Blame! Movie

A young girl named Zuru sets out on an expedition through a post-apocalyptic city controlled by machines in a desperate hunt for food. Things go awry when her team accidently triggers the city's AI defense program called the Safeguard. Attacked by the machines, her companions are on the verge of being annihilated when a mysterious man named Killy arrives and exterminates the hostile units.

Despite his heroic intervention, Zuru is hesitant to trust Killy and questions his motives. He reveals to have come from thousands of levels below the city in order to find humans possessing the Net Terminal Genes—a trait that would allow humans to regain control of their civilization and shut down the Safeguard. After hearing his story, Zuru and the rest of her team join Killy and embark on a journey in search of the Genes that could prove to be mankind's last hope of survival.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Killy Main

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Cibo Main

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Sanakan Supporting

Hayami, Saori Japanese

Zuru Supporting

Amamiya, Sora Japanese

Tae Supporting

Suzaki, Aya Japanese

Sutezou Supporting

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Fuku Supporting

Mori, Nanako Japanese

Touchikyoku Supporting

Toyosaki, Aki Japanese

Fusata Supporting

Shimazaki, Nobunaga Japanese

Atsuji Supporting

Kaji, Yuuki Japanese

Seshita, Hiroyuki Director

Iwanami, Yoshikazu Sound Director

Murai, Sadayuki Script

Nagazono, Reiji Storyboard

Reviews

Jul 6, 2024

Kloser

Recommended

Blam! Blam blam! Blam!!! That's how the title of this work is pronounced, not the actual word "blame". That's right the title to this movie is a poorly written sound effect not a verb.

Blame comic is one of those rare combinations of popular and niche at the same time, generating positive reviews and poor ones depending on the writers. Nihei, the mangaka, creates a divisive work by focusing on atmosphere, violence and body horror, while the story takes a backseat for the seemingly endless journey, leaving readers to pick up the small bits and pieces like bread crumbs. Suffice to say, this did not sit ... to well with some people, who describes the narrative as "unwelcoming". Now, how does one go about adapting this into a movie that is supposed to have massive appeal?

Well to make it more accessible, they shave the story down, include only a few parts from the manga, alter the events to make it more cohesive, use flashy CG graphics and introduce a "way in" character in the form of a moe girl who is meant to have us root for the second she removes her helmet revealing her pouty face, tear filled yet determined doe-eyed expression and by gum, it actually works!

Although this is a different experience than reading the source materials, using a solid narrative (even an open-ended one), visuals that can be chilling while showcasing Nihei's fantastic scifi world, although at times the character models can look stiff and Zuru acting as the emotional anchor, contrasting Killy silent protagonist style, really grounded this work. Ultimate the result was something that newcomers could enjoy as well as people that are a fan of the source material, could admire. A lot of thought and care into the framing of scenes, the music and sound effects that made this project a worthwhile. Even though we don't get to spend time with some of the characters that we want to, I enjoyed the time we did have. There is just something unforgettable about Cibo nonchalant smirk or Sanakan's arrogant smile. You can tell a lot of thought and time went into their designs and how they are represented and it's not lost on me.

Although the movie leaves a lot of things open and people questioning things, that is just the nature of Nihei work and can be scene in all his creations, so I'm glad they didn't waste too much time and effort trying to write a dictionary worth of stuff to appease people's unrelenting desire for explaination. Overall it's a a good movie to sit down and watch, especially if you are crazy something more scifi and mysterious.

So, what's the deal with the end credits animations? That design and animation is like something straight from a Disney Marvel movie lol.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jul 31, 2023

The_Collector01

Mixed Feelings

It's a good movie, but considering how much I was looking forward to watch it, it was a very underwhelming experience.
The main reason why I wanted to watch it was because of the concept. The idea of a city growing infinitely and the characters having to stop its growth was something I had never seen tried in anything and I'm always a fan of giving a crazy idea a chance. I had also heard that the Blame! manga was one of the best, if the best manga ever made, so I really watched this movie expecting something memorable.
Then I watched and my ... immediate issue was the 3D animation. I know some people actually like the 3D animation in this movies, but it really didn't work for me, sorry.
Another issue is that the story is mainly an action sci-fi survival adventure. I was expecting something more ambitious than that, especially considering that, according to manga readers, the manga focuses a lot on megalophobia inducing imagery, making the main characters look extremely small and making it seem like the characters are in an endless labyrinth.
But despite all its issues, I'm not saying this movie is bad. It's good, I enjoyed it, I was just pretty underwhelmed.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Nov 3, 2024

