BLAME! Master Edition Volume 2
By: Tsutomu Nihei
Illustrator: Tsutomu Nihei
Translator: Melissa Tanaka
Release Date: December 13, 2016
Publisher: Vertical Comics
Series: BLAME!
Rating:

After several years, I’ve finally picked up the second volume of a series I quite enjoyed: BLAME! This is a manga series by Tsutomu Nihei, whose other manga series include fan favorites such as Knights of Sidonia, Aposimz ,and Kaina of the Great Snow Sea, among others. Science fiction rules the day here, with some toes dipped into horror elements.

I won’t go into the plot too in-depth for spoiler reasons, but if interested, you can also find my thoughts on volume one. The series as a whole follows two characters, Kyrii and Cibo. The pair live in an enormous, underground home only called the City, a place that is constantly undergoing chaotic and unstoppable growth. People can’t go to the surface—it’s much too dangerous. Then again, life in the City seems almost just as bad. After all, the entire place is a deadened wasteland where the few humans left eek out a meager existence.

In this volume, the Administration encourages Kyrii and Cibo to continue their search for the Net Terminal Gene, which can stop the City’s growth. But there are enemies trying to keep them from doing their duty. And Kyrii seems to have acquired a strange new ability.

Don’t let the page count on this volume scare you! Much of the series, at least thus far, has little dialogue. Characters aren’t very wordy, and long exposition sections are few and far between. Many pages have no text at all, instead relying solely on the art to carry the story. And it does this very expertly.

One of the most impressive things about this series as a whole is the creator’s sense of scale. No matter how strong the characters are physically or willfully, they still feel small in the face of their enemies and the sprawling, never-ending emptiness of the City. The sheer enormity of the ruins they traverse and the knowledge that their underground world is small, contained beneath the surface of the world, truly comes through in both the art and writing.

Fight scenes are also expertly done. The action is easy to follow, never leading readers confused, even in chaotic battles where lots of people are present. I absolutely recommend this series. Pick this series up if you haven’t already. If your local library doesn’t have a copy, check Hoopla, if your library uses the service.