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[BLAME! A DYSTOPIAN ODYSSEY]

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Blame! is a manga written and illustrated by Tsutomu Nihei. The story is set in a dystopian future where megastructures have engulfed the planet, swallowing up all resemblance (and even the knowledge) of an “outside”, “land”, or anything that ties into the more “primitive” age of men. Kyrii (Killy) is a loner seeking the Net Terminal Gene, a marker that will allow him to access the Netsphere, a network that would allow him to access and control elements of the megastructures. It is rumored that there are still humans, somewhere, that may or may not have access to such a marker. And so Kyrii sets out in search of human survivors, hoping to find the one device that could disable harmful elements of the megastructure, such as the silicon-based life forms plaguing the remnants of Humanity as part of the megastructure’s lethal administrative measures.

Full disclosure: I’m a die-hard lover of all things cyberpunk. Being a tech-head by nature, a digital dystopia or the “Orwellian Nightmare”, aren’t new concepts to me. However, I was pleasantly surprised that Blame! had flown under my radar entirely, despite being a lover of anime and a budding enthusiast when it came to physical copies of manga. After a recommendation from a friend, who also takes part in this blog, I quickly picked up the first volume of Tsutomu Nihei’s omnibus edition of Blame! and proceeded to orgasm for upwards to an hour/hour and a half as I turned page after page of the grim masterpiece. It became clear to me, almost immediately, why Tsutomu Nihei’s work has picked up a cult following- first with his manga, and now with his recent film adaptation that was released through Netflix, much to my arousal. I couldn’t resist shaking the rust off of my writing game, and giving Blame! some of the proper shine it is due. THE BLOG WILL PAY TRIBUTE!

Blame! has several artistic elements that need to be noted:

The seamless blending of various architectural staples found in various countries and cities around the world into one seemingly endlessly-expanding mechanical world.

Tsutomu’s defined way of using lateral lines to convey tremendous thrusts of motion, which lend themselves dramatically in the manga, especially scenes where Kyrii fires his Graviton Beam Emitter, or when conveying the speed of actions, whether it is a character running, or objects falling. Visualization is everything, and the already visceral scenes come across with that much more clarity for the Nihei’s efforts.

Some of the craziest fucking character designs you’ll ever see. Due to the nature of the dystopian future, Nihei could essentially run wild. And wild he went, much to the enjoyment of my morbid mind.

The conveyance of depth and scope of areas by utilizing heavy lining and shading. You gain a real appreciation for the magnitude of the megastructures through seemingly “conflict-free” frames in the panels, and are sometimes completely caught off guard by how little you care for the “finer” details of the story. You find yourself imagining, not just one setting, but an endless array of settings built upon one another. You become sympathetic towards Kyrii, his journey, the struggles of the humans, etc, almost entirely as a result of being able to grasp the depth and scope of the world. It carves out a feeling of “hopelessness” or “futility”, especially with trouble lurking behind every corner.

GORE. GORE. GOREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. GORE.

Blame! continues to sate my desire for rich environments and morbidly-pleasurable nightmare sub-realities. There is something about the endless pursuit in spite of great peril that takes hold of you- an all too familiar reminder that humans are far from the alpha in the coming age of ubiquitous technology, and the ever-increasing sophistication of network systems.

Having missed out on the original prints, I have been buying the remastered omnibus edition which is available on Amazon as well as your nearest manga/anime shop. The omnibus edition features remastered artwork and sports some fully digitally-remastered colored pages. If you’re a local at your nearest manga/anime shop, be sure to show them love and your business, but if you’re not so fortunate, Volume 4 just dropped on Amazon last month!

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20 Favourite New-to-Me Films of 2018

That is my 20 favourite films I saw for the first time in 2018 (in no particular order):

The Sword of Doom | Kihachi Okamoto | 1966
Tale of Cinema | Hong Sang-soo | 2005
Aquarius | Kleber Mendonça Filho | 2016
The Shape of Water | Guillermo del Toro | 2017
Punch-Drunk Love | Paul Thomas Anderson | 2002
A Brighter Summer Day | Edward Yang | 1991
I Wish | Hirokazu Koreeda | 2011
The Breadwinner | Nora Twomey | 2017
The Color of Pomegranates | Sergei Parajanov | 1969
Toute la mémoire du monde (Short) | Alain Resnais | 1957
A Fantastic Woman | Sebastián Lelio | 2017
Cure | Kiyoshi Kurosawa | 1997
A Gentle Creature | Sergey Loznitsa | 2017
A Ghost Story | David Lowery | 2017
Desert Hearts | Donna Deitch | 1985
Force of Evil | Abraham Polonsky | 1948
Lady Bird | Greta Gerwig | 2017
À ma soeur! | Catherine Breillat | 2001
The Tree of Wooden Clogs | Ermanno Olmi | 1978
Le Bonheur | Agnès Varda | 1965

Some notes: As usual only one film per director. This was particularly difficult with Agnès Varda. I’d started the year by finally catching up with some of her work - a big hole in my film knowledge - and had frankly been blown away by everything I saw. I narrowed it down to Cléo de 5 à 7 vs. Le Bonheur and the latter won out by being perhaps slightly more experimental, slightly more to my taste.

There were some other tough calls. Which Hong Sang-soo did I really like best, which Hirokazu Koreeda, and in November there were a couple of new-to-me Noirs and Hitchcocks which came close, but for better or worse this is it.

See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

[BLAME! A DYSTOPIAN ODYSSEY]