Unraveling Blame!

[@BonsaiPop]

Hey! I'm awake! I actually slept through the launch of this video lol, I worked from 3am to 1pm today to get this out on time and Tyler launched the vid. I'm really glad we could bring this video to you guys, i even wrote a 13 minute ambient track you'll hear throughout the video for this one, i really wanted to get the feel of the manga with the music... i also did that this morning lol. Anyway, i had a ton of fun reading and researching for this. When figurama came to us we were like "cool, a movie, making videos on movies is the easiest" then i had to read three manga series in less than a week and write a ten page script leaving us only three or so days to edit this, which is mostly manga. editing manga is tuff because you don't want to just make a slide show, you have to keep it interesting and entertaining so it takes work in photoshop and after effects, as well as complete memorization of panels and pages to stream line the process. Needless to say production on this one was was a HIKE, but i'm really happy with the final product and props to Tyler for taking the brunt of straight editing on this one as well. If anyone out there is good at reddit it'd really help if you could share this video! Thanks so much for watching, and we'll be back soon! -Mike

[@TyroneisPositive]

This might be your best one

[@JoseSanles]

Great manga, great show and awesome author works. His latest APOSIMZ is, in my opinion, his most polished work yet. You should give it a try.

[@jeffguinard7618]

I've tried getting my friends to read Blame!, but I gave them the same bit you did: "You gotta read it to experience it, nothing I say can do it justice," essentially. That said, I loved the video! I might've missed it, but I didn't see the panel where Killy blasts the GBE so hard that he literally snaps his arm in half. That said, it might've been too graphic for KZbin, or you guys lacked the time to remember putting it in there. That said, again: loved the video! Thank you!

[@jb0258]

This is sorta random, but would love to hear your opinion on Jujutsu Kaisen (:

[@supsup335]

I'd like to add, in sidonis, the ladt seedship sidonua was in contact with was aposimz. Niheis newest manga is called aposimz-land of the puppets, taking place on the outaide of a giant artifical planet that features creatures that are called gauna (that are more like those featured in abara).

[@mfitzyyy]

Im an architecture major and my professor made us read the first few volumes of blame! then we had to create a level for the tower. it was pretty sick

[@vmarliere]

I'm 1 year late but this sounds like a really cool and fun work!

[@sanecurse]

what a beast. W for proff.

[@hmk4132]

w professor

[@DomesticatedGoth]

Your professor was infinitely cooler than any of my lecturers!

[@justin.8777]

Best professor, jesus

[@Marr0wgar]

I read through blame and had no idea wtf was going on 999% of the time. Highly recommend 10/10

[@oldsql725]

Me too, after the third time ( i read it like every 2 years ) i think im understanding most of it. But first time was very disturbing and absolutely phenomenal.

[@HateMachinist]

@@oldsql725 read "Biomega" first, then "Noise" and then, pick up "Blame!" again. Same universe, and chronological in that order. -Thank me later. (They can be read as standalones though.) Done this once every 1-3 years or so since I first discovered Nihei.

[@PriestessOfSlaanesh]

i read trough it for the first time now, i just finished the first deluxe-book.... so when he mets Cibo basically. This is so confusing. This whole manga is like... i cant even explain. I like it but i have no idea why i like it.... there is no story... there are not even good characters.... theres no real setting... i have no idea what ive just read.... but for no apparent reason i want more of it. Gonna buy the rest.

[@jordanthomas4379]

same

[@Marr0wgar]

@@HateMachinist Dog i'm 10 months late; but thank you for these recommendations. The mangaka has INCREDIBLE world building holy shit.

[@jearn11]

I love BLAME. It reminds me of the "endless paperclip machine" scenario, where an AI gets told to make as many paperclips as possible without parameters, causing it to eventually consume and convert all the matter in the universe into paperclips.

[@AugustusBohn0]

hypercompetent automation minus human values equals Blame! or the paperclip maximizer, whichever

[@RGC_animation]

Every thing in the universe is either a paperclip, or not a paperclip.

[@nofuxgivens2797]

Blame reminds me warhammer 40k and more specifically Necromunda.

[@lindamooney5002]

I came here to read up on Blame! And before I watched I came down to read the pinned comment. Then this ‘paperclip’ thread beneath. this “hypercompetent paperclip automation” conversation already has me sold. 🤝

[@nofuxgivens2797]

@@ClosedEyeVisualisations it's a spin-off game/storyline from warhammer 40k. Basically the barely recognized left behind humans who have zero help to live from the billions of humans who live miles above them in functional city spires. Leutin a KZbinr has tons of lore videos from the 40k and necromunda universe

[@NLLHW]

As an architect myself, really cool to hear you talk about the storytelling and atmosphere that architecture itself can bring to a story.

[@isabellamorris7902]

That's really cool! I'm planning on doing a Master's project about architecture/built space in a couple modern novels; do you happen to know any books or documentaries on that perspective? Architecture seems like a super daunting world

[@mariadocarmosobreira8323]

If you like this idea, watch Revolutionary Girl Utena. Seldom have I seen architecture used so strongly to convey feelings, atmosphere and even ideas in an art medium. But regardless of that, Utena is a totally wonderful masterpiece.

[@russelperez3989]

@@mariadocarmosobreira8323 ll

[@danieln6613]

This series is basically "Impossible Space: The Manga", it's a must for anyone who's a fan of thick atmosphere typical of cyberpunk and old French scifi artists like Moebius.

[@enomiellanidrac9137]

This is so true. I'm a fan of Moebius work and when I stumbled upon Blame! by chance I was immediatly drawn in by the similitude, I read all the volumes in one session and then read it back again.

[@rustyshackleford1508]

Something you should note, that the scale of Blame! isn't actually all that nonsensical. There's a lot of evidence that the City is actually a Birch planet (sometimes called a Matryoshka world), which is a kind of megastructure which could be theoretically scaled up infinitely, layers upon layers, using materials harvested from an entire solar system. Imagine the Ringworld from Larry Niven's works, but just as a series of gigantic shells surrounding the central star in layers.

