Blame!

Huh! From where to start about this one?

I am a huuuuge fan of Blame! manga. It's the best manga I ever read and I always present it as a reference point to something different, original, breathtaking and ultimately enjoyable. Though, not so much for mainstream audience.

What about the anime? There must be two points of view in reviewing it. Why? Because First one from a perspective of someone who read the manga and second one from a perspective of a first timer who hasn't got a clue about original material.

As someone who read the manga I was expecting the full story with deep development of main character(s) and much better representation of vast areas of Megastructure and everything else what can be found in it. What did I get? A spin off story of a small village in Megastructure with characters which are almost irrelevant in the original story. We didn't get to see a lot of characters, Silicon beings are missing, it's even hard to tell that Killy is main character, not the villagers. Many, many details missing not to mention that original story is spread through huge time period. I would lie if I would say that I didn't enjoy it. It's solid SciFi anime if you don't take into consideration the original work.

As for second point of view, for someone who never read the manga.... Watch it. Maybe there will be sequels/prequels. Maybe even pushes you toward reading manga. It's a great slice of Blame! universe where much more can be told in future movies (hopefully there will be more)

***sorry for a bit fragmented review, this is my first ;)

An automated city continues to grow inexorably. A glitch has caused the pest control system to classify humans as vermin to be exterminated. The huge, lifeless city sprawls on for ever with only a few humans surviving a meagre exist.

I loved the premise of this film. The first half an hour is excellent and really immersed me into this juggernaut of a system that has gone runaway.

Then some new characters appear with some very special talents. These newcomers "break" a lot of the world's set up and make the main characters survival seem a bit trivial.

What really let this down for me was the pace. I am accustom to Eastern films having a more considered and careful approach and normally enjoy it. But here it feels like nothing happens for really long stretches at a time.

Then when the action does start, someone pushes a button that fixes the situation. I feel this time could have been spent on more action or better characterisation.

I enjoyed the bits I enjoyed very much, but feel it could have been condensed to a much, much shorter film.

Blame! throws us into an unknown far-future post-apocalyptic setting that's unlike most post-apocalyptic settings we're used to. Natural formations like land, sea, sky, plants, and rocks are completely non-existent and what we are left with is a colossal, cavernous, metaled mess of a megastructure. Any adjective with the basic meaning of "large" that I could have chosen to describe this structure should be seen as an understatement since - according to the manga from which this film is based on - the megastructure itself, which initially started on Earth, now extends past the orbit of Jupiter.

The massive labyrinth interior of the megastructure is created and maintained by "Builders" (giant skeletal, mechanized creatures who slowly roam around)and to us humans, their design theory can probably be best summed up as ordered chaos gone amok. The viewer is overwhelmed with scene after scene of grand metal-type architecture. One can't wait to see what fresh, new, metallic gloomy backdrop is waiting around each and every corner. The animation used to depict this cold and miscalculated world is phenomenal. Based on this reason and the given "nature" of the setting, any viewer who is attracted to films because of their dark atmospheres should give this one a try.

Not to say the story is dull by any means. Plot elements include a tribe that's on the brink of destruction who question whether they are the only humans left, hyper robots with spider-like bodies and ultra-artificial human faces who eliminate humans upon detection, a wandering protagonist with a synthetic body and a super gun, a female engineer sidekick with Netsphere (cyberspace)insight and the ability to transfer her consciousness into reanimated forms, and that's just to name a few. This is a sci-fi nerd's wet dream.

Some might criticize the protagonist's quiet and shadowy attitude, but I suppose it fits since who knows how long he has been wandering around for. Maybe thousands of years? I found myself longing to know more about his own history, the sights he'd seen, and the experiences he'd had along the way.

My own point of criticism would be the children characters' "coming of age" story whose names, faces, and personalities seem to all run together. Their part in the film should probably be included, but maybe with a little less focus and their characters a little more distinguished.

One warning I give to the potential viewer is there are some sci-fi concepts in the film which are unexplained and rely wholly upon the audience's familiarity with sci-fi in general. Some examples of these concepts are transhumanism and theoretical replication technology.

Have fun watching Blame!. I thought it was a blast!

The animation style plus the "world" really hit the mark with me and the story is unique enough to immediately capture my interest, but the characters need additional development, hopefully the promised sequel will flush out and fill in what's missing.

I was surprised to so see such a low rating on IMDb. It's clear that those who follow this manga feel it was butchered but for me, it was a really fresh concept and pretty epic by all accounts. Would love to see more ! If you enjoy anime, this is definitely worth watching.