Dude I read this thing in 3 days and every time I fell asleep I had visuals from this manga. No kidding. 3 nights in a row that's all I dreamt of. I woke up feeling disturbed and weirded out everytime. Just goes to show how striking powerful and memorable the mangas visuals are
I first encountered BLAME! in my high school years in the early 2000´s. Still my all time favorite manga, which I reread every other year or so and every time I do, there are new details or subtleties to discover. Very glad this work is finally getting broader attention.
I can’t believe no one told me about this. I’ve been toying with and telling people about isolating in giant space craft for years and nobody I’ve encountered has recommended this to me. I just discovered it. It’s so strange how I’ve been talking about this stuff for so long and nobody told me it already exists. I can’t wait to afford to buy one. And then all of them.
@@thetruthexperiment Its awesome, first time reading it, it was very confusing but now i kind of understand what happens. Also Knights of Sedonia seems to be the prequel story, where ++++ light spoiler ++++ "seed ships" leave the earth to get to other planets, wich build the foundations of the city in BLAME and Biomega! They are Build from a very important company in that universe. Have fun!
@@oldsql725 Noise! is the prequel to Blame! and it explicitly states that at some point the city encompassed the moon. Very much doubt it referred to just any old moon. And remember the introductory words of Blame! "maybe on Earth, maybe in the Future". Don´t think there is a connection there between Blame! and KoS.
This channel deserves way more credit for this, understanding the BLAME! universe is already impossible but then he even explained it in detail and with good story telling. Underrated
This manga could definitely go on. It could continue with Killy and the kid entering the Net Sphere and destroying it from within. Putting an end to the safeguards.
Fantastic summary of the best manga of all time! The chapters about the death of Linvega and level 9 download were complicated and not clear to me, so here is what I got from the Japanese Blame! community: When Linvega was killed, he/she (gender was not mentioned in the original Japanese version: he/she used 私 = I but it is gender free) stole the info of level 9 exterminator and downloaded to his/her body. At the same time, Chibo used Linvega's body/facility and downloaded the info (embryo) about how to make the Net Terminal Gene using her and Sanakan's genes. That's why Linvega sunk into the river, but immediately reemerged in the next page. It was Chibo standing there. Since Linvega and the safe guard have no reason to create an exterminator with an embryo which can potentially fix the expansion of city, it has to be Chibo who added that part as well. Before Linvega/Chibo died, she told the administration that she couldn't control herself, and she just wanted to see the Net Sphere. Based on what happened before, it is more natural to assume it was Chibo who said that. I mean, after all she was a researcher once tried to connect to the Net but failed. Fun fact: after being downloaded, level 9 actually healed Killy's arm. It was destroyed by Pcell. Yet, Killy shot level 9, that's probably why after healing for 14 years, Killy found his GBE he shot it crazy. Here Killy showed some emotion (anger?), which is super rare. I liked this scene because it shows Killy and Chobo's bond in a subtle way.
Level 9 have Cibo in it, but she only capable to suppress it autonomous control for a while and she using it to heal Killy. If Cibo never using Sanakan's Safeguard body, she might not learn how to suppress the Safeguard control. After long separated years, Killy meet again with Cibo, this time she is capable to prevent the Safeguard system from taking over her control outside Toha Heavy Industry.
I think this definitely a once in a lifetime type of story that is worth reading every page of this series because of how unique and complex yet simple of a story this series is. I just wish I knew about it sooner than I did
There are two more "sequel" chapters. One where a long lost descendent of PCELL and her tribe of Silicon Beings consider Killy a 'calamity' (as if he's some bogeyman as strong as a hurricane) and they avoid humans. One day the tribe is seen by the humans, and the humans control a builder to kill the tribe, implying humans now have partial control over the netsphere and the City. PCELL's descendent escapes, encounters human a human settlement, gets damaged and hides for a while, before eventually healing and going to the edge of the city. She tries to leave but safeguards attack her, she is saved by Killy. She wakes up on the outside surface of the city, grows wings, and flies into space looking for a place to safely repopulate her race of silicon creatures (of which she carries their genetic info). Another chapter was supposed to be a direct sequel, not just a side story. A town of humans discovers safeguards, but the elder who has was born in the capital and has some sort of net terminal genes contacts the capital for help. The human "knights" attack the safeguard nest which is a safeguard tower, but the knights get destroyed except for 1 who barely gets away. When the surviving knight wakes up, a "net sphere engineer" arrives from the capital into town. Engineer tells everyone to stay put, he's going to do his job. He goes to the safeguard tower where safeguards spawn from, but none attack him because of his special necklace. He starts working on the tower dismantling it. However the lone knight survivor shows up, all the safeguards attack her. Engineer puts his necklace on her while he attacks all the safeguards, including one giant safeguard. Engineer barely wins and dismantles the tower. Survivor wakes up and he's gone. The town finds an entrance to the lower megastructure but cannot open it, and the comic ends.
I agree. In the early bits you are mystified by this unknown place. However, as we start to get more familiar with the city we encounter large civilizations. This early part is so meditative because it really does feel like this super large civilizations are just an incredibly small fraction of the city, but they are so much more lively than the desolate abandoned towns and structures
I've been seeing more and more videos and people talking about BLAME!, I'm so glad this masterpiece is finally gaining popularity. It is my all time favorite manga and I've probably reread it more times than I can count. Nothing beats BLAME!.
The kind of world building in this manga is insane , while reading it i felt as if i was in some weird world. I want a series on this but I beleive it will be really hard to capture the darkness and environment that the manga has
@@justinaysien1204 honestly I don't think it's just about direction, a huge part of it is casting which i feel the directors and producers always fail at.
Three years ago this video was made. Fourteen years before that the manga began and eleven years ago it ended. In a century it is possible that this manga will have been saved for posterity across numerous hard drives. In a million years, against all odds, an uncorrupted version might still exist. One trillion years from now a species, so incomprehensible in mind and form, might unearth this gem as their vernal galaxy brushes against our brumal stars. Perhaps by then this fiction will be a reality and these alien observers, in their forgiveably imperfect understanding of who we were will assume this is a slice of our latter history. I think the message of this manga, if anything, is that we must not wait to begin building a world that brings us peace and which makes us proud to pass on. If we take the easy route and pass the stewardship to those who dont share our values, such as thinking machines, we will be the authors of our own hell.
