BLAME! Vol. 1

BLAME! #1

by Tsutomu Nihei

In a future version of Earth, there is a city grown so chaotically massive that its inhabitants no longer recall what "land" is. Within this megastructure the silent, stoic Kyrii is on a mission to find the Net Terminal Gene—a genetic mutation that once allowed humans to access the cybernetic NetSphere. Armed with a powerful Graviton Beam Emitter, Kyrii fends off waves of attacks from fellow humans, cyborgs and silicon-based lifeforms. Along the way, he encounters a highly-skilled scientist whose body has deteriorated from a lengthy imprisonment who promises to help Kyrii find the Net Terminal Gene, once she settles a score for herself...

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

396 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 23, 2015

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

[Dylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I spent most of this not having any idea what was going on, but boy did I have a great time not having any idea what was going on.

[Dennis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now that one was interesting.

Kyrii is one of seemingly very few remaining humans that live in a city that’s grown vertically, to an enormous extend.







He’s trying to make his way up, in search of the Net Terminal Gene, a genetic mutation that allows humans to connect to some sort of network. Frankly, it isn’t all that clear.



Tsutomu Nihei is using an interesting approach, where he’s telling the story mainly through the artwork. Kyrii encounters several different factions (a lot of them not human) and subsequently a lot of trouble on the way up. But barely anyone seems to know much about their own history or that of the other occupants. As far as I can see, the machines have taken over and being one of the remaining humans gets you in big trouble.



But nothing gets explained in detail and generally there’s very little text.

So what this graphic novel does is to give you some great artwork, a claustrophobic atmosphere, a lot of action, and also some gore, a setting that reminded me of Blade Runner and Hugh Howey’s Wool, characters that look like they're straight out of Metal Gear Solid, Terminator or I, Robot, a few hints at what might have happened, and then lets you fill in the blanks.

Interesting.



It’s also a little challenging for the reader, because the lack of text makes it tempting to flip through the pages quickly, when what you really want to do is take your time and let the story form in your head.

I couldn’t quite get the hang of it, hence the three stars. It seems my brain is having trouble functioning properly in the heat we're currently having around here, or under any conditions really.

I think I’ll give it another chance (brain and graphic novel that is) with the second volume.

[ScottIsANerd (GrilledCheeseSamurai) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was 10 years old the first time I read a comic book that had no words in it. It was a G.I. Joe comic, issue 21, called, 'Silent Interlude.' I remember being blown away that I could follow along on this Snake Eyes story even though it had no words in it. The artwork literally told the story and It singlehandedly changed the way in which I looked at comic books.

Now, 30 years later, enters Blame! While Blame! does have text and dialogue within its story, it is very light and pages can go by without a single word being spoken (or thought). The artwork is absolutely fantastic and the world itself becomes the main character of the story. I thought it would be faster to get through than other Manga because there were so few words to read, however, it took just as long (if not longer) because I was taking so much time in absorbing the art and how brilliantly it told a story that so very easily pulled me within.

Blame! is cyberpunk weirdness that begs to be explored and discovered and every single page was an absolute pleasure to behold. I've already bought the 2nd volume and I can't wait to dig in!

[Jack Tripper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who’d’ve thunk that a graphic novel could trigger feelings of both megalophobia and claustrophobia at the same time? A self-replicating city so vast and never ending and forever expanding that the word “land” has lost its meaning. I’d imagine the word “sky” has as well.

One man wanders endless gigantic, labyrinthine passageways and stairways — while avoiding and/or blasting waves of nightmarish, eldritch-looking machine/biological hybrids that can spawn right out of the floors — in search of anyone with a certain gene that allows them to jack into the net. That’s about all we know for certain. Normal humans are exceedingly rare in this world.

The eerie, oppressive atmosphere and sense of isolation was palpable, and the only thing preventing me from rating this (mostly dialogue-less) cyberpunk-horror gem 5 stars is the fact that the action was very hard to follow at times. Then again, I’m not a huge manga reader so maybe I just have to get the hang of it.

