Hello, all. I first learned of Blame! a little while back; somebody on Skullknight.net had a Schiff avatar. I wonder if they hang out here? Anyways, a few months later and I've gone through the whole series, which is basically a first for me with any manga.

After reading it all I was amazed how many things it brought together seamlessly from science fiction, virtually every popular franchise and apparently lots of books I've never read. Not just designs or imagery, but all kinds of "big ideas". I was also amazed by how many things that came out after it seemed to be influenced by Blame!.

I was reminded of The Matrix, among other things, and a few days ago I saw a commercial for the I Robot movie that immediately brought to mind a safeguard. How influential do you think Blame! was, who do you think borrowed or stole from it, and what did it remind you of, from anything that was made before it? Do you think anything is guilty of blatantly ripping it off?

Yeah, looking over the Blame! artbook, it confirmed that Blame! was first out before Matrix. Whether or not the Wachowskis had seen BLame! is unkown, but not impossible. They said they got a lot of Matrix from a number of sources like comic and anime, one of them named being Ghost in the Shell.

As for I, Robot, yeah, I too instantly thought of some of the robots from Blame!. I'm going to see it if only becuase for a second or two I can imagine it's Blame!. Heh. Whether they were inspired by Blame!? Possibly, but I doubt it. Some designer could know Blame!, but also the I robots are different enough and also remind me of crash dummies.

Also, the ones from the first volume, which looked most like the I, Robot robots weren't safeguards, were they? I thought they were just random machines. I know ones later with similar design were, partulary ones with the symbol on their forehead. Ack. I need to read Blame! again.

-Xenos

Nihei did indeed add in a lot of elements from other science fiction works into BLAME! But I don't know if this should be called "blantantly ripping off" anything. You have to take in account that in Japan it's very arrogant of someone to come up with their own ideas. Lots of Japanese works are based off of other stories, or incorporate other people's ideas. They don't have the strict plagarism laws and whatever that America does. I think that instead of considering Nihei to have "ripped off" anyone, think of him as paying homage to other science fiction writers that he liked by using their ideas in his own work.

-Jenshin

Sorry, let me rephrase that. I didn't mean Nihei ripped anyone off, but the reverse. I think it's obvious Blame! influenced stuff that came after it, certainly in Japan and arguably the west too.

What I meant about ripoffs was directed primarily at Hollywood, which has a long and rich tradition of parroting material and presenting it as their own new, fresh and original ideas.

I just thought it would be enlightening to list all the things anyone thought Blame! was influenced by and all the things that appear to have been influenced by Blame!, like the movie connections page on an imdb listing.

I can't really think of anything that I know or think has been influenced by BLAME! but, I do think that the Safeguard exterminators may have been inspired by the robots from Björk's "All is full of love" video. I'm pretty certain that it came out before BLAME! did, and they do look kind of similar, except there's no way that Björk could look as threatening and evil as the exterminators do

Fake edit: Ok, I checked it out, and it seems I was wrong and it probably is the other way around. The video came out in the year 2000, and they do look really similar. Also, the director mentions some stuff about the environment (in the video)looking kind of Japanese. Coincidence? Possibly. I mean, exterminators do look kind of like mannequins with exaggerated vertebrae and joints. But, the robots in the video just look like mannequins. The choice of colors is not that surprising either.

I only wanna say that the film "I, Robot" is based on a Philip K. Dick novel.

And now that i've pull out these idea, i wanna say that a lot of movies, manga, video-clips... everything, has been inspired by Philip K. Dick novels.

Maybe a lot of you don't understand this, buy if anyone have read anything of this autor, understand what i'm saying.

(Sorry for my english).

Hmm, you're right about a lot of stuff being based on Philip K. Dick novels, but "I, Robot" is actually based on an Isaac Asimov novel, not Philip K. Dick's.
edit: Actually "I, Robot" is a collection of short stories, and apparently the movie is based on none; the studio is just trying to take advantage of being associated with Asimov's name. This is why many people are planning to boycott the opening week of this film.

oops, yeah, its true.

But Philiph, i think, wrote an history about a man who thinks that is a human, but really is a robot. (A robot with a megabomb inside of him). Anyone has read this?

I totally agree about the Philip K. Dick stuff. When I first read Volume 1, it reminded me a lot of Blade Runner (the adaptation of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?").

Both had themes of artificial life that poses as human, the architecture of the capital was similar, the mystery of whether Killy is man or machine, his gun looks similar, gangs of SC not unlike the gangs of androids in Blade Runner... lots of similarities. The movie departs from the original story, but either could be considered as influences. Alien had the same director, I think, and there are similarities there too.

Phillip K. Dick's writing is kind of like Nihei's background art, full of ominousness and paranoia.