The Blame! setting is one of the most thought provoking fictional universes created. I was introduced to the manga from the Netflix movie. I thought it was excellent. I wish they made more as there is so much potential for Killy to encounter other tribes and have adventures while searching for the Net Terminal gene.
When pewdiepie gave me a glimpse of panel in blame!, it looks like a painting than a manga. The landscape is a kin to zdzisław beksiński work, i heard and see many references about blame in other title, like sidonia another author work, his work is something else that i like with
I've tried my best to recreate the settings in blame while lucid dreaming. Trying to focus too much on the finer details just ends up either creating a mess, or making everything look really hazy
I bought all 6 of the Master Edition, finished it and immediately took to the internet out of pure confusion. God I wish Nihei would do more with this universe.
@@Saltymoles Nah Nihei himself said that every work is completely separate only Noise is the prologue of Blame! and there's 1 more oneshot manga called Blame2 it's the sequel to Blame!
If anyone decides to read this I strongly recommend finding the master edition. I found the translation much better, there is a worse translation that seems to be around more commonly. When I swapped to the master edition I could follow the plot a lot better. Also do give this manga a shot if you haven't, I loved it. I am glad to see a video on it so more people discover this.
The translation is not really an issue, I've read way worse. But it's really hard to tell what's actually happening when there is no dialogue, manga is just fundamentally bad at portraying action scenes.
I love nihei-sense is work! Bio mega is my favorite, but I’ve started aposimz and I like it a lot as well. He is just great at building intrigue and world building. His armor/ creature designs are awesome too!
I just read this manga and man, the enviromental story telling, the atmosphere, action scenes and the overall plot is the best i've ever seen. Also the structure designs..
I bought the complete omnibus collection about a year ago and the large full page panels are absolutely hypnotic some of the panels you can stare at for several minutes finding new details and just imagining oneself being there.
Love to see you do a complete story of chainsaw man as I love to see how you talk about complex stories but you describe in a way you can see a clearer meaning to every panel to the manga.
@@WhiteKnuckleRide512 It is complicated if you view it as a whole, Chainsaw man writing is very subtle about it, and it doesn't use dialogue to convey its deeper meaning most of the time. There's a youtube channel called captain mack that made a video called "chainsaw man is deeper than you think" that explains its depth better than I can in a short comment. It's not the deepest story but saying it has no depth or complexity is false
There are several points throughout Blame! where the amount of time that has passed is unknown. Also, there are several elements of the story where you make guesses at what was happening. Usually, there is no certain information presented in the Manga. Even when the author gives out what appears to be answers to things that are going on, there is no way of knowing whether or not that information is accurate. The amount of time between the prequel Noise and Blame! is also unknown, but given the apparent size of the City, it could been tens of thousands or even millions of years later. In Noise, the character states that the city has reached the moon. This causes numerous issues. If the Sol solar system, except for the Sun (Sol itself), were dismantled, there would not be enough material to build outward from the Earth's surface to the point at which Luna orbits the Earth today (Luna itself would have long since dismantled before that point). I think you could make it by dismantling Sol itself. Fortunately, it is stated (also in Noise) that "...materials continued to arrive from somewhere..." This gives the possibility that an interstellar operation is underway to dismantle every solar system and gas cloud available. As in, everything in the Milky Way galaxy. You'd need it all to build out the "City" to somewhere between the current orbital radius of Jupiter and Pluto. It's hard to tell exactly. The amount of open space overall in the City is unknown. The density of materials used in construction is unknown, but since it often appears to made made entirely of nanosystems (advanced machines and entities are formed from it frequently), and because of some of it's inter-level layers to have immense resistance to damage, it gives thee impression of high density.
I just read Blame! recently, and this video was very helpful for explaining some details that happened in the story, which I didn't understand on my own. I hope you're still planning on making that second video on explaining some of the finer points of the plot, you mention at the end. We need more Blame! content.
@@darrenpayne1743 the city is about the VOLUME of Jupiter. The static void in The Observer is a sphere with a diameter of that length, so the implication is they harvested the entire planet for materials.
First time I read Blame! manga is from a friend that I borrowed in 2010, and I was hooked at it ever since. I really liked the architecture design on each pages and Killy is badass. Abara is also a good read from Tsotsumo Nihei, if you like Badass Bone Armor designs.
Just watched the Netflix movie tonight. It was interesting. So much infact that I must learn everything about this property. Ur video was a big help with this. Thank you.
What are your thoughts on NOISE? it's equally atmospheric and has those same vibes that you get from the lore videos for dune or the alien universe. Ridley Scott would probably do this series justice
@@BerserkDude Yup it definitely seems that way for sure. Then again he purposefully makes sure you're wholly ignorant in regards to the stories flow of time. which the last few panels really emphasizes. just thinking about the inane scale of the TOHA HI alone you have to wonder if the edge of the city is on goddamn MARS. Imagine it. something tells me he was gonna drop that on us. If I'm remembering correctly you briefly flashed the panel depicting a MSG UC style space colony in TOHA and that alone just blows my mind. it reminds me of things that I'm realizing were likely inspired by his works. and the fact that we all likely knew that there was never going to be full explanation to the real mind fuckery that playedout before us. Gantz has that similarly jarring and frankly confusing energy too, but it was more abrasive and less unexpected to witness the next random atrocity unfold before you.
I can't believe you didn't once mention the spelling of the title. My and my wife were looking at each other the whole time during the anime like "who's to blame!?"
The greatest manga of all time for me is Alita battle Angel, or Gunnm. Yes Blame! is put together with expertly crafted art and story telling but I just love the Alita manga with all my heart
Great job. After finishing the manga twice there still a lot I didn't unterstand. Your video cleared some things up. Is there a reson why you didn't include the 2 canon chapters from the spin-off volume "BLAME! Academy and So On"?
Just finished Blame! a couple of days ago. Even though it sort of ends on a high note (Killy protecting Cibu and Sarnakar's child) the world itself is depressing, horrific and I find it hard to see it all ending in a positive way. I love the ecology of the world, the Synthetic life and a complex net sphere. Unlike most Manga worlds that I like, I would not want to live in the world of Blame....endless violence in an impossibly huge world...filled with critters that want to kill or use you. I loved Knights of Sidonia...and I really, really like Blame!....Was just really depressed at the end of it. I will probably go back and read it again at some point. Can't believe we don't have a PC game based on Blame.