Oh and the artwork is amazing. I don’t know what was cooler: the insane, ominous mega-structures or the horrifying H.R. Giger-esque cyborg abominations. All I do know is I can’t wait to find out what the hell is going on.

[Igel :) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art was extremely beautiful, especially the buildings and architecture were drawn with so much love and detail.
But the rest ? Everything else was incedebly underwhelming. Almost no dialog, one dimensional characters and no real plot.

I don't really want to continue the series tbh.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Manga! Black and white! Off to explore new things...

I did not like most of this comic a lot. Mostly, because it lacked a recognizable storyline for me. It seemed to be issue after issue of showing the main character Kyrii climbing up inside some kind of gigantic metallic structure, meeting various of its inhabitants on each new levels and being chased and fired at by equally unrecognizable bad guys. And I couldn‘t even figure out, who or what those bad guys are. Or the good guys. Plus Kyrii was very one-dimensional, with no personality at all. Nothing to relate or to root for.

Good art, sometimes very good art. And sometimes art that was so chaotic that I couldn‘t recognize at all, what I was looking at.

So a very mixed bag at a 2+ star level for most of this edition. This only changed for me in the last two issues. Story telling! Motivation! Human interaction! I liked those two issues a lot and they bumped up my rating to four stars. I might even continue with the next volume!

Here is my blow for blow commentary of each issue. Sorry, it all got away from me somehow, it‘s really long.....:


::LOG.1:: NET TERMINAL GENE
I am confused. I don‘t have experience with Manga, so I guess I will have to get used to the story telling. Luckily I knew that Mangas are read from right to left—at least something.



::LOG.2:: THE MEMORY OF LAND
Yep, still confused. The artwork is manga-ish, I guess. Every now and then a panel is of higher resolution and quite pretty. More often I have a hard figuring out what I am looking at.



::LOG.3:: TECHNOMADS
This set-up reminds me of the Matrix a little. Hiding away from and being chased by creatures that are oddly organic, but with mechanical components. Mentioning of a Net. It‘s all very mysterious.



::EX-LOG::


::LOG.4:: THE ADMINISTRATION
Our hero (?) Kyrii is wandering through a massive structure, maybe underground? Moving up through „stratas“, meeting other humans, mostly humans, various aggressive creatures of some sort. There has been „a mutation“ and he is searching for genetic material from before that mutation. Not sure, who the good guys are.

::LOG.5:: ESCAPE
::LOG.6:: SILICON LIFE
::LOG.7:: THE BUILDERS
Finally, a little story telling to give context to what the art is showing...

::EX-LOG:: ABANDONED NEST
Coloured artwork, that‘s a nice change!



::LOG.8:: THE CLUSTER ★★★★★
Now this I liked A LOT! Finally an issue with a proper plot! Build-up, action, an actual storyline I could relate to...





::LOG.9:: BIO-ELECTRIC, INC. ★★★★★
Also good. Introduction of an interesting new character, who feels as if it might stock around.

So, the first seven issues were not my thing. But this one and the previous one tell a story and actually made me want to continue.

...

Various other stuff:

Watch this Netflix trailer after reading the comic. It is very cool, but contains spoilers: https://youtu.be/hwy806RC2-Q

Interview: Knights of Sidonia Mangaka Tsutomu Nihei
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/inte...

Found via the above interview:
An interesting Manga website with free weekly chapters of various Manga series, with links to comiXology, no less! Very cool!
https://kodanshacomics.com/simulpubs/

[Bill Hsu · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is pretty much what I expected from my previous Nihei experience (Abara). The sheer architectural immensities are impressive and breathtaking, packed with (attractive) young characters, in life-threatening situations, often involving bizarre creatures and baroque machinery. It's not always easy to tell what's going on in the action sequences, but that's not why we come back to Nihei.

