A young girl named Zuru sets out on an expedition through a post-apocalyptic city controlled by machines in a desperate hunt for food. Things go awry when her team accidently triggers the city's AI defense program called the Safeguard. Attacked by the machines, her companions are on the verge of being annihilated when a mysterious man named Killy arrives and exterminates the hostile units.
Despite his heroic intervention, Zuru is hesitant to trust Killy and questions his motives. He reveals to have come from thousands of levels below the city in order to find humans possessing the Net Terminal Genes—a trait that would allow humans to regain control of their civilization and shut down the Safeguard. After hearing his story, Zuru and the rest of her team join Killy and embark on a journey in search of the Genes that could prove to be mankind's last hope of survival.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
SayaTokido
Watch this if you are a Blame! fan, just don't watch it with the intent of getting the same experience you got from the manga. While not being entirely true to the original story, I can't really complain. This was spectacular... The music, the sounds, how everything looked, it was all so cool! I'm sure if you're one of those super picky fans that rip anything that's not exactly the original story you will find a lot of things to complain about. Also I know lots of people are not fans of the 3D art style. Quite frankly I think it fits it well. In anyevent... I would not watch this until you read all of or some of the manga. To me this is just the icing on the cake to Blame! My one complaint is that I wish it was longer and spent more time around Killy. Time to read the manga again...
EDIT: If you have never read Blame! I would actually recommend you to watch this... Then if you think it is cool, read the manga!
Sanakan and Cibo are honestly adorable and Killy is as bad ass as it gets... nuff said
2019: Im still re-watching this movie every couple months... Its a good ass time! Can't wait for my next Blame! manga re-read.
DarthInvader
TL;DR: Terminator meets AJIN studio. It's a mindless action flick with mediocre CGI and bland characters stuck in a subpar story but the music is atleast nice? [Story: 2/10 , Characters: 4/10, Art: 6/10, Sound: 7/10, Enjoyment: 6/10] If you are thinking the Blame! movie is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi action flick where humanity tries to blame the culprit that led to their society's demise, well you can't be more wrong. It's merely a plot hole filled story about a group of villagers, Electro-Fishers, trying to survive in this post-apocalyptic world where technology has deemed humans as contaminants due to lack of Net Terminal Gene therefore mustbe eliminated. Cue in Killy, this strange emotionless robot human cyborg (Terminator) trying to find a human with this Net Terminal Gene to put an end to this chaos and fight against the exterminators. Though the premise might sound interesting, the execution by Hiroyuki Seshita fell flat.
There really isn't a story to this anime. It's just characters moving from one location to another. Due to their naivety they land in problems that needs to be resolved. It's understandable that this is testing the water with a different take on the manga adaptation, hence how much the story is open ended. However, leaving something too open results in a hollow experience overall. That's what happened watching this anime. Some action sequences were good. Some issues made sense. However, viewers won't feel attached to the story and at times would even fast forward because how boring and stale the universe became.
If the story wasn't stale enough, the characters made it even worse. Apart from the MC Killy, this Terminator-esque emotionless robot, all the other characters are just placeholders that can be replaced at any time. Which is exactly what happened as the movie progresses. You never feel anything for the people that dies in this movie. If there is one word that can sum up their deaths, it's "meh." The characters don't really have a backstory or purpose and lack severe character development. They just exist because they exist. Except Killy, he is pretty badass.
Regardless of the movie's failure in substantial plot and concrete character development, the art and sound were sort of its saving grace. The CGI animation, though in 10fps, still felt nice after you get used it. The landscape is vibrant with bold colours and the cinematography is quite beautiful. Not to mention, the redesigned Killy with the rugged features really added to his character. They gave Zuru kawaii features to turn her into an eye candy but failed to give other characters distinguishable features to make them stand out. Despite that, the action sequences with the background score, gave it a nice cozy feel and let you somewhat feel the catastrophic dilemma the people are trapped inside this post-apocalyptic run down world ruled by watchtowers (Skynet). The OST is definitely worth listening to on its own.
Overall, the movie is fun to watch for fans of the Blame! manga/anime or for anyone who just loves to watch a mindless action flick. The director left the ending open ended so one can assume if this movie receives positive buzz more installments in this franchise are to come in the near future. So if you can get over its subpar plot and confounding character development, give it a watch. Tell me later how you like it!
P.S. Thank you for reading. I hope you found this short and supaishi review helpful!
P.P.S. Blame! is just the Japanese onomatopoeic gun sound *blem*.
LIQfilms
In 2003, the Blame! manga was adapted into a six-part original network animation by Group TAC, and it was absolutely terrible. Having seen this show many years ago, and hearing nothing but praise for the manga (which I still need to get around to reading) I was more than sceptical to say the least in regards to the movie adaptation, produced by Polygon Pictures (known for their sometimes awkward CGI in the cases of Ajin or Knights of Sidonia) and the fact that it was a film adaptation of a popular manga, which often doesn't go too well. I imagined the series would be asrushed and poorly produced as the Golden Age Berserk Trilogy, but thankfully here, while the characters and narrative aren't exactly as great as it could have been, still manages to provide a great setting for its theme execution while also having pretty good CGI animation.