On an unrelated note (to the Phillip K. Dick angle), does anyone have the game P.N.03? The costume design is a lot like alternate Cibo, with a high collar and a hump in the middle of the shoulderblades. Also the enemies and backgrounds look like what you might find in Blame! if order was restored.

yes i see also the trailer of "I, robot" and the robot remember me to the exterminator safeguard of Blame! . One friend of mine, think the same, it's a copy.

I agree, cuz blame's a so well-constructed manga that they were(CERTAINLY) inspired on it, the robots are too similar from the safeguards to be just a coincidence. By the way has anyone watched the "I Robot" movie??

Xex I saw Gilgamesh anime and there was one building which was protected by biorobots which looked like safeguards and even theyr moves where similar

Hello, people! It's my first post here. This thread aroused my interest greatly, so I hope that what follows will help shed more light about Nihei's influences and sources of inspiration for his work.

Regarding narrative and philosophical/technological sub-context, you've got it pretty much covered. It's undeniable that pretty much every work of sci-fi that comes out nowadays (whatever its medium) owes its central concept (or core of ideas) to some book or novel from the so called "Golden Age" of sci-fi writing (spawning the 50's, 60's and a bit of the 70's, if I'm not mistaken). That means big names like Philip K. Dick, Isaac Asimov, and another plethora of american writers from that era. I also believe, like it has already been pointed out in the thread, that although movies like "The Matrix" and "I, Robot" are heavily influenced by these works, I would not really call them rip-offs. Yes, let's face it, much of the stuff presented in them is common sense in speculative terms. One cannot create a work that presents a "vision" of the possible future without making use of these ideas, in one form or the other.

Now, what I haven't seen here is a discussion of something that is as much important as narrative and ideas in Nihei's work, perhaps even more. I'm talking about his artwork. Some of you guys have mentioned "The Matrix" and "I, Robot", but I don't believe they where extensively influenced by Blame!, or the other way around. Rather, I think both Nihei and the creators of those movies referred to older and more known sources (at least in the world of sci-fi) for their visual representations of a futuristic world.

I have already seen other manga artists borrowing certain visual styles or themes from old master painters and graphic designers. Normally, that borrowing is done in a very satisfying manner, looking and feeling more like an homage to the original artist than a mere rip-off. In the case of Nihei, I think I've identified very clearly some of his influences in terms of art. It happens that I have been studying these artists for some time, and so when I stumbled upon Blame!, I was immediatly able to identify certain themes that were already familiar to me.

Here are those artists:

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H.R. Giger

Almost from the first page of Blame! that I read, Giger was a name that kept ringing in my head. Giger, for those of you who don't know him, was the first artist to represent the concept of "biomechanic" on canvas. And he did it brilliantly. His work is full of deep psychological and sexual meanings, at the same time it comments on the path that technology and industrialization is leading Man. Its influence on the sci-fi genre is universal and undeniable , although not very well known to the general public. He is most known for his work on "Alien", for which he received an Oscar. (It is said that Ridley Scott was visually inspired by his "Necronomicon".) Yup, you've guessed it, this is the guy who created the Alien creature... Oh, and he also worked on "Species"...

I have a bunch of books on Giger and his art, and I'll be damned if Nihei isn't a fan of this guy! I'll go as far as saying that without Giger, the Silicon Life wouldn't even exist, at least in the distinctive way Nihei portrayed them. Here's some sites with images of Giger's work. Notice that they're still not representative of all of his work, that is as vast and varied as a dark ocean brewing with dangerous waves...

http://www.fred-katrin.de/
http://www.darkworlds.com/hs/realm_2332.html
http://www.giger.com/
http://www.darkworlds.com/ls/realm_6345.html

Some architectural influences in Blame! may also be noticed from Giger - most of his "Shaft" works have a striking resemblance with some of the landscapes Nihei created:

http://www.fred-katrin.de/giger/other2/ ... cht_VI.jpg

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Hans Bellmer

Now, I'm almost sure that the core design of the safeguards is in part inspired on Bellmer's dolls. Check it out:

http://ebanjohnson.com/BELLMER/sculpture.htm

There is also, in my opinion, a striking resemblance with the robots of "I,Robot", don't you think? Oh, and for those of you who ever read "3x3 Eyes", I'm sure you'll recognize those pictures!

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MC Escher

Escher is famous for his "impossible" buildings and landscapes. Some of the claustrophobic or surreal environments that Nihei created could be influenced by Escher. Given that Nihei had a formal education as an architect, it is perfectly possible that he knows of Escher.

I wish I could provide links which better demonstrated my point of view, but this is the best that I could get:

http://www.mcescher.com
http://www.etropolis.com/escher
http://home.comcast.net/~eschermc/
http://www.math.technion.ac.il/~rl/M.C.Escher/

Some specific cases:

http://www.math.technion.ac.il/~rl/M.C. ... tivity.gif
http://home.comcast.net/~eschermc/city.jpg
http://www.math.technion.ac.il/~rl/M.C. ... _birds.gif

Well... I think that's it. Hope this was useful in any way!