Blame! (and related works by Tsutomu Nihei) [Tokyopop]

[X-SOLDIER]

So, I watched the "Blame!" film on Netflix and became instantly enamoured with it. As I found out they'd be doing a sequel, and I was really in love with the setting and everything, I hunted down and got INCREDIBLY hooked on the manga. Each Volume of the Master's Edition is about 350+ pages, and I've read all five of the ones ComiXology has available (1805 pages), and the final piece, Volume 6 comes out on December 12th. It's the only comic that's even basically given me vertigo to read because of the utterly insane scope and scale of what it covers, and it's just been absolutely AMAZING.

So, in light of the fact that I'll be finishing the manga up soon, and I'm aching for more to binge-read, I've already picked up "Blame & So On" as well as the first issues of "NOiSE" (a prequel to some stuff in Blame!) & "Biomega" (even though that one's only loosely referential to the Blame! universe), so that I can keep going after I finish off the main series in December. The only piece I haven't found yet is "NSE: Net Sphere Engineer" but I'm sure it'll become available, or I'll find somewhere on the Internets to read it by then.

So yeah... This has been consuming most of my reading time lately, and it's the best. If you want to see if it's your jam – go check out the film on Netflix. It's 1 hour 45 mins, and really easy to see if you'll enjoy what Blame! has to offer. Also, I'll be using this thread to chat about all of the other related manga as well.





X

 

[Kai Schulen]

I've been in love with Tsutomu Nihei's work for like 10 years.

10.


yeaaaaaaars.

Not because of his storytelling (in fact, the plot for Blame! is...pretty convoluted and just not good in general until it hits the later, later, later chapters) but his art is balls out amazing and inspiring and hnnnng. HNNNNNNNNNG.

(To be fair, Tsutomu gets better at the plot thing with Biomega and Knights of Sidonia.)

I can't wait for Volume 6 to drop so that I can have both 5+6 and then finish my collection of Blame! in one fell swoop. I think I'm going to devote some time this week to reread volumes 1 through 4 again, and thank whatever powers above for whoever at Vertical Comics decided to re-release Blame! in master edition because there's no way I would have bought the original Tokyopop version at $300 per volume.

As much as I enjoyed Blame! the movie...I would fucking die if Biomega ever got a movie, or a series. FUCKING. DIE. ...but if it took 20 something years for Blame! to get a movie, well.......

 

[looneymoon]

oh man this was my shit is high school. I don't think I've read it since high school though. I tried to watch the movie recently and didn't like it very much. There was something about the animation that put me off, which is a shame because I fucking love the art in the manga.

Thanks for the heads up with regards to the final volume! I have been meaning to revisit this series for a while now

 

[Strangelove]

I was wondering if the film was purposely going for a limited animation look or if that was just a quirk of the software (toonz? idr it’s listed in the credits

I just really liked cibo okay. Is this what the weebs call a waifu

 

[X-SOLDIER]

I think watching Season 1 of Knights of Sidonia got me used to the animation style (which I need to rewatch, because I started Season 2 and realized I forgot EVERYTHING important), so that I knew what to expect when watching Blame! so I was really just into the scope and design of everything, and the reveal that the story in the film is really just a tiny little vignette of Kiri/Killy's as he wanders. Also, I'll probably read Knight's of Sidonia once I finish my Blame! binge.

I'm stoked that a bunch of the rest of you have been into it for a while, and that my recent explosive obsession helped reignite things and also make you aware of final volume releases and such.

Additionally, while it's odd to say, at only 5/6 volumes, I really love the story in Blame! because it's so unabashedly freeform and open to you needing to fill in all the gaps. I just daydream about this stuff all the time, and it's SO GOOD.

Lastly, I started out Biomega last night, and am already loving it.

(and Cibo is waifu material for sure)




X

 

[Cacti]

I've heard lots of good things about he manga and I did start reading it a little last year but I was stuck trying to read it on my phone and ended up dropping it since reading on my phone is less than ideal.

So the movie is good huh? In that case I'll put that on my list and maybe watch it this weekend! Blame! Is something I've been interested in reading for a long time now and maybe this will give me the push I finally need to get started on it!

 

[Strangelove]

tbh i have read every volume of blame, the one volume of noise, and one of the blame! and so on books (i think just the jokey one tho) and i was trying to explain the story to someone and was just like

uurrrrrhhh

???

hmmm

???????

net. terminals?

 

[X-SOLDIER]

The Master Edition Volumes have panel-by-panel Guided View on ComiXology, and it's my favourite thing ever. It really is my favourite way to read comics, bar none. (I read all comics on my phone, though). The movie really sells the atmosphere and other things in a way that give you a good base to jump off of into the manga, that helped me even more in sort of realizing the world that's creeping through every page.

Also, explaining the story of Blame! is really hard, even when you feel like you have a pretty good grasp on understanding what's going on, which is kinda why I love it, and why I've been using the film as a quick, "this is kinda what it's about" introduction to gauge interest.





X

 

[Kai Schulen]

If people want a really short version of Blame!, I give them this: Man named Killy lives up to his name by blasting a lot of things dead with his super OP gun.

Trying to elaborate any more than that without spoiling the whole story from start to finish is more like this though:

 

[X-SOLDIER]

A long time ago, robots started building mega city scapes endlessly and humans totally lost control of everything, and this continued essentially ad-infinitum. Killy is a guy wandering the endless expanse of this techological dystopian landscape facing against a ton of crazy robots, armed solely with his OP gravity pistol, and looking for a solution.

Then if you try to explain what the Net Terminal Gene /Net Sphere is, you instantly fall down the rabbit hole.




X

 

[Cacti]

I've never heard of ComiXology, but I did just check it out. I love the idea of this! It's something I wanted to be a thing for years and I'm glad it seems to exist now.. but looking at the prices though.. whoa o.o I might have to put this on my wishlist rather than jumping on this train right away ;__;

One way or the other I'll watch the movie and start reading the manga anyway since I need something new to read anyway! I haven't been able to binge read anything for a while, only the few ongoing manga that I'm following

 

[X-SOLDIER]

ComiXology is my drug.

The Blame! volumes are a bit expensive compared to most comics (they're $20 a volume), BUT they've all been between 396–340 pages long, so while they are a bit of an investment, they're worth it. Biomega & NOiSE don't have Guided View, but almost all of their new releases do for other comics, and their Blame! volumes do.

ALSO – When you set up your Guided View preferences the first time, always set it to display the full page at the end for the best overall experience.





X

 

[Cacti]

When I get the budget to pick them up I might! But until then I'll start reading it on my tablet (which I specifically bought for manga reading a few years back) so it won't be a terrible reading experience either way \o/

Thanks for the advice though, I'll set that up ahead of time anyway and try out some other comics I can read meanwhile

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Huzzah! There're a bunch of free issues of a number of different comics that you should be able to check out! It should be the same on Tablet (I used to read comics on one, but then I spent more time reading comics on the bus on my way home from work, and just got used to doing it on my phone).

Always glad to help somebody else enjoy comics the way I do.





X

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Just finished reading NOiSE (with the original Blame! pilot), and all of Biomega. Current comment is short, as I'm on a train to my hotel, but it's interesting to see how drastically the bits of story change halfway through Biomega, and also how NOiSE and the original Blame! pilot are very similar, but the final product is much closer to Biomega.

Also, have any of you read Knights of Sidonia or APOSIMZ? They seem to be a much cleaner, traditional manga format, so I'm not sure if I'll enjoy them quite as much, but maybe the story holds up for the less insane, sprawling art?





X