Blame!
| Blame! | |
|---|---|
| Original title | BLAME! |
| genre | Cyberpunk , mecha |
| Manga | |
| country |
 Japan
|
| author | Tsutomu Nihei |
| publishing company | Kōdansha |
| magazine | Afternoon |
| First publication | 1998 - 2003 |
| expenditure | 10 |
| Manga | |
| title | Blame! (New Edition) |
| country |
Japan
|
| author | Tsutomu Nihei |
| publishing company | Kōdansha |
| First publication | April 2015 - June 2015 |
| expenditure | 6th |
| Web anime | |
| title | Blame! Ver.0.11 |
| Original title | BLAME! Ver.0.11 |
| Country of production |
Japan
|
| original language | Japanese |
| year | 2003 |
| Studio | Group TAC |
| length | 5 minutes |
| Episodes | 6th |
| Director | Shintaro Inokawa |
| music | Hiroyuki Onokawa |
| Original video animation | |
| title | Prologue of Blame! |
| Original title | プ ロ ロ ー グ ・ オ ブ ・ BLAME! |
| transcription | Purorōgu obu Blame! |
| Country of production |
Japan
|
| original language | Japanese |
| year | 2007 |
| Studio | Production IG (2D), Jinni's Animation Studio (3D) |
| length | 3 minutes |
| Episodes | 2 |
| Director | Shigeyuki Watanabe |
Blame! (in the original: BLAME! ) is a manga series by Tsutomu Nihei . The taciturn cyberpunk comic appeared from 1997 to 2003 in about 2,000 pages and was originally aimed primarily at adult men, so it is one of his manga.
The story behind Blame! is told in the single volume NOiSE , which was published following the series. The sequel to the story is called Net Sphere Engineer and takes place many years after the plot of Blame! . The action takes place in the so-called "megastructure". The huge complex created by designers has already enclosed the moon and continues to grow.
action
In a world populated by cyborgs and mutants, Killy searches for human genes that are not infected by a dangerous virus . These so-called network genes are important because only with them a connection to the network sphere can be created, which is the global communication and control medium within the megastructure and which stores human knowledge. It is inaccessible for people without network genes, as it is protected from unauthorized access by a protective barrier with extremely brutal means.
As a result of decoupling, the population of the megastructure lost control of their machines and facilities. Civilization broke up and only smaller splinter groups remained, which are permanently threatened by silicon life and the protective weir and have to fight for their lives. Killy encounters several such groups on his journey, but he does not find the network genes he needs in them.
Characters
Killy
Killy is the main character and in search of the network genes . Despite his human appearance, he is not human. According to a government official, he is a secret messenger for the network sphere, and it is later mentioned that he is a prototype of a defense force. He is in possession of a molecular shock wave weapon. Such a nuclear fusion weapon has a huge penetration power and is able to destroy the walls of the megastructure over kilometers. Killy's origin is unknown. Hints can be found in the BLAME! Prequel NOiSE, where a poster with missing children seems to suggest that Killy is one of those children. Thus Killy would be over 3000 years old, and older than the megastructure itself. Killy does not seem to have his complete memory. Only in the course of time does he regain lost knowledge as well as a HUD that is only visible to him and superhuman self-healing powers.
Cibo
Cibo is the chief scientist of the cybernetics company Killy encounters in the higher levels. She tried to gain entry into the network sphere with simulated network genes, but the attempt was discovered and destroyed by the attack by the defense forces. Cibo was killed and the entire research facility was destroyed. However, Cibo itself could be restored from backups. As a punishment for her failure, she was transferred to a rotting body for some kind of detention. She is found by Killy, who with her help penetrates the cybernetics company's defense. In return, he helps her to reach the next higher level of the megastructure. Cibo takes a new body in the cybernetics company and appears from then on as a blonde woman.
In the course of the plot, Cibo takes over Sanakan's body as her own dies in battle, but her spirit is preserved. Since then, Sanakan, who is still in Cibo's subconscious, tries to regain power over her body, which she succeeds. Cibo, on the other hand, can transfer her spirit into the dead body of her time doppelganger and is now human again. Her intentions are difficult to see through, but she seizes the chance to get into the network sphere, with the result that she turns into an almost mindless defense unit.
Sanakan
Sanakan is a high-level defense unit who only disguises itself as a little girl to be picked up by Killy, Cibo and the fishermen. In the village of electric fishermen, Killy, whose hidden powers return after an injury, uses a HUD that is now visible to him to recognize that Sanakan is a defense unit, whereupon Sanakan shows her true form, a gynoid woman with a molecular shock wave weapon instead of the right one Poor, and immediate devourers created who attack the fishermen's village. Later she is destroyed by Killy, but reappears towards the end of Volume 9 to protect Cibo and to help Killy - first on behalf of the government agency, where she appears as her younger and much weaker self in the form of a young woman and in the process Fight comes to death. Later, she tries to return to the megastructure, knowing that in the event of her death she will no longer have the opportunity to rise again in the network sphere, while she has her old form as a powerful protective unit with molecular shock throwers.
Mensarb
Mensarb is an artificial intelligence responsible for area 8 of the Toha heavy industry. She appears as a white, ghostly female figure. Mensarb seems to have feelings for Seu, which is evident in the destruction of the Toha heavy industry.