[@mariadocarmosobreira8323]

@@rustyshackleford1508 Which in itself is a derivation of the Dyson sphere idea.

[@kazaddum2448]

@@mariadocarmosobreira8323 However a Dyson Sphere isn't a solid object, it is a swarm of objects. Enough to block all sunlight for outside observers and make use of it all for its inhabitants.

[@isaackinsley1662]

@@kazaddum2448 that would be a Dyson swarm where it is numerous individual objects versus a Dyson shell that is actually a single object.

[@AreWeLearningYet77]

"Read all three manga in six days" What a familiar feeling... Nihei's work hits like a ton of bricks

[@Jetstoanywhere]

I miss you Mr. Dangerfield

[@jakefoley9539]

I will never understand how people consume manga this quickly. Do they just glance over the art and writing and spend like 1 second looking at each page? Doesn't sound very enjoyable.

[@yourlifetrulymatters]

@@jakefoley9539 you’re right

[@maxzoka9122]

@@jakefoley9539 A lot of its is just gratuitous explosions, I got through the 10 volumes in about 4 hours. I enjoyed it and don't feel like I missed out on much. It does get really vague regardless of how long you spend analysing the panels.

[@jakefoley9539]

@@maxzoka9122 Doesn't seem physically possible to read to that fast and have any quality of retention but to each their own. I guess if you just wanted explosions out of the story, you got out what you put in: the bare minimum.

[@kouleifou]

BLAME! is most definitely in my top 5 manga, solid work here guys. It's one of those works where you can feel the emptiness, and hostility of its world.

[@cocacolasons7402]

So what the other 4 of your favourite?

[@lordslime2704]

I have never bought a statue. But GOD DAMN that Killy statue might get me to

[@raphaelzepeda980]

Same , Same! Lol

[@SpiritualWGaming]

I've bought a statue from them in the past and they sell out SO FAST, usually same day or within a few hours. My advice? Get on the wish list for the extra reminder, but plan to get it as soon as the PO opens. Set a phone reminder, for sure. Figurama also has a very active Q&A support system in the Figurama Collectors Hub on Facebook if you run into any issues with the PO process etc. Super helpful. Good luck on PO day. I'll be there too! :D

[@Tgaming119]

Same! i saw it and felt some type of way!!

[@MrZoichi]

Same here, my dude

[@sukamadik5983]

For anyone who cares Knights of Sidonia didn't get canceled, the final Arc is coming out as a movie this year. They also stated that the movie is looking to improve the somewhat lackluster ending of the knights of sidonia manga.

[@HungPham-hm9yk]

really dude! nice!!!!

[@cibo4569]

Yo nice

[@yulian511]

they better not make a shit ending lmao

[@giraoshaw]

Real shit?

[@giraoshaw]

Gawdamn I'm gonna have to reread the manga then

[@jakefoley9539]

I have to imagine this series might have the longest elapsed timespan of any piece of fiction. Killy's journey takes literally hundreds of thousands of years.

[@jenbaminw]

Does it actually? I read it over the course of a week so I just assumed that it moved at a similar rate and only a few months/weeks had passed. That's insane to fathom how long his journey took.

[@jakefoley9539]

@@jenbaminw When you combine all of the massive time gaps that casually occur in the story they really add up. At one point Killy gets damaged and takes roughly 14 years to heal. When Killy and Cibo get separated in Toha Heavy Industries, she spends 10 years waiting for him. In the famous "Jupiter room" Killy is shown walking about a quarter of its circumference to reach the axis tower. At an average walking speed of 3mph that would have taken almost 3 years. We're talking about a story where the protagonist essentially walks from Earth to the edge of our solar system, a distance of around 9 billion miles, and that's if he's traveling in a straight line, which he isn't. Its space and time presented on a scale so vast that it becomes difficult to comprehend or portray.

[@jenbaminw]

@@jakefoley9539 That is insane lmao, thanks for filling me in. Blame is just amazing.

[@lucaskazama878]

Hundred thousand years??? NO Thousands and thousands of years? YES

[@asta8153]

​@jakefoley9539 eons was mentioned, so probably millions or billions

[@jaker259]

Knight of Sidonia references the Aposimz as a sister ship to the Sidonia. Aposimz coincidentally is his series currently in production, so those two are essentially canonically tied.

[@Crankulite]

I theorize that blame just takes place in a far future of aposimz

[@mocinhatrampante]

WOW IM SO GLAD TO KNOW THIS MAN IS WORKING

[@Emerild]

Rather felt that all Niheis works are closely related divergent timelines. Not in the same universe but, potential universes.

[@kacpersiwek6111]

also gauna from kinghts of sidonia and regular frames from aposimz both use placenta to generate their body and armor, although the ones from apozims have some sort of exo skeleton inside and seem generally a lot less chaotic life forms than the gauna are. wich may hint that the gauna are just something that regular frames were created from. I think there was some conecttion with abara also but i do not remember it in full so yea

[@shktech6026]

Sharing names and themes doesn't mean they're tied.

[@ryuzakihernandez6304]

Just as a clarification, (not as a correction) Killy smiles 3 times, every time with the silicon life killing process, also Killy eats 2 times, when he eats a snackbar and he eats a vegetable when he encounters a vagabond, this is such a great video!!! :3

[@achronos178]

I really wished there were more media set in worlds like these.

[@Flameville]

Same I love the scifi genre along with dark stories set in a dystopian futuristic setting. If there isn't much out there, I guess we'll have to create and be inspired

[@jckmusic_thoughts2163]

This may be a bit of a stretch, considering that I haven’t read the manga, but I recommend the comic Cerebus (issues 1-180). It’s a dystopian Canadian comic that has incredible landscapes that are a huge part of the story, excellent satire/societal criticism, and intricate storytelling.

[@danieln6613]

You can give NaissanceE a try, it's a video game set in a world inspired by Blame!

[@achronos178]

Ty all for the suggestions!! keep em coming

[@THX-bz8bi]

NeiR Automata?

