Blame!

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for the verb see Blame.

Blame!

Killy holding the Gravitational Beam Emitter
ブラム!
(buramu!)
Genre Cyberpunk
Manga
Author Tsutomu Nihei
Publisher Flag of Japan Kodansha
Demographic Seinen
Magazine Afternoon
Original run 1998 – 2003
Volumes 10
ONA
Director Shintaro Inokawa
Episodes 6
Released May 10, 2005

Blame! (ブラム！ Buramu!?) is a ten-volume cyberpunk manga by Tsutomu Nihei. The tagline for this manga is "Adventure-seeker Killy in the Cyber Dungeon quest!" or "Maybe on Earth, Maybe in the Future".

A six part original net animation was produced in 2003, with a seventh episode included on the DVD release. A full-length CGI render movie is in the works.

Contents

[edit] 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 access to the Netsphere. "The City" is an endless vertical space of walls, stairways and caverns, and separated in some kind of "floors" composed of several thousand of levels and divided by nearly-impenetrable structures known as "Megastructure" that separate entire floors or sections of "The City". "The City" is inhabited by scattered human and transhuman tribes as well as hostile cyborgs known as Silicon Creatures. 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 horde known as the Safeguard from destroying all humanity.

Along the way, Killy meets and joins forces with a resourceful engineer named Cibo and a tribe of human warriors called the Electro-Fishers. They are pursued by the Safeguard, who view any human without Net Terminal Genes as a threat to be extinguished on sight.

[edit] Characters

Main article: Blame! characters and structures
Killy (霧亥?)

The main character. He is on a journey to find a human with Net Terminal Genes to access the Netsphere. He is equipped with the Gravitational Beam Emitter, a small but incredibly powerful weapon capable of destruction on a massive scale.

Killy's origin and motives are unknown. He speaks very little and rarely hesitates to fight. He also has shown superhuman levels of endurance and strength, and appears to be able to heal extremely rapidly. However he usually relies on his GBE to dispatch the opposition. Killy appears to be linked in someway to the villainous Safeguard, but exactly how is uncertain. It has been suggested that Killy is an early version or even a prototype of the safeguards seen in the manga.

Before receiving Safeguard implants from Safeguard Sanakan, Killy is just like an ordinary human, but has greater physical strength. After the implants however, he obtains a scanning ability and detects Sanakan as a Safeguard. Later in the story he becomes stronger to the point of being able to kill silicon creatures without the GBE and survives the direct attack of a level 9 (the highest known level) safeguard.

Cibo (シボ?)

Chief Scientist Cibo (シボ主任科学者 Cibo Shuninkagakusha?) is the head scientist of Capitol corporation. She tries to access the Net Sphere with an artificially created version of Net Terminal Genes, but the experiment fails with disastrous results and summons the Safeguard, leading to the destruction of the entire facility.

During their journey, Cibo undergoes many changes of bodily form, emphasizing the transhuman nature of life in the Megastructure. Cibo cracks security systems and gathers information to help her and Killy's journey. She speaks rather more than the taciturn Killy, often serving to advance the plot.

Since Cibo obtains "another" Cibo form, she's capable to fight more. Her Safeguard suit makes this possible.

Sanakan

A high level agent of the Safeguard who first appears as a short, young girl with black hair. She appears to have a particular interest in wiping out the human tribe of Electro-Fishers, and seems to know Killy from the past.

Sanakan has 3 forms. First is a child form who later is stolen by Cibo and used until 10 years is over. The second one is Safeguard form. This form is her battle form, and this one can be revived many times. She uses a GBE like Killy, but it has a bigger shape, though not necessarily more or less powerful. Her third form, similar to the original form, is a humanoid like Killy. According to the manga, the Safeguard form of Sanakan does not possess a Sanakan soul, only a remote body controlled by the main Safeguard system, which is why, when Cibo hacks into the Safeguard system, all exterminators and the Sanakan Safeguard stop moving for a while. The real Sanakan, now protecting Cibo who brings Net Terminal Genes, is again killed by the silicon creatures. After dying (she is possibly in the net sphere), her leader warns her that if she goes back to base reality with Safeguard form (one possessing a Sanakan soul), and she is killed again, they can't revive her again. Sanakan finally has the same goal as Killy. She even helps Killy to destroy Safeguard, who tries to eat Cibo's core.

[edit] Setting

Double page from BLAME!
Double page from BLAME!

The City is actually a structure that began on Earth. The mechanical beings known as Builders, which move around reforming and creating new landscapes, appear to have begun building without end, creating an enormous structure with little internal logic or coherence. There exists some kind of major isolation system between the gargantuan floors of The City. Between them, there are entire layers of an unknown, nearly-indestructible material called "the megastructure". Attempts to approach the megastructure result in a massive safeguard response so as to prevent trespassing. Bypassing the safeguard is pointless, as it is nearly impossible to even scratch the megastructure. Only a direct Gravitational Beam Emitter blast is known to have been capable of digging a hole into a megastructure.

The City, and the Builders, were controlled by the Netsphere and the Authority but they have since lost the power to control the expansion of The City due to the chaotic and insecure manner of its growth. Without intervention by a user with Net Terminal Genes they cannot reestablish control over The City nor the Safeguards, whose original job was to eliminate any humans who try to access the Netsphere without Net Terminal Genes. The Safeguard now attempts to destroy all humans without the Net Terminal Gene as the degradation of The City has corrupted their true goals.

It has been suggested by Tsutomu Nihei himself in his artbook Blame! And So On that The City is actually a growing Dyson sphere of gargantuan proportions. Its spherical circumference is speculated to be roughly the size of Jupiter's planetary orbit (32.675 AU)[1]. No evidence contradicts this speculation, and the prequel to Blame!, NOiSE, even states that the structure has passed the orbit of the moon. In the last chapter of NOiSE, it is stated "At one point even the moon which used to be up in the sky above, was integrated into The City's structure". In Volume 9, a room is even revealed to have a diameter roughly the size of Jupiter itself, reinforcing the speculation on the sheer size of the Megastructure.

[edit] Design

 Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (April 2008)
Style

Blame! features extremely dark, highly detailed depictions of the fantastic, ever-changing world of The City, punctuated by brutal combat. There is generally little dialogue to support the action or story, and the reader is left to piece together the plot for themselves. Many scenes are spent on the long, lonely travels through The City.

[edit] Publication

The original Japanese manga was collected into 10 volumes (tankōbon) by Kodansha's Afternoon KC division.

In February 2005, Tokyopop announced that it has licensed Blame! for U.S. distribution, with publication beginning in August 2005.

In 2006 the Tokyopop distribution was nominated for a Harvey Award in the category 'Best American Edition of Foreign Material'. [2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Translation from the Blame! artbook. Retrieved on 2008-03-15.
  2. ^ The Harvey Awards 2006 nominees and winners. harveyawards.org. Retrieved on 2008-03-15.

[edit] External links

Tsutomu Nihei
Works
BLAME! | NOiSE | Biomega | Net Sphere Engineer | BLAME! Academy | BLAME! And So On | Dead Heads
Abara • Bitch's Life • Digimortal • Wolverine: Snikt! • Zeb-Noid
BLAME! characters and structures
Killy | Cibo | Sanakan | Graviton Beam Emitter | Net Terminal Genes