Some of the creatures are quite Lovecraft-ian. Gou Tanabe's Lovecraft adaptations have been getting good reviews, but Nihei's treatments and layouts are IMO vastly more imaginative and original. While I'm pretty tired of Lovecraft adaptations, if Nihei did one, I'd totally check it out.

[CS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bullet Review:

Not a huge consumer of manga, but my coworker found this one, so I gave it a go. Although I found a lot of the action hugely confusing, overall it had a great sense of place and surrounding - desolate, endless, huge vast caverns and canyons of conduits and metal. Silence. Decay. Mystery.

So while the action failed for me, I found that the emotions this drudged up in me were more than enough to bump up the star rating.

[Chihoe Ho · Rating 4 out of 5]

Japanese manga does cyberpunk so well. "Akira" and "Ghost in the Shell" are classics, and "Blame!" is worthy to rank among them. This master edition collects the story in an oversized format. It follows the mysterious Kyrii, who armed with a powerful handgun searches for an elusive mutant gene in a futuristic world unlike any other.

I love how simplistic the story is told. Dialogue is minimal which really gives a sense of how isolating a journey that Kyrii is on. The plot unfolds slowly but you pick up nuggets of clues along the way. There is a foreboding evil lurking in the darkness of the black and white panels, only to be followed by rapid successions of attacks by the twisted silicon life in this robotic megastructure. Together with the casualty of mangled body parts, this is what nightmares are made of.

So much more of this world is still to be uncovered and I cannot wait to dive in further. If the "Ghost in the Shell" live-action movie does well, I can see Hollywood looking for more sci-fi manga adaptations. Well, they can only blame themselves if they overlook this series. At the very least, we can count on Netflix with their anime movie adaptation coming in 2017.

[Victor The Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

BLAME!, Vol. 1 (My Kindle Review)

Taking place in the far future which Earth is now a post apocalyptic world full of large metal buildings, we follow the quiet and serious Kyrii who is journeying to find a mutation that is connected to a mysterious cybernetic. During it, he comes across other cyber assassins, dangerous mutated creatures and other survivors who will help him on his journey. He’ll do whatever it takes to survive and complete his mission.

There is a lot of sci-fi action found in this manga, while for now the story is taking its slow pace. The environment is full of very grand and interesting architecture, while the story’s tone always keeps a serious tense feel. The action always gets quick and even gory, while the alien-like creatures and cyborgs are fascinatingly creepy. Story wise, it does have its own pace while half the time, there’s not much dialogue but that doesn’t ruin it though.

It’s a thrilling and seriously tense manga that sci-fi action readers will really enjoy as it’s pretty sharp, while its story looks look it’ll get more interesting soon. B+ (83%/Very Good)

[Mangrii · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 / 5

Meterse de lleno en Blame! sin saber nada puede ser bueno, o malo. Es un arma de doble filo. Por que admitámoslo, Blame! no es un manga sencillo. Más bien, todo lo contrario. Nihei deja toda la construcción narrativa al lector. El mangaka simplemente se dedica a dejar imágenes tras imágenes. Es más, en las casi 400 páginas del volumen, ni un cuarto contiene un diálogo. Y la que lo hace… tampoco explica mucho.

Es por ello que entrar a la historia de Blame! es complicado. Más que complicado, duro. ¿Quién es este hombre de negro que avanza por los niveles de metal de esta curiosa megaestructura? ¿Dónde están el resto de humanos? ¿A dónde llevan tantos miles de pasillos, salas y escaleras? Solo sabemos que este hombre llamado Killy avanza con tesón y un arma prácticamente invencible que acaba con todas esas máquinas y cyborgs que se ponen a su paso.

