This review contains spoilers for the manga - - - #Setting As the image above perfectly describes, the story of BLAME! takes place somewhere in the future, maybe it is the future, maybe it isn't. Maybe it is Earth, maybe it isn't. But very straightforward, you follow a silent protagonist named Killy (or Kiri in japanese) on an adventure to find a person with the genes that can let that person access the "Net" or Netsphere as the manga calls it so that they can finally shut down the builders. None of this is spoilers so far (this is the description of the manga) so please bare with me.
What are the builders? Netsphere? Genes? Spoiler, click to viewSo a little more context, at some point in the future (maybe), humans had access to genes that could access the Netsphere (can you imagine the racism just to access the internet? LOL). But humanity created "Builders", automatons that would build architecture for humanity that were controlled through the Netsphere. Of course, as gatekeeping goes, humans also built a failsafe in the form of "Safeguards", robots that would kill any humans that illegally tried to access the Netsphere, for it is too dangerous to put that kind of power in the hands of someone trying to access the internet illegally. In 2022, reading this manga sounds like a weird social commentary on our current society, but that is getting off topic.
Anyway, somewhere in time, the Safeguards got a little wacky, and instead of killing people who tried to illegally access the Netsphere, they started killing anyone that did not have the Netsphere gene. The prequel NOiSE elaborates more on why this happens (something something cult hackers). And with the Netsphere gene already being a rarity, and now with the eradication of humans on a massive scale, the Netsphere gene practically just died out, making it extremely rare to find in the wild (it's a shiny Pokemon now). But because Netsphere gene is gone, nobody can control the Builders anymore, which means the Builders keep building and building and building. By the time you are thrown into the world of BLAME!, it is a Dyson Sphere not just covering the Sun but also expanding all the way out to the orbit of Jupiter. Just a massive structure which is now referred to as "The City". Killy's mission is to find a person with the Netsphere genes and stop the builders and the Safeguards along with it.
The setting for the story is extremely interesting, and very much a Cyberpunk dystopia, but what really drives it is the fact that humans are a rarity, add to the fact that the City is a massive area and you have Killy walking A to B, there is no reference to time or distance which means you follow the story along a massive scale of time and distance but you never even realize that unless you start paying attention which is really hard to do. - - - #Story The story is perhaps the weakest part of BLAME! There is a story and there isn't a story. Probably wondering what the hell that means, let me explain, so there is a story as a I described earlier - Killy wants to stop builders and find a person with Internet genes (he's just looking for a zoomer). But that is just the overall objective, the story goes places, and I mean places, it's pure chaos when shit really starts escalating. For some the plot might be hard to follow, especially in the first few chapters because you have no idea what is happening (neither did mangaka Nihei) but then the plot starts making a lot more sense but still not enough to really be engaged in the whole thing. And while I want to call it the weakest part, the insanity that is present makes for a lot of fun. Now chaotic stories can be of 2 types, one is Dorohedoro, which is also set in a dystopia and has a grungy vibe to it and the plot is just pure chaos, but it has a comedic effect to all of it. The other chaotic type is BLAME! where the plot is shown in a very melancholic way, complete 180 of Dorohedoro and yet that is the closest match if you need to recommend something to someone after reading BLAME! So the story works for what it does, but this was Nihei's first manga and it's definitely more of an art flex than it is a writing flex. That said, the plot is still rather enjoyable imo as long as you don't try to poke holes in it. - - - #Art The art is the strongest part of BLAME! The mangaka Tsutomu Nihei studied architecture, so to create a manga where human architecture has grown to cancerous degrees just fits. But what the plot, setting, and the art together do so amazingly well are the fact that it gives you the lonely feeling, like being in a shopping mall that is usually littered with people but now nobody's there, if you went to any public spots during peak pandemic, you probably know exactly what I'm talking about. The structures are gigantic and never ending, because the City in the manga is huge, it's just constantly being built by the Builders, further expanding forever until someone stops it. It's like Skynet but in a different way. And Killy just walks alone, it gives you this extremely lonely feeling, even though the plot is pure chaos, the feeling of being alone, isolated, walking the remnants of humanity is a very interesting feeling. As if Humanity was forgotten by its own creation. I stated earlier that the art is the most important part of BLAME! and the reason for that is the fact that the art does most of the storytelling, there is very little dialog bubbles throughout the manga, mostly because well there are barely any humans around, and two Killy doesn't talk a whole lot. But even when there are other characters around, dialog is rare occurrence, most of the story just happens through the art and that is why the setting and the worldbuilding of this manga work so well. The backgrounds in the manga are nothing short of amazing, they really drive home the fact that everything that you see in the background is human architecture, Our creation, and yet there are no humans, just loneliness, forgotten by our own creations.
Then there is the artwork for the characters, which I would like to say isn't the greatest but it gets the job done, the characters look rather plain, but that's the point, the characters don't look beautiful, they don't look pretty, they don't look like Master Chief from Halo walking around in a full suit or anything. They just look like generic ass people, but also because the people aren't the focus, this adds to the overall loneliness of the manga. You will see humans, you will meet humans, but they don't leave any impact on you, they don't stick in your memory, they don't leave any impressions, unlike the overall setting or the monsters that Killy encounters which leave a fucking impression (a big one at that), because humanity is not the focus of the story. But let's talk about the monsters, Safeguards, and the Cyborgs. Below images shows what the monsters in the manga look like You can see a clear difference between the humans and the art for pretty much everything else that exists in the world of BLAME! and that's all on purpose. On first read, you might think "Huh. What is the plot, what is even going on." but the more you think about it, the more sense it really starts making. - - - #Overall BLAME! is a fantastic Cyberpunk Dystopian manga. The art is amazing, the setting is fascinating and the plot is pure insanity. This is not the Blade Runner type cyberpunk where you're left with philosophical questions about what it means to be human, no. That's not the point Nihei wants to make with BLAME!, but rather just a pure chaotic ride that is fun. Fun however, can be very different for people, the manga invokes a sense of nostalgia, but also a very lonely melancholic storm of feelings that I find hard to describe. Like waking up at 4am and seeing the street outside your apartment absolutely deserted even though there's always traffic on it during the day kind of lonely. The first few chapters can be a little confusing to follow and even the fans try to understand what the first 5-ish chapters were trying to really do and how they connect to the rest of the manga's plot, just as mysterious as the rest of the manga.
Bottom line is, if you enjoy manga that have very little exposition (because I gave more exposition for the manga than the manga does for itself in this review), amazing art, and a lot of chaotic action then you should give BLAME! a try. It's quite the ride. - - - Thank you for reading.
