Artistic experimentation within anime is, for the most part, a good thing. The inclusion of computer generated sequences within anime can get positive results if done correctly (and especially blended with traditional animation). I have no gruff with that, however, I may have jumped on to the "experimental" bandwagon to soon when I purchased an anime titled Blame!.

The cover art is what sold me. Unfortunately, looks can be deceiving. Blame! is what any normal anime fan would describe as a "mind fuc*." There is absolutely no problem with an occasional mind fuc*, surely such limited sequences from various animes including Rahxehpon and Evangelion achieve an readily enjoyable mind fuc* every now and then. Anime's that are deep and moving appeal more to me than say...Love Hina. When confronted with Blame! my senses would rather be subjected to an hours of Love Hina rather than deal with what seems like pointless art experimentation.

Verily, artistic expression, as I have stated, is a good thing. When I visit the museum of modern art there is some insight and introspection to be drawn out of the most obscure of peaces, but that’s why fine art exist. I've never thought fine art has been meant to entertain. Rather, I think fine art exist more for analysis than anything else. Of course, one may find some entertainment in analysis. However, there is a difference between "being entertained" and "entertaining yourself," and when I purchase any movie I expect to BE entertained in some way by the events onscreen. This is where Blame does not fall into your conventional anime/entertainment category. Blame! is more like being taken through an animated museum than it is an anime meant to entertain.

I assumed there was a problem when I popped in the disk and the menu appeared in an undecipherable text (and I don't mean Japanese). Yes, the menu was coded in some weird, asinine cipher text, making navigation impossible. Only through trial and error can one access all the material in the disk. Also, as if it was enjoyable to the viewer, the director thought it would be awesome to bug down the menu with slow loading times and menu selections that lead to dead ends: System Error, or some such bullshi*. "Obviously," I thought, "something is amiss."

Watching the actual film provides no more solace than the menu. Those looking for a story, as I was, will not find one. Only by reading the DVD slip can one manage to decipher a plotline. The funny thing is, the story provided in the slip cannot be paralleled to the film. The slip mentions things that are not even brought up or shown, leaving the viewer to wonder if the director was lazy or just bat shi* fuckin* loco. My guess is with the latter. For those curious, I will post the description from the back of the DVD case:

"3000 years have passed since the future was buried. Countless armies of machines are all that remain of human civilization. Without orders, they build and build, swallowing up the earth, moon, and then entire solar system within the intricate steel and concrete levels of the Megastructure. Somehow, in this environment, the silicon creatures have come to exist. All that has been known about them until now is their goal: Invade the netsphere; eradicate all the organics (humans). Our only weapon is this salvaged data disk (apparently, the DVD is the actual disk from the anime, which is cute, but still stupid) from the engineer Cibo. It contains information that might allow humans to restore order to the world."

Sounds interesting, right? I thought so too, but it appears as if the actual production doesn't even convey that story. Most of the film is not even animated. Shots composed of long screen pans or melodramatic pauses for what seems an eternity are abundant, and what little actual animation is presented could only be described as "okay" or "mediocre." Oh, it is also almost impossible to differentiate between characters, and even knowing who they are is an ageless struggle of the mind. One shot shows a female character in a futuristic elevator surrounded by massive structures. we watch her little elevator proceed to the top of a structure in a distant, 30 second shot that reaches zenith when she reaches the top, walks up to Killy (another important character that has almost no lines in the film), shares some pointless dialogue, and walks back to the elevator and leaves.

The show is like a prom dress made from forty different kinds of fabric, and not even quality fabric.

Some may call me unsophisticated: "You just don't see the deeper meaning. Jesus, you're such a cultural wasteland." Deeper meaning? All I had to do was read the friggen DVD slip!

Simply, Blame! exist better as artwork than it does an anime. The cover and presentation is very deceiving, and may lull many into thinking there is some substance other than technically boggling artwork present. Those people would be wrong. I enjoyed the artwork, for the most part, but was it worth 20 bucks? No, no it was not. I found myself praying for some solidity, some structure, but Blame! offers none. Borrow, and only borrow this anime, it is not worth your money.