I've been scouring the internet for Blame!-like games and it's rough. Here's what I've found so far: - NaissanceE (Atmospheric avant-garde exploration game inspired by Blame!) - Half-Life 2 and Half-Life Alyx carry a lot of similar atmosphere and aesthetics, although they are definitely very different, narratively. - The Little Nightmares games also give me similar vibes to Blame!; Their environments have the same sense of scale and mystery, but the similarities stop there. - Control (this one has a few key moments that are very Blame!-like, and the gun has a mode that reminds me a little of Killys GBE.) - Axiom Verge (cosmic horror metroidvania) (These aren't fully released yet but are all directly inspired by Blame! and all have demos out) - Lorn's Lure (TBA) - Luna Abyss (TBA) - Radio the Universe (TBA) - VA Proxy (TBA)
@@Grimsikk Thank you for the list mate, I had not seen the Luna Abyss one...Downloaded the demo....It's amazing....who knows when the full game will come out...I'm an old fart and have troubles with "Bullet Hell" type games, but the game is too cool not to try. I did get through the demo...and it very much has a Blame! aesthetic. I have played the Lorn's Lure demo and it was fun...but I kept getting lost. Half Life 2 is one of my favorite games...and even though the final few missions are sort of Blame like...they miss the mark for me in comparison. I also played Naissance, but again, got lost as hell...and frustrated...though the art style is very much like Blame. Might give it another shot, but I really dig the Luna Abyss game and it would definitely scratch the Blame! itch. Hopefully it will come out this year. (Yeah, not gonna hold my breath.) I wish someone would make an actual Blame Game. If done correctly, it would be a huge success I'm sure...fans have been clamoring for a game for years.
I love mega-structure sci-fi stories. The game Harbinger being set on a space ship possibly the size of a continent or more was awesome, but Blame! took this concept to insane heights...
What was the small boy/girl who revived themself? Prior to meeting this boy Killy GBE's a silicon-life baby creche, we are shown that age doesn't affect his prejudice towards silicon-life. After this scene Killy meets the silicon-life observing and postulating upon one of the storage spaces within the mega-structure and acts more or less indifferent towards Killy. Where prior we've seen silicon life be come immediately hostile, or if they are not, are only appearing friendly as to lure Killy into a trap. We are shown Killy is hostile to silicon life, even if they are benign So this boy/girl can survive their head being blown off, and multiple wounds to the thorax and stomach, revive, and murder three trained soldiers with its bare hands within the blink of an eye. Gives food to Killy, and neither Killy nor the boy ever act hostile towards one another. It does not appear to be safeguard either, because Killy appears to be hostile to safeguard who're masquerading for ambush purposes, or are intending to harm humans within his proximity. Is it another type of Killy?
Always thought that was a safeguard in disguise and Killy was cool with it since it did not show signs of aggression towards him. Before regaining safeguard capabilities he wasn't able to distinguish between humans and safeguards. At least this is the interpretation I thought about
As Alexei said, Killy had not unlocked his safeguard capabilities yet. He was in the dark about what he was and didn't even know how or why he has his gun (or that emitter that controls builders). It's very likely therefore that this 'child' was a safeguard 'in disguise'.
The things dat make diz story special: its short, has an undertandable ending, has a conclusion of the story. I sooo like the feeling of scare, this future world, which maxed all technology including time travelling, the city with the size of Solar system,where Jupitor is just a room. Holy cow... the world almost without hope, killy walked the whole Solar system!
@@bestproto5117 There's a one-shot story out there that tells the fate of Killy post BLAME!... He's saving even Silicon Creatures from Safeguards by that point...
@@hizbullah666 It's from a Tankoubon/ Compilation that has BLAME! Academy and some other One-Shots by Nihei... It even has the prototype for Knights of Sidonia...
By trying to understand the story, by watching the OVAs, by reading the artbook and the interviews in which the author complains of having been too opaque in his story, which forced him to change. I've discovered 3 possible endings for Blame and fort last, the author has never disowned it because it is unpublished. Manga can be read in 3 different ways, there are 3 meanings. 1. The first is the classic linear reading mode, which is what 95% of people do. 2. The second, after thinking about it, reading the two epilogues and the OVAs, considering the beginning as well as the end, and what that leads to. 3. The third, which is new, after having thought about the incoherences, the details, Blame NSE in its original version and read the interviews where the author laments that nobody understood him, we can place the beginning at EX LOG Nest Ruins, and there it's the hero who breaks the system off-camera after having lived through a particularly hard loop of memories, which requires rereading volume 1 twice. Which is the meaning of the disappearance of the city's masters in the epilogues. I wrote a pdf wiki in french on the reddit blame.
There is a sequel, many years later, after rebuilt human society with the help of the authority, the new humans destroyed safe guards and silicon creatures (Technically, they are not humans, they are mutated beings like Cibo, can't access the net sphere by them selves, but with help of Sanakan and Cibo's children, they established contact and the authority is sending more agents like Killy and Sanakan to help then survive), a random silicon girl was escaping form their destruction, her "mother"(the silicon creature who controls reproduction of silicon creatures in the area) ordered her and her siblings(other silicon creatures produced by the same origin) to run away before dying, she is the last survivor of silicon creatures(her siblings died on the way), carrying all data of silicon creatures, she was saved by Killy, it seems likes Killy changed from a silicon creature murderer committing genocide to all silicon creatures to a animal protectionist. To prevent extinction of silicon creatures, he sent the girl flying in open outer space out side the megastructure of net sphere in the solar system, there she will rebuild a society of silicon creatures in unknown new world in Interstellar medium, with out needing to keep the net sphere in chaos to fight human and safe guard exterminators to survive.