Set in a world in which humans have lost access to all of the world's technology after an event called the "infection" causes all of the machinery to develop multi-levelled structures that repeat infinity creating a huge, never-ending dystopian city in which machines, called the safeguard, kill the humans resulting in only a very small volume of civilisation, tucked away safely in a place in which the safeguard cannot reach. Enter a girl named Zuru, whom, with a group of other young teenagers, venture out into this broken world in hopes of finding food for their starving village. However, things go horribly wrong when the safeguards begin to attack Zuru's group and the exterminators, essentially fast as hell killer robots that run on all four legs, kill most of the members of the group and everyone would have died if it were not for a man, or, better yet, a robot (which the movie never actually explains nor do we learn his backstory) by the name of Killy who uses a big damn laser gun to destroy all of the exterminators in one shot. After this, the group take him back to their village after Killy asks them if they have the Net Terminal Gene which, as we learn later, is a gene in which allows humans to control the robots and take back the cities and the world around them. After Killy speaks to the village elder, whom everyone refers to as 'papa', the elder recalls the term "Net Terminal Gene" and takes Killy down to the lower levels to see if they can find any information about it. While there, Killy finds an old and beaten up android who had been laying dormant for hundreds of years, waiting for someone to come and save her, and, with that, Killy, the android called Cibo, Zuru and the rest of the team, set off on a journey in order to gain the Net Terminal Genes in order to restore balance to the world once again.
The narrative surrounding this movie is pretty linear and straightforward but that's fine. I'd rather have a simpler narrative done right than a convoluted one that tries to squeeze everything into the time frame of a film. For starters, it doesn't take too much to feel a sense of empathy between the last surviving humans and their quest for the Net Terminal Genes and the simpler narrative and set-up definitely does help in this regard. Not only that, but the pacing of the film is pretty decently executed. It felt as if it wasn't trying to rush everything into a two hour frame and took its time explaining a few concepts and ideas, although nothing all too substantial as a whole, and that's my biggest gripe with the film. The film format doesn't allow for fully fleshed out characters or backstories and we don't learn anything about Killy in the slightest, or even all too much about Cibo either! We're given really vague and uninteresting backstories to Cibo in particular, but other than her motivation for wanting to take back the city, she feels extremely bland and underdeveloped, and this role also extends to Killy too. I understand they're both robots, and thus lack emotion or character, but they just felt way too underutilised and underdeveloped. The human characters are a bit better but none of them gets any development either. The film does hint as Zeru's anxieties and fears over losing some of her friends while fighting but it never surfaces ever again and lacks development. I could never really feel too attached to these characters, and while, I did feel some tension in some of the action scenes in regards to their life, for the most part, I just didn't care who lived or died. It's pretty obvious that the anime is trying to make you care since there are plenty of emotional scenes with character deaths but it never really felt all too sad to me since I was not attached enough to the character in order for this to have had any effect on me.
The film's exposition delivery can also be a little too heavy at times with the main character just telling us the state of the world at the very beginning of the film and I've seen this done so many times before that it ends up leaving no impact on me, and the film does this a couple of other times as well. I believe it would have been more effective if the film opened up with no exposition what so ever and the audience could have seen the state of the world for themselves, it would have been more much more engaging and interesting. However, to be fair, there are a couple of exposition scenes that feel natural and as if they're happening in the world such as when the elder is explaining the customs and history of the village to Killy who had never been there before and thus the audience assumes these characters roles. As we learn about their village, as thus Killy, but this technique is never really utilised all too much in the film.
If there is one thing the film does well is its setting and attention to detail. I was so immersed into this world they through me into and I loved the broken down, city dystopia setting and the entire design of the world; it was pretty good. Not only that, but the action and even the GCI were also great. The CGI never came across as jarring or awkward and the action scenes were full of high-level movement and were exciting to boot; I felt the hype, and if that's what the movie was going for it certainly achieved it on that end. In addition, the final action scene was pretty fun to watch from a visual standpoint, but you may find yourself feeling that the ending was a bit anti-climatic since nothing much was actually achieved by the end, and it leaves on quite an annoying cliffhanger, which just makes me want to go and read the manga. The music does the job, but I never found it too be all too great and there were a few scenes that I found to be completely stupid which I would describe in more detail but I don't want to get into spoiler territory. But, despite that, the film is enjoyable and does do a few things right to warrant the praise I gave out in the opening paragraphs. While the characters don't get much development, it is easy to feel a sense of empathy for them, which is more than I can say for other films of this nature, and if you're looking for a fun, action-packed adventure with a great dystopian setting, than I would recommend this.
jtpetino
I'll make this as short as possible without entering into every part of the movie. To get the full experience for this movie you HAVE to read the manga to its entirety. This is one of the first major arcs of the Blame! series and the first one. But because they only wanted to make the first arc and not finish the entire story of Blame, they added things, changed things, and made it in a way that could make you think Blame! is only this. If you didn't notice it (this is for the manga readers), this story is set from the village girl POV. Thatis why they managed to pull of this movie without getting too in-depth with Killy; also the reason why Killy barely talked and we didn't get to hear his thought process and why we got to see more of the villagers when in the manga they barely even matter enough to remember their names.
Overall, if you want to start reading the manga, this movie could very well tell you if you should read it or not. This is a great starting point for anyone wanting to get a feel of what Nihei's work is like. I love all of Polygon Picture's works because of their great use of CGI compared to other studios, which made justice for a work that could only work with a background made with great detail which showed how inmense the Blame! world is like.
Also, if you can speed up the movie to around x1.25 to x1.5 then it would look and feel even better because they talk slowly and some scenes drag for more than necesarry.
PD: Watched this on Netflix (available since the 05/19) so I couldn't use VLC Player to speed up the movie so I wouldn't know if speeding up the movie could feel better.
txrxgxu
Wow, this is so horrible I'm lacking words. The title should be Lame! the Movie, not Blame! Tsutomu Nihei have proven that he's more into moe girls than goth robots these days with Knights of Sidonia, but seriously? Turn Blame! into some stupid relationship drama?! First of all, Killy. He talks five times through out the whole movie, and when he does he sounds like an uninspired robot. With his behavior so illogical and stupid, there should be some kind of explanation to why the young girl gets attached to him (like, was she raised by cold, feelingless robots herself and have some kind ofparent issue? No! She's the daughter of the leader, just like Nausicaa!). The "goth hero with a secret"-image that was cool in the manga turns into some kind of over powered harem manga MC, intentionally made with no personality so one can focus on the girls.