[@johnnyplto5592]

i will forever envy nihei's ability to draw such heavy landscapes. it feels as if the city itself is breathing

[@yourlifetrulymatters]

That is what i’m saying. I did not know something like that was possible. The second time I was wowed after seeing OPM art.

[@nothingiseverperfect]

I remember there was a scene where Killy and Cibon went on an elevator and it took 800 hours but it was over in 1 panel and I’m like WHAAAAT? Blame was insane, the architecture was so eerie yet amazing. The ending confused the hell out of me but damn it was a fun ride

[@mfhex1398]

I remember that, too haha the remaining time was shown in seconds, had to take out a calculator iirc. Similar to some random giant room Killy enters at some point, and the creature measuring the place tells him the circumference if roughly that of Saturn, suggesting that it was swallowed by the megastructure and used as building materials.

[@restoreleader]

Oh yes, the causal 4000 floors :D

[@overseastom]

Jesus, imagine 800 hours of the Girl from Ipanema muzak. Sure, the first 2 might be kinda groovy, but I'd be hitting the emergency stop button soon after, I reckon.

[@viktorepifanov7138]

What about the panel that had the casual “2,000,000 hours later” text in the middle of their search lol

[@pyagtargo1260]

@@viktorepifanov7138 228 years

[@SpiritualWGaming]

Great thoughts on Blame!. What really gripped me about the story is how it's really not a narrative and more of an experience. Your sense of reality gets so MESSED UP after reading it (just try reading it in one sitting, I dare you!) Time and space mean nothing in this world, and it's absolutely unique in the manga world.

[@thebunsenburner]

Congrats: you've actually convinced me to look for this manga. I've never been moved to grab one before, but this is right up my alley.

[@thomasmiller8289]

You're in luck! It's been recently reprinted!

[@astralodin]

Blame! is my favorite Manga, i bought it by sheer randomness back then in 1999. This Manga changed everything for me it was so good and saddly nothing after this was ever this good and satisfying to look at. the world invented in this manga is so unique and vast its just beautiful to look at and i revisit it at least once a year.

[@RiotKurhein]

I just realized From Soft should make a Blame video game.

[@danialyousaf6456]

That would be amazing.

[@Emerild]

Hopefully Miyazaki has read blame! like he read Berserk.

[@alastor8091]

I need a game where I'm walking for hundreds of hours.

[@RiotKurhein]

@@alastor8091 there's Deaths Stranding.

[@alastor8091]

@@RiotKurhein played the mess out of it, but I need a game that takes like literally hundreds of hours to finish just ONE plahthrough. I want the desolation, the creeping terror, and the wild unknown of Blame captured in the environment. Few words, maybe a couple every 10 hours or so rare contact with other people or creatures thats often hostile or scary. I want the manga in game form.

[@smokinpumpkin3173]

I'm glad you guys talk about less mainstream manga/anime like Claymore, Dorohedoro and Blame etc. Keep up the amazing work! *Edit* Great video! Going to be busy reading bio omega this weekend xD

[@BonsaiPop]

prepare yourself, it's VERY weird

[@raze_]

Blame is the only one here not mainstream. Lmao.

[@raymanovich3254]

Definitely prefered Blame! over biomega, but it's a trip for sure.

[@networknomad5600]

@@raze_ Claymore isn't mainstream, and never was.

[@digitalcamaro9708]

Dorohedoro really needs more love.

[@sunlocked5838]

I've always taken the "Provincial Safeguard" designation as Killy, in some form, predating the Safeguard, or at least the contagion that destroyed the Net Terminal Gene. It would free him from the limitations of the Safeguard's programming and allow him to interact with humans. Then, considering just how survivable Tanikaze is without any form of cybernetic augmentation, it is entirely possible that he lives long enough to become Killy after, under Toha Heavy Industry's advancement, as Lem VII becomes The City we know and love. It is also equally possible that Killy is a different clone of Hiroki created later or was created when The Governing Authority recreated Tanikaze's mind and/or body, which would also introduce the possibility of multiple Killies. While I believe that the Killy we see in the manga is the same one throughout the series, I could see The Governing Authority creating multiple Killies to start or even creating a new Killy every once in a while to try to ensure the most likely chance of the Net Terminal Gene of being found. Another possibility that would technically be canon is a multiverse, even with some cross over. We saw that the gravity furnaces created by Toha Heavy Industries in Blame, alternate timelines can be accessed. While that is a bit of a cop out, that turns the references to Nihei's other work as some sort of multiversal constant/alternate instead of just easter eggs.

[@BonsaiPop]

i like the idea of it being multiversal content or all tied to the seed ships. my thoughts on nagate were similar to yours. he's a special soldier and was already cloned and for all we know the original's corpse is still chilling in the bowels of sidonia, a simple task to clone him again, especially if sidonia runs into trouble. it could easily lead to a killy elsewhere or a zouichi in the future

[@sunlocked5838]

@@BonsaiPop yeah, each story being spawned off of different colony ships is particularly fitting since Nehei's current manga, Apomsimz, seems to be taking place on the only only other named colony ship in Knights of Sidonia. I am just waiting for Toha Heavy Industries to appear, I have a space for it on my corkboard and red string set up.

[@vomErsten]

The City is set in Earth's solar system, not Lem. There is a direct prequel to BLAME!, called NOiSE!, that lays this out, as said in the video. That said, the video got it wrong; the City in NOiSE was just on Earth. After the events of NOiSE, the City started on earth and grew upward, eventually consuming the Moon and beyond. If any one of Nihei's other works is related to the BLAME! continuity, it's much more likely to be Biomega (though this is unlikely).

[@jasperreyes5174]

I remember reading a oneshot by Nihei of a cop/ detective Killy who also uses a GBE who is investigating the emergence of Silicon Life... It seems to be also on the same timeline as the beginning of NOiSE...

