribly hot at the time and this is a challenging book. So my brain, in a (somewhat futile) attempt to enable me to do some basic stuff of everyday life, switched all memory functions off, apparently. Therefore a re-read was in order, before I‘m continuing with this series.

Well, these older editions are even more challenging. There’s not a lot of text here. Tsutomu Nihei basically gives you a lot of pretty artwork and a bad-ass protagonist that doesn’t talk much, but carries a very powerful gun, of which he makes extensive use while he’s making his way up through the gigantic, vertically grown, (post-apocalyptic?) city, in search of the Net Terminal Genes. Why? And what exactly are the Net Terminal Genes? No answers yet. At least the text is giving you none. You have to use your imagination.



What complicates matters though, is that these older editions are harder to decipher than the Master Edition, which is already not an easy read itself. While the art really looks very pretty, the lack of coloring and often times either busy or blurry panels, combined with the lack of text, make it pretty hard to make out what’s actually going on. When characters are only a blur (albeit a nice looking one), there’s barely any way of telling what happened to whom at some particular point.

This book requires patience. Towards the end there are a few hints at what might be going on here. But I would totally understand if someone doesn’t feel the urge to continue after this first volume. I recommend to read the Master Edition, as it gives you a little more information to work with. And it also has reworked, refined artwork that makes it a little easier to decipher what’s happening in the respective panels. Nihei also changed the name of the protagonist and reworked some of the dialogue. Though from what I’ve seen, it doesn’t make much of a difference.

On to volume 2.



This was a buddy-read with Cathy, Rue and Tyler who were all reading the Master Edition. Because they are clever. And I am me.

[Strangerealms · Rating 5 out of 5]

This dark, gritty, alienating, violent cyberpunk manga is really good. The artist Nihei is really gifted to draw buildings and he creates an empty world left with never ending growing buildings, metallic structures, and deadly creatures out to get you. The structures and the Safeguards who were once protecting the population, are now out of control and kill everyone on sight, due to a virus the population was exposed to. Killy is set to find a person whose genes (Net Terminal Genes) are uncorrupted by the virus in order to get back the control over the structures and the Safeguards since only such a person can access the control center. During that time the Silicones, the official bad guys, keep causing troubles and want to stop Killy. Thankfully, Killy is a powerful cyborg and makes friend along the way with Cibo a scientist.

The manga has barely any dialogue, Blame! is the kind of manga where you really have to pay attention to each image and even reread a few times the manga in order to really understand what is going on. I think it is worth it.

This is my review for the whole manga.

[Amin Matin · Rating 5 out of 5]

عالی
کیفیت طراحی‌ها اشکمو درآورد.
منتها حتی یک کلمه لعنتی هم از بک‌گراند داستان و در کل the city و مگا استراکچر نمی‌دونم، گویا باید قبل خوندن بلیم چند تا مانگا دیگه هم خوند.

بیخیال فعلا که ادامه می‌دم.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, if this ain’t another case of “looking cool and artsy as hell while making zero sense” I don’t know what is. One thing is certain though: Killy is the kind of guy who pulls the trigger on his bomb ass gun (a graviton beam emitter, no less), no questions asked. Oh, and he’s really tough, too.

[Carlex · Rating 4 out of 5]

ESPAÑOL: Horror tecnológico, vértigo y, sobre todo, un mundo sin esperanza en este manga ciberpunk.

He visto una cuantas series de anime pero este es mi primera lectura en este medio. Cuando lo cogí prestado de la biblioteca lo hice más por impulso, sin saber de qué trataba. Ahora compruebo que es un clásico muy conocido entre los otaku, así que hice una buena elección : )

Lo he disfrutado, una experiencia nueva de lectura, no solo por el medio sino sobre todo por las sensaciones que consigue transmitirte este autor. Ahora toca ver la versión en anime disponible en Netflix.

ENGLISH: Technological horror, vertigo, and above all, a world without hope in this cyberpunk manga.

I have seen a few series of anime but this is my first reading in this medium. When I borrowed this volume from the library I did it more on impulse, without knowing what the manga was about. Now I see that this is a classic well known among otakus. So I made good choice!

I have enjoyed it, a new reading experience, not only by the medium but above all by the sensations that this author manages to transmit to you. Now it's time to see the anime version available on Netflix.

[Frédéric · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mean silent guy with a mean look and a meaner gun randomly walking in ugly settings. Even less plot than dialogues which is no mean feat. No way I can endure that for ten volumes.

[Brandon Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crazy cool illustrations!

[Monsour · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never seen a manga before that focus on image narration rather than normal character conversation. It's makes the reader make guesses and figure out the plot for themselves rather than waiting for answers in the next chapter or so(like those normal shoneen manga we normally read).

5 starts

possibly my next favorite Sci-fi manga since Gantz.

[Eadweard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not much of a manga person but Blame! was very enjoyable, loved his style, the massive structures, the designs of the androids/creatures, etc. There's not much dialogue but it fits well with the atmosphere and style.

