BLAME! 1 Paperback – September 13, 2016

I am not a huge manga fan (is this manga? That's how much I know, lol) I used to collect Lone wolf and cub comics way back in the day and thought them amazing. These comics were recommended to me by a friend for it's deep cyberpunk themes and epic settings.I'm about three chapters in and I am struggling with my feelings on this book. Are the settings epic? Most definitely! The author has an architecture drafting background and you can really tell. The setting of some kind of massively expansive automated world/ecosystem are very well drawn. The scale is great!Are the ideas novel? So far, I would say yes. The characters are interesting, and from what's been revealed so far the story is intriguing. Without too much given away, there seems to me a time when humans had a gene that allowed them to communicate with a computer system, but due to a mutation that ability has been lost. Again, I'm only into the third chapter, so more has yet to be revealed.Here's where I take a star off, and it's going to play my hand with what a western novice I am. I don't like the flipped format of these manga comics. I am used to reading the left page first, top left to bottom right, then the right page second in the same way. I keep getting tripped up with the sequencing, but I'm getting more and more used to it.My only real quibbles would perhaps be the paper and it's quality. I feel that something with this amount of detail and scale deserves a really quality bright white paper and possibly even a slightly larger format. The format IS large, and the quality of the paper is normal, I just think the scale and detail of some of the drawings warrant a slightly larger format. But I am pleased with how large this is, and again, the paper is quality. I am betting that the paper and print quality is what keeps the price down, though. So it's understandable.My second small quibble is that sometimes the action scenes get a little busy and it's hard to understand what's going on. It's a small thing, and I need to reiterate just how well this comic IS drawn. The epic scale, the look of the differing types of people and whatnot ... visually, it's very interesting.With all that being said, I would recommend this book.The characters are revealing themselves, the setting is being developed, and the story line intrigues me. I'm excited to see where this leads to. I would recommend this book to any cyberpunk or sci fi fan for the images alone. Just a cool book, overall!UPDATEFinished the first book, and I'm about to purchase the next two. It's an interesting story with lots to look at, and for the price, it's kind of a no brainer! I'd fully recommend.

I 100% disagree with the following "critical" review...""The amazing thing about BLAME! is that it's such a good read even though it has almost no story or characters. It's all about the art and the experience of being there, of not knowing what will happen next, of the contrast between landscapes of endless sameness and bloody eruptions of chaos and gore." - Jason Thompson, Manga Encyclopedia "wrong, wrong wrong... no. this is a story told through visual media. There is very little dialog, but it is RICH in story and characters. Kiri is unbelievably memorable. He has a history, a goal that is clear, a personality, and an obvious method to which he will stop at nothing to accomplish what he set out to do. There is mystery, adventure, romance (yes, romance), and a moral tale... The most amazing thing about this series is the scope of time and space that it involves...SPOILERSIf you pay close attention, you will realize that the setting is a "city" that is really a dyson sphere from a type 2 civilization that has harnessed the complete energy output of our sun. This is made clear in a number of ways but most obviously in an an encounter between Kiri and one of the synthetics (the watcher/observer) who makes a comment about how they are visually watching a settlement of humans at a distance equal to the distance 88,000 ,miles (and all INSIDE a single room within the city). The city itself is implied to stretch from the lowest level (the level facing the sun) all the way out to the Ort Cloud (thousands of AU from the sun...). It is MIND BLOWING.The story is primarily told through a visual lens with only the occasional dialogue to drop major pieces of information. It is subtle and intentional story telling (and Jason misses the mark so bad I question how they ever became a "critic").If you love story telling, pondering the nature of everything, imaging the vastness of space and time (as the adventure of Kiri spans hundreds of thousands of years)... than this is a MUST HAVE manga. The art is amazing, the story is incredible, the characters are so memorable you will not forget their names... it is a master work of true science fiction and worth your time.100% recommend... 100% disagree with Jason's take... shame... he got paid for that...

The story follows protagonist Kyrii, in search of something called the net terminal gene. The story at this point is somewhat episodic, in a way. Kyrii will encounter different people, groups and factions as he wanders through the ruins of a vast planet sized city structure. The story definitely has me curious and the incredible art direction and designs are truly unique, mixing cyberpunk, brutalist architecture and rad bIomechanical creature designs.

The environments in the manga showcasing these massive towering buildings and structures are the true star. With a minimal story every panel is rich with amazing art. There is colored panel in the middle that looked incredible. Only con is that the print of the pages stains your fingers like a newspaper and the spine was crinkled and some mild creases but overall in good shape.

This is my first manga and holy crap I picked the right one for me! Bought this on prime day for $18 and I’ve only read the first chapter but it’s great so far! Super dark and gritty, huge picturesque landscapes really pull you in and get you locked into this world. You really have to take your time on the pictures and pay attention. I probably spent a hour on just the first chapter of only like 15 pages with mostly just pictures, this comic has very little dialogue to read but the story telling through the artwork is amazing. I recommend reading in a room with your own special lighting and while listening to a mechanical ambient type of dark music.Gory, Action packed, cryptic storytelling, cyborgs with floor melting arm plasma cannons need I say more?