Blame! es puro deleite visual, donde Nihei, arquitecto de formación, se deja las entrañas en explotar un ambiente postapocalíptico desolador compuesto por niveles y niveles metálicos. Pasadizos, escaleras y salas que no sabemos de qué modo funcionan por el que pululan androides, robots asesinos, bichejos monstruosos,…

El encanto de Blame! se va cogiendo en el tramo final de este primer tomo. El lector empieza a situarse, a interpretar y a seguir con mayor facilidad la frenética acción que acompaña a todo el volumen. Si el primer volumen de Akira, Vol. 1 parece que no dejan de pasar cosas, en el primer volumen de Blame! sucede algo similar. La acción es continua y el puro motor de la historia. Las escaramuzas de Killy contra el variopinto elenco de personajes es nuestro vehículo por la impresionante y colosal construcción de Nihei.

Y al final… parece que algo vamos dilucidando. Algún resquicio de una trama que se nos esconde, o de la que nos faltan pistas para comprender ¿Qué son esos Constructores? ¿Y los Vigilantes? ¿Existirá algún humano puro con capacidad de conexión a la red? Y la más importante… ¿Quién narices es Killy?

[RG · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting story which is really told via art more so than dialogue. A sci fi world with some cool action scenes and villains. I sometimes find stories that are predominantly art suffer from the overall world buidling. This does a little and at times you kinda want more about why he's searching for the terminal net gene. Interesting imagination as some of the creatures have some messed up designs. Definitely a more mature style manga.

[Álvaro Arbonés]

Tsutomu Nihei lleva toda la vida con nosotros. Como adalid del manga cyberpunk, el espacio arquitectónico infinito y las búsquedas no menos infinitas entre masacres justificadas por decisiones de raza, inteligencia o territorio, sus historias siempre acaban orbitando sobre la idea de una humanidad condenada buscando el modo de volver a sus días de gloria. O cuanto menos, intentando no ser absolutamente aniquilados por entidades sintéticas.

Blame! Master Edition es la excusa perfecta para volver al peculiar universo de Nihei. Y no sólo por el rediseño, con portadas hechas para la ocasión —donde se ve el descomunal salto en calidad del acabado del dibujo de Nihei—, o por el mayor tamaño.

Incluso si Blame! se disfruta más cuanto más grande son las páginas.

Esto es así porque una de las cosas donde más destaca Blame! es en la inmensidad. Inmensidad de escenarios llenos de detalle en perspectivas imposibles; inmensidad de un mundo donde residen tantas especies, razas y criaturas sintéticas que es posible perder la cuenta ya en el primer tomo; inmensidad en sus ecos western que nos hacen sentir como si estuviéramos leyendo una historia épica e inconmensurable de uno de aquellos míticos Man With No Name cuyo nombre, esta vez, es Killy.

Porque contra lo que dice la sabiduría popular, ocurren muchas cosas en el primer tomo de Blame!. Se nos presenta a Killy, descubrimos que va en busca de algún ser humano vivo con un gen capaz de conectarse a la red, que vive en un lugar conocido como La Ciudad —también que es una mega-estructura imposible con miles, si es que no millones, de pisos—, que sus enemigos acérrimos son las criaturas de silicio y que hay una especie de gobierno en las sombras dispuesto a exterminar a la humanidad. También descubrimos que el arma de Killy es un emisor de rayos gravitacionales, una tecnología perdida atrás en el tiempo, y que hay una ingeniera capaz de sintetizar los genes para conectarse a la red llamada Cibo. Si además sumamos que hacen aparición unas criaturas llamadas Constructores, que construyen y reconstruyen la ciudad sin orden ni concierto, decir que no ocurre nada o su equivalente en imbecilés, que no se explica nada, sería mentir descaradamente al respecto del manga.

Todo está en su sitio. Todo ocurre como debe ocurrir. Y es difícil no sentirse interpelado por la búsqueda de Killy y el constante vaivén violento que ello conlleva.

Su único defecto tiene que ver con la propia inexperiencia de Nihei. Aunque de diseño espectacular y trazo expresivo, algunos de los diseños de personaje han quedado demasiado anticuados. Algo que se hace notar en comparación con la portada de la Master Edition, con diseño de personajes renovados, donde Killy pasa de tener un trazo agresivo de adolescente gótico angustiado a un más sólido aspecto de llanero solitario cyberpunk. Del mismo modo, la composición de páginas no siempre es del todo clara, haciendo que, de vez en cuando, tengamos dos o tres páginas donde tenemos que inferir lo que está ocurriendo, porque la disposición de viñetas hacen confuso seguir el orden de los acontecimientos.