[@mindexpansionpuzzles]

@@vomErsten Yeah, he brought the prequel up then goes off on tangent that all the stories are connected off of one clue. If anything Abara could be a prequal to Knights of Sidonia and it's stated and shown in BLAME! that the TOHA ship is an Interdimensional spaceship that left before the City was built.

[@CaliPSSF]

read the manga years ago and loved it. i remember scouring the internet for hours reading theories etc trying to make some sense of it. love the little touches that expand the scope of space and time.. like coming across a room that's the diameter of Jupiter, or when Killy is walking and next panel in a corner says "60,000 hours later".. like, ok, 6 year time jump from one random panel to the next

[@AndréVilaFranca]

Tsutomu Nihei's art style is even better in Abara. I wish that that was a long runing series.

[@draggucci]

I agree, it's stunning 👍

[@nivedh2894]

Thank you so much for mentioning it! Abara has some of the best character designs I've ever seen in a Manga.

[@Rivershield]

In my opinion that's when his art peaked, followed by Biomega. I mean Sidonia is good too, and Aposimz is not bad it's just a different style. But I think nobody in its sane mind would argue against the claim that his art was better when he was trying to make every look as creep as possible.

[@Drbaden]

@@Rivershield i think the problem is knights of sidonia and aposimz were drawn digitally where as blame, n0ise biomega and abara were drawn traditionally resulting in a lot more roughness and grit in the artwork

[@Rivershield]

@@Drbaden Yeah, that's likely the case indeed

[@raphaelzepeda980]

I actually read this back in 2005 , i forgot about this and the name .i would try and remember the name or sometimes think i was dreaming it up since i never saw any mention of this manga anywhere but it always lived in the deep dark side of my subconscious only to pop out every now and then when reading works by Junji Ito or Kentaro Miura . Since their works it would remind me of that type of fear and the drawing style .

[@samsonerickson]

SAME!! This has been on the back burner of my brain for years and tho I tried many times I could not find reference to: an anime/manga about an "endless city" and many other keywords. THIS video tho has saved my sanity whilst at the same time testing it by giving me access once again lol... (was always looking for this and one other anime I watched in mid to late 90s about a corporation that takes over the earth except for tokyo..?)

[@SugaryNapalm]

Exactly the same for me I found Volume 1 in a book store in like 2008 and read it but never found anything else for the series anywhere and googled with no luck. Forgot the name and almost everything about it until I saw the movie and Pewdiepies video about it

[@ХасанСали-ь6з]

So i almost never leave comments under vidoes but i just wanted to let you guys know that i have been binging your channel for the last day or so and its really amazing. Keep up the awsome work guys.

[@BonsaiPop]

thanks so much!

[@bjanes4766]

If you like Blame and it’s atmosphere, I cannot recommend the game NaissancE enough. It is the only other thing thing I’ve experienced that has captured the feeling of Blame. It’s absolutely incredible, and almost impossible to describe. It really is as if you’re inhabiting and navigating the world of Blame. Fascinating and really terrifying. Way more people need to know about it.

[@Richard.halabi]

Blame! is something form another dimension .. to 100% get it you need to watch it alone and focus on it... a not blame the creator for being vague if you don’t get it It doesn’t mean it is bad.............. Really good material.

[@JingleJoe]

*TOHA HEAVY INDUSTRIES THEORY;* in reading Blame! I always found myself asking "where was it all manufactured?" I hypothesized that toha heavy industries is where they built a lot of the parts used elsewhere and did the raw materials processing and turned things from ingots, into pipes and mechanisms. Being a major supplier, possibly from the beginning of the city, would give them a special relationship with the net sphere governing body and explain their special exemptions. t. machinist

[@r.babylon2885]

I saw the manga on a shelf in Barnes, bought it for a buddy's birthday gift, and a couple days later this comes up. My god.

[@BinaryDood]

A lot of vids about Blame lately. I made one a few years back. I thought 2018 was a good year as it paralleled 200 years since Frankenstein (one of the pioniers of Sci-Fi) and 20 years since Blame (which extended the concept to its furthest). The City itself is Blame's frankensteins creature. A mesh of things not meant to, from before and from after. Scale not graspable, complexity and design unclear. But all in all I think the Builders were not insane. Silicon Life and the few remnants of human civilization fail to grasp it because the Netshpere is just a far long dream. But I believe the City, and all its circuits, tubes, structures, are mostly the Hardware to power the Netsphere. The Netsphere being a collective space made by humans to create direct man-machine interfacing, bring lucidity to every thought and be able to connect with one another infinitely on a virtual plane. Layer above existence. A "Heaven", but to build it, to sustain it, Earth had to be made into "Hell". No religious simbolism, just the pushing of opposite dualities to their furthest. The Administration being what's left of what was once a human sense of justice, no longer able to accurately distinguish friend from foe. Distorted order. Silicon Life being the remnants of human's sense of progress, getting what they want against all odds, advancing entropy, distorted chaos. Memory being another theme, collective and individual. Even the most advanced of machines/cyborgs, still suffering to quantum noise degradation that ignores their inate resistences, loosing even ancient memories kept in them of the once lost civilization. There is this sense that media, intercommunication, makes it so that Earth is bigger than the Universe? How so? Scale has to be grasped, it is relative. Even what see and describe of the universe needs to be processed and understood back here in the minds who live on Earth, as its best interpretors. In the end, our infinite game of mirrors due to communication, miscommunication and abstraction, allows it for many "universes" to exist within the structure of humanity/civilization. Self sustaining paradoxes with lone idenitities. There is more variety of things in my room that there are in entire parsecs of the Universe. Dark matter/energy, plasma conglomerates... here I can see objects of artifice, pushing molecules of one things into another to form "design" and "function" only able to attain value to the inherent abstract mode of thinking humans (the universe's best eyes, hands, noses, ears, mouth and mind) have in them. As such, many stars are indistinguishable blobs of gas and plasma, scales irrelevant. But every item a human crafts has an immediate associated cost and fucntion. We were made to be dense, bring variety and novelty to the facsimille universe. This from the eden of life that once was on Earth, to be the fastest bring of novelty. Of course, that is also its own form of entropy. Should we manage to leave Earth. This post-structural game of abstractions, our mirror maze would also migrate to whicever we go to next. Mars will get bigger if we terraform it, because there will be more eyes and more things, more abstractions hence more "universes". If we go to another planet afterwards, then the same exponenciality would occur. Making the universe bigger and bigger. Blame's city is that notion to an extreme, subverting it. The husk of our civilization is literally terraforming the whole universe. It is about the inate incomptability of our biology to the structures we make in the longest of terms. Impermanence vs time. In Blame, the "Netsphere" marks the singularity of our exponential growth. After it, there is only "The City", everything that was left behind. Infinite structures devoid of the eyes and minds that gave its abstract shape a meaning and function. Replacing the primitive blobs of plasma and elemental geodes that merely float about. Perhaps meant always to be resources for the "structures" that humankind could create. That is why I started my video with William Gibson's quote: "Time moves in one way, memory another. We are that weird species that constructs artifacts intended to counter the natural flow of forgetting"

