BLAME!

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Author/Artist: Tsutomu Nihei

What's he done? Biomega, NSE, NOiSE, Knights of Sidonia

Published: 1998-2003 (Japan), 2005-2007 (America)

Genre: SF / action / thriller / dystopia

Premise: In a completely enclosed dystopian world where humans are under constant attack from biomechanical horrors, one man journeys through the superstructure in search of a human with the fabled Net Terminal gene.

Show x Show: It's The Matrix meets Mad Max

Length: 10 volumes, complete

Availability: All but volumes 4 and 6 are readily available used from sites like Amazon.com.

Manga Review
Note: While all of Tsutomu Nihei's manga BLAME! was released in English, a few volumes have grown rare and expensive. As in, they cost a minimum of US $60 wherever I've looked.

So I've read every volume that I could buy for a reasonable price, meaning I had to skip volumes 4 and 6. Fortunately, it's a slow-moving story, so I hoped I was skipping less-important volumes.

Judging by the ending, I was wrong.

Who thought it up? This is Tsutomu Nihei through and through

Is there a plot? Yes, but it's quite slow. This is mostly an action story, so many chapters are purely face-offs between Killy (our protagonist) and various random biomechanical thugs. The back-story is dripped out in occasional, one-off conversations, so if you're not paying attention, you'll get lost quickly.

That said, I had to skip a few volumes, so that certainly didn't help my comprehension.

Moreover, Killy wields a pistol that causes massive damage with each blast. This is good and bad. In several fights, I was just waiting for Killy to pull it out. In others, the opponents either block his weapon or can regenerate, which creates interesting tension as Killy tries to bring his weapon to bear.

Are there any other characters? Killy meets Cibo, a woman scientist, who helps him by hacking into various computer systems. Cibo adds a layer of interest primarily through Killy's protectiveness of her. There's no romance here -- BLAME!'s world is thoroughly asexual -- but they show clear signs of caring for each other's safety.

How's the action? A bit confusing at times, but overall, exciting and always a little different. By the end of the series, most of the villains are just there to be defeated by Killy, but that's intentional; he's slogging his way through the final bad guys.

How's the art? Weird, but intentionally so. All the biomechanical bad guys are Giger-esque, gross parodies of the human form.

Does it feel real? This is one thing I love about Nihei; his architectural background is clearly shown in his detailed artwork. Every location feels real. He also has a good feel for human proportion, though in this series, characters can stretch during action a bit more than in, say, Biomega.

Can I show it to my Mom? I wouldn't. There's too much violence (zombies with their heads blown off, weird mutants, etc.).

Can I show it to my kid brother? Pre-teen? It's pretty violent (thus the "Mature Content" sticker). Teen? Sure.

Can I show it to a non-manga fan? This is actually a pretty good candidate. It doesn't have underage nudity or uncomfortable sexual situations, and it doesn't use specifically Japanese language elements (honorifics, sailor fuku, etc.).

Does the art quality vary from chapter to chapter? Nope. But then, this is Nihei's fourth manga series, so he's got that down.