Second, the rest of the cast. The first 15 minutes I was in total denial, like, "Oh, they'll die soon so Killy gets a good appearance", I just couldn't believe they'd puttogether the most unexciting, generic and boring characters imaginable. The person responsible probably did this on the subway on the way to work on the first day of production. Character 1: cute girl, big boobs, forward and heroic personality, but still moe, big boobs, blushes when she shows her face the first time since she's a tad tsundere. Character two: clumsy, moe, big boobs. Male characters: just like that kid in Claymore. See?! If they got the Automated Factory (or whatever the name was) to think up such generic characters they'd think it was malfunctioning. Lame!
Third - no monsters. SERIOUSLY!!! No mutants, no goth master monster robot whatever, no tubes and sharp teeth and floating things and shit. Like, the monsters were the coolest in Blame and Bio Mega, and here, they were all lame robots who walked just like that one funny titan in Attack on Titan, with no personalities and quirks, just boring robots.
The story is just as generic as the characters. The person who wrote it probably haven't even read the manga, instead just looked up a few Amazon reviews and took it from there. Hero, robots, boobs, explosions, bang bang, boobs, a tribe of starving people, how hard can it be? Very hard obviously, even if they didn't call it Blame! this would still suck.
So the art is cool, and compared to earlier attempts the animation worked pretty well, the bodies didn't move just as puppet like as they used to. The only thing really good is the incredible scenery which they really did justice to Tsutomu Nihei's original art, and I guess it's worth seeing it just because of it, but then again you can read the manga and actually get something out of it more than pretty industrialized landscape.
Soooo, seriously. This was a huge disappointment. I'm going to read the manga again, and forget this ever happened.
AnjuRatty
------------------------------------- | Blame! The Movie : Review | ------------------------------------- Blame! The Movie is an Netflix Original animated by Polygon Studio which is adapted from the hit manga of the same name , written by Tsutomu Nihei. The movie is about a dystopian , post-apocalyptic , Sci-Fi world and even though I haven't read the manga , I went into the movie pretty hyped up having heard great things about the manga. Did I like the move ? In a way , yes. But was it any good or worth your time ? Let's find out shall we ? ----------- Story - 6 -----------Okay , the start of the movie was.., Epic!
The world looked and felt atmospheric , dark and it was great. within the first few minutes , we get to see people's struggles , desperation to survive. I got immediately interested in world , which seemed to be the main selling point of the show. But as the series movie progressed , I felt more and more disappointed as it failed to explain any of the concepts of the world properly. There was this talk of a netsphere , net terminal gene and all this gibberish which immediately caught my interest but didn't put much effort into explaining any of them. And when it reached the ending , everything became even more convoluted and left me wondering "What the fuck just happened? " , and not in a good way like Evangelion series.
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Art - 9
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THANK YOU POLYGON !!
My previous experience with Polygon was a series called Knights of Sidonia , which was also a Netflix original written by the same author. And that particular series had one of the worst Artworks I've ever come to pass.
But this time it's different , The movie looked stunning from start to end. Everything from the color palette , lightning and special effects truly captured the feeling of a dark and desperate world.
Character models looked and was animated great ! battles scenes truly looked epic and smooth with vibrant reds and blues.
So in the Art and Animation department , Polygon really hit it out of the park with this one.
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Sound - 7
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Music for the series was composed by Yugo Kanno and he did a great job with it.
Everything blended in with the atmosphere quite nicely and specially Killy's Soundtrack sounded great. All the sound effects with the battle scenes were on point and sounded good. To cap it off I found no fault with the voice acting either.
In short this had a good soundtrack , it could have been better but it's lived up to my expectations.
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Characters - 5
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Characters of this movie suffered the same fate as the World of the movie did.
They immediately caught my attention , but then was left without exploration or depth. Worst part of it was even the main character Killy was treated the same way. Even after finishing watching the movie , I had no idea who Killy was. All the information that was given to us was that his name is Killy , He got a really cool gun and he might be the last hope for humanity. That's it.
The movie didn't really do enough to care about most of the side characters except for a few. It felt like they ran out of time to give the characters much depth.
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Enjoyment and Overall Experience - 5
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I didn't hate the movie , I loved the atmosphere and visuals of it.
I would be really happy if we get a squeal to this and explore the world and characters more , and get answers to all the questions that left unanswered.
So all in all , it was a movie that didn't give enough but left me wanting more.
Do I recommend it ? If we will have good squeals to this movie that builds on this world and characters that was presented in this movie , Then yes.
If not , then no , It wasn't a good stand alone movie.
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| Recommendations |
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[Attack On Titan] A non Sci-Fi version of Blame! , a dystopian world , humanity under attack and forced to live under shadows.
Plasmatize
In an increasingly vast world of storytelling, filled with near-endless libraries of film and literature, TV and video games, live action and animation among other mediums, standing out is a goal that continues to be sought after, either through new ideas, or simply exploring old ideas in new ways. As such ideas self-replicate, with successes spawning successors and plenty of rip-offs, the thought of something novel grows ever more enticing, to the point that many (myself included) are already drawn to certain mediums like anime simply by their continued willingness to take risks and try new things in their endeavours. Of course, while such ambitions canresult in some of the greatest and most valuable works of art around, they just as frequently fall short. Quite often, the issue is in conceptualization, with familiar and formula-bound setups that aren’t tweaked to allow any “new” elements to mesh well. In other cases, a remarkable concept brings forth genuine potential for a grand and fresh tale, but due to insufficient elaboration, what seems like a showcase of a marvelous new world ultimately produces only a tiny glimpse of what could have been.
This brings us to Blame!, a film with a great premise, based on a manga which has already had two prior (and from what I’ve heard, not very successful) attempts to realize it into an anime. This third attempt in film format, on a surface level, actually seems to succeed in taking advantage of the premise through its use of CGI (yes, I’m serious), but it leaves the deeper layers and core mostly untouched.