[@Justaspacedude]

You know what’s cool? The pure win win cooperation between Bonsaipop and Figurama. It warms my heart ❤️💕🥲💕❤️

[@kcryrine5056]

bonsai's made a vid, but anyone here who likes the art of blame, you might also like the dorohedoro manga! similar grimy opressing architecture, goop/gore, and cool painterly color pages. it's comedic as well.

[@jab8618]

The sound was *chef's kiss* on this video. It perfectly paralleled the emotions you were aiming to evoke in the video. What a delight!

[@AndréVilaFranca]

There's a special chapter that takes place thousands of years after Blame! ends. Killy appears there as well and finally reaches something....you're gonna have to read it. xD

[@Rivershield]

What chapter is that? I searched it everywhere and couldn't find

[@AndréVilaFranca]

@@Rivershield I don't remember the name of the chapter. I've read it in a manga website. Just google the Blame! franchise and you're gonna find the name of the special chapter.

[@proxysoldier2946]

@@Rivershield i think it's the "Net Sphere Engineer" short series

[@jasperreyes5174]

@@proxysoldier2946 It might be the one about PCell's Descendant...?

[@LegendOfYuka]

Hey I just read two extra additions and I still don’t understand what you mean by Killy reaching something? Do u perhaps mean the earth because he reaches that in blame 1

[@SmCxDramatik]

BLAME! has been one of my all time favorite manga's for at least a decade now. Its so dope to see you cover it in a video.

[@ImaginationHammer]

Reading Order: Abara Biomega Noise Blame Blame 2 Knights of Sidonia APOSMIZ

[@NoFutureZine]

Hero

[@isaiahkayode6526]

So they take place in the same Universe

[@stferguson88]

@@isaiahkayode6526 It's never explicitly stated, but there are a lot of hints that they might

[@FelipeFerreira-zu6ow]

Don't you think that sidonia happen before abara? In the end of abara the world is destroyed in half and a lot of monsters that look like gaunas appears Also, in the end of abara there are ships that are the salvation of humanity

[@MayankJairaj]

Thanks! I was just browsing Netflix randomly and came across the movie.. is there way to access the other works legally?

[@steampunk1610]

One of my Favorite Seinen Mangas of Nihei

[@seanstroman6087]

Blame! definitely of the dopest einen manga I've read to date. Love the art, the way ambiance of the architectural structure makes you feel immersed within the world is 2nd to none. Sidenote: when Mike reads a/o watches Chainsawman he'll definitely dub it the anime that epitomizes "punk rock cartoons" Love to the Bonsai Pop subs 🙏🏿

[@knightofawesome100]

Let's go, another bonsai pop video to chill to 😎

[@Avavalentine115]

Bonsai pop does it again. Excellent stuff my friends!

[@dannahbanana11235]

I just recently read this manga and I can't get over how underrated it is. Not a story that holds your hand at all, but one that's told by context clues and landscapes. I'm also a speed reader and I had to stop and take a completely fresh approach to reading it. You really can't just scan the images and read the dialog. You're better off studying the pictures and scanning the dialog instead lol.

[@dormghost]

Blame! is probably the first story medium that makes me dread the infinity. Not even the vastness of the universe made me feeling like Im choked out of air or like I'm perpetually drowning on land. So glad I found this manga now!

[@rustyshackleford1508]

Something you should note, that the scale of Blame! isn't actually all that nonsensical. There's a lot of evidence that the City is actually a Birch planet (sometimes called a Matryoshka world), which is a kind of megastructure which could be theoretically scaled up infinitely, layers upon layers, using materials harvested from an entire solar system. Imagine the Ringworld from Larry Niven's works, but just as a series of gigantic shells surrounding the central star in layers. And because gravitons can be harnessed in-universe, there's no real issue in maintaining a constant gravitational pull over the entire thing.

[@fenix719]

I love the manga, I knew aboit it more than 20 years ago and I instantly loved it, it's just AWESOME, I haven't read the others, now i'll do

[@kyanhhoang9029]

Nihei’s new manga, Aposimz is also a good one.

[@epieon943]

Kinda wish all his his works were connected like in the same universe. That be dope af

[@d.c8575]

My theories: Basically those stories are a refrence to the human mind: -Knights of sidonia: Is the active consciousness, realistic, militar, organized, more coherent. Survival is the most important thing, the story is clear, and understandable, time is of escence, and it presures characters. -Biomega: Is the subconcious; a llitle more abstract, time begins to be less important. The character has to protect the feminine part of his mind, also, he is guided by a feminine part (the IA). You start to see the abominations of the inner mind. The bike simbolizes the capacity of traveling from one place to another, from the concious to the subconcius. It also starts to resemble a maze. -Blame: this is the subcounsciuos, it is also based on the mithology of the minotaur, the monster that dwels in the labyrinth, that is the inner mind, that represent the grotesque, primal, and brutal part of the mind. The fight with the minotaur is the struggle between the higher self and the basic insttincs, guilts traumas, etc. The higherself is killy and the minotaur-montser are the silicon beigns. The kid and the humans and the key to get to the higer mind, the subconcious, the innocence, the inner child. Time is not relevant, the world is sleep, or stagnant, everything is pure abstract in blame!. Maybe the GBE is a phalic simbol, but who knows. Toha heavy industries is a shelter, present in all forms of the mind, like god ,t he alpha and the omega,is it a place?, a corporation?, no one knows, but it doesn't do anything, like god. Mensab is actually presentend like a white angel. The character is the same, because everything is a reflection of his mind.

