Blame! 1996

 Interpretation

Blame! is a manga from 1996 by Tsutomu Nihei a genius artist. It’s a super unique and surreal experience, definitely a masterpiece of manga and something that cannot be surpassed for probably ever in my opinion. This is a cyberpunk futuristic world building adventure and visual representation of artistic talent, if I were to compare this manga to any other anime or manga I would compare it to a modern day Akira because of how detailed it is, dystopian future cyberpunk and just how similar in there style they are and both of there themes

Blame! story isn’t very clear or straight forward like it doesn’t blatantly tell you the story most of the manga has no dialogue just heaps of imagery so anyone can interpret the story any way they want and how ever they want because of the absence of story it creates its own story through a unique way of extremely detailed art just like when there no music in classical music where it has just silence for half a minute it creates a break and can internalize what just happen and in turn creates music like ambient music hasn’t got much going on but it’s musically therapeutic or like character with no emotion can come across as being sad because humans try to always associate or see human emotions/feeling in everything.

Art

The art in Blame! is still the best art I’ve ever seen in a manga or anime even with having no text half the time the art speaks for it self because the art is so strong and amazing that sometimes it doesn’t need explanation, this manga is truly a literal piece of art in every sense because if you ask every person who read this manga they will all have a different answer because of the lack of dialogue and doesn't tell you the story but just lots of imagery it leaves a lot to the imagination which is what I love about Blame!.

Blame is probably the best cyberpunk manga out there because of how well it portrayed cyborg allies and enemies and the advanced deep worlds. The manga is excellently at showing how massive the Blame! universe world is some of the scenery shots just takes my breath away with how much is in the art and how detailed it is, with millions of ink strokes and lines. If you read this yourself, you will be teleported right in the middle of Blame! because I found myself lost spending hours reading this and didn’t even realise how long I was reading because I was fascinated by it.

Blame! is heavily influenced by the Japanese dystopian cyberpunk subgenre which was founded by Akira, this manga cant really be explained by words because the manga hasn’t got a lot going on with story or characters just carries the manga with just the art alone and for a manga to do that is surely a masterpiece of not only anime but in the art world as well. It has been a while but ill try and give my opinion of what happens in the manga; the story starts off with man called Killy an absolute badass of a character, he wander this massive world of futuristic technological world being made in 90s when computer where still a weird concept for a baby boomer.

I think this was inspired by it as there computers in this and that type of technology in some of the characters maybe the manga didn’t like the idea of it so he made a horrible dystopia future outcome of it which exaggerated. Killy meets this cyborg blonde girl and they have trouble with surveillance and spies in the world as they have to get past them but ended get caught in battles then there these bad guys and I guess they cause trouble as well and some dying robot that wants something to be delivered I think no matter how many times I reread this I still cant understand it as its so symbolic and probably takes a lot of rereads to fully understand and could even be different every time you read which is how amazing it is

Tsutomu Nihei

I've always looked up to Nihei as inspiration and I'm about to tell you why, the mangaka excels at drawing world's because of his studies in college; you can tell that in his works that mostly everything looks like some mutated building even the enemies with all this manga being just world building is the perfect type of manga that he could write to the best of his strengtha and I think he is genius at drawing you can tell this if you read Blame! I became obsessed with his work as it's eerie or gruesome at times and at the same time amazingly well drawn that to me just looks so good.

He has gained a massive cult following for his unique and amazing cyberpunk style which people can’t get enough including myself. The manga setting is entirely an insanely massive building that spans lightyears that’s how the ai has evolved so rapidly that it made this much over the years. This manga was definitely promising and ahead of its time for when it was made as it shows the effects of super automated intelligence before even people knew what A.I was Nihei somehow predicted it in his works this is why he is a mastermind that makes masterpieces. Nihei took straight 6 years just drawing this manga by himself no ghost artists or anything just him and it is worth it.

Blame! is an influential for the industry as it shows that a solo artist with no A&R or P.R team or help can make it as an artist or mangaka with just hard dedication you can accomplish anything which resonates with me in my eyes he created such an impressive, immersive and massive universe of a manga that it is hard to believe that one person made this masterpiece. Blame! is published by afternoon is a monthly seinen manga magazine that publish such greats as Vinland Saga, Kiseijuu and Mushishi which shows how stylistic this manga is that it recognized by them.

This manga changed how I saw manga as I thought that it had to have story and all these other requirements to succeed but this manga changed that because it could be portrayed with just art itself and some characters, as an artist myself i look up to Nihei because of his hard work got him this far and I want to be like him one day. This manga is so artistic that it considered psychological because it has so much going with the art and imagery it develops strong thought and imagery for the viewer that they get blown away from it. Anyway I think I’m done here, if you don’t get what I mean just read it for yourself and you’ll see how amazing it is and why I love this manga because of what I just said

Thanks for reading!