The setting of Blame! is certainly an intriguing one; a rather uncommon take on post-apocalyptic sci-fi despite, on the surface, using familiar elements of machine takeover and isolated humans struggling to survive in a world no longer run by them. It gains its colour through not only the detail of the setting, but the way it literally and figuratively surrounds the entire narrative to a degree seldom seen in this story type. Blame! is not the type to appeal with the usual promise of big explosions and sci-fi lasers and deadly battles between humans and robots both struggling for domination of a setting that amounts to decoration or flavour - an excuse for even more explosions; on the contrary, Blame! thrives on intricacy more than grandeur. It is carried by the appeal of the details of the world, the remaining humans, and the ways in which they interact, or try their best not to interact, all for the sake of control or survival. It’s not a loud spectacle, but a quiet plea for continued existence, within a world teeming with endless danger, yet also endless possibility.
In short, Blame is in many ways an atmosphere flick, and here, it finds success. Rendered in full CGI – a typically derided aspect of anime, often for good reason – it strives to put the detailed yet gloomy and intimidating world on full display. Consistently dim or reddish lighting, occasional but strong effects, a dark grey-to-black colour scheme of the world contrasting with the pale suits of humans and exterminators, and an abundance of close and near-claustrophobic shots with only the occasional glimpse of the vast scale of the surrounding semi-darkness, are just some of the elements that combine with the detailed CGI to craft some consistently excellent aesthetics. The film almost never feels dry, despite its frequently dreary tone.
Even the character animation – the bane of CGI anime – is much more acceptable here than most TV series, be they full 3D or 2D with some awkward integration. The animation itself could at times stand to be a bit more fluid, but it’s weighty enough and never janky, nor destroyed by overly-stiff movements frequently seen in anime CGI. The model quality is good, and the expressions are acceptable, if minimal, and never uncanny with the exception of certain threats where it actually works in the film’s favour. Never did the CGI break my immersion or ruin the atmosphere it was going for. In fact, the things the CGI enabled were a big part of what initially created the aforementioned atmosphere. With this kind of tone, plus a unique and detailed world, there’s a ton of potential for a great experience and an even greater story.
It’s such a shame, then, that this wonder-inducing world only got the luxury of a feature film, and not a full series.
In fairness, I can understand why. For creators, the world of anime is already a risky one; an ever-increasing number of studios that seem to self-replicate and spread their influence all gunning for survival in a highly competitive industry. Blame! is the type of project that would require great human and financial resource investment to fully realize – resources growing increasingly scarce with no guarantee of return. But without taking such a risk, by not reaching outside of the safe zone, the product can only get so far.
For all the strengths of the movie’s premise, and all its success in creating a detailed setting, suitable tone and atmosphere, as a film, Blame! is pretty average. It offers many tidbits on how the world works, but no deeper exploration of it. References are made to its immense scope, but the film is confined to a tiny fragment. Characters' ways of life are put on display, only for the characters themselves to never be delved into; they show minimal individuality, and lack detail compared to the world around them.
In some ways, the cast members feel downplayed to little more than mere resources. To a degree, this still sells the main clan’s sense of desperation and the threat of them dying off, but not why a viewer should care about a particular clan member over any other. Almost nothing separates squad member C from member D, and the only thing standing out about B and A is an impersonal dynamic that amounts to a whole lot of nothing much in particular. There’s just not enough time to really take advantage of everything that gets set up. Any attempt would likely lead to an incredibly rushed and convoluted mess, and while what we got is much better than that, it still feels a bit barebones and superficial. The film creates an atmosphere, shows some characters on a general level, builds the world on a general level, lets an average post-apocalyptic plot of sorts unfold (with some fairly but not unacceptably convenient revelations sprinkled in), and then ends without ever diving into things.
And so, as the movie concluded, I became almost saddened, wanting to see more of this huge, detailed but mostly unexplored world along with its similarly unexplored remnants of civilization. If anything, this film’s greatest success was how it made me interested in the source, and in a possible full adaptation. It is my hope that someday, a wandering animation studio with a giant las- err, budget, will stumble upon the world of “Blame!” and decide fully realize its immense potential onscreen. What the film does already is alright as a standalone work, and also a definitive step towards a truly successful adaptation through some fairly strong aesthetics; it just doesn’t do much with its excellent premise. Thus, for now, we’ll have to make do with what feels like a little isolated piece of a much larger story. Or just read the manga.
Zarosky
If you are a fan of sci-fi genres, then you are undoubtedly familiar with the masterpiece and the author, Tsutomu Nihei, and his artwork. This work is one of the pinnacles of his artistic creations and is definitely worth experiencing. Firstly, let us address why I give it a 10/10 rating. Story: The story is exceptional, as I mentioned before, and it is executed flawlessly. There are no clichéd scenes or predictable plot holes. The series is filled with action, and the sci-fi theme is the best I have come across. I particularly appreciate how our main character is not introduced from the beginning but ratherin a dire situation, leaving his actual background a mystery. This ambiguity makes the MC appear suspicious, and for a while, I even entertained the thought of him not being on the side of humanity. However, as the story progresses, everything becomes clear, and the plot twists are mind-blowing.
World building: The world building in this series is the best I have seen since One Piece. Initially, the anime may not delve deeply into this aspect, but if you continue with the manga, you will understand why I use such strong words. The world building expands remarkably, adding depth and complexity to the story.
Emotional attachment: This was my first foray into the sci-fi genre, and after watching this series four years ago, I became a devoted fan. The desolation of the vast, towering structures, the menacing AI, and the remnants of destruction resonated deeply with me, evoking profound meanings. I understand that there are many similar stories out there, but this particular series stands at the pinnacle of the sci-fi genre. The art style, both in the manga and the anime adaptation, impeccably captures the essence of this grand and captivating series.