Todo ello minucias a pagar a cambio de arquitecturas imposibles perfectamente representadas, acción non-stop y una narrativa indirecta perfectamente hilvanada que no se permite ni un segundo calma. Algo que irá a más con el paso de los tomos. Pero incluso si nos quedáramos aquí, en este primer tomo, Blame! seguiría siendo una de esas encantadoramente desmadejadas obras maestras de la narrativa.

[Patrick Soucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

After only one volume of the Master Edition, I don't quite understand everything about the story (yet) but I loved all the scenes -- the quiet moments and the action sequences -- and I'm in love with the gorgeous cyberpunk/trash/gothic art of Tsutomu Nihei! This is definitely something similar to Giger's biomechanical art, and this is a treat if you love that style. What an amazing world! I saw the Netflix anime movie, and this is what made me bought the original manga (and few others stories from Nihei), but I can say that reading the original work is an even better experience. I can't wait to read the next volume! After, I'll read the manga version of the movie along with Blame! Gakuen (and so on), followed by my 2nd viewing of the anime. Fun times ahead!

[Sookie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The very definition of picture paints a thousand words...it requires some amount of work to understand, world building is explored through myopic perspectives through the eyes of an observer and it's fantastic.

It's slightly tedious as much of it action.

[Ytr0001 · Rating 5 out of 5]

To jest wspaniaaaaałeeee, jak mam teraz żyć? 😭
.
.
(Zamówić kolejny tom, wiem, już to zrobiłem, ale jeszcze nie dotarł 😭)

[Nate D · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wouldn't expect to be so entirely drawn in by something so seemingly emptily action driven, yet the short bursts of violent confrontation here punctuate pages of lonely exploration of an indeterminate built environment (a mechanized empty "city" so large and ambiguous as to be functionally endless) and create an eerie, memorable rhythm of post-human isolation and devastation. A lot of this, then, ends up serving as a kind of wordless architectural surrealism, from which the vague outlines of a plot begin to well up in pure fascination. But as this was the only volume in our library system, it may be a bit before I can go on with it.

[Javier Muñoz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nihei nos lleva a un futuro distópico extraño, una enorme ciudad subterránea que parece abarcarlo todo, miles de niveles y como cielo una pequeña rendija que deja ver la luz del sol. En esta ambientación Killy busca humanos cuyos genes no hayan sido modificados, tendrá que enfrentarse a inteligencias artificiales, ciborgs asesinos, extraños seres producto de la evolución humana...

Este es un manga en que los diálogos no tienen gran importancia, la mayor parte de la historia se nos va contando mediante secuencias de imágenes... los puntos fuertes son las escenas de acción y sobretodo los ambientes extraños a los que nos lleva nihei, hay muchos detalles que descubrir, así que es necesario detenerse en las páginas para disfrutar del arte e intentar ir entresacando alguna pista que nos haga entender mejor la historia.

Esta edición concreta es muy buena, mucho mayor tamaño que los manga normales, de momento me ha dejado muy buena impresión... estoy deseando que salga ya el segundo tomo

[Rod Brown · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reading this graphic novel is like watching over someone's shoulder as they play a pretty dull video game. The protagonist is a first-person shooter questing after any human containing a genetic MacGuffin in a high-tech wasteland that literally consists of hundreds of levels. He has a gun so powerful it bowls him over on his ass whenever he fires it. Everyone and everything he meets either tries to kill him or gets killed in the crossfire. I'd guess any popularity this series has may come from the gory fights and imaginative tech on display in the artwork. But the art on the faces and bodies of actual humans is actually pretty mediocre. Hard to believe this tripe is from the creator of Knights of Sidonia 1, a Battlestar Galactica/Shogun Warriors mash-up that actually included interesting characters and a plot.

