Blame!

Blame! – The world has been taken over by an artificial intelligence, ‘The Authority’. Giant robot Builders endlessly construct a vast city thousands of levels high. The Safeguard, a robotic army of death machines, hunt down and slaughter all humans they find. Mysterious stranger, Killy, is searching for humans who possess a gene that will allow them to control The Authority once more and he possesses a gun that can devastate everything it hits. Zuru is a member of the Electro-Fishers, a small group of people struggling to survive by scavenging any food they can. But with the Safeguard closing in on the Electro-Fishers, will Killy find anyone who can stop the endless robotic takeover? And will Zuru’s plan to find an endless food supply mean that the Electro-Fishers will be saved, or damned?

Blame! (2017) – Director: Hiroyuki Seshita

By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56157817

Rating: 12

Running Length: 106 mins

Starring: Takahiro Sakurai, Kana Hanazawa, Sora Amamiya

Genre: Animated, Science Fiction

REVIEW: ‘BLAME!’

It wasn’t that long ago that a ‘Netflix Original’ was a point of conversation whilst this new fangled ‘streaming TV’ thing starting gaining traction. Nowadays, Netflix produces such a vast quantity of content that it’s hard to sift out what may interest you. Not content with swamping entertainment lovers everywhere, Netflix has recently set its beady eyes on the world of Anime. This feature movie adaptation comes off the back of a 1998 manga series and 2003 episodic animation.

For people familiar with typical Anime, ‘Blame!’ is a pretty bread and butter set up. Dystopian future, fear of technology run riot, desperate humanity scrabbling to survive, and a gallery of characters who are either deadpan stoic or otherwise interchangeable. The easiest comparison to make is that of the Matrix (when set in the ‘real’ world) in that the world has been taken over by self-aware machinery. Except this time, due to reasons that have been ‘lost in time’, the robots tasked with building and construction have gone haywire, creating vast metallic (and polluting) structures. Controlled by ‘The Authority’ and using ‘Safeguards’ as terrifying foot soldiers, humans are treated as vermin and murdered on sight. ‘Blame!’ certainly paints a bleak picture. The small band of people (‘Electro-Fishers’) we experience the world through are starving, desperate, and just clinging on to existence.

Unfortunately, ‘Blame!’ suffers from ‘generic character’ syndrome. Characters are defined more by their relations to each other than any individual defining traits, so that when left alone it can be hard to figure out who is actually who at first. Protagonist, Zuru, is an every woman. Young and idealistic, but almost entirely reactionary. It is the introduction of the monosyllabic Killy that kickstarts her life and that of her group. The mystery as to who Killy is, and where he got the extremely overpowered gun, is never explored beyond a minor revelation that was blindingly obviously from the start. The movie suffers from being a connection of set pieces drenched in exposition which, regardless of how interesting the sci-fi set up may be, suffers from a lack of any emotive hand holds to cling to.

This is mostly unavoidable as the source manga is anthological and episodic in nature, following protagonist Killy and his explorations of the thousands of levels that constitute the gargantuan (and growing) city in search of humans who possess the ‘Net Terminal Gene’, the lost genetic code that allows humanity to give orders to The Authority. This is painfully obvious as ‘Blame!’ tries to turn a story little more than a footnote in Killy’s journey into a feature-length movie but without imbuing any of the characters with enough personality to make it work. ‘Blame!’ is a fun diversion for fans of cyberpunk and it certainly has its cool moments (disembodied scientist head becoming an 8 foot warrior woman? Ok then!) but with a lack of any emotional hook it is unlikely to appeal to those who aren’t already out-and-out anime fans.

CONTENT: IS ‘BLAME!’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

We are introduced to some characters who are cautiously exploring a potentially dangerous area. They have high-tech masks on so from they look identical but the camera sometimes switches to shots from inside the helmets. After around 10 minutes the group is suddenly attacked and one character is decapitated. The camera cuts before the impact is made and is followed by a static shot of the floor with pooled blood, a dropped gun, and a (still masked) head with blood splatter on that rolls into frame. The character had minimal introduction previously and the other characters don’t have time to mourn. This character isn’t referred to later.

The group are attacked by the Safeguard: robotic human like creatures with a fixed neutral expression. They move very quickly by going down on all fours and pursuing the group spider / crab-like, but the head and face remain stock still. The effect is very disconcerting and may frighten younger children especially as they seem so lethal. The characters are all terrified of them and flee desperately. The group’s weapons fire steel bolts and so there are some shots of these impaling the ‘faces’ of the Safeguard, destroying them.

A male character picks up a human / semi-robotic upper torso (i.e. head, shoulders, part of a spine) and holds it at eye level to examine for a few seconds. He then bangs it against a wall and its eyes light up. The scene is not gory but it does last a while. When the thing speaks nothing on it moves except for the eyes that flash along.

A horde of the Safeguard attack. One minor character’s point of view is shown trying to shoot them down as they crawl along the walls. One jumps and slashes at him and then the shot reverts to normal view and a blood spurt is shown as he is killed, although he has his helmet on so no injury detail is seen. A further slash gashes the leg of a another character and again this shows blood but no injury detail.

The robotic torso is crushed underfoot by the charging Safeguard. Other characters are upset but don’t have time to linger on this as they are attacked. Around 5 minutes later circumstances change surrounding the consciousness that was inside the torso.

A character is revealed to be more than they seemed. An electric whirlwind is created which causes a main character’s hand to explode when it comes into contact. There is a bloody pop briefly seen and they yell in pain. The death of a different major character is shown. They are held up in the air by the top of the head and look terrified. There is a close up of their eyes shimmering with fear and then the shot cuts to a close up of the face of the character holding them up. A wet squish noise is heard and a small amount of blood sprays onto their face, indicating that they have crushed the character’s skull. No injury detail is shown.

A laser weapon is fired and hits a female character in the stomach. The impact is shown side on and happens in slow motion but there is some blood spray. The shot then shifts to the front of her but high enough that the wound can’t be seen. However, her expression is frozen and she has clearly been killed. She falls sideways and there is a blood splatter cloud blooming behind her. The laser weapon is then indiscriminately fired into a crowd of people from above. One unnamed character is hit and instantly killed.

When Killy and the attacker fight, their movements are very robotic and brutal. They fight without facial expression or emotion but with ruthless impacts.

CAN I SEE A CLIP?

VERDICT: IS ‘BLAME!’ FOR KIDS?

‘Blame!’ is clearly geared towards a teen market due to its violent (at points) nature and bleak worldview. With a lack of any light relief and rather dense sci-fi plotting we feel there is little here to appeal to pre-teens. We would therefore recommend that ‘Blame!’ is suitable for children aged 10 and above (depending on attitudes to blood and casual, hopeless deaths).

Violence: 4/5 (several characters die. Blood is shown many times)
Emotional Distress: 3/5 (one character is devastated at the death of another. Most characters are in fear for their lives at points)
Fear Factor: 4/5 (the movements and lethality of the Safeguard can be very scary)
Sexual Content: 0/5
Bad Language: 0/5
Dialogue: 2/5 (constant talk about the bleakness of their situation. References to starvation)
Other Notes: Deals with themes of struggling for survival, lack of resources, the power of machinery run riot, trusting of strangers, and the dangers of artificial intelligence.