Collecting Blame!
One quest, five shelves: the manga in two Japanese editions and two English ones, the prequel, the parody, the artbooks and the film, each identified on sight.
Blame! is a unusually collectable series because it stayed small: ten volumes, no sprawling spin off empire, and every later object connects visibly to the first ten books. This page is the map of that shelf. It documents editions and how to tell them apart; what any given copy should cost is a question for the market on the day, not for a library.
THE JAPANESE SHELF
Kodansha, 1998 to 2018The tankobon ten (1998 to 2003)
The Afternoon KC originals, identified by the 314 ISBN block and the stencilled covers documented in this Library’s gallery. Volume 7 exists in standard and limited editions.
The Master Edition six (2015)
Kodansha’s large format reissue, six volumes from April 2015, ISBN block 377: the edition the English Master Edition translates.
NOiSE (2001)
The single prequel volume, Afternoon KC, October 2001, containing the 1995 prototype one-shot as well. Its cover is pictured on this Library’s NOiSE page.
The artbooks
Blame! and So On (2003) gathers the artwork and sketches of the Blame! years, and Megalomania (2000) collects the megastructure paintings on their own.
THE ENGLISH SHELF
Tokyopop and VerticalTokyopop ten (2005 to 2007)
The first English edition, standard trim, Killy spelling, out of print since the run ended. The discovery edition for the Western cult.
Vertical Master Edition six (2016 to 2017)
The oversized edition, Kyrii spelling, complete and the easiest Blame! to buy new. The reading copy of choice.
NOiSE in English
Tokyopop’s single volume of 2007, then Kodansha USA: digital in 2016, print in November 2022. The prequel is back on the shelf.
Blame Academy! and So On
English as a digital edition from Kodansha Comics, March 2017. The parody volume has no English print edition in the sources, which makes the Japanese 2008 and 2018 printings the physical copies.
THE SCREEN SHELF
2003 to 2018Ver. 0.11 (2003)
Group TAC’s six net episodes plus a DVD only seventh: the first screen City, contemporary with the manga’s final volume.
The film on disc
Japanese Blu-ray November 1, 2017, the limited edition carrying Nihei’s exclusive epilogue manga; Viz Media’s North American Blu-ray and DVD followed March 27, 2018.
The Electrofishers’ Escape (2018)
Kotaro Sekine’s manga of the film, one volume, February 2018: the film’s story in the medium the story came from.