@samantha smith They are both human, in this story, people who have net terminal gene can use the netsphere's factory to make mechanical body in base reality(the real physical reality compared to the noosphere like netsphere), and Sibo used stolen body from hacked factory or hacked people because she dosen't have the net terminal gene
@samantha smith She just didn't, for unknown reasons, actually it's one of the biggest mistery in this story, technically all those people contacting with Killy from the netsphere have the net terminal gene.. All those people who were already in the netsphere didn't really do much thing
@samantha smith In later short story, it seems likes the safeguards are still killing people who don't have the net terminal gene, but the governing agency was able to send people to help these survivors directly, instead of only relying on few special agents like Killy, Sanaken and the unknown person who met Killy at beginng of the story first book log 2
Theres also a couple of mini one shot sequels in "BLAME! Academy - and So On". Nothing grand, but they do show that after some time humans are now in control and activly hunt Silicon Life. Blame!2 also has an Authority guy in Base reality that goes around disabling old safe guard towers.
Just finished blame. I think in the end it sadly just wasn't my cup of tea. For me personally it was way too confusing and weirdly written, but that's makes it so special. Even tho I say I didn't liked it as much as the most people, everyone should give it a try. It's definitly a one in a lifetime experience. It's so creative and absolutely unique. It's not my favourite Manga and imo not the best I read, but I can understand everyone who thinks this is one of the best manga oat.
If you want more of an explanation of the story then read *NOISE!* which was written by Nihei as a prequel to explain the plot for people who didn't understand it.
I came here because i speed runned the manga in 2 days and wanted to wrap the story around, great video i hope we've got to see if there was a net terminal gene in the sphere
WOAH. _Two days?_ Damn. You might want to check out the prequel manga *NOISE!* and the semi-sequels *BLAME!²* and *BLAME! - Net Sphere Engineer* which explore the aftermath.
Thanks for this video. I just finished the manga and I was confused almost as much as I was after watching Evangelion. I love the idea for Blame and the art style i so good, but i didn't get the story at all.
From what I gathered from it. Kyrii was searching for the gene for a long time then met cibo. Cibo used that knight humans gene to create an egg with hero own genes which birthed a new world outside the reach of the city (the ocean?)?
While the Blame! film is not accurate to the manga except for using similar premise and characters, I still say it is one of the best 3D anime's outside of Houseki no Kuni. The details, textures and particle effects are top notch. Lighting and use of visual space is a good demonstration of using less is more but in a visually striking way (for 3D). If 3D anime is going to be a thing, Knights of Sidonia is low budget, Blame! should be the standard with Houseki no Kuni being art.
this manga is some isaac asimov, i have no muth and i must scream, matrix, everything at once, if mona lisa is a world wonder, then this is above it, cause mona lisa is not even close , if you seen it you know, it's not even close to the painting that are around... the ambiance of it, the lonelyness, the exploration feeling, the dyscoveries, while everything is depressing but ! there is still something, something worth fighting for, i love blame.
“But the exterminator traps him in a cube-like sphere” lmfao
Yeah, that made no sense lol I was listening to this while working and had to stop and play it back when he said that. 😂
Ikr
I assume it is a greenish yellow-purple cube-like sphere?
He probably meant a Quadrilateralized spherical cube.
@@Virtual_C_ He meant a cube, dumb*ss
Dude I read this thing in 3 days and every time I fell asleep I had visuals from this manga. No kidding. 3 nights in a row that's all I dreamt of. I woke up feeling disturbed and weirded out everytime. Just goes to show how striking powerful and memorable the mangas visuals are
I love experiences like that, it already happened to me with some mangas and I love when that happens.
I read it in 3 hours
@@ezioauditore5616 I took 2 weeks😅
@@martimfreecss8311 yah i had too much time and havent read any new good manga for years
@@ezioauditore5616 same dawg..
Blame! definitely feels like a cyberpunk fever dream.
It is 😊😊😊
Better than anime
BRO I LITERALLY ASKED FOF THIS VIDEO LETS GO, i got so hyped seeing this in my sub feed
Hope you enjoy!
@@BerserkDude just finished it loved it you gotta do biomega now :)
Don't forget knights of sidonia
Berserk and Blame.
The best mangas of all time.
Both are legendary -- I could read them countless times!
Now try vagabond and dorohedoro!
Gantz>Blame!
@@jacobhines5583 well done, that's probably one of the best jokes I'll read this year.
@@jacobhines5583 Gantz is Good, but Blame! is just on another level
I first encountered BLAME! in my high school years in the early 2000´s. Still my all time favorite manga, which I reread every other year or so and every time I do, there are new details or subtleties to discover. Very glad this work is finally getting broader attention.
I can’t believe no one told me about this. I’ve been toying with and telling people about isolating in giant space craft for years and nobody I’ve encountered has recommended this to me. I just discovered it. It’s so strange how I’ve been talking about this stuff for so long and nobody told me it already exists. I can’t wait to afford to buy one. And then all of them.
@@thetruthexperiment Its awesome, first time reading it, it was very confusing but now i kind of understand what happens.
Also Knights of Sedonia seems to be the prequel story, where ++++ light spoiler ++++ "seed ships" leave the earth to get to other planets, wich build the foundations of the city in BLAME and Biomega!
They are Build from a very important company in that universe.
Have fun!
watched the movie very confused but this clears up a ton
@@oldsql725 Noise! is the prequel to Blame! and it explicitly states that at some point the city encompassed the moon. Very much doubt it referred to just any old moon. And remember the introductory words of Blame! "maybe on Earth, maybe in the Future". Don´t think there is a connection there between Blame! and KoS.
This channel deserves way more credit for this, understanding the BLAME! universe is already impossible but then he even explained it in detail and with good story telling. Underrated
This manga could definitely go on. It could continue with Killy and the kid entering the Net Sphere and destroying it from within. Putting an end to the safeguards.
That would be dope and most crazy thing in manga history cyberpunk no cap
that would also be the end of every human still in the net sphere tho
@@saganc.4090 thought there weren’t any?
They wouldnt need to tho? The net gene lets you control the safeguard and the city, i thought
@@saganc.4090 there are already gone
Fantastic summary of the best manga of all time!
The chapters about the death of Linvega and level 9 download were complicated and not clear to me, so here is what I got from the Japanese Blame! community:
When Linvega was killed, he/she (gender was not mentioned in the original Japanese version: he/she used 私 = I but it is gender free) stole the info of level 9 exterminator and downloaded to his/her body. At the same time, Chibo used Linvega's body/facility and downloaded the info (embryo) about how to make the Net Terminal Gene using her and Sanakan's genes.
