''Blame!'' (stylized as ''BLAME!'') is a Japanese

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is ...

series written and illustrated by

Tsutomu Nihei is a Japanese manga artist. Nihei has been drawing comics professionally since the mid-1990s. In 1995 he was awarded the Jiro Taniguchi Special Prize in that year's Afternoon Four Seasons Award for his submission, ''Blame''. After working as an ...

. It was published by

Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', '' Afternoon'', '' Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' ...

in the ''seinen'' manga magazine ''

Monthly Afternoon is a Japanese monthly ''seinen'' manga anthology published by Kodansha under the ''Afternoon'' line of magazines. The first issue was released with a cover date of January 25, 1986. ''Afternoon'' has spawned many successful manga series such as ...

'' from 1997 to 2003, with its chapters collected in ten ''

tankōbon is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or ...

'' volumes. A six-part

original net animation An original net animation (ONA), known in Japan as , is an anime that is directly released onto the Internet. ONAs may also have been aired on television if they were first directly released on the Internet. The name mirrors original video animati ...

was produced in 2003, with a seventh episode included on the DVD release. An

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

film adaptation by

Polygon Pictures is a Japanese 3DCG animation studio. Polygon has animated a wide variety of content, from commercials for Shiseido featuring the studio's original penguin characters , to the 3D CG anime television series ''Digital Tokoro-san'' and the 3DCG ani ...

was released as a Netflix original in May 2017.

Synopsis

Setting

''Blame!'' is set in what is simply known as "The City", a gigantic megastructure now occupying much of what used to be the Solar System. Its exact size is unknown, but

suggested its diameter to be at least that of Jupiter's orbit, or about 1.6 billion kilometers. In the manga, this is also suggested by Killy crossing an empty, spherical room roughly the size of Jupiter, suggesting that the planet had been there but was disassembled as the City grew. As revealed in the prequel ''

NOiSE Noise is unwanted sound considered unpleasant, loud or disruptive to hearing. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrations through a medium, such as air or water. The difference aris ...

'', the City began as a much smaller structure on Earth, created by humans with the aid of the robotic "Builders." Humanity controlled the Builders through the Netsphere, a hyper-developed version of the Internet accessible only to those with an identificatory genetic marker known as the Net Terminal Gene. Any humans without the gene who attempted to access the Netsphere were exterminated by a special task force known as the Safeguards. Eventually however, a terrorist cult known as "the Order" released a virus that made all humans lose their Net Terminal Genes, thus cutting off their access to the Netsphere and their control over the Builders. Without specific instructions, the Builders began to build chaotically and indefinitely, while the Safeguards' programming degraded into killing all humans without the Net Terminal Gene whether they wanted to access the Netsphere or not. By the time of the events of the manga, the City has basically become a series of layered, concentric

Dyson spheres A Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megastructure that completely encompasses a star and captures a large percentage of its solar power output. The concept is a thought experiment that attempts to explain how a spacefaring civilization would meet ...

filled with haphazard architecture, largely devoid of life. These layers compose the supporting scaffold of the City, known as the Megastructure. The Megastructure is extremely durable, with only a direct blast from a Gravitational Beam Emitter being able to drill through it. In addition, the underside of each Megastructure layer periodically illuminates the overside of the one below to provide a day–night cycle. Traveling between layers is generally challenging due to the City's chaotic layout and the dangerous Safeguard response such endeavor may cause, with the means to do so being either climbing stairs for days or taking elevators that reach relativistic speeds. The buildings on each layer are largely uninhabited, although scattered human tribes, rogue Builders, and hostile Safeguards and Silicon Life can be found throughout the entire City.

Plot

Killy, a silent loner possessing an incredibly powerful weapon known as a Gravitational Beam Emitter, wanders a vast technological world known as "The City". He is searching for Net Terminal Genes, a (possibly) extinct genetic marker that allows humans to access the "Netsphere", a sort of computerized control network for The City. The City is an immense volume of artificial structure, separated into massive "floors" by nearly-impenetrable barriers known as "

Megastructure A megastructure is a very large artificial object, although the limits of precisely how large vary considerably. Some apply the term to any especially large or tall building. Some sources define a megastructure as an enormous self-supporting a ...

