Blame!

Blame! (Buramu) is a Japanese manga, or comic book, that was created by Tsutomu Nihei. Nihei is a man who got a strong cult following due to the dark, “cyber-punk” feel to his work. He studied architecture in college, which is very evident in his mangas, as hey are full of huge, cyber-looking structures in black and white. Blame! Is considered to be a science-fiction manga, and spanned for ten volumes before ending. It became popular enough to have six OVA’s created after it, as well as a full-length CGI movie.

Synopsis

The story is about Killy, a loner of a man who has an extraordinary weapon called the Gravitational Beam Emiter. Killy wanders around The City, looking for something known as Net Terminal Genes. According to the story, Net Terminal Genes are a genetic marker that allow people to enter the “Netsphere”. It is unknown if the marker is real or if it is extince. The City is not just an ordinary city. It is, instead, a large place filled with walls, caves and stairs. There are floors that go a few thousand levels, and the Megastructure keeps the floors separate.

There are all sorts of people who live in The City, from normal humans, to transhumans. Transhumans are the stage between regular humans and Post humans. Post humans are, according to scientists, the next evolutionary step in human development. Cyborgs also roam around in The City, and are known as Silicon Creatures. They are hostile and humans do their best to avoid them. Humans believe that the Net Terminal Genes will stop the Megastructure from growing, and will stop a group known as Safeguard, which seems bent on destroying the rest of the human life forms.

Killy ends up meeting an engineer named Cibo. Cibo is the head scientist of a company called the Electronic Corporation. Cibo is not a human, but is, instead, a torso that is slowly dying. Tons of machines have been put into her body in order to keep the body alive. She convinces Killy that he needs her to come with him on his travels, as she is an amazing hacker. Killy also becomes friends with a group of people known as Electro-Fishers. It is up to them all to find the Net Terminal Genes in order to stop Safeguard from destroying all human kind.

Characters

• Killy – Killy is looking for the Net Terminal Genes. He believes that it is the key to stopping all of the bad things that are occurring in his world. He is very quiet, but is quick to pick up his Gravitational Beam Emitter and fight. He has implants in him from Safeguard, which make him extremely powerful and able to scan.

• Cibo – Cibo is the scientist in charge. She starts as a broken down torso, kept alive with mechanical pats, and eventually gets a body. She has the ability to crack into almost any security system in The City.

• Sanakan – Sanakan is a high level agent who works with Safeguard. She wants to see the Electro-Fishers destroyed. It seems as though she shares some sort of a connection with Killy.