[@salvodippolito6013]

I've rewatched the movie after reading the anime, it wasn't so bad. They could have picked a cooler bit of the story but in the end it's not the worst possible adaptation. I like how it still gives a feel of many iconic scenes from the manga that would otherwise have had to be cut out if they had just made a one to one remake of a small part of the original story. You can see that a lot of effort was put into readapting it into a 90 minute format.

[@mesiyathefelinegod9608]

The best manga I've read for a long time. The somewhat cosmic horror atmosphere is saw alienating to the point I wanted more. 😂

[@nedive]

knights of sidonia has such a great story, the animation caught me off guard at the start but man i ended up loving it so much that i just went ahead and read the manga after finishing the anime. then i watched Blame! as well.

[@LordIronfist]

I had to be put under for some dental work, and I don't remember the dream or hallucination I was seeing right before I woke up, but I do remember being unable to explain where I had just been, and pulling out my phone to the Netflix app and opening Blame! and showing the dental surgeon and his assistants it and saying "this is where I just went!" But, crucially, I wasn't horrified, I actually felt like I'd had a great time, so, not quite what Nihei intended, I supposed. But I still laugh about it because I was so certain I'd been there when I came to

[@bickboose9364]

I was introduced by watching the 2017 movie a few weeks ago and now *I've seen and read everything* there is to know about _Blame! and its adaptations, spinoff, prequel & sequels._ Now I consider Blame! a *masterpiece* and one of my favorites along with _Berserk, Gantz and Jagaaaaan._ I'm very grateful for the movie, not only because it was a fun watch, but because it was a good encouragement into reading the *sublime* dystopian sci-fi source material.

[@aumatomos7811]

The movie is really good and i like the 3d style (in this case)

[@aumatomos7811]

Watched it again. Good stuff. i just wish this would have been longer or had more info about the world, but its not bad movie. I think i have seen the blame! series also, but anyone have idea where can i watch it ?

[@alimac5926]

one thing about Blame that i really like is how we only follow one character... Yet we come across all these setting/moments and people/beings that have their own interesting and unique stories that we miss out on completely. Each being had a story but due to the sheer scale of time, and space in the mega-structure we rarely get to find out what happened to all these places and things that made them the way they are, like opening a book to the final page and reading the last sentence. We intruded upon a tale that has already ended and will never be told. Like in chapter 55 with the robot dog type creature. A speaking builder that was friendly and had probably existed for tens of thousands of years. Yet when it finnished showing the recording to Kyrii it's story was over. Centuries it lay there in the stillness as just a head. We never got to see its life or how it came to 'feel' or speak all was saw was its end. "I'm glad i was able to transmit this video to you.... But it's been a very long time since it happened". Its final words before shutting down. Now it'll sit there until another traveler wanders by in 1000 years barely sparing its lifeless form a glance. It reminds me of grave stones in a cemetery each person had a life, a family, each loved each hated and each was loved and hated yet in the end all that remains is crumbling stone with their name barely visible on the surface, anybody who knew them has died themselves, and their body has long since decomposed. The grave holds a story but one which will never be told, and that is incredibly lonely to imagine

[@realkingofantarctica]

I found out Blame! got a Figurama figure so I already knew Bonsai Pop would be releasing a video on the series soon.

[@TheBaralinChannel]

Discovered this manga on a shelf randomly. And being an H. R. Giger fan, I was immediately hooked by the art. Little did I know, it would become my favorite manga of all time. Adore this series, and definitely recommend it. I didn't have anyone to guide me through it and it still clicked with me. Just take your time, observe the art and enjoy it to the fullest extent. You won't regret picking up BLAME!

[@jer103]

Blame! reminds me if you were to combine "The Animatrix" (The Second Renaissance Part I and 2) with "Ergo Proxy".

[@alkhemiaaugustine3764]

Yes!!! The give me the same vibe but weirdly on a grander scale...?

[@nathanfraudik5840]

LOVE Ergo Proxy, really cool hard sci-fi and fantasy concepts, when the story unravels, your mind is blown !!

[@TallicaMan1986]

@@nathanfraudik5840 Yes, the atmosphere is beautiful in Ergo Proxy as well. Especially outside of the city.

[@jung.o.2080]

Bonsai Pop not only has good taste but they're also loyal af. Gotta love em

[@tarantulathree-one8013]

I love the seen where Killy and Cibo find an machine with a woman attached to it. Ancient beyond all measure, endlessly pumping out clones that gather around the woman who cannot interact with her clones. Killy instantly shot the machine and killed the woman. That was my favorite scene of Blame! His ideals and personal morality was on full display.

[@Kerskjee]

If you love BLAME! and the world/architecture, I would highly recommend the game NaissanceE. Short, but so sweet! The only thing I have ever found that give off some of the same feeling and scope as BLAME!

[@fenix719]

Thank you very very much

[@Fearlesskirii]

Well i talked to the dev of naissance and the game is heavily inspired by blame! . If you want more nihei style games go to the toa heavy industries discord server, there is a seperate channel for related video games and media.

[@orvilpym]

It is inspired by BLAME! Jacob Geller made a great video on that ("Gaming's Harshes Architecture").