Drawbacks: When I mention drawbacks, it is not Tsutomu Nihei's fault but rather that of the animators, or more precisely, Netflix. The series was animated in 3D, and although it doesn't bother me personally, there are instances where it can be somewhat annoying. However, this annoyance is bearable, and at times, it even feels like the series was intentionally designed for a 3D presentation once you develop an affection for it.
In conclusion, I recommend watching the anime movie before delving into the manga, as it provides an overview of Tsutomu Nihei's thought process. Nobody can truly know what Tsutomu Nihei intends to convey in the manga without exploring the visually stunning empty buildings depicted in the anime. It's important to note that everyone will have a different perspective on this anime, as the author remains silent, allowing each viewer to construct their own interpretation of the story. Tsutomu Nihei merely provides a set of pictures to contemplate. Once you watch this anime and become a fan of the author and this masterpiece, don't forget to explore the original manga as well.
Kimiwriter
I watched this for the first time just a few days ago without reading the manga first. The story premise was interesting and the character designs were great. The SafeGuards were creepy and I loved Killy and Cibo's design. However, I found it hard to keep track of who was who with the Electro-Fishers. A lot of their designs were the same and it's hard to identify who is who when you only see a close up of their face in their helmets. I was also a bit disappointed with the story. The premise is good and interesting but it felt like the story was rushed,characters didn't get the development they deserved, and it ended far too soon from a plot line standpoint. I'm definitely interested in reading the manga to see what I'm missing but if you're looking for something decent that looks good and has a lot of potential, I'd say this is a good one.
AgentofSSUSteel
Lame! Other than a surprisingly star-studded cast, Blame! has nothing going for it, and with so few opportunities for real acting of any kind, it hardly matters that there are so many A-listers present. I still couldn’t tell you whom Aki Toyosaki voiced, but it couldn’t have been for very long anyway. The most interesting character was the one who has apparently been dead for 2,000 years, and then probably due to both the novelty of a desiccated half-corpse conversing in casual Japanese and the talent of Kana Hanazawa, whose delivery managed to make this rotting excuse for an Autopsy album cover seem slightly less tediousfor a few moments here and there. I’ve seen five-teens-trapped-in-a-murder-cabin B-grade horror movies that devoted more screen time to character development than this movie. Not only do most of these faces utterly lack emotion and depth behind them, whether realized or merely attempted, but the movie can’t even seem to figure out who the protagonist is supposed to be. Ostensibly the choice comes down to either Killy or Zuru, but both remain so cryptic, stoic, and withdrawn that they have nothing to offer as supporting players, let alone leads; again, Cibo seems to be the only real human amongst these people. It would be difficult to overstate the complete absence of character in this movie.
It’s a shame that none of the characters have any personality whatsoever, because they were apparently supposed to help drive the plot. The story isn’t all that bad and moves at a decent pace, but it seems to rely on dramatic tension and character work that just aren’t there. I wouldn’t bat an eyelid if this pitiable human colony finally did get wiped off the face of the earth, so their eternal danger means nothing to me. The ending, without getting too specific, isn’t especially satisfying; it feels like things have only been set back to square one. The movie only adapts a certain portion of the manga, so anyone unsatisfied with the lack of proper closure can presumably find a more fitting conclusion in the source material, but what the movie provides fails to mean anything.
Before any story can make sense and satisfy the audience, though, the world needs building. Blame! throws in a few scenes to explain the situation of our starring village (in brief, very roughly, and sometimes more than once), and provides some scattered glimpses into the current state of the world. Too many questions remain unaddressed, however, for any of the narrative to really make sense. There is no sense of scale, no context for any of the events, and too many open-ended aspects; the exposition is so barebones that half of the plot’s main objectives don’t seem to have any purpose, and if you think about the details outside those main objectives for too long, the whole picture gets blurrier.
Blame! is nothing special to look at, either. Some of the designs are distinctive and cool-looking, like the Exterminators and the Electro-Fishers’ suits, but beyond that, everything vanishes into a tapioca-like sea of colorless shadow. Occasionally you’ll see the orange glow of a fire, a surge of blue electricity, or a red laser beam, but nearly all of this movie is some shade of grey. There was almost no point in bothering to color Blame! at all, for all the use it gets out of the rainbow. The film is animated with the same semi-3D computer-generated style that Polygon Pictures has used for Ajin and Knights of Sidonia, so somebody somewhere must find this approach appealing, but, frankly, I think it looks awful. The CGI is strange enough on its own, but the animation often suffers from a lack of fluidity and clear progression of motion; chalk it up to insufficient frame rate and a general want of visual clarity, but in a few scenes it looks like the movie was filmed using stop-motion animation. With so few characters who are instantly recognizable, it also doesn’t help that they never emote very much.
Blame! is ugly to behold, interminable to sit through, too wrapped up in itself to let the audience in on its proceedings, and populated by a cast of mannequins so utterly devoid of personality that they don’t even correspond to the most basic and overplayed stereotypes. It’s almost impressive how Blame! managed to do so little with its hour-and-45-minute runtime.
SpoilerMagnet
*** *** SHORT, CRISP & SPOILER FREE REVIEW *** *** BLAME!. The trailer itself created an hype with the brand name 'NetFlix' and inculcated me to watch the movie. I thought it would be as hypnotic as it's manga. For those of you who don't know, BLAME's manga uses very less (almost negligible) dialogues, and in this process, our brain have to work hard and jerk. But when I watched the movie, I was disappointed. -_- As if I was looking to an anime version of Terminator. Story (3/10) : You must have figured it out till this point by watching the trailer, that there must havebeen a salvation, the machine took control over the humans, and they are about to extinct, and they retaliate to take back what was their. Seriously, a standard story that we have listened or have given a thought so far. Also, they have used some complex terms (Like NTG, Safeguards, WatchTowers,etc. - which you will get after you watch it - Don't worry, these were not spoilers), which makes 0 sense, which is just there so that you get amazed. "Oh wow..its so techy. I love that..".... BULLSHIT!