CaptainSalty

Not Recommended

This was the first anime adaptation I've seen following reading the manga. That being said, as a standalone movie, this is pretty bare bones basic besides the world being quite good with its scaling. The characters feel extremely tiny and at the mercy of their world. The characters themselves however, are bare-bones-basic. They aren't likeable, but they aren't unlikeable. They're on par with an empty shell, with zero depth and here to serve the plot more than be their own people. The characters who are from the manga feel more like wasted potential, besides Kyrii who stays relatively the same in this adaptation. This is ... also the first (fully) 3D movie I've seen and I have to say the work was eh. Characters feel laggy at times, (there was a frame drop near the start of the movie. This was the movie, not my streaming platform) and they couldn't bother to make more than like 4 background character models so the duplicate villagers are extremely apparent and off-putting. However, that's where most of my complaints end that are objective enough points to judge. The score itself was amazing, Yugo Kanno composed for this movie and personally this is my first slice of his work. I'm very impressed and now have around half the soundtrack in my personal collection to listen to. The movie's premise was also nothing special, because we take the perspective of more the humans rather than Kyrii, the amount of potential we can take from the world is extremely limited and uninteresting compared to Kyrii's quest.
Now, I'll be delving into this as an adaptation rather than the standalone movie. This movie is incredibly underwhelming after reading the source material, I did not read the one volume manga, Blame!: The Electrofishers Escape, which this is based on, but even as a standalone movie this doesn't offer the watcher much else besides an interesting world and a dull story. Tsutomu Nihei's art style is incredibly gorgeous to look at and unfortunately that cannot transfer well into a 3D movie. It would be astronomically difficult though to do 2D with his style, so I understand that the struggle to make the movie was incredibly easier via 3D.
However, in the manga, the storytelling presented is almost entirely by visual storytelling. There is little dialogue present in all of BLAME!'s books, and that did not translate over to film. We will never get a true Tsutomu Nihei story that's told and shown the way it was meant to be, because unfortunately a movie told mostly through visual storytelling doesn't sit well with most people, much like 2001's A Space Odyssey. But unlike that movie, Nihei's work is incredibly interesting and unique, making it a spectacle to take in a single panel of his work. Moving on to the characters, I have no idea if they were accurate to the manga one off, but they made Sanakan a one dimensional Safeguard due to the runtime of this movie and Cibo was also changed in her introduction. The story this movie chooses to tell, its incredibly underwhelming and disappointing how much potential was missed due to the choice of having the humans be the main characters and Kyrii a supporting character. We only see a very very short step of Kyrii's goal and its not satisfying to finish watching the movie knowing this.
Overall, it was a fine watch. I was bored at few points, the voice acting was great, the score was incredible, they got the world down for what little we see, and a lot of wasted potential. I wouldn't recommend people to watch it, pick up the manga instead.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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	Poll: Blame! Movie Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) rvbrick - May 19, 2017	137 replies	by Prysm48 »» Sep 10, 8:55 AM
	Where did Blame! 2 go? MrHoodie - Jan 5, 2020	5 replies	by askilledjerk »» Jan 26, 2023 5:09 PM
	Which is better dub or sub version of the movie? Xion69 - May 20, 2017	6 replies	by Mizmimi »» Feb 22, 2018 1:23 AM
	sequel news, if any, post here vinnipuh - May 21, 2017	5 replies	by RoryBurrows »» Feb 13, 2018 4:46 AM
	Things you must know before watching the movie ? ( spoilers ) IsekaiNekko - May 20, 2017	13 replies	by Nothingness39 »» Jun 2, 2017 2:02 PM