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Blame!

Ver.0.11:Salvaged disc by Cibo

Review by Matthew Anderson

7 Mini-Episode OVA

Company: Anime Works

Running Time: 37 minutes (7 episodes)

Region: 1

Rating:PG-13 (Language and Violence)

EXTERNAL EXAM

The Megastructure is a giant, continuing evolving, cybernetic hell of which there seems to be no escape. Silicone Creatures roam its many levels, killing any humans they can find. Small pockets of resistance are constantly trying to find a way to escape.

Cibo is one who is desperate to discover a way out. If she can find a human being that can interface with the Megastructure's mainframe, she might be able to lead her people to freedom. During one of her experiments, she gets a faint message from the Netsphere computer system. She must find the one man who can restore order to the insanity of the Megastructure.

She must find Killy!

DVD VISION TEST

VIDEO: The DVD quality is excellent. On all three of our video systems, there was nary a pixel, color bleed, or wrinkle to be found. On our Samsung, I magnified it X4, and it still was flawless. I'm glad that the transfer from online to DVD went smoothly.

AUDIO: The Japanese 2.0 audio track is superb. It has a full bodied sound, with splendid directionality.

EDITS: No edits have been made.

EXTRAS: Extremely corrupted. There is a photo gallery, information insert, and some trailers. You also get an obnoxious computer menu that requires you to guess what each entry means, and hope it doesn't lead you up a blind alley.

WIDESCREEN REVIEW

STORY: A companion to the "Blame!" manga by Tsutomu Nihei, this collection of 5 minute shorts is more like a living encyclopedia than an actual story. The episodes can jump forward, then roll backwards, and then go back to the beginning all over again. "Blame!" will require multiple watchings to understand exactly what the hell is going on.

ACTING: Incredibly low key and very modulated. As this is some sort of hellish world where action speaks louder than words, there is little to no dialogue. What little there is comes mostly from Cibo, played totally deadpan by Asuka Aizawa, who also does all the female voices. Tatsunori Arakawa handles the male voices, which gives an eerie sense of uniformity in this hellish world.

FAN SERVICE: If you are a fan of the manga, you will find so many references, your head will spin. If your expecting nudity to go with the violence, forget it!

FINAL EXAM

The "Blame!" manga is arguably one of the edgiest and interesting titles to come out of Japan in a long time. Completely abandoning the traditional style of most artists, creator Tsutomu Nihei presented a dark, dingy world of hard edged characters, who would rather respond with a gun than with words. There were no cute big eyed girls, ineffective male heroes, and over the top silliness. Incredibly popular in Japan, and soon all over the world, a series of animated shorts appeared on the official Blame! website in 2002.

Due of the fragmented and confusing presentation of the Blame! anime, this review will attempt to put things into perspective. Consequently, there may be a large number of spoilers contained in this review, so if you want to dive deep into this world on your own, skip the next few paragraphs.

Log 01: Megastructure introduces us to Killy's and Cibo's world. It is full of twisted steel, holograms, and strange creatures. Down on the lower levels, Killy waits for his next battle.

Not a lot is revealed in this episode. You just get the guided tour of the limitless fortress that is the Megasphere and a 5 second intro to Killy, who doesn't say a word.

Log 02: Silicon Creature is where we meet the enemy. Investigating a disturbance, these cybernetic organisms encounter Killy and immediately engage him in battle, as it is their mission to destroy all humans. The brief battle between Killy and the Silicon Creatures causes the entire floor to explode.

Log 03: Net Sphere introduces us to Cibo, chief scientist of a resistance faction. Her original mission was to blast her way through the Megastructure, but upon the orders of the president, she has changed the focus of the mission. It is her hope that if she can figure out a way to restore control of the main computer, the Netsphere. If her plan works, she will be able to stop the Silicon Creatures and deactivate the Megastructure. If she fails, there will be a rather big boom.