That's why Linvega sunk into the river, but immediately reemerged in the next page. It was Chibo standing there. Since Linvega and the safe guard have no reason to create an exterminator with an embryo which can potentially fix the expansion of city, it has to be Chibo who added that part as well. Before Linvega/Chibo died, she told the administration that she couldn't control herself, and she just wanted to see the Net Sphere. Based on what happened before, it is more natural to assume it was Chibo who said that. I mean, after all she was a researcher once tried to connect to the Net but failed.
Fun fact: after being downloaded, level 9 actually healed Killy's arm. It was destroyed by Pcell. Yet, Killy shot level 9, that's probably why after healing for 14 years, Killy found his GBE he shot it crazy. Here Killy showed some emotion (anger?), which is super rare. I liked this scene because it shows Killy and Chobo's bond in a subtle way.
Level 9 have Cibo in it, but she only capable to suppress it autonomous control for a while and she using it to heal Killy.
If Cibo never using Sanakan's Safeguard body, she might not learn how to suppress the Safeguard control. After long separated years, Killy meet again with Cibo, this time she is capable to prevent the Safeguard system from taking over her control outside Toha Heavy Industry.
How did Chibo obtain Sanakas gene?
I think this definitely a once in a lifetime type of story that is worth reading every page of this series because of how unique and complex yet simple of a story this series is. I just wish I knew about it sooner than I did
There are two more "sequel" chapters. One where a long lost descendent of PCELL and her tribe of Silicon Beings consider Killy a 'calamity' (as if he's some bogeyman as strong as a hurricane) and they avoid humans. One day the tribe is seen by the humans, and the humans control a builder to kill the tribe, implying humans now have partial control over the netsphere and the City. PCELL's descendent escapes, encounters human a human settlement, gets damaged and hides for a while, before eventually healing and going to the edge of the city. She tries to leave but safeguards attack her, she is saved by Killy. She wakes up on the outside surface of the city, grows wings, and flies into space looking for a place to safely repopulate her race of silicon creatures (of which she carries their genetic info).
Another chapter was supposed to be a direct sequel, not just a side story. A town of humans discovers safeguards, but the elder who has was born in the capital and has some sort of net terminal genes contacts the capital for help. The human "knights" attack the safeguard nest which is a safeguard tower, but the knights get destroyed except for 1 who barely gets away. When the surviving knight wakes up, a "net sphere engineer" arrives from the capital into town. Engineer tells everyone to stay put, he's going to do his job. He goes to the safeguard tower where safeguards spawn from, but none attack him because of his special necklace. He starts working on the tower dismantling it. However the lone knight survivor shows up, all the safeguards attack her. Engineer puts his necklace on her while he attacks all the safeguards, including one giant safeguard. Engineer barely wins and dismantles the tower. Survivor wakes up and he's gone. The town finds an entrance to the lower megastructure but cannot open it, and the comic ends.
This is one of the greatest manga of all time. its really meditative in the early parts.
I agree. In the early bits you are mystified by this unknown place. However, as we start to get more familiar with the city we encounter large civilizations. This early part is so meditative because it really does feel like this super large civilizations are just an incredibly small fraction of the city, but they are so much more lively than the desolate abandoned towns and structures
I've been seeing more and more videos and people talking about BLAME!, I'm so glad this masterpiece is finally gaining popularity. It is my all time favorite manga and I've probably reread it more times than I can count. Nothing beats BLAME!.
BLAME!
Have you read BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL ? Much more classic in a way but unhinged, crazy & splendid. Really really splendid & raw like BLAME! in a way.
The kind of world building in this manga is insane , while reading it i felt as if i was in some weird world. I want a series on this but I beleive it will be really hard to capture the darkness and environment that the manga has
I believe that Gindi Tartakovsky of samurai jack and primal fame could do justice for this masterpiece of a manga
@@justinaysien1204 honestly I don't think it's just about direction, a huge part of it is casting which i feel the directors and producers always fail at.
There is a BLAME! Mini series
Three years ago this video was made. Fourteen years before that the manga began and eleven years ago it ended. In a century it is possible that this manga will have been saved for posterity across numerous hard drives. In a million years, against all odds, an uncorrupted version might still exist. One trillion years from now a species, so incomprehensible in mind and form, might unearth this gem as their vernal galaxy brushes against our brumal stars. Perhaps by then this fiction will be a reality and these alien observers, in their forgiveably imperfect understanding of who we were will assume this is a slice of our latter history. I think the message of this manga, if anything, is that we must not wait to begin building a world that brings us peace and which makes us proud to pass on. If we take the easy route and pass the stewardship to those who dont share our values, such as thinking machines, we will be the authors of our own hell.
DUDE THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR MAKING THESE AHHHHH I ALWAYS WANT TO READ THESE BUT HAVE NO TIME, SO THE VIDEOS HELP SOOO MUCH - THANK YOUUUUUU
The Blame! setting is one of the most thought provoking fictional universes created. I was introduced to the manga from the Netflix movie. I thought it was excellent. I wish they made more as there is so much potential for Killy to encounter other tribes and have adventures while searching for the Net Terminal gene.
When pewdiepie gave me a glimpse of panel in blame!, it looks like a painting than a manga. The landscape is a kin to zdzisław beksiński work, i heard and see many references about blame in other title, like sidonia another author work, his work is something else that i like with
blame and knights of sidonia where written by the same person
I've tried my best to recreate the settings in blame while lucid dreaming. Trying to focus too much on the finer details just ends up either creating a mess, or making everything look really hazy
How do you lucid dream
@@Fronko_ Coke
@@Fronko_ or crystal meth if u wanna go extra
@@baffled_hawk uhhh drugs? i thiink you can without drugs
@@lolulysse0076 he's joking lol
I bought all 6 of the Master Edition, finished it and immediately took to the internet out of pure confusion. God I wish Nihei would do more with this universe.
Check out abara. Same world but different timeline
Bio mega too
@@Saltymoles Biomega yes - but Abara?
@@nolograps abara is also written by nihei set in the same world. Its pretty sick
@@Saltymoles Nah Nihei himself said that every work is completely separate only Noise is the prologue of Blame! and there's 1 more oneshot manga called Blame2 it's the sequel to Blame!