Art (9.5/10) : It was a treat for an eye watching the movie. The future they have created have some realistic blends & very compelling, I mean, it seriously looks like the future that machines were serious about the Darwin's Thoery of Survival of the Fittest.
Sound (7/10) : Just because of that one soundtrack that is also available in trailer, you know which one. Overall music and soundtracks is just fine.
Character (6/10) : Quick question, what characters you expect?...... Time up! Very obvious! A Retaliation Army, an ambitious human character, some cyborgs, some killing machines, etc.
Overall, I would say, just watch it for the visuals, don't expect a great story. If you found it great, good for you.
SpaceWhales
Blame!, with its grey ceilings, pillars and story, firmly plants itself within the cyberpunk genre. It even has leather-clad, sexy cyborgs to boot. It looks and feels like The Matrix when the characters aren't in fact in the Matrix. It's an apt anecdote because it's got as much point as that: a franchise missing its hook. Blame! looks the part, certainly. In fact, it looks and sounds brilliant. Based in a desolate, underground city, it will never look as interesting as Ghost in the Shell's New Port City or the orange hue of Deus Ex. But the mixture of post-apocalyptic dystopia and cyberpunk dystopia come together,with a surprising amount of sci-fi technobabble backing it up, and create more than an interesting-enough world to spend a couple of hours in. Perhaps a franchise, if only there was better writing.
That's the crux of the problem here. Kiri is the uninteresting, mildly androgynous man-of-few-words dressed in black that you've seen dug up and refitted for generations, only this time the twist that breaks him from stereotype is... awkward line delivery. Having the lead badass talk a word-a-minute in gruff whispers is bizarre, to say the least.
The more human characters represent the kind you'd see lining filler episodes in a longer running series - that is to say, archetypal. They give us vague subplots such as hinting at an attempted romance with all of three lines and a caring sister, but unfortunately the time just isn't put in to make these stories believable. The subplots are so time-strained that they are meaningless, and robs the film of feeling, and its not like there is even witty dialogue to push it along.
Robotic scripts and cold characters aren't a rarity for the genre. Serial Experiments Lain and Ghost in the Shell get through their runtimes without one-liners and character-drama because they have something interesting to say, but I honestly can't say that Blame! even had a philosophical or thematic aspect. At its best it wanted to be a tense action film, but didn't have the style to back it up, and the story took the most barebones approach to action-adventure that could be mustered up, with inexcusably vague exposition as to why we moved from point-to-point.
Even when the hero is facing off against an impressive foe in a ring of flames, with dramatic music blaring loudly and lasers firing off in odd directions, there was no substance. The designs were interesting, with guns shooting spears and the badguys crawling around on all-fours with creepy masks, but I was still scratching my head. I'm not sure why this film got put together. It was quite pointless other than looking for something to watch popcorn to, and even then you could do better.
a_banana
Blame! is a movie that looks very promising but completely fails to deliver anything. Almost everything about the movie is lackluster. The characters are very forgettable and boringly one dimensional. Everyone's personality could be summed up in zero to five words. The story crawled at a snail's pace except for three or four moments- only one of which actually felt like an important moment. There's very little to no build up so everything is completely unexpected in the worst way possible. And the writing and world building... Hoo... It's just downright bad. When you jump into the movie, you have this feeling that there's awhole world out there that's going to be shown to you. You know what you get? Literal crumbs. By the end of the movie you feel like one of those cartoon characters that forced their way to a mirage of an oasis and got nothing but sand and more sand. So many things are presented to you but absolutely none of it is built on. There are also a few glaring plot holes that completely break what little story there is. On top of that, the writing is so bad that you hardly notice most of the important moments.
I'm only giving this a 4/10 because the animation isn't bad (although there could've been more), the music slaps, and I desperately wanted to learn about the world this movie takes place in. I would strongly advise against watching this alone. This is one of those movies that are only entertaining if you have friends to watch and rage with you.
chrissy_poo_too
BLAME! is an experimental cyberpunk manga known for its opaqueness, relatively slow pace, and unique, sketch like art style. BLAME! Movie (clunky title, I know) is a schlocky direct to Netflix action film that shares some of the manga’s characters, and that’s about it. BLAME! Movie basically plays out like a first person shooter video game. We have an almost silent, overpowered protagonist; forgettable bullet fodder enemies and allies; a “protect the stationary hacker” scene. We even get a final boss fight! Cool stuff. Unfortunately this approach doesn’t really gel with the spirit of the manga. I don’t really want this review to be a comparison betweenthe two, so I’ll try to look at the film as its own entity, but I’d recommend checking out the source material regardless of what you thought of the film.
What I liked about BLAME! Movie:
Some of the art is pretty, namely the hacking scene at the end of the film. The exterminators are neat until they’re revealed to be cannon fodder. The last action scene is decent.
What I didn’t like about BLAME! Movie:
The atmosphere and scope of the city BLAME! takes place in is not utilized well at all. Early in the film Killy, our protagonist, mentions that he came from 6000 levels below the dying village most of the film takes place in. We get to see…1 level. We’re watching a film that takes place in a giant, synthetic metropolis, and we’re stuck with a generic “defend the village” storyline. Wasted potential.
The film uses CG animation. It looks ok but I prefer (big shocker) traditional animation. This WILL look dated in a few years. Netflix seems to love CG, which doesn’t really surprise me as they’re trying to attract as many viewers as possible. I guess they think non-anime fans will stumble upon this stuff and be able to watch it without having their bro-pride questioned. “It’s not anime! It’s like CoD! Bro!”
