Full Review: youtu.be/ri6bchoiEXs
Overview
Firstly let’s address the title: BLAME!. In English this would be pronounced as blame. However, I have found some sources (listed in the description) that imply that it’s pronounced blam. This latter pronunciation makes the exclamation point in the title make a lot more sense if it’s intended to be a sound effect. I was able to dig up the creator pronouncing it as BLAM so that’s what I’m going with. Anyways….
BLAME! is a dystopian science fiction manga written and illustrated by Tsutomu Nihei that was originally published from 1997 - 2003. This manga was developed into an animated movie and released by Netflix on its streaming service in 2017. BLAME! is a desperate story of survival in the very distant, derelict, future.
The film features a group of human survivors that ekes out an existence in their small haven of the City; a sprawling, byzantine labyrinth of bizarre structures and buildings that extends endlessly in all directions built god knows how long ago. When this group aren’t fighting off starvation vs an ever dwindling food supply, they are hunted down by the Safeguard; eerily human androids that have been exterminating humans for generations for reasons unknown.
The fate of this group irrevocably changes the day they meet a sullen, stoic, traveler by the name of Killy who says he is on a mission to find a human who carries the Net Terminal Gene. Something no one knows anything about.
Get ready for this mouthful: BLAME! is just a possible part of a possibly interconnected universe that Tsutomu Nihei has created with his other major works being another manga series made into film with ‘Knights of Sidonia’ and his manga only series ‘Biomega’
All these works deal with a distant future with transhumanist themes involving technology. The operative phrase here is ‘possible part of a possibly interconnected universe’ because the connections between the different works is implied rather than stated clearly by the creator. With that said BLAME! and it’s core manga could be the tip of the iceberg or the entire iceberg depending on how a curious fan interprets not only BLAME! but Nihei’s other works.
Blame sits at 6.7 out of 10 on IMDB, 7.1 out of 10 on Metacritic, and 57% out of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.
So Is BLAME! an excellent example of worldbuilding and unique take on a far flung future or is it yet another boilerplate sci fi dystopian story skirting by on it’s manga and anime cred?
Sources
BLAME! Pronunciation: https://selftaughtjapanese.com/2021/01/04/japanese-anime-review-blame-ブラム/https://youtu.be/mWyDEgtCfcg
Manga Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blame!
Film Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blame!_(film)
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6574146/ Metacritic: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/blame!
Tomatoes: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6574146/