[Christian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I wasn't completely blown away with the first installment of this series, but I'm certainly invested enough to keep going. The art is a mixed bag for me. The architecture-heavy background designs were completely engrossing, but the way some human characters were drawn felt strangely amateurish, and the action sequences were sometimes hard to follow.

From a narrative standpoint, the plot is advanced with a "less is more" approach, and I think that's handled very well here. It holds back enough that I feel there's a lot to discover about this world, and it dangles enough in front of me that I want to keep following the breadcrumbs.

[José Vázquez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blame! tiene un aura casi mítica en el manga. Una de esas obras a las que tanto pega el adjetivo "seminal", con una trama críptica y un dibujo que parece haber influenciado no solo a otros autores (Gantz parece una especie de hijo directo), sino casi a la percepción que tenemos del manga, con esas armas más grandes que aquellos que las disparan, explosiones sangrientas, acción a raudales y una imaginería imposible.
Lo más destacable para mí, que siempre he sido un fan de las historias, es el dibujo. Nihei crea unos escenarios y unos personajes que son puro sentido de la maravilla, y los disparos y las expl0siones componen un collage visual que te deja anonadado. Pero lo más espectacular es sin duda la Ciudad por la que se mueve Killy, una estructura extraña y majestuosa llena de seres mecánicos de aspecto demasiado orgánico que no paran de surgir de la nada.
Aunque solo al final se esboce un mínimo de continuidad, la historia se limita a un tipo llamado Killy que busca algo llamado "Genes de conexión de red" para poder parar a la "Agencia Gubernamental" cuyo objetivo parece ser matar a todos los humanos. Por el camino, se encuentra con gente y le pasan cosas. De alguna manera me resulta muy conanesca en ese sentido: un personaje que llega a un sitio, destroza a todo y sigue su búsqueda eterna parece más un arquetipo de espada y brujería que de cyberpunk.
Una delicia visual en cualquier caso, y entiendo por qué es considera uno de los must del seinen.

[Roman Zarichnyi · Rating 4 out of 5]