A journey through dark, cavernous superstructures, encounters with human dwellers, machines and murderous transhuman cyborgs.

[Himanshu Karmacharya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing beats the feeling than finding a manga you immediately get hooked on.

Tsutomu Nihei's Blame! takes place in a post-apocalyptic world and follows the adventures of Killy, who is a man of few words but lots of action. There's not much dialogue and exposition going on, however the world building is subtle and the overall design, magnificent!

[Raven Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

CYBER PUNK
TBH IDK what's happening!!! But it's cool. It's gonna take some more chapters to understand and with all the gun fights I love it.
Our main protagonist seems to be in a giant maze which has thousands of floors and he's trying to go up but there's no end.

[Violet ♡]

The manga opens with a guy and kid wandering, then getting attacked by some kind of species in a gigantic and deformed building. I was initially perplexed as to how the story would unfold.

The silent-type main character has this powerful gun and superhuman abilities. He can still move forward despite those blows!💪



The art is fine, but the setting is something, those heights and divisions! Truly suits the dystopian genre.



Action-packed and violent!❗

[Sima ✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I should listen to an action-inspired playlist while reading this, because... WOW, that was so good I'm impressed how with little words but great art style I enjoyed it!

[anne⁷ · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had no idea what the freak was going on. There's no backstory nor explanations provided. The author just throws you into the story without any sort of information to back you up. Like waking up in the middle of a war after sleeping peacefully in your bed. The speech is only about 10% of the whole volume so you have to try and make out what's going on by relying only on the visuals. It would've been tolerable if the art was good, but it's not. They all look the same only with different hairstyles. Though "different" would still be a stretch. Also large forheads, same face shape and wide space between the eyes. Horrible art, really.

But back to the story, I'm not really good with visuals unless they're moving so I really didn't understand that much. There's this guy, Killy, who's in a what it appears is a veeeery huge building that's supposed to be abandoned with a lot of alien-like technology and there are giant insectoid beings and cyborgs and tons of i-robot things. No idea why they're killing each other but there's definitely bloodbath and wirebath(?) courtesy of the cyborgs. So yeah, I probably won't be reading anymore of this.

For some reason, despite it being a manga, it is read from left to right and I was reading it from right to left until chapter 4. Also, the title is actually read as "blam," not "blame." Really these Japanese people. >.<

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review stands for the entire series. In short, the art is beatifully complex and the story is immensely bleak but there is quite a bit to enjoy here. If you like dystopian stories then this might be one to check out. The main character is pretty much a blank slate and the "plot" is relegated to a videogame-like search for an item but the world-building is awe-inspiring and the art reinforces the tone Nihei works to create. I sometimes found the action a tad hard to follow due to the absurdly complex art but most action scenes were well-done and the character art is pleasingly unique. One thing I should note is that if you are going to pick up the series, make sure to get the first two volumes at the same time. The first volume is a good addition but doesn't give you almost any plot explanation or progression- it's all intoduction.

[Iophil · Rating 5 out of 5]

La storia è nebulosa, oscura... ma il disegno di Nihei è incredibile e irripetibile.
Edifici e creature deformi, atmosfere inquietanti e desolanti, figure folli e insensate.
Claustrofobico e allo stesso tempo magnificente, futuristico e decadente, angosciante.
Mi ha ricordato un misto tra Escher e Piranesi, il tutto in chiave post-apocalittica e mostruosa.
Forse letterariamente non è eccezionale, ma questo fumetto è magnetico anche solo per il tratto unico.

[Miguel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started reading Blame! when I heard that Nihei's manga would be adapted into a Netflix film, but it took watching the film to spur me to complete the volume. In a sense, the film serves as a sort of rosetta stone to understand the unfamiliar, "inhuman" manga.

When I think of Blame! in its incoherent, alien manga iteration, I remember some of the early criticisms of Blade Runner upon its original release. When Pauline Kael reviewed the film for The New Yorker in 1982, she eviscerated it. At the end of her review, Kael writes:

[Blade Runner] hasn’t been thought out in human terms. If anybody comes around with a test to detect humanoids, maybe Ridley Scott and his associates should hide. With all the smoke in this movie, you feel as if everyone connected with it needs to have his flue cleaned.

Though Blame! is, unlike Blade Runner, not at all fixated on discerning copies from the genuine article or resolving the anxiety of the impossibility of discernment, one could still imagine Kael accusing Blame! of inhumanity and suspecting Nihei of being a Scottian Replicant.

Blame! replaces familiar, humanistic pleasures with unfamiliar and unsettling ones. Nihei's landscapes are haunting, only alluding to lush greenery and recognizable natural beauty by utterly refusing it. And yet, Nihei's bleak technoscapes have their own beauty and pathos to them. The humans who inhabit Nihei's universe are of questionable biological origin, but beyond what their bodies are made of, it is the fact that they have been reduced to machinery in a world where you can never learn to be human. I was struck by the suggestion of letters appearing behind the retinas of the humans, Killy in particular, and the frustration of Killy at his complete inability to recognize what they might mean.

