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REVIEW: Blame!




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AholePony



Joined: 04 Jun 2015
Posts: 330
Location: Arizona
PostPosted: Tue May 23, 2017 9:13 pm Reply with quote
I wonder how much the 90's 12 Monkeys, or the B-movie Screamers owes to this manga, or recent anime like Patema or Pale Cocoon..... Maybe it's time for a deep dive into the history of "mankind forced underground" sci-fi lol.

I enjoyed this Blame! adaptation. It was plenty entertaining and there was just enough characterization to make you want to root for the underdog. It looked a bit better than Sidonia too, Polygon is getting better and better as their tech evolves.
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Cptn_Taylor



Joined: 08 Nov 2013
Posts: 925
PostPosted: Wed May 24, 2017 2:09 am Reply with quote
AholePony wrote:
I wonder how much the 90's 12 Monkeys, or the B-movie Screamers owes to this manga,


They owe nothing to Blame! since they were produced years before Nihei had even started on the concept. Maybe it's Blame! that owes a lot to western cyberpunk concepts don't you think ?


Quote:

I enjoyed this Blame! adaptation. It was plenty entertaining and there was just enough characterization to make you want to root for the underdog. It looked a bit better than Sidonia too, Polygon is getting better and better as their tech evolves.


The visuals were very nice, but watching the film on a tv screen doesn't do it any justice. The architectural landscapes have to be appreciated on a big movie screen.
As for the animation proper, let's say the Japanese are still clinging to a stupid 30 fps or less rate. CG needs the 60 fps to deliver smoothness. Anything less and stuttering will destroy the immersion. Here is the real downside to this film and frankly it shouldn't be acceptable. While a tv series has a low budget, this kind of film needs to be well animated and it simply wasn't.
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Shadowrun20XX



Joined: 26 Nov 2007
Posts: 1935
Location: Vegas
PostPosted: Wed May 24, 2017 9:12 am Reply with quote
Just seen it last night, very terminator esc. After Sedonia I had wanted to go back and see his earlier work. Darryl said that its spelt BLAME but pronounced "BLAM"

I liked how it all wrapped up, which most things give us the Takahashi ending now a days.
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Lemonchest



Joined: 18 Mar 2015
Posts: 1771
PostPosted: Wed May 24, 2017 2:24 pm Reply with quote
I suppose having them pronounce it Kiry avoids the silliness of having a killer called Killy. Maybe they took note of all the eye rolling at the names in Horizon: Zero Dawn.
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DangerMouse



Joined: 25 Mar 2009
Posts: 3978
PostPosted: Wed May 24, 2017 9:21 pm Reply with quote
This was really cool and pretty gorgeous.
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OwlBiceps



Joined: 19 Jul 2016
Posts: 119
PostPosted: Wed May 24, 2017 10:01 pm Reply with quote
We just need 3 more of these and were G O L D E N
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SrkSano



Joined: 05 Oct 2008
Posts: 205
PostPosted: Thu May 25, 2017 4:03 pm Reply with quote
It was nice, a little on the slow side for me though. The animation was great. I ranked it a 3 out of 5 on Netflix.
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Tuor_of_Gondolin



Joined: 20 Apr 2009
Posts: 3524
Location: Bellevue, WA
PostPosted: Fri May 26, 2017 11:34 am Reply with quote
The environment was one of the main characters in this film, but we never really got to know anything about how it became the way it was or if the humans were ever able to regain control of the monstrosity they created. Yes, the immediate story was concluded, but the bigger story was not, and that bugs me. Still, I suppose this is a movie better watched for the animation than for the story. I solid "good" rating from me, but definitely not something better than that.
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Marzan



Joined: 29 Mar 2009
Posts: 512
PostPosted: Fri May 26, 2017 12:29 pm Reply with quote
Nice looking stuff. Polygon is getting better.

Now they can do Biomega! Very Happy
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One-Eye



Joined: 08 Mar 2011
Posts: 2260
PostPosted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 7:36 pm Reply with quote
I recently saw Blame! and I think Theron's review is pretty spot on. I think Polygon is getting better. Ajin to me was an improvement over KoS, and I think this goes a little further. It still doesn't always feel as fluid as it could be particularly when Killy walks. It also seemed to me that they focused a little more on certain characters faces (Zuru) which made it look more anime like and less CG, but others might have been short changed. I was perfectly ok with the story it feels like a Man with No Name type where a stranger rides into town to help the people against a cruel adversary. Might have benefited from a Ennio Morricone score though. Wink

I found the slow posturing shots of Killy to be cheesy and annoying--we know he's a badass you don't have to hammer that home!--though I think it maybe a Japanese thing as I've seen it done before. The manga gave you a great sense of the vastness and emptiness of the place with its silence and pages of just architecture. It also made the reader feel that Killy had been traveling a very long time. I'm not sure the movie really captured that for me. Yes, its definitely implied with the dialogue in the movie, but knowing it and feeling it as in the manga are two different things. I would have liked to see more about the SafeGuard specifically the special types there were some implications in the manga IIRC. What happened to Chibo at the very end? I'd be ok with more Blame! because this didn't quite satisfy my appetite. I agree with the review, its a B grade.

Marzan wrote:
Now they can do Biomega! Very Happy

I'd be totally fine with that. Smile
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Unicorn_Blade



Joined: 18 Jul 2010
Posts: 1151
Location: UK
PostPosted: Tue Aug 01, 2017 9:25 am Reply with quote
Great visuals, but plot hardly interesting. Boring main character. I get the whole 'mysterious stranger who rarely utters a word', but there is absolutely nothing interesting about this guy, and all of the other characters feel quite wooden too.
I still would not mind to see a bit more of it, if they go a bit further into his background (not familiar with the sorce material, so not sure how much does it go into his past?).
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Maur



Joined: 22 Nov 2008
Posts: 55
Location: SLC - Not Quite NYC
PostPosted: Sat Aug 05, 2017 7:48 pm Reply with quote
I know this is two months old and might count as corpsing or whatever the term is, but to this day, it still disturbs me greatly that so many people are talking about that awful Castlevania "anime" and no one is talking about this, which, at the very least, is a breakthrough for anime CG which is notoriously hideous and outdated.

I'm not sure Theron impressed enough just how resplendent the music and visuals are in this feature that more than make up for the lead male's lack of character. I want to see more works of this caliber produced and it would be nearly criminal to just let this slide silently into the cultural void without speaking up otherwise.

If you have not yet, please watch this. It's not perfect (what is?) but it's certainly the best OVA(?) I have seen in several years, possibly a decade (and I watch a lot of, probably too much, anime).
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