Blame!

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The best part of this manga is the atmosphere. The feeling of following these characters down endless hallways, tight tunnels, and other unrecognizable environments of twisted technology never gets old. It perfectly captures both the sense of curiosity from viewing these highly detailed and infinitely encompassing landscapes, as well as the sense of dread of what lies within them. It's that thriller element that keeps you turning the page, even without much of a story and hardly any dialogue.

A little confusing at times, but worth the uncertainty. If anything, you're as lost as the characters are. The main character especially has the most deadpan, ... slightly confused face for the entire manga. Even in fights, his face reads "Why am I here, why am I doing this?" And not even in an existential way; he's genuinely just as confused as to who his enemies are. We'll get some lore dumps from other characters, but they rarely ever seem to matter to the main character. He just keeps walking.

Just keep walking. Just keep walking.

Blame! – Spoiler Free – Mixed Feelings

TLDR
Story – 5/10 – 5 x 0.275 = 1,375
Art – 9/10 – 9 x 0.2 = 1,8
Characters – 2/10 – 2 x 0.225 = 0,45
Enjoyment – 6/10 – 6 x 0.3 = 1,8
Total: 5,425 -> 5

Story – 5/10
Blame! takes us into a story filled with incredible panels but very little dialogue – in typical Nihei fashion. The story of Blame! has all the mannerisms the author usually deals with: a narrative constructed from a sequence of astonishing panels, with low character development and a terrible sense of dialogue. The story starts comprehensibly, although one can already foresee the path ... that everything is going to take. Verily, from a certain point onwards, the story is ridden with action and epic moments with tons of explosions but very little substance. Things happen for no reason, the narrative becomes incomprehensible as we are presented with senseless action scenes, and characters enter the story with no background and leave just as quickly. His insistence on the lack of dialogue is his main flaw as a storyteller.
There are also no explicative panels neither at the end nor the beginning of the volumes, which, in case you are lost in the narrative, which is incredibly easy to happen, you are just bound to reread (or rewatch) dozens of panels over and over again or accept that fact that you will never understand the story. This isn’t to say that it isn’t possible to tell a story with little dialogue, as Nihei himself showed in Biomega – a far superior counterpart to Blame! in the cyberpunk genre.
One positive point in Blame! is definitely the world-building, although it is apprehensible only through his art. Its atmosphere is also very well done.

Art – 9/10
Art is typically Nihei’s strongest weapon in his mangas, and rightfully so. Blame! is, in this sense, no different: the art style is incredible, the scenarios are astounding, the landscapes full of immersion, although the character design is deficient – he only knows how to draw very few face types. The fluency, although enjoyable, lacks in telling the story.

Characters – 2/10
Characters in Blame! are, once again, made in typical Nihei style: only serve as figurines for the action – and not the dialogue – to happen. The characters are dull, bland, and lack any personality whatsoever. Even the main characters – Kyrii and Cibo – lack backgrounds or any development. The minor characters are just nullified as beings in the entire process.

Enjoyment – 6/10
Contrary to some of his other stories, such as Biomega, the enjoyment isn’t high. The story is incomprehensible, and the manga is too long for its own sake. The proliferation of mediocre characters also doesn’t help in the slightest in the overall appraisal of Blame!, although the art style makes it eye-candy to look at. Also, we feel like mangas are just an excuse for Nihei to draw incredibly well-rendered panels, but not much else. For all these reasons, it deserves a mixed-feelings stamp.

Blame is a manga that starts off confusingly but 20 chapters in it starts to explain a lot of the world in its own way. But after those 20 chapters they stop trying to explain themselves and instead just drag you on for a confusing ride.

The only thing that kept me from dropping blame is that I liked the art, the characters are not amazingly drawn but the action panels and two page spreads make it all look better.

Even though i enjoyed the art all the amazing panels cant make up for the fact that the story is incoherent and insane. Blame is the only ... series that i read that i had to look up a synopsis of the plot just so i could try and understand what i just read.

Overall i cant genuinely recommend Blame to anyone unless you want to have a terrible time