[@Kerskjee]

@@orvilpym Oh shit, I love Jacob Geller. Never saw that one, thanks

[@eroldren]

For anyone interested Toha Heavy Industries has transcended beyond manga and anime and does exists IRL as an actual company that Tsutomu Nihei and Polygon Pictures that's expanding Nihei's IP in a number of business ventures. So in a meta sense Toha Heavy Industries should be involved with Kodansha in the Figurama deal to make that wicked sick Killy statue. (Love to see a Killy and Cibo duo statue!) As for the meta elements surrounding the works of Tsutomu Nihei, I view things as if he’s tackling his stories in a mangaka equivalent similarly to Michael Moorcock’s approach as a writer for Elric of Melniboné and the multiversal concept of the Eternal Champion. Self-aware in recognizing all the unique, specific commonalities - themes, tropes, designs, art, characters, plots et cetera - as storytelling creators notice in themselves that they often retread or gravitate towards and decided to connect it all. Is Blame really just an in-universe anime show produced on Sidonia? Or could the world of Biomega and Sidonia exist somewhere in some forgotten virtual corner of the Netsphere itself? Is it so out of reach to imagine that Zoichi or Nagate Tanikaze was brought out from the Netsphere by the Authority like the safeguards and eventually became Killy who now wanders the City? Wouldn't put it past Nihei; anything possible in these worlds. I’ll also say that the imagery of Blame is some kind of enthralling earworm that doesn’t ever go away. I love it!

[@Tomatopriest]

I’m so glad I found this!! I could not for the life of me remember what that show I watched a few years ago with that freaking amazing gun! I appreciated it then but now I have a whole new appreciation of it now!

[@Shendue]

Actually, Blame! Is far from being something "only the most hardcore western otakus" know about. In Europe it's fairly well known. It's just obscure in the US. Then again, here in Italy we have had a metric ton of anime on national and local TV channels since the 70s. We even have mangas that have only ever been translated in italian. And France and Spain are close, in term of anime and manga diffusion.

[@ashe1317]

Oh man, I'm so excited. I'm almost done reading Claymore after your last vid, and I have the vaguest memories of watching Blame! on netflix years ago; needless to say, I trust your recommendations, lol! Also, there's this concept in architecture called "the sublime" which is basically when something is so big it's beyond comprehension to the point of terror, like true Awe, and it seems the mangaka really took that to heart. I am *psyched* to experience this 🤘

[@Unforgiven11]

BLAME! (The Manga) is absolutely fucking incredible. It blew my mind. The Visuals get better and better as you read, the sheer scale and scope of the world he builds is just fucking insane. There were moments when I realized certain things that I zoned out and stared off into space just trying to wrap my head around the size of things. Best Sci-Fi story I have ever read.

[@Flameville]

Source material like this is what can create another timeless dystopic anime series. One can only dream though 😔 the PLOT of noise already sounds like a masterpiece

[@lamarjlp914]

As an introvert I personally find the world of Blame! to be relaxing and therapeutic.

[@ChrisJoestarr]

Finally someone talk about blame! Is really fucking hard to find content about it

[@elgurkus6885]

I usually prefer lightnovel and anime over manga, but I think I'll make an exception for this author. I really liked the movie so I think I'll love the manga

[@visitor5451]

i love Nihei. it feels rare for a manga or comic to really show and not tell to such an extreme. He understands the power of the visual language of manga in a way few do.

[@alastor8091]

BLAME! Is my absolute favorite manga. If any thing deserves a good adaptation, its BLAME!. Nothing comes close in ANY area compared to this work. I wish Niheis other stuff was as good, all his other manga feel more like ideas with no direction.

[@TheAsylumCat]

I actually liked the movie knowing that there's a crap ton more, killy's mission is woefully understated as a needle in a haystack.

[@jeanroddenberry6433]

I read Blame! a while back, and I have to give it props for it's incredible depth and existential dread. It makes Blade Runner look like a Sunday picnic. However, I don't see how the "Megastructure" could ever be as large as Killy claims. Unless the Builders could convert energy into matter, there'd be a limit to how much they could "construct". It's kinda my "pet peeve" about the whole thing.

[@Richard-pg6jb]

I would recommen to take a look at Isaac Arthur's channel, he has a lot of videos about megastructures even more mindblowing as well as many other futuristic topics.

[@RoboBoddicker]

The way I see it, if you had the tech to convert all the planets/asteroids/etc in the solar system into a giant structure, with artificial gravity so that you could have traversable spaces throughout the entire volume, it would still be outrageously unfathomably huge. Comparable to anything we see in the manga. So even if Nihei's scales are unrealistic sometimes, it never really breaks my immersion. It isn't exactly hard scifi to begin with :)

[@joyous18]

22:17 made me laugh so much when I first read Blame! Cibo says it so casually and then the story continues as if nothing happened lma

[@eliasr7279]

I love when someone has the balls to create an experience in any sort of medium that purposefully withdraws information from the reader/viewer/player. I don't think there are enough stories that are confusing by design. Being confused is actually also something someone can be, and the mystery is often more appealing than the truth. Love Tsutomu Nihei's bold and unique approach to storytelling, and THE ART HOLY SHIT.

[@toth3xtrm]

I enjoyed watching Blame! Without reading the manga, I'll watch any sci-fi anime without knowing it's backstory.

[@lukecalumlyonwrath7723]

Me too!

[@BaticusPrime]

I am a huge fan of the new Bonsai Pop and the last few videos you guys put out. You can tell with the extra time put into it, your passion really bleeds through. Keep up the good work, I look forward to watching ANYTHING you put out.

[@jstewlly4747]

Knights of Sidonia is returning with a movie in May 2021 so let's hope Netflix gets rights

[@omnissiah7247]

I've heard Blame! is absolutely not for everyone, but for me this hits home. In fictional settings and stories I've found to appreciate the "feeling" the most. That's really the best way I can describe it, there's just a certain feeling or a vibe that certain settings have. I've only experienced it with a handful of stories, HxH, Warhammer 40 000 and now Blame!. There's a certain feeling of fear of the unknown mixed with the natural curiosity or adventure humans have. Imagining being in the center of a megastructure that goes on practically endlessly to literally all directions, and further more knowing it's expanding every moment. Not knowing to what extent humans are still around, if there are just last remaining thousands left, or if somewhere out there in the construct there are billions. I've heard of Blame but never got around reading it until now, thx for introducing me to this masterpiece of a world setting.