They went for a T-For Teen…oops! I mean PG-13 rating. Lots of off-screen kills, blood splashes on the wall type stuff. Again, this is a Netflix, widest audience possible problem.
Killy is boring. Cibo is hot and boring. I can’t remember any of the other characters names. Rest assured, they were boring. Whoa! Look here! I’ve stumbled upon BLAME!’s script!
Killy (dourly) – I’m looking for the net terminal gene.
Enter Cibo, looking hot – I’ll help you.
Explosion, unnamed character’s blood splashes on wall. Main characters regroup.
Killy (dourly) – I’m looking for the net terminal gene.
Cibo, still looking hot – I’ll help you.
The whole thing just feels pretty generic, which is a shame. I guess BLAME!’s setting just kind of lends itself to clichéd sci-fi action. The manga is full of a sort of nihilistic emptiness that would be difficult to pull off and still rake in that sweet, sweet Netflix cash. Luckily there’s robots and guns in it too!
“Let’s fill in all this pesky atmosphere with lasers and explosions!” said the man on the committee.
And so they did.
chrisn3
Does not follow the manga and thats ok. Trying to stay true to the manga would have led to a much less enjoyable movie. Even the manga writer knew this and oversaw this movie project. To me it really captured the feel of the world in BLAME!. Isolated community always on guard against Safeguards. With a traveling journey-man appearing and changing their fortunes as he tries reach his goal of turning off the Builders. The feeling of momentous change among the community except for Killy who seems to regard the whole ordeal as a Tuesday. The atmosphere is top-notch in terms of the isolation that onefeels and the danger outside. Humans are treated as vermin in this world and it shows. They hole up in small safe places and scavenge for food. Its clear that humans are not top of the food chain.
The characters themselves can be a bit underwhelming. Some could be more expressive and one in particular only ever shows a single character trait. There could be more interactions among the cast. Especially the MC even though he’s supposed to be quiet.
The animation is great for its type and kept up with the fights. The movements of the villains were pretty creepy. The music always fit the scene.
All in all, loved the world that BLAME! set up, the action was great. Nothing special about the story itself but it was executed well.
9/10
nightcity
Twenty years ago, the cyberpunk cult manga “BLAME!” began its serialization run. Tsutomu Nihei’s debut work was a dark, violent epic featuring a gunman on a quest to restore humanity’s control over the Net. Nihei employed a distinctive art style to depict the labyrinthine city, with its gigantic, towering structures and outlandish inhabitants, and backed it up with sparse, terse dialogue in order to maintain the manga’s nightmarish atmosphere. In 2003, a few ONAs adapting certain scenes of the manga were released, and were deservedly forgotten. Last year, however, Netflix released a feature-length film adaptation, mostly based on the “Electro-Fishers” arc. Thequestion I want to answer here is this: “Notwithstanding Tsutomu Nihei’s involvement as ‘Creative Consultant’, does the Netflix film do justice to the manga?”
The short answer is “No”. And I’ll use the rest of the review to explain my point of view.
I want to start by stating that I’m not a purist - my problem with the film isn’t that the filmmakers frequently deviated from the source material, but that some of these deviations have had a very negative effect on the quality of their adaptation.
Most of this film’s praise goes to the graphics, which were very impressive. True, the visual design for the characters and their city isn’t as dark or distinctive as the original, but it’s high quality nonetheless. It reminded me of Mamoru Oshii’s 2004 film “Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence”, and sure enough I found out that the same studio (Polygon Pictures) was responsible for both films.
KILLY:
The main character is given a corny “tough guy” character redesign, complete with a square jaw and pumped-up physique. This is in contrast to the “metalhead highschooler” depiction of the manga, which gives the impression of a man more reliant on inner determination than physical strength. His Western shooting theme adds to the corniness, as does the swirling smoke around him (reminiscent of the swirling dust in old Westerns) which is accompanied by yet another Western heroic theme in the “final farewell” scene.
Killy also speaks as if drugged and, aside from combat scenes, moves like a zombie. Enhancing the impression of a reanimated corpse are the unexplained neck injections he administers to himself every now and then, and which are, by the way, nowhere to be found in the manga.
Cibo and the Electro-Fishers:
The characters of the original manga are custom-made for their world, and what is sacrificed in depth is made up for by an intense focus on the world and its dynamics, delivered using the device of “What would happen if a gunman undertook a mission to look for the key to controlling the Net?” (The “net terminal genes” are, of course, a McGuffin). The filmmakers restructured the source material according to a traditional blueprint: the characters are placed at the forefront, along with the plot, while the world serves as the background.
One of the biggest changes introduced in the movie was a shift in perspective: the main point of view became that of the Electro-Fishers instead of Killy. A lot of good effort went into giving them fleshed-out characters, but there were a couple of problems:
_The melodrama was sometimes piled on a bit too thick - the tragic scenes milked for all they’re worth. In the manga, the city’s inhabitants rarely show strong emotions, and appear accustomed to the violence and brutality that plague their world. This fosters a feeling of fatalistic dread in the reader. It’s an uncommon style of characterization, and its examples are few and far between (one of them is “Texhnolyze”, another cyberpunk work of art). This contrasts with the emphasis the mainstream places on stirring empathy on behalf of the characters. In principle, there’s nothing wrong with the characters engaging the viewer through the strong emotions they display, as long as they don’t stray far into melodrama territory as we’ve seen happen in this film.
_In the manga, the most important characters after Killy are Cibo and Sana-kan, who are both strong, influential female characters. However, following the edicts of American identity politics, Netflix also moved the Electro-Fisher female characters to the forefront, in an obvious quota-filling, checkbox-ticking manner.
The Plot:
A lot of good effort also went into adapting the plot, which was based on the Electro-Fishers arc, while borrowing elements from other arcs and heavily modifying Cibo’s storyline.