If anyone decides to read this I strongly recommend finding the master edition. I found the translation much better, there is a worse translation that seems to be around more commonly. When I swapped to the master edition I could follow the plot a lot better. Also do give this manga a shot if you haven't, I loved it. I am glad to see a video on it so more people discover this.
The translation is not really an issue, I've read way worse. But it's really hard to tell what's actually happening when there is no dialogue, manga is just fundamentally bad at portraying action scenes.
Let's go! keep it up👌🏿
Am gonna retry reading Blame really need to understand this gem.
Keep it up man 👑
I love the fact that you were able summarize this story. Plus I love that you covered Noise cause I’ve never read it
I love nihei-sense is work! Bio mega is my favorite, but I’ve started aposimz and I like it a lot as well. He is just great at building intrigue and world building. His armor/ creature designs are awesome too!
My man, this manga, and Nihei’s other works are just phenomenal. The man is a manga god.
I just read this manga and man, the enviromental story telling, the atmosphere, action scenes and the overall plot is the best i've ever seen. Also the structure designs..
Thanks for your time! I really enjoyed every second.
I bought the complete omnibus collection about a year ago and the large full page panels are absolutely hypnotic some of the panels you can stare at for several minutes finding new details and just imagining oneself being there.
Yes😊😊
Love to see you do a complete story of chainsaw man as I love to see how you talk about complex stories but you describe in a way you can see a clearer meaning to every panel to the manga.
Yshh
Chainsaw Man isn't complete yet
Chainsaw man isn’t very complicated though
Chainsaw man is not complex
@@WhiteKnuckleRide512 It is complicated if you view it as a whole, Chainsaw man writing is very subtle about it, and it doesn't use dialogue to convey its deeper meaning most of the time. There's a youtube channel called captain mack that made a video called "chainsaw man is deeper than you think" that explains its depth better than I can in a short comment. It's not the deepest story but saying it has no depth or complexity is false
bro.... do this for every anime, please, ESPECIALLY the f***** weird ones.... seriously good work man, keep it up
The story being called Blame! But ACTUALLY sounding like Blam is my favorite part of this
When I was reading this manga I listened to Machine Girl and Sewerslvt, the music is perfect for this manga
There are several points throughout Blame! where the amount of time that has passed is unknown.
Also, there are several elements of the story where you make guesses at what was happening. Usually, there is no certain information presented in the Manga. Even when the author gives out what appears to be answers to things that are going on, there is no way of knowing whether or not that information is accurate. The amount of time between the prequel Noise and Blame! is also unknown, but given the apparent size of the City, it could been tens of thousands or even millions of years later.
In Noise, the character states that the city has reached the moon. This causes numerous issues. If the Sol solar system, except for the Sun (Sol itself), were dismantled, there would not be enough material to build outward from the Earth's surface to the point at which Luna orbits the Earth today (Luna itself would have long since dismantled before that point). I think you could make it by dismantling Sol itself. Fortunately, it is stated (also in Noise) that "...materials continued to arrive from somewhere..." This gives the possibility that an interstellar operation is underway to dismantle every solar system and gas cloud available. As in, everything in the Milky Way galaxy. You'd need it all to build out the "City" to somewhere between the current orbital radius of Jupiter and Pluto. It's hard to tell exactly. The amount of open space overall in the City is unknown. The density of materials used in construction is unknown, but since it often appears to made made entirely of nanosystems (advanced machines and entities are formed from it frequently), and because of some of it's inter-level layers to have immense resistance to damage, it gives thee impression of high density.
Great video, love BLAME! in a big way. Excellent content!
This the most awesome UA-cam video ever ! Congratulations and thanks for this 🎉
I love Blame!.
Thank you for making this video.
This story is one hell of a ride that i dont think anybody should miss out on.
I just read Blame! recently, and this video was very helpful for explaining some details that happened in the story, which I didn't understand on my own. I hope you're still planning on making that second video on explaining some of the finer points of the plot, you mention at the end. We need more Blame! content.
I really find frightening how huge that city is. At this point even Coruscant is smaller.
Well the city is about the size of Jupiter
@@darrenpayne1743 zamn
@@darrenpayne1743 the city is about the VOLUME of Jupiter. The static void in The Observer is a sphere with a diameter of that length, so the implication is they harvested the entire planet for materials.
Coruscant is far, far, far smaller.
First time I read Blame! manga is from a friend that I borrowed in 2010, and I was hooked at it ever since. I really liked the architecture design on each pages and Killy is badass. Abara is also a good read from Tsotsumo Nihei, if you like Badass Bone Armor designs.
I watched the movie years ago and didn't know I needed this video until today
Thank you so much for providing this recap. This is such an underrated gem.
I just got back from the bookstore and picked up Blame! Vol 1. It is my first Manga ever so consider your video a huge success! Thanks for the vid
I honestly think PANDORUM took inspiration from this manga on the way the spaceship looked.
it`s magic man, Thnx! Great work
keep making these, youre the best!!
Let's goooooooooooo!!!!! Man you always come in clutch when making new story manga
I've read a lot of dark horror-esq manga but something about Blame in particular makes me really feel it
First person to do a full story on this series. Thank you
Just watched the Netflix movie tonight. It was interesting. So much infact that I must learn everything about this property. Ur video was a big help with this. Thank you.
What are your thoughts on NOISE?
it's equally atmospheric and has those same vibes that you get from the lore videos for dune or the alien universe.
Ridley Scott would probably do this series justice
NOISE is a prequel to the Blame! Universe (also written by Nihei), so I love it.
@@BerserkDude Yup it definitely seems that way for sure. Then again he purposefully makes sure you're wholly ignorant in regards to the stories flow of time. which the last few panels really emphasizes.
just thinking about the inane scale of the TOHA HI alone you have to wonder if the edge of the city is on goddamn MARS. Imagine it. something tells me he was gonna drop that on us.
If I'm remembering correctly you briefly flashed the panel depicting a MSG UC style space colony in TOHA and that alone just blows my mind.
it reminds me of things that I'm realizing were likely inspired by his works.
and the fact that we all likely knew that there was never going to be full explanation to the real mind fuckery that playedout before us.
