Blame!, Vol. 1: Ver.0.11 - Salvaged Disc by Cibo

I never rated anything a one out of ten… until I encountered Blame. Perhaps it was because I am a man of the pencil and paper, and I tend to become extremely irritated when others criticize my work. As a result, I don’t particularly enjoy ripping someone else’s culmination of effort to shreds. Instead, I always appreciate the thing or things a crappy series pulls off successfully, even if they are ultimately insignificant, and I make sure to feature them in my review. Perhaps I chose not to hand out ones because of my opinion that anyone who habitually gives low scores to the things they watch must not enjoy what anime has to offer. Perhaps I chose not to rate anything a one out of ten because I set an impossible standard for what I considered to be the worst of the worst. The standard? An anime has to be just as unbearable or shoddier that Adam Sandler’s infamously crappy Jack and Jill, which is difficult to do even if you’re trying. I never thought I would live to see the day when my expectation for the most despicable of trash would not only be met but far, far exceeded. Unfortunately, I encountered Blame. Blame began as an obscure success, what many consider to be Tsutomu Nihei’s finest work. It explored a unique perspective on the post-apocalyptic dystopia out Earth had become, or so I’ve heard (Thanks to the anime, I will never read the Blame manga). Group TAC, known for spearheading outrageously low-budget products like Baki the Grappler, is the company that agreed to producing Blame, which had become a 6-episode ONA (An ONA is basically an OVA abut much, much shorter). Utterly unaware of the consequences of my sin, I bought the Blame ONA on Amazon because it was cheap, about a dollar plus shipping fees, but the low price slapped onto this title should’ve been a massive red flag that Blame wasn’t going to be worth my time. What finally enlightened me on Blame’s true colors was its DVD menu; it’s an exercise in frustration as the menu options are in an inhuman, indecipherable language. With all of this at the top of your mind, do you really think the anime itself would actually be good? Each of Blame’s six episodes conclude after a measly five minutes of airtime yet that doesn’t dissuade the fact of this anime overall feeling as if it slogs snail-like to the end of time. Much of this is due to a lack of experience and passion for the art of cinematography; Blame is riddled with lengthy, purposeless, yawn-inducing still shots and in one sequence, the camera pulls off a pointless 360-degree rotation. On top of that, there’s occasionally a blue silhouette of a shark randomly floating across the screen (Don’t expect there to be a reason for this). What really causes this ONA’s cinematography to be absolutely unendurable is when Blame attempts to add some flair to the animation. In one scene, a barrage of epileptic fit-inducing multicolored flashing lights invade the screen (An episode of the iconic Pokémon was banned in Japan for this very thing but Blame is able to get away with it because nobody cares about Blame), The ONA occasionally employs moments of TV static, complete with sound effects, but why I do not know. The fourth episode attempts adopting a trippy feel to Blame with its hazy, dreamy style but everything just looks blurry. At this point, you’re most likely thinking, “Okay, well the animation sucks. Does this thing even have a good storyline?” If you were thinking that, the answer is a definitive and resounding no. To claim Blame doesn’t have a storyline would be a phenomenal understatement; Blame has no storyline whatsoever. For starters, the title’s driving purpose is established and explained in a fashion that barely comes across as vague (the closest I could formulate to a plot point was something about “network genes”). There’s a fight scene midway through the ONA and, were this any other anime series, it could’ve been worthwhile. However, the fight has no solid precedence behind it, it’s flat-out uninteresting, and it has no real conclusion (Blame chose to transition to another episode AS IF NOTHING HAPPENED). Because there is a profound depravity of structure and cohesion in the ONA’s plot foundation, Blame’s story simply sucker-punches you without warning with random events, quotes, statistics, and characters, and expects you to care about all of them. Speaking of characters, the ones in Blame are but inanimate representations of what a character should be. The protagonists, more precisely the only human-esque drawings that receive the most screen time, are a black-haired guy (Killy) and a white-haired chick (Cibo); both of them have no depth, dimensions, likability, purpose, or chemistry between them (They’re not even good enough to come across as stereotypical). The character designs in Blame are invariably hideous and all of them basically look the same (Why? Because again nobody cares about Blame, not even the animators). There are only two voice actors in Blame (one for Killy and one for Cibo), another enormous red flag for potential viewers, and when they have to portray other “characters”, their lifeless voices are manipulated through an audio processor in order to sound different. The actors’ utter lack of what the world of classical theater call “stage presence” is more glaringly apparent thanks to the supremely bland dialogue in Blame. Even the infamous MD Geist had a titular character whose actor voiced his role with as much faux-masculinity as he could muster. However, effort is a stranger to Blame.“You should remember me,” – Cibo (Episode 3) 2003 was an absolute Hall-of-Fame year for anime titles (genre-defining classics like Planetes, Last Exile, Gungrave, Texhnolyze, and Fullmetal Alchemist were released) but Blame was fortunately ushered into the public through the backdoor, little known back then and virtually forgotten now. Sadly, I will never be able to forget or forgive Blame, especially for the so-called “ending”. To summarize Blame’s finale, Killy and Cibo didn’t complete their mission (of which I’m not totally sure I understand) but were apparently about to, practically nothing is explained, and I finished this abomination more perplexed than when I started. Most likely knowing that they would be ruthlessly criticized for Blame’s existence, Group TAC decided to label this title “an experimental animation” but that shouldn’t have allowed them to lazily smash crap together and christian it an anime. Why Group TAC, or any other production company, would decide to animate Blame is beyond me; the manga wasn’t a guaranteed money maker. A mainstream hit of ridiculous proportions. The Blame manga was more akin to a hidden gem, a cult classic, with a miniscule yet insanely devoted fanbase so naturally only the most avid devotee of the manga bothered watching Blame at the time (There’s a reason why it was so cheap on Amazon). Overall, I have to say Blame is by far the worst anime I’ll ever witness in literally every way, shape, or form. There is nothing it did right, no valid reason to rate Blame above a 2 out of 10, and this is coming from a man who was once exposed to what I regard as “the Unholy Trinity of Anime”: Mars of Destruction, Pupa, and Boku no Pico.At least Mars of Destruction had a decent soundtrack.At least Pupa had bothered to attempt adding depth to its story.At least Boku no Pico had one quality scene. I would rant for a few more paragraphs about how disgusting Blame is but I think you get the point by now and I won’t say anything else because I highly doubt a lot of people are even reading this.Why? Because once again nobody cares about Blame).