Unfortunately, it suffers from a major hole. When Killy asks Cibo: “Do you know any humans who have the Net Terminal Gene?”, she answers: “If there were any humans like that, then this city would have been made functional ages ago”. Of course the reasoning in Cibo’s answer renders Killy’s whole journey worthless*. What makes it bizarre is that Killy doesn’t object to or even question her reasoning, but promptly resumes his search for the genes after he parts ways with Cibo and the Electro-Fishers. But I guess that, after all, is what you should expect of a zombie.
I don’t regret watching the movie, but I’m not looking forward to its planned sequel.
ab12dc12
I want to start of saying that Blame! is my favorite manga and I know that I’ll be pretty biased. The manga is probably the best ‘art book’ in the world so I understood they would have to change some things for a successful movie but I’m disappointed in what we ended up with. The manga ‘Blame!’ follows Killy as he makes his way through the sprawling city focusing on the environment and slowly build up the world. Sometimes there are fights but the people Killy encounters really aren’t important besides showing more of the world. The reason I enjoy Blame! is because it’s different, notjust in setting but also in its tone and characters. The movie feels like they just tossed the typical set of characters onto some establishing shots from the manga.
Art(9)
They nailed the background art. The locations looked like all they did was color in the manga (which they did some times).
The background art is the best thing about this film. I don’t really mind the CG, it did seem like there were some weird framerates with the characters but was ok other than that.
Sound(5)
The sound effects were great but the soundtrack did not fit at all and they played a weird theme whenever they showed Killy that didn’t really fit.
Story (5)
The majority of the film is exposition. Most dialog is asking or answering questions and it gets really dull fast. It makes sense why there is so much exposition because they explain a lot of what is explained in the manga only it doesn’t have 66 chapters to do it in. There was too much that they tried to explain and I’d rather they just didn’t explain it, cut it out, or even change it to limit the time people are talking. Also it seems like everyone knows the history of the city and netsphere and it loses its mystery when is explained it 40 minutes. While the first half was mostly exposition, the final 20-25 minutes picked up and was a lot better but it didn’t fix the damage of the first half.
Characters (3)
I really did not like what they did with the fishermen. It doesn’t seem like they have been living in the world, they just seemed like you typical cast of characters for a mainstream anime. The only enjoyable characters where Killy, Cibo, and Sanakan, but Cibo’s dialog was almost only random lines taken from the manga. Killy was good but he should have been the main character.
Enjoyment (3)
This is obviously influenced from reading the manga but there were very few moments where I actually wanted to watch this movie. Almost everything is from the fishermen’s point of view and the 1 time I got hyped they kept cutting back to the fishermen while they were yelling each other’s names or yelling at their enemy right before attacking.
Overall (6)
There are a few moments where you can catch a glimpse of Blame! but it really isn’t enough. This is a good movie to watch if you liked Knights of Sidonia, Nihei has really changed since he wrote Blame! and has tried to become more marketable (switching from majority black to majority white art, focusing on characters over world building and atmosphere). The problem is it feels like everything has become more generic and has lost its original charm. I’m probably a little too harsh on it but they really didn’t take anything from the manga other than about 50 background panels, some dialogue, and Killy. The fishermen really ruined the movie for me but if they had given Killy the main role and made the fishermen a 10th of what they were in the manga I probably would have enjoyed it. There were too many times where I thought it was going to start getting good only to have the focus switch to the fishermen and that’s not really what I want when I watch Blame!
mkkkl
First of all I'd like to point out that I've not read the manga and thus know nothing of the original story. Also, first review ever :) Story: 5 It has a good premise but fails to explain A LOT of things. It gives you the basics to understand it but never goes into detail. It makes it really hard to connect or empathize with the characters and what they're going through. Characters: 4 Same issue as before plus character development is almost non existent throughout the movie. Any of them could've died and sadly I would've felt nothing. The most interesting characters in this movie either don't talkor are not given enough attention.
Art: 8
It is great. Gorgeous scenes and art overall. It's probably the most enjoyable aspect of the movie.
Sound: 7
It goes well with the movie and there are some really good tracks.
Enjoyment: 5
Blame! fails to deliver a gripping story in part because of its poor characters and in part because how the story unfolds. Luckily for Blame!, its art and sound kind of compensate these issues and make it entertaining enough to get a pass.
citycat
Worth watching just for the amazing art and CGI! Art: 10/10 Truly beautiful. From the background to the characters, no small detail was spared. In particular, I liked their hair; their creative hairstyles were drawn so well that you can discern the layers, the braids and the hairpins. Sound: 10/10 I usually skip the sound in my reviews because they all seem pretty standard to me. However, the music to this anime was well selected and suited, notably so and worth mentioning. The sound effects were also nicely paired and complemented the movie without detracting from the art or the story. Story: 9/10 I'm not familiar with the mangaand didn't know of the franchise before seeing Blame! on Netflix. I was pleasantly surprised by its originality and simplicity. More often than not, movies about cyborgs, machines vs. humans, and the like, tend to tout elaborate stories that are either unbelievable or so confusing that they end up full of holes and paradoxes. I'm not saying Blame's plot was perfect, but it took a refreshing and interesting approach to the popular theme that I found believable.
Character: 8/10
I had a hard time rating the characters because I don't actually think they were supposed to be significant to the anime. Of course, likable and credible characters are necessary to any great movie, but I think the art and story were more of the focal point. You don't really get to know any of the characters or their back stories. Yet, perhaps that was purposefully done. It could be argued that the characters weren't remarkable (for lack of a better word) because this could've happened to anyone. Regardless of who Killy had chanced upon, the outcome may have been the same. Speaking of Killy, though, I would have liked to know a little more about him because he remains an enigma, even by the end of the movie.
Take away: The plot makes sense even if you're unfamiliar with Blame (as I was). If you appreciate aesthetics and have an open mind toward cyborgs and humans and the like, then you'll enjoy Blame! the Movie.