«БЛАМ!» — дебютна манґи Ніхея Цутому в жанрі кіберпанку, читання якої зіграло зі мною злий жарт. Знаючи про цю манґу давно, узагалі не мав ніякого уявлення, що там усередині. Тому певні перші враження були іншими, аніж очікував. Але давайте не забігати наперед.
⠀
У світі поза часом і місцем самотня постать, озброєна лише незвичним пістолетом, мандрує просторами нескінченних споруд з’єднаних між собою. Усередині Мегаструктури, хаотичного зростаючого міста-гіганта, кілометри іржавих балок переплітаються з покинутими фабриками, металевими коридорами, одинокими поселеннями, оповитими вічним мороком без жодного проблиску неба чи виходу на тверду землю. З гравітаційним випромінювачем у руці таємничий Кіллі вирушає у свою самотню мандрівку лабіринтом, де серед тіней та іржавих залишків минулих століть зберігаються відгомони людства.
⠀
Блукаючи нескінченним коридорами та будівлями із бетону й сталі, він стикається з кіборгами та дивними істотами, які зазнали дикої еволюції. У цьому світі всі шукають невловимі гени мережевих терміналів, загублену в давніх мутаціях здібність підключатися до кіберпростору під назвою Мережа. Але справжня сила їхньої могутності залишається оповитою таємницею. Можливо, ключ до розгадки цієї загадки захований у віддалених людських анклавах, розкиданих просторами цього похмурого та експансивного світу майбутнього.
⠀
Вміння гарно розповідати історію завдяки послідовності кадрів є вкрай важливим для сценариста й художника. А коли оповідь складається із малої кількості тексту, або ж десятками сторінок без тексту, а рухається виключно завдяки малюнку, то це стає вкрай важливо. Сприйняття оповіді в цій манзі (найбільше саме динамічних сцен), далося мені важко. Адже занадто сильні часові розриви між кадрами чи незрозумілі динамічні події, які розібрати не так то й легко, часто зупиняло читання. Тобто, те що має сприйматися інтуїтивно, змушувало докласти багато зусиль для оцінки й розуміння певної сцени. Та потрібно згадати, що це дебютна манґа Ніхея Цутому, що може пояснити багато. І потрібно ставитися до цього з розумінням. А вже в другій частині цього видання можна помітити, як цей аспект сильно покращився завдяки розвитку сценарної і художньої майстерності автора.
⠀
Груба й захоплююча краса цього світу полягає в ретельній увазі художника до кожної деталі. Поєднання індустріального занепаду та залишків людського існування показує світ, що балансує на межі забуття, але все ще жевріє пульсуючою енергією виживання. Особисто для мене дослідження цього світу разом із його мешканцями чи не найцікавіший аспект цієї манґи, який стоїть поряд із неординарністю головного героя. Його рідкісні діалоги та відсутність емоційного вираження, за винятком епізодичної ворожості до певних форм життя, ускладнюють розуміння цього персонажа. Крім того, мотиви залишаються незрозумілими, що теж додає загадковості особистості Кіллі. А його визначальні характеристики насамперед стосуються витривалої статури та надзвичайно потужної вогнепальної зброї, якою він володіє.
⠀
Та, як не крути, ці всі хитромудрі сторінки, наповнені малюнками архітектури й колосально великих будівель, що височіють над мініатюрними людськими постатями, перехоплюють подих. Це кіберпанкове дивацтво, яке так і проситься бути дослідженим і відкритим, і ледь не кожна сторінка була абсолютним задоволенням, попри перепони згадані вище. Тому я можу лише сказати, що якщо вас заінтригував сюжет та світ, то обов’язково потрібно взяти і спробувати посмакувати цю манґу.

[Urbon Adamsson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow.

Seriously. I just don't understand how some books are not more well known.

BLAME! is an outstanding narrative visual experience! The art is just mind blowing. I can't help but to think how much work each panel must have taken. It's so beautiful, so well done.

There is no sinopse. Nothing is said about the story. We follow someone that looks like a human but it's unclear if he really is one. The main protagonist explores a dystopian vertical world of metal and technology.

A world that seems dominated by machines but where humans still find ways to survive. Along the way we'll find interesting characters and places.

A lot of the art style and world building reminds me of Druuna because of how weird it is.

BLAME! was a great acquisition. Specially this master edition, it's amazing viewing this amazing art in this size.

Highly recommended for any sci-fi fan or any adult manga fan in general.

[Li Ya 🪷 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blame nie jest dobrą mangą na początek przygody z gatunkiem cyberpunk, bo jest dość chaotyczna. Tak naprawdę nie do końca wiadomo co tu się dzieje, bo jest w niej naprawdę mało dialogów. Na ponad 300 stron, może na 50 są jakieś dialogi. Ale to nie jest też manga, którą czyta się stricte dla fabuły. Najważniejsza jest tutaj kreska i unikatowy sposób, w jaki Nihei buduje miasta.
Kelly, nasz główny bohater, przemierza różne kondygnacje futurystycznego miasta, wspinając się po jego różnych częściach. Ciężko to wytłumaczyć, ale przysięgam, że klimat tej mangi jest niesamowity. Kelly chce zdobyć terminal genowy (cokolwiek by to było), który od lat jest zaginiony. W tym celu przemierza poziomy miasta, pnąc się w górę i po drodze pokonując wszelkich, zmutowanych wrogów.

The point is - ludzie vs roboty

[Remxo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kyrii is searching for the net terminal gene in a far future techno-dystopia: a multilayered infinite city that goes on forever in all directions, with giant tubes and cables growing everywhere like vains on top of metallic skin. Blame! is a bleak and violent action-adventure with very little dialogue or exposition. It's pure visual storytelling and I loved that about it. You find out bits and pieces about Kyrii and this world as you read on.

