In many techno fetish drawings or "dark future cyber world" archetypes, humans are portrayed as being pale, and less robust or healthy than their 20th century counter parts, largely due to being trapped within miles and miles worth of steel maze which they call home. There, people have become violent, life doesn't quite mean as much....and they have started to combine both man and computer together. In these cyber worlds, people have plugs where they can access and use computers with their minds. Taken a step further, people create cyborgs. A step further than that, you have biogenetically created life.

Plugs, cyborgs, artifical life forms...all three are central characters in the BLAME! world. In the "cyber dungeon" as he (Tsutomu Nihei) puts it, there are thousands upon thousands of levels; the normal humans living in the lowest parts of it. As you follow Killy on his journey upwards, you come across cyborgs and creatures of every kind....and hints of the virus that seems to create them periodically. The creatures/monsters/cyborgs are strange mutated versions internal organs...gigantic gastric things that have been enlarged and warped beyond comprehension. (hence my statment of "organic") Many of the speaking, or seemingly more intelligent monsters tend to have white porcelin, mask-like faces that are "worn" over a body suit of black buckle and leather; the only expression of individuality being their choice of weapon. I have taken a particular liking to many of the female monsters, who give off the air of a long forgotten matriarchs who had come back to reclaim power; my favorite being the the woman with the big boomarang blade in volume 2 (see picture 1 at top of page) and the serpant women who used their arms as whips, also from that volume. There is little nudity, everyone being covered head to toe with leather and body armor; with a stretch, the big "mamma" monsters MAY be counted as "risque" as they wear no clothing at all except for some feeding/veiwing wires....but I would hardly find creatures that resemble large white poops with eyeballs and teeth as being in anyway erotic.

As a whole, both volumes contain excellent artwork and illustration-like scenery. Volume 1 contains very little dialogue, excepting for some about DNA or directions...most of the story is told by action alone. Volume 2 is pretty much the same until Shibo appears about half way through and pretty much does all the talking Killy DOESN'T do. (the 2 main characters) Even then, it's an easy read that doesn't require much knowledge of Japanese to understand what's going on....There are 9 volumes so far, 6 5minute animations released online, and a feature length movie (I'm not sure if this has been released yet or not).