Gantz has that similarly jarring and frankly confusing energy too, but it was more abrasive and less
unexpected to witness the next random atrocity unfold before you.
Sad to say I’ve never heard of this manga the art is beautiful. Great vid my man
Wolverine: Snikt! is a five-issue comic book limited series written and drawn by manga artist Tsutomu Nihei, published by Marvel Comics in 2003
I can't believe you didn't once mention the spelling of the title. My and my wife were looking at each other the whole time during the anime like "who's to blame!?"
The world of blame is so interesting the sheer size of it is cosmic horror at its finest.
My favorite Manga with nothing even coming close in any capacity whatsoever.
Blame! Vibes: from sci-fi cyberpunk to surreal sci-fi horror
More Blame! content would be highly appreciated!
Very well narrated, thank you for the great work
Thank you my friend,this was great,blame is just amazing
The greatest manga of all time for me is Alita battle Angel, or Gunnm.
Yes Blame! is put together with expertly crafted art and story telling but I just love the Alita manga with all my heart
who asked you bro
Your descriptions addd a lot of richness to each scene. Pros
Great job. After finishing the manga twice there still a lot I didn't unterstand. Your video cleared some things up. Is there a reson why you didn't include the 2 canon chapters from the spin-off volume "BLAME! Academy and So On"?
thank you so much for this video look forward to your follow up blame video!
I always wanted to read this but never had the time and way you go into everything ...just thanks.
Omg omg omg I'm so happy that you're covering blam!!
Dude just wants an internet connection. 😢
BLAME! is one of my favorite manga, due to its lore, atmosphere and combatants.
Just finished Blame! a couple of days ago. Even though it sort of ends on a high note (Killy protecting Cibu and Sarnakar's child) the world itself is depressing, horrific and I find it hard to see it all ending in a positive way. I love the ecology of the world, the Synthetic life and a complex net sphere. Unlike most Manga worlds that I like, I would not want to live in the world of Blame....endless violence in an impossibly huge world...filled with critters that want to kill or use you. I loved Knights of Sidonia...and I really, really like Blame!....Was just really depressed at the end of it. I will probably go back and read it again at some point. Can't believe we don't have a PC game based on Blame.
I've been scouring the internet for Blame!-like games and it's rough.
Here's what I've found so far:
- NaissanceE (Atmospheric avant-garde exploration game inspired by Blame!)
- Half-Life 2 and Half-Life Alyx carry a lot of similar atmosphere and aesthetics, although they are definitely very different, narratively.
- The Little Nightmares games also give me similar vibes to Blame!; Their environments have the same sense of scale and mystery, but the similarities stop there.
- Control (this one has a few key moments that are very Blame!-like, and the gun has a mode that reminds me a little of Killys GBE.)
- Axiom Verge (cosmic horror metroidvania)
(These aren't fully released yet but are all directly inspired by Blame! and all have demos out)
- Lorn's Lure (TBA)
- Luna Abyss (TBA)
- Radio the Universe (TBA)
- VA Proxy (TBA)
@@Grimsikk Thank you for the list mate, I had not seen the Luna Abyss one...Downloaded the demo....It's amazing....who knows when the full game will come out...I'm an old fart and have troubles with "Bullet Hell" type games, but the game is too cool not to try. I did get through the demo...and it very much has a Blame! aesthetic. I have played the Lorn's Lure demo and it was fun...but I kept getting lost. Half Life 2 is one of my favorite games...and even though the final few missions are sort of Blame like...they miss the mark for me in comparison. I also played Naissance, but again, got lost as hell...and frustrated...though the art style is very much like Blame. Might give it another shot, but I really dig the Luna Abyss game and it would definitely scratch the Blame! itch. Hopefully it will come out this year. (Yeah, not gonna hold my breath.)
I wish someone would make an actual Blame Game. If done correctly, it would be a huge success I'm sure...fans have been clamoring for a game for years.
The 80s and 90s were amazing
38:43 "a cube like sphere"
I love mega-structure sci-fi stories. The game Harbinger being set on a space ship possibly the size of a continent or more was awesome, but Blame! took this concept to insane heights...
What was the small boy/girl who revived themself?
Prior to meeting this boy Killy GBE's a silicon-life baby creche, we are shown that age doesn't affect his prejudice towards silicon-life. After this scene Killy meets the silicon-life observing and postulating upon one of the storage spaces within the mega-structure and acts more or less indifferent towards Killy. Where prior we've seen silicon life be come immediately hostile, or if they are not, are only appearing friendly as to lure Killy into a trap. We are shown Killy is hostile to silicon life, even if they are benign
So this boy/girl can survive their head being blown off, and multiple wounds to the thorax and stomach, revive, and murder three trained soldiers with its bare hands within the blink of an eye. Gives food to Killy, and neither Killy nor the boy ever act hostile towards one another.
It does not appear to be safeguard either, because Killy appears to be hostile to safeguard who're masquerading for ambush purposes, or are intending to harm humans within his proximity.
Is it another type of Killy?
Always thought that was a safeguard in disguise and Killy was cool with it since it did not show signs of aggression towards him.
Before regaining safeguard capabilities he wasn't able to distinguish between humans and safeguards.
At least this is the interpretation I thought about
As Alexei said, Killy had not unlocked his safeguard capabilities yet. He was in the dark about what he was and didn't even know how or why he has his gun (or that emitter that controls builders). It's very likely therefore that this 'child' was a safeguard 'in disguise'.
The things dat make diz story special: its short, has an undertandable ending, has a conclusion of the story. I sooo like the feeling of scare, this future world, which maxed all technology including time travelling, the city with the size of Solar system,where Jupitor is just a room. Holy cow... the world almost without hope, killy walked the whole Solar system!
And his journey has lasted centuries until he found that child.....
@@bestproto5117 There's a one-shot story out there that tells the fate of Killy post BLAME!... He's saving even Silicon Creatures from Safeguards by that point...
@@jasperreyes5174 Whats the title? I need to read that
@@hizbullah666 It's from a Tankoubon/ Compilation that has BLAME! Academy and some other One-Shots by Nihei... It even has the prototype for Knights of Sidonia...
Honestly really hard to follow this manga reading it myself lol, so I appreciate the narration.