[@discipleofthecapedbaldy962]

The Netflix film isn't even a snapshot, it's just a cop-out. I get that adapting the manga accurately would be nigh on impossible, but they could've still created something truly unique and mind-bending. They needed to keep the dialogue to an absolute minimum. They needed even just a couple of the random strange encounters that go nowhere but give us a sense of a very weird world that we could never understand. They needed to have a few of the damn cyborgs with their awesome, giger-esque designs.They needed to give us a sense of that ever-scaling size of the city, from thinking it's some kind of Dredd-like mega city, to thinking it must cover the planet, to realising it's a freaking dyson sphere of unimaginable proportions. Literally everything that makes the manga mind-bogglingly brilliant is thrown away, only to give us a few simple elements fashioned into something like a cohesive and audience-friendly narrative. The result is a completely superficial film. I will say though that I fell in love with Cibo's voice - I could literally listen to her talk all day along. The manga, of course, really is something else. Utterly brilliant and one of my faves.

[@t4rv0r60]

i saw the movie without any context and i was just blwon away by the size of everything. i liked being forced to figure stuff out myself. and i liked being left, knowing basically nothing about the city and the world. i just ordered blame manga 1-3 (master edition) and i am HUNGRY to find out more

[@Rivershield]

I agree but at least they nailed Cibo's design hahaha. She's absolutely stunning in the anime.

[@vomErsten]

I feel like adapting the Manga is actually very easy; each Log can be an episode and all you have to do is animate the spaces between panels. Those old BLAME! animated OVAs show how to do this, and even the 2D style was more appropriate for the tone of the manga than the overly clean, 3D hypercolor effects of the Netflix movie.

[@fellnet]

I am quite glad that nihei is now on more people's radars. Man is a god.

[@chengezhussaini1464]

Blame!’s atmosphere invokes an abandonment of so many social constructs that make a traditional sense of living in our daily lives and our understanding of narrative. It shows humanity at its rawest and possibly most basic form? And what if I am just me and I am just rambling all this sh*t? And What if time is an illusion? Who knows. And this is what this video has done to me. Lol Thank you Mike and Tyler. Thank you bros. 👍

[@phylocybe_]

If I was the richest person on earth, I would fund a 10 hour Blame! movie. It would be live-action, but basically only the actors would be real, the city would be entirely cg. Maybe im just really high right now, but I think that would be sick. There could be 3 hour stretches where essentially nothing happens but shots of Killy walking, then BOOM 6 hours into the movie some crazy stuff starts happening. After the action is done, its another 2 hours of Killy walking.

[@meepmeep6572]

I love this channel, it got me through lunch breaks at my old shitty job plus I love the fact you cover not so mainstream anime.....I fw this.

[@jimmyzbike]

19 minutes in and no mention of the 1st issue of BLAME! ? BLAME! Ver.0.11: Salvaged disc by Cibo. Released by Anime Works. Originally released in like 6 parts on the early days of KZbin. And the shirts that came with that release, yeah I bought like 10 of them. To always ha one until the day Nihei became a household name. Thanks for bringing light to the most amazing artist of the generation.

[@Joetorres3]

Blame and Abara are great works of the same author. Abata have only 2 volumes and I recommend if you just wanna a taste of the apocalipse.

[@sylas9762]

Pewdiepie introduces me to this manga. I think it was the first-ever book club episode, and I love this manga ever since. This along with Mushishi and Vagabond has the way to draw readers to every single panel, its atmosphere. It's bleak, depressing but also calm and the feeling of nothingness, nihilism loneliness like you feel lost in it. I think in terms of manga, it has successful to draw out the emotion by drawing, not by the story itself and the dialog nor character. None manga has yet drawn me in like this BLAME! manga and I absolutely love it, dearly so. I wish this manga has more attention and love than it rightfully deserves.

[@SamTheGumMan117]

So little is said but actually a lot is said through the amazing art work and world of Blame such a great read

[@freeformcreations]

This is a professional and might I say scholarly treatment of an important artwork/story telling and an artist. I do appreciate this deep dive and congratulations on paving the way for new creative frontends.

[@twopointjumper]

You should fo a second channel for manga! Since Bonsai Pop is made for anime, the second channel could be for manga!

[@rossmorton7002]

I'm so glad you brought up Dark Souls, I'd love FromSoft to adapt Nihei's work.

[@wiffleboroughspaticus4390]

"His primary mode is Architecture, and the characters are like cameras, to take the story from one place to the next." So well put!

[@SamMerlinAmano]

for me nihei is a god. i first laid my hands on blame when i was 18 which is 17 years ago, since then holy shit this guy is a brave guy. his art is so far out of the "normal" range of comfy fantasy or siencefiction. Literally changed my life. Big love from Germany and great video!

[@Eir_of_Volheim]

Spectacular work, especially considering the time constraints! #proudpatreon

[@RememberTheAGES]

I'm sold. Buying the first volume of Blame!

[@mr.dr0bot731]

BLAME is so dope

[@randomjoker2275]

I stumbled upon the 2017 movie & loved it imediatley, the architecture of the scenes is hypnotic.

[@theonlycatonice]

I tried reading Blame and while it was hella interesting it's pretty difficult to appreciate on a phone screen...

[@TotalAnarchy27]

The revelation that the blame story and bio mega are just two separate colony ships that landed in different solar systems is something I hadn’t considered . I had problems justifying nihei’s use of recycling his ideas. Now I have a pretty solid possible answer. Thank you for taking the time to think about it further for me and everyone watching.

[@EnbyNomad]

Always a treat lads o7

[@raze667]

Weighing in pre-watch here. Blame! is one of my all time favorite manga. I still have my original 10 volumes. I didn't sell em, even when they spiked up to like $200 bucks a volume. Wonderful read. Great Art. That is all. Now onto the video.