Review – Blame! Volume 1 by Tsutomu Nihei

Cyberpunk and Dark Nihlism

 

What it is About?

In a future world rife with decay and destruction, Killy is a man of few words who packs one very powerful gun. He wanders an endless labyrinth of cyberdungeons filled with concrete and steel, fighting off cyborgs and other bizarre silicate creatures. Everyone is searching for the Net Terminal Genes, but no one is quite certain what kind of power they contain. The answer may lie hidden among the scattered human settlements of this vast and desolate future world.

My Thoughts

I am flummoxed. I very much wanted to like this book. I feel like it would increase my “cool” factor exponentially if I did, but alas I was confused.  As a reader, I don’t have a whole lot of experience with Manga as a genre. I have dabbled in it but never went swimming. That being said, I have quite a bit of experience in reading the cyber punk genre which is one of my favorites. Manga absolutely excels in it. “Ghost in the Shell,” and “Akira” are bonafide classics, and rightly so.

But “Blame!” just didn’t do it for me. I can appreciate the quality of the artwork and the simplicity of the dialog: the dialog is minimalistic and it relies on the stark visuals to convey meaning and tone. But, I think it reached too far into starkness and loses any sort of context for the story. I got lost repeatedly and the characters ended up meaning nothing to me. Any die-hard manga fan should check out this novel but the average reader trying to branch out would be well served to check out “Akira” or “Ghost in the shell”.

If you Would Like to Read Blame

 

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