Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Even if you hate anime, there’s no denying that BLAME! is a beautiful looking movie. Based on the manga of the same name by Tsutomu Nihei, BLAME! tells the story of how one mysterious stranger drastically alters life for a village in the middle of a post apocalyptic city. If a movie about a subterranean city, robots, and creepily masked, never-ending enemies sounds appealing to you, then Netflix’s latest anime movie is certainly worth checking out.
Full disclosure: I went into BLAME! having never read, watched, or even read about the original manga or its 2003 anime series. However, as a stand alone movie with no background research, it still works. This universe takes place in a vast technological landscape that was abandoned, known simply as “The City.” Long ago, The City was run by humans who were able to control the infrastructure’s many defense mechanisms and robotic builders. However, there hasn’t been a human that possesses the special all-controlling gene, the Neon Terminal Gene, for as long as anyone can remember. It’s this search for a special human that unites a starving village, a mysterious stranger with an epic gun, and a resourceful engineer.
Watching BLAME! felt very much like watching a better scripted, paced, and shot version of a video game cutscene, which likely has to do with the movie’s CGI animation. But it’s certainly a fun cut scene. Though there’s a lot of sci-fi nomenclature in this dark world, BLAME! does a good job of making it clear who you should be rooting for and who needs to be defeated. It’s a fairly simple tale of good versus evil set against the backdrop of a dying civilization and filled with beautifully composed scenes.
Netflix’s latest addition is a delightfully stunning and action-packed anime movie, which is something that hasn’t been utilized well in the medium for years. This cyber punk dive into The City is a solid story all fans of sci-fi should be able to appreciate — it’s concise with strong characters, it’s visually stunning, and the world is large and open enough to encourage viewers to imagine what else could be hiding the movie’s many border. Plus, this is a movie that concludes an epic demi-robot showdown. If that sounds like the perfect end of the week pick-me-up, throw on BLAME!