". The City is inhabited by scattered human and

transhuman Transhuman, or trans-human, is the concept of an intermediary form between human and posthuman. In other words, a transhuman is a being that resembles a human in most respects but who has powers and abilities beyond those of standard humans. Th ...

tribes as well as hostile

cyborgs A cyborg ()—a portmanteau of ''cybernetic'' and ''organism''—is a being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline.

known as Silicon Life. The Net Terminal Genes appear to be the key to halting the unhindered, chaotic expansion of the Megastructure, as well as a way of stopping the murderous robot horde known as the

Safeguard A safeguard, in international law, is a restraint on international trade or economic development to protect communities from development aggression or home industries from foreign competition. In the World Trade Organization (WTO), a member may ...

from destroying all of humanity. Along the way, Killy meets and joins forces with a resourceful engineer named Cibo. Their quest is indirectly supported by the City's Authority, which is unable to stop the Safeguard from opposing them. Together, Killy and Cibo meet a young girl named Sanakan and a tribe of human warriors called the Electro-Fishers. Killy's cybernetic abilities are restored after he is attacked by a high-level Safeguard, which turns out to have been Sanakan in disguise. She transforms into her Safeguard form and attacks the Electro-Fishers' village when discovered. Killy and Cibo defend the Electro-Fishers by bringing them to the cylindrical megastructure of Toha Heavy Industries. Here they meet Mensab, an AI independent from the Administration, and her guardian Seu, a human. The megastructure is ultimately destroyed due to attacks by Silicon Life and Sanakan, but Mensab is able to give Cibo a sample of Seu's DNA. Killy and Cibo next come to a region of the City ruled by a group of Silicon Life, where they ally with a pair of "provisional Safeguards" named Dhomochevsky and Iko. Seu's DNA is stolen by the Silicon leader, Davine, who uses it to access the Netsphere. Dhomochevsky sacrifices his life to kill Davine, but not before she downloads an extremely powerful Level 9 Safeguard from the Netsphere which manifests in Cibo's body. The Cibo Safeguard destroys the entire region. 14 years later, Killy's body repairs itself from the attack and he continues his journey. He discovers that Cibo, having lost her memory, was eventually rescued by Sanakan, who is now allied with the Authority against the rest of the Safeguard. Cibo's body is incubating a "sphere" which contains her genetic information. Ultimately, Cibo and Sanakan both die in a final confrontation with the Safeguard, but Killy survives and preserves the sphere. An AI he previously met whose body was destroyed is seen in a virtual reality, recalling his quest an unknown amount of time later. Killy finally reaches the edge of the City, where he is shot in the head and incapacitated, but a flood of water carries him to the surface of the City where stars are visible and the sphere begins to hatch. In the final page, Killy is seen fighting in the corridors of the City again, now accompanied by a small child wearing a hazmat suit.

Media

Manga

''Blame!'' was written and illustrated by

. The series ran in

's ''

'' from 1997 to 2003. Its chapters were collected in ten ''

'' volumes (

) by

's ''Afternoon KC'' imprint. In February 2005,

Tokyopop Tokyopop (styled TOKYOPOP; formerly known as Mixx Entertainment) is an American distributor, licensor and publisher of anime, manga, manhwa and Western manga-style works. The German publishing division produces German translations of licensed ...

announced that it has licensed ''Blame!'' for U.S. distribution, with publication beginning in August 2005. After releasing the final volume in 2007, the series has gone out of print with several volumes becoming increasingly hard to find. In February 2016,

Vertical Vertical is a geometric term of location which may refer to: * Vertical direction, the direction aligned with the direction of the force of gravity, up or down * Vertical (angles), a pair of angles opposite each other, formed by two intersecting s ...

announced that it had licensed the series.

Volumes

; ''Tankōbon'' release

; Master's edition

''Blame! Academy''

is a spin-off series of ''Blame!'' by

. Set in the same "City" as ''Blame!'', it is a parody and comedy about various characters in the main ''Blame!'' story in a traditional Japanese school setting. Various elements in the main ''Blame!'' story are being parodied, including the relationship between Killy and Cibo, and Dhomochevsky and Iko. It was irregularly published in ''

Afternoon Afternoon is the time after solar noon. It is the time when the sun is descending from its peak in the sky to somewhat before its terminus at the horizon in the west. In human life, it occupies roughly the latter half of the standard work a ...

''. A compilation volume, titled ''Blame Gakuen! and So On'' was published by

on September 19, 2008.

''Blame!2''

, subtitled , is a full-color, 16-page

one-shot One shot may refer to: Film and television * One-shot film, a feature film shot in one long take with no edits, or manufactured to look like so * ''One Shot'' (2005 film), a Sri Lankan action film directed by Ranjan Ramanayake * ''One Shot'' (2 ...

