Manga Blame, beginning, end and Tohaa name reference

I'm currently writing a book in french about the Blame manga, a manga featuring the Toâ Heavy Industry ship, the pop culture reference that gave its name to the Tohaa.

And I was wondering, by the time I'd finished it somewhere this autumn, with my explanation which has the advantage of having had access to french data, the only language apart from Japanese that has info about this opaque story, and after having seen all the net about this manga as well as the data lost in webarchives.


Where would you place the beginning of the manga's main story?
LOG 1, the start of volume 1? Somewhere between LOG 3 and LOG 7? Or Ex-Log Nest Ruine? LOG 8?

And where is the end of the main Blame manga?
LOG 65? LOG 1 or 2? LOG 7? Or Ex-Log Nest Ruine?

 

We know from one of the OVAs released on YouTube that the woman with the dog is Shibo.

In Blame there are two readings of the story, both of which are popular on the Internet:
1. says for the first that it starts at log 1 and ends at log 65, so it's a continuous story that's incomprehensible but beautiful to watch, and they consider the woman and the dog as another person.
2. says that we're going backwards in history, because the woman and the dog are well understood as Shibo, but nobody is able to define where the story clearly begins in this hypothesis. It also poses the problem of the 2nd time we see Shibo, which poses a major incoherence, since Killee can't have this dream without having already seen him.

Both hypotheses have their problems, as the reading of their consequences doesn't fit in with the Blame sequels that were attempted, then aborted immediately after their first publication. Remaining as a bonus in Blame Gakuen, however, as potential sequels that must have a coherent plot, they shed light on the end of Blame.

In both popular reading directions, it goes like this:
1. Killee has fulfilled his mission by giving birth to the sphere's child, and the Government Agency will take over the city thanks to him and his genes.
2. Killee has failed in his mission to bring back the child, but thanks to his adventure and Shibo, things have changed and humanity will be able to continue thanks to the new things the Government Agency will be able to rely on.

If we take hypothesis 1, the two sequels make no sense to exist, because if the City could have survived thousands of years of chaos then it should have survived more than 1,000 with the control brought by the child, and they should then qualify as a bonus story like the other episodes of Blame Gakuen, which is not the case.

If we take Hypothesis 2, the presence of the sequels would already make a little more sense, as Shibo, who has long been conducting research into synthetic genes, could very well end up with what remains of the contaminated child and possible findings by Killee, who continues his never-ending quest. Which would then mean that the Engineer from the sequel “Engineer of the Resosphere” is an functionary of the new humanity who would use the technologies developed by Shibo; others say that the engineer is one of Shibo's children. But there are some incoherencies, such as the fact that the Government Agency, also known as the “invisible master”, has gone when it should still be there, and even worse, the author's desire to transcribe the need to keep the old technology dormant, and Blame2 goes in the same direction of this forbidden technology that must remain dormant, and adds Killee who saves a Silicate who should in this hypothesis always be considered an element to be exterminated without a second thought, not to mention the fact that the Silicate says: “a tower that was used to summon the city's guardians”, i.e. the Government Agency more than the Countermeasure, which is just a police force, so Killee would have no incentive to save the Silicia or destroy the Government Agency's latest artifact.

Moreover, whatever the known reading hypotheses, the author always says in interviews that the public didn't understand, saying that the story was too opaque, but rather than give the solution he resigned himself to the fact that it at least made the public make an effort of imagination, which also contributes to his fame as a creator of universes.

However, I found a third way of reading the story, by considering what we're shown and why it's drawn or colored the way it is, or the reason for these chapter names. Remember that Blame is one of the first works of environmental narration, which means that the narration comes through the drawing.

In this third reading, everything fits together for me, whether it's the presence of the two Shibo with the dog, or the coherence with the sequels.

Here are two clues:
1. a teaser of my book :

Spoiler: [I]They're Watching[/I]

2. "the fateful moment".

 

Hello Netsphere. (^◇^ )/

I've come to share with you my pdf book in French, 260 pages long, about the history of the Blame! manga, whose aim is to explain the story and provide a complementary “making-off” to the artbook.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/62q6...ey=a0ndzl55pbdsdsuvl43rnanj0&st=6ff6z3nd&dl=0
Or here if i need change and forget to update this drop link :
https://www.reddit.com/r/Netsphere/comments/1gh6m5u/fr_blame_wiki_pdf_book_with_interviews/

Previews :


There's a recap of all the important interviews on Blame and Nihei whose infos aren't in the official artbook, there's also a french translation grouping together the Japanese blog Karuna_k and Cyberdungeon into a Wiki. There are also various articles, such as the written version of the french video by ALT236, or on the architecture and world-building of Blame.

And finally there's my study of Blame in 50 pages (LOG 4), in which I've turned my notes into a chapter that can be read like a book, explaining my theory on the third ending of Blame and how it's compatible with the two epilogues. As well as various articles explaining Blame or helping to understand the story, such as the concept of environmental narration or the use of colors. I've written in a sourced way, so you can check what it's based on by reading. Below you'll find a presentation of my sub-chapters in my LOG 4:


> APPROCHER LA CHRONOLOGIE REELLE / APPROACHING REAL CHRONOLOGY
Summary.

> SYMBOLISME DES COULEURS / SYMBOLISM OF COLORS
Summary.

> SYMBOLISME DANS LA SYMBOLOGIE / SYMBOLISM IN SYMBOLOGY
Summary.

> LE MYSTERIEUX SYMBOLE GOUVERNEMENTAL / THE MYSTERIOUS GOVERNMENT SYMBOL
Summary.

> QUI EST LA FILLE AVEC LE CHIEN DU LOG 2 / WHO'S THE GIRL WITH THE DOG IN LOG 2
Summary.

> KILLEE EST TSUTOMU NIHEI / KILLY IS TSUTOMU NIHEI
Summary.

> LE DERNIER ENNEMI DE KILLEE ET LE NOBLE CHEMIN OCTUPLE / KILLY'S LAST ENEMY AND THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH
Summary.

> FUSIL DE TCHEKHOV : KILLEE CROISE LE CHAR INSECTE / CHEKHOV'S RIFLE: KILLY CROSSES THE INSECT TANK
Summary.

> LA VRAIE CATEGORISATION : LE CYBER GOTHISME / TRUE CATEGORIZATION: CYBER GOTHISM
Summary.

> LA NARRATION ENVIRONNEMENTALE / ENVIRONMENTAL NARRATION
Summary.

> LES UNIVERS DE NIHEI SONT-ILS INTERCONNECTES ? / ARE NIHEI'S UNIVERSES INTERCONNECTED?
Summary.

​

( •_•)>⌐■-■ Et voilà, for me, my quest to understand Blame is over. (⌐■_■)ノ♪♬