In the manga i read the translation was "what's land?" I thought that was appropriate but I kind of like the "what's earth" translation as well.
By trying to understand the story, by watching the OVAs, by reading the artbook and the interviews in which the author complains of having been too opaque in his story, which forced him to change. I've discovered 3 possible endings for Blame and fort last, the author has never disowned it because it is unpublished.
Manga can be read in 3 different ways, there are 3 meanings.
1. The first is the classic linear reading mode, which is what 95% of people do.
2. The second, after thinking about it, reading the two epilogues and the OVAs, considering the beginning as well as the end, and what that leads to.
3. The third, which is new, after having thought about the incoherences, the details, Blame NSE in its original version and read the interviews where the author laments that nobody understood him, we can place the beginning at EX LOG Nest Ruins, and there it's the hero who breaks the system off-camera after having lived through a particularly hard loop of memories, which requires rereading volume 1 twice. Which is the meaning of the disappearance of the city's masters in the epilogues.
I wrote a pdf wiki in french on the reddit blame.
There is a sequel, many years later, after rebuilt human society with the help of the authority, the new humans destroyed safe guards and silicon creatures (Technically, they are not humans, they are mutated beings like Cibo, can't access the net sphere by them selves, but with help of Sanakan and Cibo's children, they established contact and the authority is sending more agents like Killy and Sanakan to help then survive), a random silicon girl was escaping form their destruction, her "mother"(the silicon creature who controls reproduction of silicon creatures in the area) ordered her and her siblings(other silicon creatures produced by the same origin) to run away before dying, she is the last survivor of silicon creatures(her siblings died on the way), carrying all data of silicon creatures, she was saved by Killy, it seems likes Killy changed from a silicon creature murderer committing genocide to all silicon creatures to a animal protectionist. To prevent extinction of silicon creatures, he sent the girl flying in open outer space out side the megastructure of net sphere in the solar system, there she will rebuild a society of silicon creatures in unknown new world in Interstellar medium, with out needing to keep the net sphere in chaos to fight human and safe guard exterminators to survive.
@samantha smith They are both human, in this story, people who have net terminal gene can use the netsphere's factory to make mechanical body in base reality(the real physical reality compared to the noosphere like netsphere), and Sibo used stolen body from hacked factory or hacked people because she dosen't have the net terminal gene
@samantha smith Sanaken have net terminal gene
@samantha smith She just didn't, for unknown reasons, actually it's one of the biggest mistery in this story, technically all those people contacting with Killy from the netsphere have the net terminal gene.. All those people who were already in the netsphere didn't really do much thing
@samantha smith In later short story, it seems likes the safeguards are still killing people who don't have the net terminal gene, but the governing agency was able to send people to help these survivors directly, instead of only relying on few special agents like Killy, Sanaken and the unknown person who met Killy at beginng of the story first book log 2
Theres also a couple of mini one shot sequels in "BLAME! Academy - and So On". Nothing grand, but they do show that after some time humans are now in control and activly hunt Silicon Life. Blame!2 also has an Authority guy in Base reality that goes around disabling old safe guard towers.
Just finished blame. I think in the end it sadly just wasn't my cup of tea. For me personally it was way too confusing and weirdly written, but that's makes it so special. Even tho I say I didn't liked it as much as the most people, everyone should give it a try. It's definitly a one in a lifetime experience. It's so creative and absolutely unique. It's not my favourite Manga and imo not the best I read, but I can understand everyone who thinks this is one of the best manga oat.
If you want more of an explanation of the story then read *NOISE!* which was written by Nihei as a prequel to explain the plot for people who didn't understand it.
@@MentocthemindtakerNot like NOiSE is any less confusing💀
I came here because i speed runned the manga in 2 days and wanted to wrap the story around, great video i hope we've got to see if there was a net terminal gene in the sphere
WOAH. _Two days?_ Damn. You might want to check out the prequel manga *NOISE!* and the semi-sequels *BLAME!²* and *BLAME! - Net Sphere Engineer* which explore the aftermath.
Thanks for this video. I just finished the manga and I was confused almost as much as I was after watching Evangelion. I love the idea for Blame and the art style i so good, but i didn't get the story at all.
Read the prequel *NOISE!.* Nihei wrote it to explain more of the plot and premise behind *BLAME!.*
I love blame on of my favorite manga, this was a pretty nice summery.
I will check the anime out real quick.
Like your vids man keep it up
I want to live in Tsutomu Nihei's worlds!! Someone feel free to get that BIOMEGA anime a rolling!!
I nominate you
@@PippaPasses LOL okay, BRB
From what I gathered from it. Kyrii was searching for the gene for a long time then met cibo. Cibo used that knight humans gene to create an egg with hero own genes which birthed a new world outside the reach of the city (the ocean?)?
To be fair you have to have a pretty high IQ to enjoy Blame!
Oh wait wrong story
Cringe
@@drrckcch0 u are indeed cringe
Hell yeah! LOVE YOUR PFP! COWBOY BEBOP FOR LIFEEE YESS!! SEE YOU IN SPACE COWBOY!
Your speaking style grates my ears
King 👑
While the Blame! film is not accurate to the manga except for using similar premise and characters, I still say it is one of the best 3D anime's outside of Houseki no Kuni. The details, textures and particle effects are top notch. Lighting and use of visual space is a good demonstration of using less is more but in a visually striking way (for 3D).
If 3D anime is going to be a thing, Knights of Sidonia is low budget, Blame! should be the standard with Houseki no Kuni being art.
Your grind is amazing
You deserve a million followers
that was brilliant, i hope you do make a follow up to BLAME
I read BLAME! to the soundtrack of the first ‘selected ambient works’ by Aphex Twin. It fits so well.
The art work is so nice , I hope they would fix a movie of it like Ghost in the shell , gave me similar vibes ! Great manga
I just finished this series and I feel like even after this video it’s going to need another read through or 4
this manga is some isaac asimov, i have no muth and i must scream, matrix, everything at once, if mona lisa is a world wonder, then this is above it, cause mona lisa is not even close , if you seen it you know, it's not even close to the painting that are around...
the ambiance of it, the lonelyness, the exploration feeling, the dyscoveries, while everything is depressing but ! there is still something, something worth fighting for, i love blame.
My favorite manga of all time. 😎