By Tsutomu Nihei
Published by KC, serialized in "Afternoon"

The first thing to say is that any and all comparisons to "The Matrix" should be made recalling that "Blame!" came FIRST, by more than a year. However, since "Blame!" continues well after the release of "The Matrix," I think some of the changes in the direction of the story may be attributable to the author not wanting to be accused of aping "The Matrix."

"Blame!" is perhaps the single most incredible-looking black-and-white comic book EVER. The sense of dizzying heights, inpenetrable darkness, and fast-paced violence that is conveyed by the images in "Blame!" has to my knowledge never been equalled. Couple that with a style that is simultaneously slick and sketchy, and you have visually the coolest thing going today. And it is still running, and continually getting better.

The only things that come to mind for me to compare the visuals in "Blame!"are those rare comics which are done entirely in pencil (Like Mike Zulli's last few issues of "Sandman"), "Blade of the Immortal" (with which it runs concurrently in "Afternoon"), and Miyazaki and Moebius (who really should always be placed together when talking about style). The sketchiness and action of "Blame!", with a sort of "Moebius-turned-sideways," "Fifth Element" New York setting. Absolutely GODLY. Not that it's perfect. The sketchiness borders on sloppiness in the first two volumes, in which it can at times be difficult to tell characters apart, and in which Killy's face keeps changing shape. Regardless, "Blame!" is worth the purchase just for the artwork alone.

Beyond that, though, if you can read it, or if you want to wade through it with a translation (or if you can read Italian and have that edition), it also has a fairly interesting story, which doesn't rely too heavily on cliche.

Killy is a superhuman killing machine (not quite invincible) who is searching for something called the Net Terminal Gene. At the beginning of the story he is looking for an "uncontaminated genotype," which presumably would be related to the Net Terminal Gene. We see him escorting a small child to the settlement he works for, when he is attacked. The Net Terminal Gene allows humans to connect to the Net Sphere. And for some reason, it is quite important for Killy to find someone who can do this. It is also important for the "Silicon Life" (best translated, I think, as "Cyborgs") to find this thing, as well. Because they don't want humans to have it.

They capture the child (the sample) Killy is escorting, and Killy has to get it back. After killing some Cyborgs, having a few run-ins with weirdos both human and not, and learning about The Controller, Killy meets Cibo, the head scientist of a powerful organization of humans, and the story starts moving. She is looking for the Net Terminal Gene, too. More out of her own curiosity than any other motive, it seems.

They continue upward, and continue to encounter both friendly and unfriendly agents of the Net Sphere, Cyborgs, AIs, and humans and other creatures of various sorts. To go into much more detail would be to ruin a lot. But suffice it to say, the relationships of the different groups in the story are complicated, and violent. And every bit of it is rendered exquisitely.

BLAME EXPLAINED IN DETAIL
A detailed explaination of every major character, group, and location in Blame!
Now with pictures.

TRANSLATIONS

These are all translations of the original manga, in Japanese (NOT the Italian version), all done by me. Text only. No scans. I don't have time for that. These probably won't do you much good if you do not yourself possess a copy of the manga.

Note that I DO NOT currently have these books in my possession and cannot make any corrections to the translation.

Blame vol. 1 Translation	Blame vol. 2 Translation	Blame vol. 3 Translation
Blame vol. 4 Translation	Blame vol. 5 Translation	Blame vol. 6 Translation