Log 04: Tochikyoku shows us the results of Cibo's experiment. Somehow, she has managed to break through the safeguards protecting the Netsphere. The senior computer program gives her a message to pass on to Killy. It is impossible for the computer to control the Megastructure anymore, nor can they eliminate the Silicon Creatures. If Killy succeeds in his quest to find a human being with a net gene, that human can shut down everything, and enable the Netsphere to resume control. Unfortunately, the safeguards kick back in, and she looses contact.

Log 05: Killy picks up at the end of Log 2, after the explosive battle between Killy and the Silicon Creatures. While he may have survived the explosion, he still hasn't escaped the Silicon Creatures, who send even larger versions after him. Suddenly, he is rescued by someone in a powered suit. It is Cibo, and she has come looking for him. As they flee the chasing creatures, Cibo quickly realizes that the Silicon Creatures are evolving, and Killy has a very powerful gun.

This is the highpoint of the DVD, as we get to see Killy use his preferred means of communication, his powerful Graviton Radiation Projector hand gun. This thing is so powerful, he destroys not only the creatures, but a good chunk of the surrounding area as well.

Log 06: Cibo concludes the original online episodes by taking us back to Log one of the anime, as well as the second log of the Blame! manga. Cibo arrives by elevator to retrieve something from Killy. She tells him that above floor 3000, they have found an active computer system, and orders him to check it out.

This last episode is a bit of a let down compared to the action in Log 5. It's mostly another tour of the Megastructure followed by a brief, one sided discussion between Cibo and Killy. On the other hand, fans of the Blame! manga will delight in seeing the second chapter come to life, more or less. This episode also places the Blame! anime is a prequel to the first volume of the manga.

In case you were wondering, the "something" Cibo retrieves is..........on second though, I've spoiled things enough. Go get the Blame! manga if you want to know what it is.

Extra Log: Collapsed Data is a special episode that tells the story of Blame! from the Silicon Creature's point of view. Consisting of creepy, "Ring" like images, we learn not only where they come from, but why they kill any human they come in contact with, and even a little about the history of the Blame! universe.

Just like the manga, the "Blame!" anime is pure art. Major snaps to Visual Director Toshiaki Tetsura and the character designers for completely capturing the tone and dark spirit of Tsutomu Nihei's work. All the little details, from the waif thin looks of Cibo and Killy to the strange look of the Silicon Creatures have been recreated here perfectly. When you combine this fantastic world with state of the art, computer aided animation, you have something magical.

The transfer is gorgeous. The colors are bright, not washed out at all. The details are fine, with no noticeable edge enhancement. There are no pixels or artifacts that were noticeable. I really need to get a plasma screen TV so I can really experience the beauty of this transfer.

While I do love the Blame! anime, that's not to say that everyone is going to enjoy it as much as I did. First of all, the story is too fragmented and full of techno babble to make sense to the casual viewer. Hell, I'm a big time fan of the manga, and I still got lost the first couple of times. It doesn't help that the episodes are only 5 minutes in length, and at least a minute of it is credits. On the plus side, there is the Blame! glossary insert to help put some of the "netsphere jargon" in context.

On the technical side, there are a couple of problems. The good news is, the transfer and the audio is top notch. The menu's on the other hand are quite another matter. In keeping with the run down and damaged computer system motif, many of the menu paths lead you to a "file corrupted" error message. While it looks like there are 9 areas to visit, there are only 4: play all, log selection, set up, and the gallery.

What makes this so frustrating is that when you go down one of these corrupted areas, your DVD player may not let you return to the main menu. On my Pioneer DV525, I had to hold the "Menu" button down for about 5 seconds for me to get back. On my computer, the error message didn't show up, totally ruining the joke. On the plus side, the "cancel" button works, so I was able to go back to the main menu. I also had problems with the "Log Selection" menu coming up on my computer. Every single time, I went there, my media player crashed. So, as you can see, there are some problems with the menus.

If you have been looking for something different in your anime, then you need to log into "Blame! Ver.0.11: Salvaged disc by Cibo". While it may have little appeal to non fans, it's still an amazing piece of work. I strongly recommend that you pick up the manga released by TOKYOPOP. While the anime is cool on it's own, reading the manga will increase your enjoyment 10 fold.

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