If Moebius and Q Hayashida had a child, that's what the art looks like to me. Nihei's works mostly analogue. They had a show of his work at the Angouleme Comics Festival a couple of years ago. Layers of ink and whiteout with rasters, paint and cut out bits on top. He likes to get his hands dirty. Great stuff.

[Iva · Rating 5 out of 5]

(як тільки опублікується огляд для UAGeek, відредагую цей відгук та додам посилання)

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

I initially stumbled across this in my twenties at a Kinokunia book store. Back then, I was instantly drawn to the bleak geometric monochrome backgrounds and landscapes. 20 years later they are still mezmorizing. If you enjoy art that you can get lost in, this manga doesn't disappoint. Great world building, interesting characters and amazing art start to finish.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. This was pretty awesome. I haven't read much manga in years, but I wanted to see how the Oasis handled it. Answer: pretty well!


I'll be continuing with this series. It's like Akira stacked vertical. Good shit.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never read manga as a kid or specifically sought it out as an adult, but that's starting to seem like a tremendous oversight. After Ito, then Berserk, and now Blame!, it's clear that manga is where the purest veins of opulent, grotesque, original weird/dark genre art are found. Makes me wonder what other neglected treasures are waiting to be found in the medium. There is, after all, an enormous amount of manga out there.

When Blame! is at its best, it is a tour of an endless gallery of McQuarrie-esque scifi building-scapes, horrifically vast in scope and strange and indifferent in detail. And it isn't just an empty setting: it is a dynamic place reshaped and inhabited by creatures and machines and people just as strange and indifferent, where humanity is an ever-present concept but is manifested as something distant, abstract, unreliable. The whole tone, along with much of the premise of the plot, is very Soulslike. There's an aura of undeath and timelessness that swamps the immediacy of the violence and exploration, a sense that the few overt clues in the plot are only a shallow and misleading glimpse of an underlying world that is tantalizing, vaguely spiritual, and ultimately incomprehensible. It feels like a ready-made model for a sci-fi From software game. Or a substitute for the dark and weird nightmare Star Wars story we'll never get.

When I was first conceiving this review, I was expecting to say negative things about the storytelling in the series. The world building is wonderful, but the actual story itself is clearly an afterthought. Encounters with enemies and friends are sudden and arbitrary, factions and motivations are impossible to keep track of, characters swap bodies or teleport around in space and time, the story jumps forward in century scale leaps, storylines in one area are abandoned as characters abruptly move on to another, etc. Action scenes are messy and hard to follow and rarely entertaining. And yet, after watching the animated movie adaptation, which pulls hard in the opposite direction and suffers for it, it seems a lot more obvious that that narrative style is the only one that can achieve the feelings this story is trying to evoke. Or at least, it doesn't matter that it fails on that front. Story just needs to provide enough context to build intrigue, enough momentum to make the tour engaging, to maintain the tone of lonely, interminable seeking that keeps the zoomed out shots so personal and poignant. Leaving the characters ephemeral, their motivations unclear, their progress intangible, all aids that end.

[Сергій Чудакоров · Rating 3 out of 5]

Давно мріяв почитати. Українське видання дуже якісне, навіть фак-ап в кадрі на стор.369 не зіпсував враження.
Проте до художника виникло дуже багато питань. Наприклад чому люди на його сторінках ніяк не реагують наприклад на вибух - стоять в повний зріст і навіть не всі дивляться в потрібний бік. Або чому у головного героя очі дивляться в різні боки? Це не виправдовується авторським стилем, аж ніяк.
Добре що під кінець першого тому динаміка вже більш-менш вирівнюється і є надія що другий том буде набагато цікавішим.
Не хочу тут писати багато «бу-бу-бу», може якось зроблю відео… ;)
В цілому плюсів більше ніж мінусів, тому, попри те що ставлю трійку, рекомендую до покупки. :)