Blame! Alternative title for Manga: guy has the worst luck ever.

[Deleted member 4494]

Was looking for something to watch a little while ago on Neflix and found the Blame! movie, which claimed it was some kind of un-filmable story, or something. If they meant barely-watchable, they were on to something. *But*, even though it was bad, it was just barely good enough to make me realize whatever it was, it was based on something likely fantastic.

I'm not a Manga reader. In fact, to this day, the only Manga I've ever read was Akira, which I would recommend to any serious reader of sci-fi period. It's amazing.

Today I'll add another serious recommendation to people who may not be anime/manga fans, but love them some good sci-fi: Blame!

Only on the second book so far (I've ordered 3), but holy shit is it nightmare fuel in the best possible way. Expansive, beautifully-drawn Sci-fi world, amazing creature design, and action that flows from scene to scene. It's quite the experience. The main character seems to go from shitty situation to shitty situation, barely making it out alive. Without spoiling anything, the story takes place in some kind of larger-than-life structure built to house what seems to be the entirety of humanity (which has now been segregated, and evolved/devolved concurrently).

In short, if you like HR Giger designs / Sci-Fi / Dark comics with a penchant for super ultra-violence, then check this out.

As I'm still reading, I'd prefer anyone here to *avoid spoilers*. But please, do talk about this thing, and how awesome it is.

Some images below to give a sense of what it looks like:

 

[RotBot]

I gotta say that reading Blame!, Biomega, and Tsutomu Nihei's other stuff kind of ruined Knights of Sidonia for me. I was absolutely not expecting that amount of moe high-school romance tropes going into it.

 

[Deleted member 932]

Unfortunately, I feel like Blame! kinda goes south starting with book 3. The scope gets bigger and bigger for its own good, and at the end the story is kind of a mess.

 

[Deleted member 4494]

I gotta say that reading Blame!, Biomega, and Tsutomu Nihei's other stuff kind of ruined Knights of Sidonia for me. I was absolutely not expecting that amount of moe high-school romance tropes going into it.

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Oh for real, Nihei is the Knights of Sidonia creator?

Man, I only watched an episode or two of that show, but I didn't care for it too much. I think the big problem is that Neflix CG is far too distracting to work appropriately. Now that you point it out though, I definitely see how that world could come from him.

Is Biomega worth checking out if you like Blame?

Unfortunately, I feel like Blame! kinda goes south starting with book 3. The scope gets bigger and bigger for its own good, and at the end the story is kind of a mess.

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I mean, even at the end of the first book the scope already feels super large, but there isn't much story yet as it's very much a visual experience so far.

I would wager no matter how out of control it gets in the books, it has to be far superior to that of the Netflix movie, because that was nearly incomprehensible to me.

 

[Jsunu]

The only Manga i've completed all the way through. It does keep getting fucked up as you progress but the visuals are amazing. Would love to see a faithful anime adaptation of the Manga.

 

[Percival Sparkletrout]

I love Nihei's stuff. It's so bleak and depressing. An interesting aspect of Blame! that's worth thinking about while you read it is just how much time passes while Killy is wandering.

As for Biomega, I love the first couple of volumes. But, the story goes WAY off the deep end around midway through and just becomes Blame-lite. I found it to be much more fun when it was about literal corporate warfare in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.

 

[Corporal]

Blame! Is some damn good stuff. Hope you have fun reading through it. Keep out of the other works until you've either dropped or fisnished this one, though. Makes speculation and seeing similar characters even better. Don't expect his other works to always stay on the same track, as evidenced by KoS.

Heck, even in BioMega he has a guy on a high tech bike with a bear in the backseat jump off a ramp through the night, with the moon in the background and the bear screaming its guts out. It's completely ridiculous for like two pages, then resumes the hack-and-slay hardcore SciFi atmosphere as if nothing had ever happened. I think Nihei, desperate to keep sane, occasionally takes a break from the dire slog and draws stuff into a secret sketchbook about teddy bears and unicorns living in harmony in Happyland and their completely harmless adventures in their quest for snacks and friendship - and sometimes parts of those secret sketches leak through to the actual works.

 

[HStallion]

I mean, even at the end of the first book the scope already feels super large, but there isn't much story yet as it's very much a visual experience so far.

I would wager no matter how out of control it gets in the books, it has to be far superior to that of the Netflix movie, because that was nearly incomprehensible to me.

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The movie was very straight forward even if the setting is very bizarre. Its basically the classic bad ass wanderer enters a small community and gets involved with a problem involving the locals same as The Road Warrior or similar movies/stories. It adapted what is a very meandering and often aimless manga into something digestible for a 2 hour movie.

 

[Deleted member 4494]

The movie was very straight forward even if the setting is very bizarre. Its basically the classic bad ass wanderer enters a small community and gets involved with a problem involving the locals same as The Road Warrior or similar movies/stories. It adapted what is a very meandering and often aimless manga into something digestible for a 2 hour movie.

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As I watched it I just felt like I was being left out of the loop on something much larger. I'm the kind of person who wants answers if they exist, so while it worked pretty well as an atmosphere movie, it didn't really do much else for me. So it feeling incomprehensible is less about what is presented, and more about what wasn't.

 

[HStallion]

As I watched it I just felt like I was being left out of the loop on something much larger. I'm the kind of person who wants answers if they exist, so while it worked pretty well as an atmosphere movie, it didn't really do much else for me. So it feeling incomprehensible is less about what is presented, and more about what wasn't.

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Just be aware that you're going to feel that way reading the manga as Nihei isn't exactly an author concerned with filling in the blanks.

 

[Deleted member 4494]

Just be aware that you're going to feel that way reading the manga as Nihei isn't exactly an author concerned with filling in the blanks.

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Yeah, I'm prepared for that. Ultimately, it's just a visual feast so far, which I'm digging. That, and some of those visuals are absolutely breathtakingly strange and disturbing.

I'll definitely be posting here as I continue reading.

 

[Era of not Yakuza]

Just bought the final edition, TERRIBLE ending my god