. Like ''NSE: Net Sphere Engineer'', ''Blame!2'' is a

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

to the original ''Blame!'', taking place at a point in the distant future. It was published March 21, 2008 in the second volume of

's Weekly Morning Special Edition magazine, ''Mandala''. This one-shot was also compiled in one volume with ''Blame! Academy'', titled ''Blame Gakuen! and So On'' in 2008. Set an undefined but long time after the events of Blame!, it follows an incarnation of P-cell. After Killy's success in ''Blame!'', humanity has begun to dominate The City once more and began wiping out most Silicon Life. After P-cell escapes the extinction as the sole survivor of her kind (which is beset by humanity and the Safeguard), she is saved from death by Killy. She eventually makes it to the edge of the City, where it is implied she travels to another planet and restarts Silicon Life civilization using the stored gene-data of her dead companions.

''NSE: Net Sphere Engineer''

is a

to ''Blame!''. It was originally published as a one-shot in the ''Bessatsu Morning'' magazine. This one-shot was compiled in one volume with ''Blame! Academy'', titled ''Blame Gakuen! and So On'' in 2008. ''NSE: Net Sphere Engineer'' follows a "Dismantler", a Net Sphere Engineer in charge of disabling the remaining nexus towers that summon Safeguard interference upon its detection of humans without the net terminal genes. Like ''Blame!2'', NSE is set in a long but undefined time period after the events of Blame! However, it is implied it is even later than ''Blame!2'' as Safeguards are now very rare encounters.

''Blame!: The Ancient Terminal City''

A trailer revealing a special ''Blame!'' short, appearing at the beginning of the 8th episode of ''Knights of Sidonia: Battle for Planet Nine'' (the second season of the anime adaptation of ''

Knights of Sidonia is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tsutomu Nihei. It was serialized by Kodansha in their ''seinen'' manga magazine '' Monthly Afternoon'' between April 2009 and September 2015, with its chapters collected in 15 ''tank ...

''), was released in November 2014. The episode aired in May 2015. The short is contextualized as a TV program that the people of Sidonia tune in for.

Film

Plans for a full-length CG animated film were announced in 2007. However, this proposed CG film project was not released before Micott and Basara (the studio hired) filed for bankruptcy in 2011. It was announced in November 2015 that the series will get an

theatrical film adaptation. The film is directed by Hiroyuki Seshita and written by Tsutomu Nihei and Sadayuki Murai, with animation by

and character designs by Yuki Moriyama. It was released globally as a Netflix original on the 20th of May 2017. On October 5, 2017,

Viz Media VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...

announced at their

New York Comic Con The New York Comic Con is an annual New York City fan convention dedicated to Western comics, graphic novels, anime, manga, video games, cosplay, toys, movies, and television. It was first held in 2006. History The New York Comic Con is a ...

panel that they licensed the home video rights to the film. They released it on Blu-ray Disc and DVD on March 27, 2018.

Reception

Jarred Pine from Mania.com commented " tis not an easy task" to talk about the story in the first volume as "it leaves quite a gamut of questions open for the reader, nothing on the surface to give the reader a sense of direction or purpose." Pine said ''Blame!'' doesn't have a mass appeal and "there will be quite a strong line dividing those who love and hate Nihei’s unique and convoluted cyberpunk journey." In 2006 the Tokyopop distribution was nominated for a

Harvey Award The Harvey Awards are given for achievement in comic books. Named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman, the Harvey Awards were founded by Gary Groth in 1988, president of the publisher Fantagraphics, to be the successor to the Kirby Awards that we ...

in the category 'Best American Edition of Foreign Material'.

References

External links

* * * * {{Production I.G OVAs Blame! 1997 manga 2003 anime OVAs 2004 manga 2008 manga Action anime and manga Artificial intelligence in fiction Augmented reality in fiction Brain–computer interfacing in fiction Cyberpunk anime and manga Cyborgs in fiction Fiction about consciousness transfer Fiction about immortality Fiction set in the 7th millennium or beyond Group TAC Kodansha manga Malware in fiction Manga adapted into films Media Blasters Nanotechnology in fiction Post-apocalyptic anime and manga Production I.G Prosthetics in fiction Fiction about robots Seinen manga Tokyopop titles Transhumanism in fiction Tsutomu Nihei Vertical (publisher) titles Virtual reality in fiction Terrorism in fiction