But what Nihei's protagonist and characters can't learn is precisely what his manga teaches us. How to be a different kind of human, and appreciate a different kind of pleasure. Nihei's characters aren't sympathetic, familiar, or even recognizable as narrative functions. Nihei's plot is indistinguishable, chaotic, and nonsensical. And his art, too, follows in those traditions. And yet there is something undeniably riveting here in all its inscrutability.

There are familiar things to latch on to. Killy can be imagined as the wandering protagonist of a western or samurai film. Killy's stoicism is matched by the loquaciousness of his supporting cast, a familiar dynamic in fantasy and genre literature. But above and beyond all that, Nihei imagines a different kind of humanity and enacts it in his aesthetic practice. Blame! delivers unknown pleasures from another scene.

[Ludwig Aczel · Rating 3 out of 5]

6/10
A post-apocalyptic cyberpunk western.
We have two protagonists. One is Killy, our cowboy of few words, with a look vaguely reminiscent of the sandman, and a handgun that shoots like a cannon. The other protagonist is the architectural hell in which our hero wanders. Squarely designed structures forming some kind of vertically infinite dungeon. Nihei indulges a lot in showing the silent dark corners of this silent dark place. The author was fresh out of design and architecture school when he drew this debut of him, and for better or worse one notices it.
I had an hard time understanding some action scenes. Nonetheless, I applaude the courage of the author in basing an entire manga on almost only action scenes (when he is clearly not an Otomo or a Miyazaki).
The story is very episodic in nature. Nothing against that, only I am at the first volume and I already perceive a certain repetitiveness. Let's see how it evolves. In general, I'd say it is a cool manga, but I am yet to be impressed, especially considered its fame.

[Paco Correa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una historia post apocalíptica en donde no se dice mucho del trasfondo de porque todo terminó así , ciudades infinitas , desoladas , habitantes humanos , híbridos , sintéticos y un protagonista misterioso y sumamente interesante , son algunos de los ingredientes de esta obra que pareciese que fuera la inspiración de Matrix .. excelente comienzo , una historia que cuenta tanto con tan pocas palabras .. sus imágenes , sus escenarios inmensos , los gestos tan humanos de su protagonista en medio de un mundo carente de lo orgánico, son los medios con los cuales se nos va contando poco a poco el trasfondo de esta misteriosa y futurista historia

[Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a dark cyberpunk story with very little dialogue, the storytelling is rather minimal but I'd say that this actually adds to the atmosphere and mystery which compels the reader along.
The artwork is stunning and is really the main star of the book, the detail and skill of Tsutomu Nihei creates a mythology without using words and makes me want to continue reading to learn more of this world and hopefully find out what the hell is going on!

[Fugo Feedback · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lo que Dark City fue a Matrix, Blame! lo es a Gantz.

[Mayo · Rating 5 out of 5]

me ha encantado no me he enterado de una mierda

[47Time · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why would you spell something that is supposed to sound like 'Blam' with this spelling: 'Blame!'? That is nothing compared to the confusing artwork. It's imaginative, chaotic and futuritic with numerous impressive vistas, but the story throws you right into the action when you need some basis to understand what you're seeing. The synopsis on the back cover says enough to get you started, though, and it's a breeze to skim through given that the text in this very review is probably as long as half of the text in the book.

Killy, the main chracter, is on a journey to recover net terminal gene samples in a setting that has no plants or animals. It's a construction strenching endlessly for untold levels. He meets organic and synthetic enemies that want him gone, primarily the Authority whose role in this world is yet to be revealed. Killy has a very powerful gun that helps him out of tough spots. He leaves destruction in his wake as he makes his way toward higher levels in the construction. His next stop is a place called Akima.

[Brian M · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first graphic novel in a couple years. Feels a bit like cheating with how little dialogue there was in this one but I’m counting it anyway. I found this one from a Reddit thread about the largest worlds in science fiction. The setting of Blame! is a seemingly endless garbled labyrinth of cobbled together gritty futuristic industrial grimecore (is that a thing?) structures and technology. The creatures/machines that inhabit this world are extremely original and come in so many various shapes and forms. Nihei has some serious, and darkly, creative juices. The artwork is absolutely incredible, and I’m really looking forward to continuing the series. I did have a little trouble reading and following at times, but I’m mostly blaming me being out of practice with graphic novels in general, and not used to reading the opposite direction for manga

[kellin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was absolutely fantastic, There are hardly any words in this, but the art is so beautiful that it tells the story it's self. I absolutely loved this one definitely will be continuing this series.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good. Uh oh, I think I may need to finish this at some point...

[Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

banger

[Layla Zenin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Omgomgomg