Seu
Seu is a person in armor similar to that of fishermen. He protects Mensarb and is at the same time her subordinate. He suffers from mental disorders, i. H. after every repair of his body he forgets more and more. As it turns out, he's the only person still physically in Toha heavy industry, the Killy during Blame! encountered. As a weapon he uses a large and fairly wide sword. Shortly before the Toha heavy industry was destroyed, he gave Killy and Cibo a sample of his genes, which was stolen.
Dhomochevsky and Iko
Dhomochevsky and Iko are temporary defense units trying to protect an illegal mega-structure from a group of silicon beings. Dhomochevsky appears as a humanoid , Iko as a face- shaped hologram , in flashbacks and on the network he can be seen as a black-haired boy, which suggests that he must have died before the current plot. In contrast to the other defense units, Iko and Dhomochevsky are not hostile to people without network genes.
Megastructure
The megastructure is an artificial structure of enormous proportions, which at the time of action has been expanding uncontrollably for 3000 years and is inhabited by different factions with different goals. The megastructure has enclosed both the earth and the moon, and it may be some kind of Dyson sphere .
Residents of the megastructure
People
People are rarely to be found in the megastructure because after the appearance of a mysterious virus, people's network genes were destroyed. In the eyes of the defense forces of the network sphere, however, people without network genes have no right to life and are therefore hunted and destroyed.
Protective weir
The protective weir consists of silicon beings (artificial, human-like creatures) that have artificial intelligence . The task and purpose of the defense is to kill people without network genes and silicon life. The defense itself is organized and works independently of the government agency . Once intended to protect the net sphere, the guard now runs amok. The most common are the white units of the defense guard, who have a mask-like human face and resemble grotesque ball-and-socket dolls, they are armed with claws and stabbing weapons and are called devourers. The symbol of the protective weir is an upside-down cross, the crossbar of which does not touch the longitudinal bar.
Silicon life
The first silicon lives were people of a kind of sect who turned their own bodies into silicon-based bodies using stolen defense technology. Silicon lives live among themselves and fight both people and the defenses. Your goal is to destroy all network genes in order to prevent the restoration of the network sphere by people with the network genes. It is essential for the continued existence of your race that the network remain in a chaotic state.
Government agency
The task of the government agency (communication interface between humans and network sphere) is to manage the megastructure . Without the network genes, the government agency cannot communicate with people or receive instructions. Thus, all processes that originate from the network sphere continue to run automatically and uncontrolled. This is one of the reasons why the megastructure continues to grow and the defense system is running amok.
Every now and then, government officials in different guises and spheres appear to support Killy. Their permissions are severely limited, so they are often only concerned with giving advice.
Constructors
Designers are robots without artificial intelligence that are responsible for repairing damage to the megastructure and keeping it intact. The size of the designer depends on the area of application and can range from a meter to several hundred meters in diameter. Since designers only interact with their environment to repair damage, they are not attacked.
Publications
Blame! appeared in Japan from March 1997 to September 2003 as a sequel story in the monthly manga magazine Afternoon , in which, for example, Hiroki Endōs Eden and Mohiro Kitohs Naru Taru were published at that time . The Kōdansha publishing company also published the individual chapters published in the magazine in ten anthologies, each with a page count of over 200. These book publications sold over 1.8 million copies in Japan. In 2015 the manga was published in Japan by the publishing house Kōdansha under the title Blame! (New Edition) republished. The individual tankobons are a bit larger and thicker in the new edition (400 pages), so this comes to only 6 volumes.
The manga has been translated into Italian, French, English, Indonesian, Spanish and German. The ten books were published in German from January 2001 to October 2004 by Egmont Manga & Anime under their imprint Feest Comics. Since September 2016, the revised version has been published every three months under the title Blame! (Master Edition) published in English by Vertical. The 6-volume Blame! (Master Edition) published from October 2017 to October 2018 by the Cross Cult publishing house under the newly founded Manga Cult label.
Anime
The six-part web anime BLAME! Ver.0.11 was broadcast on June 14, 2002, and the episodes are 5 minutes each. It was published as an announcement and sample of a later not produced movie. Shintaro Inokawa directed the production and the character design was created by Akio Watanabe for the first two episodes and Nobuaki Nagano for the remaining four episodes. The music was composed by Hiroyuki Onogawa, the male voices were spoken by Tatsunori Arakawa and the female voices by Asuka Aizawa . The anime was later released on DVD, along with a seventh episode. An English version was published by AnimeWorks.
The original video animation Prologue of Blame was created in 2007 at Production IG for the animation and Jinni's Animation Studio for the 3D animations, directed by Shigeyuki Watanabe ! , which consists of two three-minute episodes.
A new film, which will be directed by Hiroyuki Seshita , was announced in November 2015 and released on Netflix in May 2017.
reception
According to AnimaniA's review , the manga offers a compelling story that is uniquely told. It is not easy to find your way around the slowly developing storyline and the “oppressive and dark cyber world” . MangasZene magazine praises the impressive animation quality of the web anime and the fascinating world that is shown. Despite the very short episodes, it's worth watching.
Web links
- Entry in the Incomplete Manga Guide
- Entry at Anime News Network (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ BLAME! Ver.0.11. Big Time Entertainment, archived from the original on May 3, 2010 ; Retrieved February 23, 2014 (Japanese).
- ↑ a b MangasZene No. 11, p. 26
- ↑ "Blame! - Anime Adaptation Director Announced"
- ↑ BLAME! | Netflix Official Site. Retrieved June 5, 2017 .
- ↑ AnimaniA 2/2002, p. 66