I think that's the little girl.

Anyway, I've only read the first two chapters, but I from what I know I see a strong connection. I think this story likely takes place after NOISE, but before its epilogue.

In a translation of the art book I read, humans have a capacity to regenerate in BLAME!. It also talks about some sort of contaminant that humanity has adapted to, likely the net chaos brought on by the cult in NOISE. I think the zombies are those infected by the net chaos and the little girl has adapted to this 'virus.' (Though her regeneration abilities are far greater than your average BLAME! character)

As for the bear, I think it's the girl's grandfather, since we see a picture of him holding a young bear. He's wearing glasses in this picture, and in the next shot we see the bear with glasses. I think he managed to transplant his conciousness into the bear.

davinel and yone aren't the same person! Nihei's characters sometimes look alike, but they're not the same person, i mean, look at them!
One is a thin evil guy, the other character is a cute girl in a bear suit!

"Did you notice that the Health Department guy look alot like the Combine boys from HL2 or is it just me?"

There was a thread about how much the Combine grunts looked like these guys from Noise, so Nihei kinda predates them.

I, for one, really liked Biomega. Partly just as a change of pace from Blame! I prefer Nihei's artwork on faces in Biomega; they seem better rendered.

Also it's nice to have someone with more than one gun. A lot of the fights in Blame! kind of got down to "Killy takes a few hits, gets his hands on GBE, blows hole in opponent", or some variation of that.

Also what's her name, Kanoe Fuyu the computer lady. Neat.

Oh and I'm pretty sure he got all the missiles; some of them were "sympathetic kills", meaning they were blown up by the explosion of the missiles that were actually hit.

Maybe I'm imagining things, but I think there's a sly reference to Blame in Biomega on page 43:

[fuyu] You found it.
[zouichi] What a loss....not onl y did I run over her, but I also lost her.
[fuyu] Don't blame yourself.

For "Blame", "You found it", think "Net terminal gene".

heh.

Just wanted to point out that the "bear" is most likely Yion's grandfather/father or progenitor. He's a bear because he's Russian; his name is Kozrof el Grevnef, which is what a Japanese person might name a Russian.

Since "Grandfather Bear" must be some sort of bio-engineer, perhaps he actually created Yion and that's why she has regenerative powers and immunity to the N5S virus?

Wow, finally read the new translation. Pretty fantastic. It feels more like a story than Blame! I found Blame! to be more of an experience. Much more dialogue for sure.

I'm also glad to see the main character with some more weapons. If we get a second volume, I bet the motorcycle has some more hidden systems for us to discover. I have to say though, that axe is pretty cool. Something just clicks with a hoard of zombies being hacked through by a guy with an axe.