If you are a fan of the Blame! manga I think you will like this. This is not so much a coherent series. This is more of a concept that has story boards with minimal speaking, minimal animation and doesn't seem to be linear. Total video is roughly 30 mins. But the art style and direction is amazing. You can see the transition from book to animation, I wish they would have made this style a legit series. Although I did like the recent movie, I think this the previous series direction would have been better.

I am a big fan of Nihei's artwork. I gave this one one star because the other reviews give too many. I bought this hoping to see Tsutomu's art in action. The other reviews being so high sold me on the purchase. Movement is minimal and the takes are long. This is more motion comic than anime. There is absolutely no plot or coherence to this non-story. I was really disappointed. I regret spending the time watching this one. Total waste of time and money even for a Nihei fan. Read the manga instead. BE WARNED THIS ONE IS SUPER SLOW AND SUBTLE.

Though this anime would be a story telling type but it is more confusing to view. Can not understand fully even with the subtitles. I have no further comment. Great anime though.

I discovered Tsutomu Nihei's work with Biomega, and instantly became a fan. It's awesome to see his work come to life on the screen in such an interesting way.

Great DVD. ANd it came with a bonus t-shirt that i did not expected. It something i wanted to get for a while now.

No problems with the discs or eoth the delivery

Disk has crack and it does not play. This was not included in item description.

Amazing short animations with brilliant atmosphere that I can't recomend more for anyone that's read and enjoyed the BLAME! manga series!

Forget the Netflix "loosely based upon" spin-off. That new one might as well have happened in the parallel universe where the second Shibo is. If you want to see what a real adaptation of the unique ambience of BLAME! could have been, then this is the pilot you want to have!Pilot? Could have been?Sadly, yes. This is not a complete movie, nor series. Actually, without familiarity to the source material, it WILL make NO SENSE.(Or very very little. There is a scenario in there, but like the Manga, you must piece it out from the picture, and with fewer clues. Though it gives a nice explanation for the Silicon Creatures otherwise absent from the new movie or the manga. A true Nihei Fan might see that "bonus episode" as a NOiSE add-on.)What you are buying here is what production crew must watch before negotiating a budget for a whole product. In other words, this is an experimental test of something that will never see the light of day.Because 10 years ago, that company chose to cut the funding of Blame! And true fans have been waiting for years until Polygon Pictures decided upon revisiting the Ip by placating it with an out of place cuteness. Now don't get me wrong, I still have liked the new adaptation, but this preceding version still makes me ache for what could have been.Perfectly preserved angular style, acid punk-rock palette true to the few coloured pages of the Manga, and a haunting score that you could swear was extracted directly out of the ink of the original pages. It's eerie how in tune that little gem is with its source material.But wait until you hear the voice acting... Now who's going to tell me this part is not sorely missing from the new movie?And boy did they got out of their way to make this a unique art piece.While the screen test episodes doesn't form a neat coherent whole, this DVD don't suffer from it. It uses it to create an in-universe prop!Directly from the menu, the experience begins. What you are watching is not an Anime. They are the recuperated and corrupted files from a cyborg Hacker's artificial brain which suffered a terrible fate.The options of the original Japanese menu in futuristic codes is kept here. (Nicely subtitled to avoid unnecessary confusion).Why is that important? Because that same menu serve as a special feature in itself. You'll find yourself navigating in search of the memories (episodes) and options while often hitting a "damaged file" tile, keeping the ambience accurate from the moment the disc starts playing to the moment you get it out of the player.And if that doesn't convince you to at least give it a try, then let me say it came in one of the most sturdy DVD box I have ever seen!

英語バージョンなのでPCだとソフトの言語設定変更が必要になりますね。